Friday morning Dave & I headed up to San Luis Obispo for my birthday weekend.  “Uncle” Cosmo was housesitting for us (i.e. babysitting Rigel and doting on the cats).  We had arranged our first AirBnB stay with Dale in San Luis Obispo.  I had two Mendenhall fleeces to drop off at Morro Fleece Works (I finally realized I was never, ever going to get to scouring & processing them myself).  We had a wine club shipment to pick up at Cypher, wanted to get another case of Fiasco from Tobin James (at $7.50/bottle, it’s an outrageously yummy table wine), and wanted to taste at a couple other places.

And, of course, I wanted to visit some LYSs!

Friday I visited Yarns at the Adobe and met owner Anne.  Anne was thoroughly welcoming, inviting me & Dave back that evening to have a glass of wine and listen to the music from the park (which we did).  Her store is lovely, overflowing with wonderful yarns.  The building itself dates from the 1880s (with additions since then) and has really neat walls inscribed with a diamond pattern (next time I go, I promise to take a picture).  The surrounding patio and gardens are also a wonderful treat.

Lunch was at Novo — highly recommended!  We’ll be back;  best food this weekend.  They have a very nice wine list, some available by the half glass (at half the full glass price).  I had half a glass of Rose (sorry, can’t remember name, & I think it was French?) and a half glass of a GSM (grenache/ syrah / mouvedre) with my BBQ beef sandwich.  Dave had a beer with his salmon sandwich.  Our waiter brought me a bowl of vanilla McConnell’s ice cream topped with blueberries, raspberries, chocolate & whipped cream for my birthday.

After that we went to Morro Bay to drop off the fleeces and to beachcomb.  I found a bunch of unbroken sand dollars, some shells, and a couple pieces of beach glass.  I’m such a magpie, I can entertain myself for hours beachcombing!

However, by that time, we were going through some serious caffeine withdrawal, and drove back to SLO.  We found Blackhorse Coffee (and loved it — we went back Saturday morning too).  After that, it was back to Yarns at the Adobe.

Dinner was at Granada — we each had a glass of wine & shared the Cubano sandwich and some bacon-wrapped dates (one of my favorite salty sweet treats).  Quirky space, it’ll be interesting to see how the building gets renovated.

Saturday morning we went for a run/walk through Laguna Lake park.  It was a June-gloomy morning, but perfect for running.  We saw several hawks (not close enough for me to identify) and some ducks.

After our caffeine fix, we headed up to Atascardero & Ranch Dog Knitting.  Abby, the owner, and I chatted for a bit and brainstormed some class ideas.

Tobin James tasting room at 10:30 a.m. (Um, yes, we taste wine that early. But so, obviously, do a lot of other people.)

Next was a visit to Tobin James for tasting & the afore-mentioned Fiasco.  Tobin was an absolute zoo, but Bethany, our wine pourer (for lack of a better term), was an absolute sweetheart & kept wine coming our way.

Lunch was at Robert’s — not inspired but filling and perfectly fine.  I then socialized with some of the knitters at The Scarlet Skein before we drove to Cypher.

We then visited Kenneth Volk & Lone Madrone which share a building for their tasting rooms.  There’s also a nice nursery on site (great selection of scented geraniums and herbs) and several small inclosures with animals (chickens, rabbits, goats, and yes, I stop & look at each!).  I enjoy both of their wines — they’re totally different but both very tasty.

We’d eaten so much over the past 2 days that we didn’t want to go out for dinner.  We stopped at the New Frontiers grocery store and got wok noodles to go.

Sunday we slept in (well, Dave did, I did some editing etc work), got coffee at Nautical Bean (also tasty) then headed to the Los Olivos area to go to Andrew Murray‘s winery club appreciation event.  It was so much fun!  He had flights of his reserve Syrahs & his Watch Hill Syrahs that you could help yourself to for tasting.  Soft tacos, chips, and tamales were available (and very tasty).  We hung out a couple hours, just relaxing on the deck, chatting with fellow wine club members, and drinking wine.  Andrew Murray himself is very sweet and willing to answer any wine-related questions.