Left Coast Cowboys

Today was a relaxing day with a leisurely after-lunch start for a Range Rover tour of San Francisco. I had planned to hit the highlights, but with two Army wives on board, those highlights tended to be the military highlights. (See pix of today’s adventure here.)

So we toured the Presidio, Crissey Field, and stopped at the Palace of the Legion of Honor and Point Lobos (where we discovered a memorial to the USS San Francisco and it’s part in the Battle for Guadalcanal.)Long before we headed up to the Marin Headlands, for the classic view of the Golden Gate Bridge, we realized that there is really no famous area of San Francisco there you don’t catch a glimpse of the Art Deco masterpiece.

While out by Seal Rock and the Cliff House, we took a quick detour, at Gerry’s request, into the Veterans’ Hospital. Gerry is involved with a ministry service which is bringing comfort and aid to Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the most difficult things they are finding is piercing the veil of secrecy and actually being allowed in. But one quick tour around the campus and Gerry had all she needed to set her up for two phone calls that netted her the information. San Francisco vets will surely soon be getting the Gerry treatment.

Now on the eve of the Golden Girls departure, we’re preparing for a nice restaurant meal at Firefly, again with Susi and Rob. (See photos of today’s adventures here.

Today had one destination: Two Terrier Vineyards in Sonoma. It wasn’t easy getting four people, two artificial hips, two arthritic knees and two terriers mobilized, but we made it to Sonoma before noon. The land is incredibly uneven and has a low “accessibility” quotient. So I wondered what the Golden Girls would be able to see. I shouldn’t have worried. (See pictures of today’s adventure here.)

Trust Army wives to be prepared for any mobilization. In fact Gerry had decided back in the Sixties to visit her husband who was in Viet Nam at the time. She got herself in-country in helicopters, medivac planes, jeeps and eventually got rowed up the Mekong. Sonoma was not going to be a problem. Andy brought out the golf cart ATV and away they went touring the vineyards.

After hours of site-seeing at Sonoma’s most exclusive vineyards (where they liked the Merlot but not the unfortunate Syrah, it was off to a lunch at Maya where several top shelf Margaritas were in order.

The day ended with a light supper with friends, Rob and Susi, and the screening of the Doris Day-Rock Hudson classic “Send Me No Flowers”.(See pix from today’s adventures here.)

Today, we did Carmel and Monterey — specifically, the Carmel Mission and the 17 Mile Drive. But first, we had a Celebrity Encounter. And it was us. Let me explain. (See pictures of today’s adventures here.)

Like most ladies who came of age in the Fifties, Gerry and Jackie always dress up to travel. So, in casual California, that makes them some of the best-dressed people in any hotel. I had parked the car across the street from Doris Day’s Cypress Inn and went on ahead at check out time to get the car ready and set up the camera on a tripod to get a shot of them coming out of the Inn. A couple of porters watched as I readied the Range Rover which is the same midnight blue, tinted windows model favored by Rappers and celebrities who don’t want to call attention to themselves with a limo. At some point in the trip, it had started to be difficult for the gals to make the long climb up into the car. So we purchased a small footstool. This required that I leap out of the drivers seat, run around the side of the car and place a footstool at the door for each of them as if I were an Eighteenth Century coachman. The porters watched intently as I made all these preparations, then took several shots from a tripod of two well coiffed older ladies who stepped out on the porch and began giving the Queen’s wave. Their interest really piqued when they saw the whole footstool routine. After the ladies were loaded, I ran back into the Inn to return the room key. One of the porters grabbed my arm and said, “Who ARE they?” I just smiled as if I was not at liberty to say. But for the rest of the day, their movie star alter egos were Dolores Del Rio and Barbara Bel Geddes. It’s a shame I didn’t have the opportunity to book anything under those names. They are just recognizable enough that everyone knows they were movie stars, but they stayed out of the limelight long enough in later years that no one quite knows what they look like today. Gerry and Jackie could most certainly have passed.

Our beautiful weather held for a leisurely tour of the Seventeen Mile Drive, then a civilized lunch at the Pebble Beach Golf Club. With two artificial hips and two severely arthritic knees between them, we luckily had a handicapped sticker for the car. And we were working it. At Pebble Beach, where cars couldn’t get in close to the club, we found “differently abled” people could get a golf cart to deliver them to the door. But what’s the use of getting old, if you don’t get some perks? (Just in case you are concerned, I walked, as my role was footman and driver.)

Gerry and Jackie were playing their roles to the hilt, but I couldn’t help but feel sad at the devastation they left in their wake the other day in the Paso Robles wine country. Our ultimate destination was the Tablas Creek Winery, the renowned winery owned by the Perrin family of Beaucastel fame in the Chateauneuf du Pape area of the Rhone.

Poor Tablas Creek. They may be darlings of the connoisseurs, they may receive high Parker ratings, but they failed the Gerry and Jackie test. I hate to think of the scene that may have occurred immediately after we left.

The head of the tasting room walks back to where the winemaker is checking the barrels.

“Two very distinguished ladies were here today tasting. I’m not sure, but it might have been Dolores Del Rio and Barbara Bel Geddes.”

The winemaker brightens. He always loves to have important people enjoy his wine.

“I’m sure they enjoyed the experience.”

The tasting room manager looks uncomfortable.

“Well, they were muttering something about our breadsticks. They said they were stale. And they said the two year old winery down the road that no one has ever heard of gave them homemade tapas with every different wine.”

