girls just wanna drink wine, part one

This weekend, my roommates and I headed up to Santa Ynez for yet another wine tasting weekend, although this time, there actually was a purpose! Back in October, Diana and I became Kalyra Wine Thieves (wine club members). Saturday was their annual Summer Member BBQ, and being the good members that we are, we grabbed the roommates and drove up the 101.

The BBQ itself was great ... we ate good food, tasted wines from the barrel, and tasted even more in the tasting room. Although it was 200 degrees outside, we managed to keep cool, and hung out with Noodle the resident dog. For those of you who haven't tried Kalyra, it's hard to find in the store, but Diana have quite the supply ... come on over!

After the BBQ, we drove into Solvang, which is a small, Danish tourist village. Being a recent Michigan transplant, Steph had never been ... and Diana and I didn't mind because one of the Kaylra employees gave us the name of a great wine bar in town, which we followed up with a trip to a bakery for cinammon bread.

After our pit-stop we continued on the 246 to Buellton, where we were staying. Coincidentally, Buellton has a Firestone-Walker Tap Room, which is one of Diana's favorite beers so of course, we had to sample there. The beer was good, although let's be honest, a 4-beer sampler doesn't even hold a candle to the 24 they pour at Sierra Nevada. I'm just saying!

At this point, we needed to dry out so we headed back to our hotel and took a dip in the jacuzzi before heading to dinner at the Hitching Post. For those of you Sideways fans, the Hitching Post is the restaurant where Miles and Jack have dinner their first night. Having now experienced it myself ... oh my god their steaks are fabulous! So tender and almost buttery. We all went to bed with very happy bellies.

So that was day one, and trust me, day two is even better! Stay tuned ...