Bob At BAC Solvang 2012

We woke up to cold temperatures and rain. What better time than to linger over breakfast and low-key activities. The hotel served a good breakfast buffet. My daily high-protein meal was orange juice, scrambled eggs, sausage, potatoes, a Danish pastry and coffee. The breakfast room was a good place to discuss the day's ride. Very few of us planned on riding today. Instead, Terry Bunton volunteered to give us a seminar on GPS and RideWithGPS.com. This started at 10:30 and lasted about an hour. I picked up a few pointers about the website.

I looked around for a place to eat lunch and wandered into the Bulldog Cafe where I had a good, filling sandwich. Ruth was there snacking and reading from her Kindle. Darrel came in a little later and pointed out to me all of the framed photos on the walls of the cafe. They were pictures of various professional bicyclists and bicycle teams posed with the cafe's owner. Solvang is a well-known early season training center for professional racers and apparently they like the Bulldog Cafe.

Back at the hotel, I met Rich. We decided to take the car and visit a few wineries. We drove first to Firestone Vineyards where we sampled several wines on the mixed-wine tasting menu. Rich bought a case of Meritage, a blend of several reds. I bought a bottle of dry Gewurztraminer for Ann.

Next we drove up Foxen Canyon Road and stopped at Zaca Mesa. This is one of the first wineries in the area. The tasting room is in a huge barn-like structure. The top of wine bar is metallic with a metallic smell that runs off on your hands. This was a distraction for me when I tasted their wines. Even so, I bought a bottle of Viognier for Ann.

After two tastings, we decided that we had enough wine. However, we had to stop at Fess Parker for novelty reasons. I bought a bottle of their Frontier Red. I was tempted to get a coon skin bottle topper, but I resisted.

After Happy Hour, our group dinner was at Trattoria Grappolo in Santa Ynez. They sat us in a separate building in a room with two large tables surrounded on three sides with shelves filled with wine bottles. They served us two salads - salad mista and salad primavera. I had roasted chicken as an entree and panna cotta for dessert. I would like to return to this restaurant to eat from the regular menu. It is authentic Italian cuisine.