Wacky and Welcome Stuff--This Week on the Road

1. Large windstorm + busy seaside restaurant = Belly Laughs
  Old guy with a baseball hat is walking, loses hat, races after hat, retrieves hat, puts hat back on head, loses hat, races after hat, retrieves hat again, heads toward waiting vehicle, secures hat on head next to car, driver decides now is a great time to clean windshield, hits said old guy in the face, wind gust blows hat off same old guy's head.  Repeat.

2. Great lunch of estate-raised organic beef hamburgers and wine tasting at Cass Winery north of Paso Robles.  GPS takes us on a wild goose chase through miles of one-lane dirt roads, back to Paso Robles.

3. Spontaneous trip to San Jose to see the eccentric Winchester Mystery House where we toured with the oddest assortment of characters on the planet including four loud children under the age of three.

4. Seeing the Tiger game at a sports bar in Monterey for the first time in weeks.

5. Tasting wine in the old warehouse district of Santa Barbara on the Urban Wine Trail among the throngs of people on a Saturday night.

6. Great lunch in a courtyard restaurant in Santa Barbara next to a running fountain and trying to make reservations for the Hearst Castle tour on the phone at the same time after two glasses of wine.

7. Checking in at the bustling Monterey Marriott and finding that our reserved dates were for three days before. Nice clerk straightened out everything.

8. Having lunch on a gorgeous day next to the 18th green of the Pebble Beach Golf Course.

9. Reading that there's a Civil War Re-enactment at Yosemite National Park this weekend. Huh?

10. Dinner at a very strange Denny's-like restaurant in Merced, California next to a mother and her 6-year-old son, who had a number of tantrums while either seated or running around the restaurant before the mother threatened to cancel his participation in Civil War Days. (Oh! The re-enactment is actually in Merced, not Yosemite. Makes sense.)

11. Seeing a car go off the highway, through a deep ditch and drive straight into a vineyard, running over four rows of large wood posts and vines before reaching a stop. (Everybody was OK.)

12. Lunch at Rocky Point Restaurant in Big Sur. Amazingly, the lunch, facility and service were just as outstanding as the view.