Headed up the 101 Saturday morning, enroute to Paso Robles to celebrate Vanessa’s 30th birthday. After a lovely trip up the coast on a beautiful day, we checked into our exotic digs at Motel 6. Since I was to be the designated driver, I took a test run in Patrick’s Mazda to run an errand to the liquor store. I needed a bit of a refresher since I haven’t driven a stick shift in many, many years. But it all came back to me after only a few blocks.

Then, after all of us got dressed up in our fancy duds, we headed just a bit north to the Eberle Winery–a beautiful winery on a hillside overlooking the vineyard fields. Spent the evening with 50+ guests enjoying wine tasting, wonderful hors deourves (sp?), and then a fabulous dinner in “the caves” underneath the winery. It was great seeing lots of old friends and meeting many new ones and celebrating with Vanessa. Partying went on into the early hours of the morning but I chose to head to bed around midnight.

The next morning a bunch of us met up at The Cowgirl Cafe in downtown Paso Robles for an old-fashioned down-home breakfast. And I got to visit a small antique shop a few doors down from the restaurant where I found a couple of items that I just had to have! After an afternoon trip back down the coast (again, gorgeous weather and scenery), we arrived home around 6 pm. All in all, it was an absolutely spectacular weekend!

Thank you so much, Vanessa, for inviting me to share your 30th birthday with you! I love you so much and am so happy to have you as my friend!