Grover Beach - Week Two

This week we drove up to Paso Robles to do some wine tasting.  Actually it is Allan that does the tasting, and I take a tiny sip every so often when he thinks it is a good wine.  The first place we stopped was August Ridge to taste a Pinot Grigio that they produce.  It was excellent and we left there with only one bottle to take home, thinking that we would find more of the same quality along the way.  Not so.  Of course, Paso Robles is known for its red wines and not the whites, but still many of the wineries produce chardonnay or other whites, but we did not find any as good as the Pinot at August Ridge.  We will have to go back, just to get a few more bottles.

Some of the wineries are very small operations and have a limited tasting like the Rockin' R which is the photo to the right.

Others are larger with a tasting room adjacent to a luncheon area and in the winery to the left, it also had a large koi pond and an even larger gift shop.

And some of the wineries also have other farm produce which they sell.  This winery lets the farm workers grow vegetables which they put out and you can fill up a bag and leave a donation for the workers.

Earlier this week, Allan assembled his Folbot kayak.  The whole thing comes apart and fits into a very large backpack.  The tubing is sitting on the skin that will fold up and around the frame.  Right now Allan is putting on the inflatable bags that fit onto the outside of the frame but are on the inside of the kayak.  This helps the kayak stay afloat in case he is capsized (heaven forbid). 

 We actually have two of these kayaks, but I don't use mine any longer.  I can barely bend my knees enough to get into it, and getting out of it would require a crane as I usually manage to fall into the water trying to pry myself up and out of the seat which is in an opening barely larger than your average toilet bowl.  

So I now am reduced to driving Allan to a drop off point and then reading my book or taking photos while he kayaks, then meeting him for pick up when he is ready to dock.  However, I did notice that this last time when he returned, he was having some getting out of the seat problems of his own.  

I have almost finished another painting.  This is a compilation of two photos, both taken within yards of each other, but the pink bush was just a little further up the road then the actual scene I wanted.  So taking an artist's license, I put the bush in my scene.   I am still working from my Tehachapi photos.  I have got to get something started on the Sonoran Desert, but it just does not call to me like the hillsides of California.