The winemaker sniffs. “Well, if you are unknown, you have to try everything to get noticed. But of course, they loved our beautiful tasting room.”

The tasting room manager looks even more discomfited. “Actually they weren’t pleased. They said it was cold and impersonal after Aurora’s friendly tasting room.”

The winemaker is really starting to look worried now.

“But it is, in the end, all about the wine. And our wine is superlative. At least, they enjoyed the wines themselves.”

Now the tasting room manager is stammering and wiping his sweating brow with a large handkerchief. “I don’t think they were. . .er. . .overly impressed.”

The winemaker turns pale. “Not impressed? But what did they say?”

“Actually one of them said our wine tasted like any old Napa Valley wine. Nothing even approached the wines of Thunderbolt Junction Winery up the road.”

Without another word, the winemaker drops the long “wine thief” he’s been using to taste the wine now resting in his barrels. His head droops and a tear trickles from each eye.

He sadly walks out of the wine cave, his head bowed, his shoulders stooped.

“It’s over. It’s all over. We have failed.”

At about this time, the Golden Girls are happily eating crab dip at Pebble Beach, unaware of the lives they have destroyed.

(See pictures of our day’s adventures here.)

Today’s event was winetasting in Paso Robles. Early on, I stated my theory that no wine tasting trip can really accomodate more than three tastings. Good thing I set the bar. At only the second winery, Jackie and Gerry found their place. (See pictures of today’s adventures here.)

Our goal was to seek out Rhone style wines which Paso Robles is supposed to specialize in and which are the ultimate goal of Two Terrier Vineyards. Tablas Creek, with its connection to Beaucastel, is a must see. So I suggested we head down the road toward Tablas and pick any two other wineries on the way.

The first winery, Villicana, was charming and the owner personally poured our wines and told us about his harvest. Excellent.

But the second was special. And we almost missed it. The was “Thunderbolt Junction” with an electric blue logo. We thought it might be too modern and experimental and started to drive past. Suddenly Jackie and Gerry said, “Wait! The sign says ‘Historic Winery’” I agreed to do a drive-by and then we’d decide by the look of the tasting room if we wanted to go in. Luckily we did.

Charming Aurora, the owner who is from six generations of Spanish winemakers, was on hand to pour our wines. Better yet, she had made, from family recipes, a variety of tapas that she served with each wine to give us a sense of how they paired with food. We spent nearly two hours there, felt we had a gourmet lunch and ended up buying 15 bottles between us (with Gerry joining the Wine Club.) You can only buy the wines at the winery and through the website, so check it out now.

Poor Tablas Creek! They may have an international reputation and high Parker ratings, but they couldn’t cut it with Gerry and Jackie after Thunderbolt. They found the service cold, the server a bit supercilious and the wines distinctly inferior. I wonder if Tablas knew how much they were found wanting as Gerry and Jackie grumbled about the stale breadsticks offered and nostalgically recalled Aurora’s wonderful tapas.

We ended the day in Carmel at Doris Day’s Cypress Inn. After Doris (actually her stand-in) served us high tea, we are now relaxing in the lounge, listening to a piano/cello duo and nibbling on a cheese plate (continuing the Goat Cheese portion of Gerry’s Goat Cheese and Garlic themed tour.)

See pictures of today’s adventures here.

This promised to be not just any trip to Hearst Castle. Gerry’s father used to be a crime reporter at one of Hearst’s New York papers, a position in the Thirties similar in prestige and star power as being a network news anchor today. But unfortunately he came to believe Hearst was more interested in sensationalism and his political agenda than in truthful reporting, so Gerry’s father tendered his resignation. Hearst said, “You’ll never work in newspapers again.” And he never did. So you can see, we entered San Simeon with our own agenda. (See pix of today’s trip here.)

The surprising thing is that, by the end of the tour, we all, surprisingly even Gerry, liked old Bill Hearst. She, of course, had always thought he was the moster who ruined her father’s livelihood. Mom and I had our opinion formed by the meglomaniac Citizen Kane. Our impression, thanks to Orson Welles, was that Hearst built this expensive pile, kept buying and buying and none of it made him happy.

But from what we learned on the tour and the excellent National Geographic documentary on him, he was enjoyed San Simeon to the fullest. Instead of the ostentatious pile of mish-mashed gleanings from European buying trips, the castle is surprisingly charming. It’s the house of an endlessly curious, energetic and ecclectic collector. Judging by the interesting juxtopositions, Hearst knew exactly what he was doing mixing Middle Eastern, Renaissance, Medieval and Baroque art in one room. And he seemed to do it in a very witty way.

The documentary on him showed him laughing and dancing with his guests and painted a picture of an energetic Westerner who was up at the crack of dawn, riding horses full tilt over his ranch, rushing back for tennis and then hosting an incredible dinner for half of Hollywood.

For all his faults and sins, we all left happy that Bill had thoroughly enjoyed his money.

Nothing much could top that event, so we spent the rest of the day mosying along the coast and looking at the dozens and dozens of elephant seals who had hauled themselves out of the sea and were sunning on the beach.

Then the Golden Girls really swung into action and showed what they were made of. Despite an energetic day of walking on tours, they polished off a bottle of wine before dinner, where Gerry continued her Garlic and Goat Cheese tour of California (this has been the theme of her meal ordering).

See pictures of today’s adventures here.