nags of a similar ilk

Okay, today, it's raining.

Unlike the weather we actually had yesterday afternoon, we experienced the weather we were supposed to experience last night. We went to Andy's mother's house for dinner, after a quick stop by the Trader Joe's which was spitting distance from the hotel. Andy's mom lives in Montecito, an expensive suburb of Santa Barbara, on top of a hill. Even with clouds, rain and the wind whipping around, threatening to send very large branches down into the hottub we were sitting in (the hot hot hottub, mind you), the views were spectacular.

Moving our stuff to the car was wet. The way over to breakfast was wet. The walk from breakfast was wet. The way back to Andy's was wet. Fortunately, we were moving slowly, enjoying the day, so wet didn't adversely affect us.

Brynne went up to her Dad's place, the first part of her drive back to the Bay Area. Originally, she was going to take Kris and Heather up, and I was going to continue south to L.A. However, those plans assumed I was in Santa Barbara to coach at an ultimate tournament, which was partially cancelled due to lack of playable field space. So, instead, Brynne went north to her family's house, while Kris and Andy played a little Guitar Hero, I used some local wi-fi, and Heather futzed with her laptop which had died two days before.

Eventually, our CF subsided and we drove up to Brynne's dad's winery to meet up with Brynne. I figured I had some time before heading over to Paul's place, but I hadn't counted on the CF factor when I made that decision. So, the four of us, Andy, Heather, Kris and me, drove up to meet up with Brynne. Whoo, we saw a rainbow. More importantly, I met Brynne's dad. Yay!

The vineyard was, as Brynne said, naked, with no green on the vines or grapes, but still awesome nonetheless. I love farmland, vineyards and orchards. Something about the large space and growing food that makes me happy. Organic version of these are much, much better.

Andy and I drove back to Santa Barbara when Brynne, Heather and Kris went north. Not sure which one of us will arrive in our destination first. Me? I'm off to visit Paul.

I think I should be nervous.

I'm not.

So, the day started out blustery and chilly, but semi-sunny. Brett, our tour guide / driver warned us the day would turn nasty: thunderstorms were predicted to start at 3PM this afternoon.

At 3PM this afternoon, I took a picture of said thunderstorms.

Weathermen in Santa Barbara are such wusses.

We start the day

First wine tasting room

Highlight from the first wine tasting room

Second wine tasting room

Highlight from the second wine tasting room

Third wine tasting room

Highlight from the wine tasting room

Lunch!

Fourth wine tasting room

So, yeah, Kris and I are here in Santa Barbara with Heather and Andy and his friends Alex and Kirsten (hi, Alex!), to spend the day hopping from wine-tasting room to wine-tasting room, all in the name of celebrating Andy's birthday. I know, I know, you're thinking "Andy Crews?" Normally, sure, but not today. That's a birthday camping dog extravaganza weekend (Want to come? You're invited!). No, today is Santa Barbara wine tasting.

But first, we need to leave the hotel.

And before we leave the hotel, we need to not get hit.

Kris, Andy and I were standing in the parking lot with the tour company driver who would be driving us around town. We were chatting about nothing in particular, but probably something close to how thrilled I was not to be the last person ready, when a woman approached us and asked if we would please move over. I looked up at her, perplexed. She wanted us to move, so that she could pull out of a parking spot two cars away from us?

"I don't want to drive over the curb," she explained.

I looked from her, to her Highlander, back to her, back to her Highlander, and loudly stated, "You want us to move so that you don't have to go over a curb in your HIGHLANDER. Your S-U-V. Your SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE. One DESIGNED to go over rough spots? OHHHKAAAAAY." I gathered my jacket, and stepped over two car lengths, and watched the woman attempt to pull out of the spot. She nearly hit us again, despite our being so far out of the way even the tour driver had to watch in amazement of her inability to manuver her vehicle.

We laughed over the incident, only to nearly be hit by another car who pulled into the parking lot a couple minutes later.

After car number two pulled away, the tour driver commented, "I'm going to stand over here. I don't know if I want to be around people who nearly get run over that much."

Can't say I blame him. We haven't even started drinking. Not the he knows the full story.