Photos from Tanya’s move
When I left Europe, I headed back to Indiana for the last phase of my journey. If you will recall, this all started with Buddy and me taking a train from Los Angeles to Chicago. Now, I was going to finish packing Tanya’s trailer, take some photos of the inside of the house, put up a For Sale sign and drive back to California. Tanya was coming to stay.
These photos include stops at Billy Barooz Pub & Grill in Champaign, IL; Shamrock, TX; Chama River Brewing Company in Albuquerque, NM and Flagstaff Brewing Company in Flagstaff, AZ along with other various sights found along the way.
Categories: Photos Tags: Buddy, Chama River Brewing Company, Flagstaff Brewing Company, geek good girl, Indiana, microbrewery, Photos, pictures, road trip, Tanya, Travel
A ride on the Southwest Chief
Buddy and I needed to come back to Indiana for a while, so we decided to take Amtrak’s Southwest Chief from Los Angeles to Chicago. I have ridden Amtrak from Los Angeles to San Diego, and a few times in the Netherlands, but this was definitely the longest train ride I had ever taken. I was looking forward to the adventure since I have driven between CA and IN numerous times in the last few years. I figured that the train would take us through some scenery I had not seen yet and it would provide for some excellent photo opportunities.
It turns out I was wrong. It seems that the train route went through some of the dullest scenery possible and trying to photograph the scenery from the train was pretty much pointless. There was so much reflection on the glass that it soon became apparent that this was not going to work. I tried from the observation car, but the additional windows just caused more reflections. Here are a few photos that did come out.
A trip to Temecula wine country
I had a gift I wanted to give to my son and since he lives down by Temecula I decided I would kill two birds with one stone and pay a visit to the Temecula wine country. After securing a room, Tanya, Buddy and I headed out to the Inland Empire. After arriving at my son’s home we tried to find a winery, with a restaurant that stays open past 5:00 PM. I had only attempted to go wine tasting in Temecula once before and noticed that 5:00 seemed to be last call at most of the places I tried to stop at. My daughter-in-law reminded us of our prior visit to South Coast Winery Resort and Spa a couple years ago. We went online and discovered that they had a Happy Hour that started at 4:00 and dinner started at 5:30. We dropped Buddy off at the hotel and headed over to South Coast. We skipped the wine tasting and went for the Happy Hour and dinner instead. All I can say is that if I lived an hour closer I would be a regular there. Their Happy Hour is great and the dinner was fantastic.
The next day we made plans to meet up with my son and his family at the Ponte Family Estate. Since we got there early, I decided to go for the wine tasting. Not only does Ponte have some very nice wines, but they have extremely generous pours. By the time I finished the tasting and lunch (which was delicious) I was really glad I had my own personal designated driver.
Both South Coast and Ponte wineries had very good food and nice wines. The wine country itself is not as photogenic as say Napa, the Rhine or Catalonia but so far I have really enjoyed the wines and foods served there. We will be back to check out the others.
Categories: Photos Tags: Buddy, food, geek good girl, Photos, pictures, Ponte Family Estate, restaurants, South Coast Winery, Southern California, Temecula, winery
