Los Olivos Road Trip

Oh, who looks thrilled to be on another road trip with her family?  It's Paige!

Back in September, on the way home from Brandon's birthday weekend, we stopped in the little wine-country town of Los Olivos. And were swiftly seduced into joining the Byron wine club.  Los Olivos is near Solvang (of Sideways fame) and is basically one intersection, with the obligatory olive-oil tasting, nice restaurant, and multiple wine tasting facilities, including Byron's.  Brandon loves Byron Pinot Noir.  I distinctly remember eating dinner with him in Vancougar (I mean, Vancouver) and watching his eyes light up when he saw a bottle of Byron on the wine list.  This was back in 2006.  He's been carrying a torch for this wine for awhile.   So the deal with this wine club is, you get quarterly wine shipments or you can pick up your box of wine at the tasting room.  We chose to pick ours up, since it's only an hour and a half away and the route is very scenic.  This last weekend was our scheduled pick up.  So, we hit the road.

Look at the pretty Mexican sage!  It was in bloom all over Los Olivos.  This is not Brandon's favorite plant.  He finds its flamboyant, widespread blooms unruly.  We had one in Jacksonville and it freaked him out.

Here's Paige posing with a pumpkin before our lunch.  Lunch was delicious - we went to Sides Hardware and Shoes.  I had kabocha squash soup and fried calamari with jalapeños.  Brandon had the most luscious burger I've ever tasted.  Good lord!  We both had some nice wine - chardonnay and pinot noir.

This may very well be the happiest you'll ever see Brandon on this blog.  He is inside the Byron tasting room.  He is happy and content.

Paige, well, not so much.

Anyways, I highly recommend Los Olivos.  It's about a half hour east of Santa Barbara.  The food and wine and the scenery were fantastic.  Do it.