GRoK This!

Gilroy Weekend

This past weekend, we once again trekked up to the Gilroy Garlic Festival for my birthday weekend. One of these days, I'll somehow manage to go to both ComicCon and Gilroy when they are on different weekends, but who knows what year that will be.

So Laura and I headed up Friday morning. We had all day, and so I suggested taking the 101 up because it was nicer than the 5. Bad choice. We had bad traffic from downtown L.A. to Santa Barbara. Three to four hours that should have taken half the time. We had dinner reservations at 7, but had to postpone them until 8. We were having dinner at Ciao Bella in Ben Lomond, and had invited some friends, Clyde and Bob, along as well. I've only been to Ciao Bella once, and it was...interesting...to say the least. The walls were plastered with different decorations. Kind of eclectic. The food was Italian, and good. The outdoor dining was great, as it was in the center of a grove of towering redwood trees. The entertainment last time was...unexpected. The owner, and some of the staff, came out on a stage in the back area, as cross-dressers, and did a dance or two. It was so weird that we had to come back and invite friends along. The restaurant has changed hands now, though. The food was good again, but the entertainment was different. We didn't get to see much of it as we were seated outside and the entertainment was inside. It was much tamer, though. Bellydancing and a magician and some of the staff doing improv.

Saturday, we made it to the festival by 10am. It turned out to be a cooler weekend than usual. That's to say it was in the mid-80's instead of mid-90's or 100. Dre and John showed up soon after, and we met them in the Wine Garden. Luckily, they were willing to take turns buying food items with us and then sharing with everyone. It's a way to have a little taste of everything. We tried a whole bunch of food, and I think almost every type of meat at the Louisiana Cajun Lady (boar, venison, kangaroo, alligator, buffalo). I'm glad they were game (yeah, that's on purpose) to try the different stuff. Unfortunately, Kristen couldn't join us in the evening for dinner, so Laura and I were on our own for dinner. We went to Famous Dave's. That's some gooood BBQ. Our diet went right out the window that day.

We drove down to Big Sur on Sunday along Highway 1. That's always a nice drive. Along the way, we stopped at Ragged Point for lunch. Nice place with good food. Might have to return and stay the night some time. We made it to Big Sur in time to go to the Big Sur River Inn, grab a drink and sit in the adirondack chairs in the river, soaking our feet. The water was cold, but it was very relaxing. We stayed there for a few hours until it was time to check into our motel, Ripplewood. There are some cabins along the river that were taken this time, but I want to stay in them sometime in the future. We stayed there long enough to check in and then we went back to the restaurant at the River Inn for dinner.

On Monday, we continued our trip south on Highway 1. We stopped at Piedras Blancas to see the elephant seals. I always get a kick out of watching them for 15 minutes or so. After that, we visited Hearst Castle. We had both been on Tour 1 before, which is the general tour, so this time we went on Tour 3. As someone who works Renaissance faires, I'm very interested in that time period. It's one thing to read about it, but it's another to be able to see actual paintings, sculptures and furniture from that time period.

We stopped briefly at the winery in Harmony (population 15), and then stopped for dinner at Bon Temps Creole Cafe. We'd seen it before because it's in San Luis Obispo just before you get on the 101 from Highway 1. We like cajun food, so we thought we'd give it a try. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, either. Maybe we're just spoiled by Bourbon Street Shrimp. After that, it was straight home, except for a stop for gas in Ventura. I got out of the car, started pumping the gas, went inside to get a soda, came back out thinking about how nice it would be to be done with the driving and be back home, got in the car and started to drive away. Notice something missing? I didn't, until I heard a popping sound as we pulled away. I looked in the mirrors and realized that I had not put the hose back on the pump and it had now come off of the pump and was still attached to the car! This is the first time I've ever done this. I backed up, took the hose off, laid it next to the pump and went back inside the station to tell them. They were amazed that I had actually come back to tell them. Most people just take off. The equipment is obviously made to take this type of incident into account, because it popped off at a joint, and no gas came gushing out. It looked as though I could have popped it back into place, but it doesn't work quite like that. They took my info, and told me that if there's no internal damage, there will probably be no charge. Otherwise, my car insurance should take care of it.

Beyond that, the rest of the trip was uneventful, and we arrived home before our self-imposed deadline of midnight.

Whew. We pack a lot of living into a few days.

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Posted at 11:58PM Jul 31, 2009 by Gary Kephart in General  |