Mammoth New Years Eve! 2009

I'll Get some pictures up as soon as they're off my camera, but in the meantime, please allow me to present, The Wipeout Heard Round the World!  aka Helmut Cam for Christmas + Rocks = Bad

Paso Robles Wine Country, Nov 27-28, 2009

With Thanksgiving came the annual Paso Robles wine country trip.  There was much wine-ing, dining and merrymaking spread out across a few new wineries as well as a few old favorites.

Happily, wine country also helps me get my autumn fix in SoCal so I don't have total East coast season withdrawal!

We shortened this year's trip to wine country only, which was nice and brought us home in time for the USC home game on Sunday, but it did make me long for last year's Paso trip with the Big Sur coastal drive and overnight in Monterrey.  Sorry Trojans, Penn State and a drive of the Cali coast will always trump you.  End of story :)

We also did the upper country first for this go-around, followed by the historic Foxen Canyon run which is just such a pretty and winding stretch of back country for anyone to drive through.  And I know everyone has a different opinion on when you should visit wine country but for my money, it's fall for sure.  Grapevines change colors like a New England forest and lets face it, no matter what time of year it is, there will be wine, even if it isn't technically peak season.  I Promise!

Since my fuzzy wine memory can't give you a complete list, I'd suggest checking out the Foxen Canyon and Paso Robles winery listings, which you can find online easily via a quick search.  But I promise a visit to almost any winery in either region won't ever disappoint.

Hilton Head & Savannah Nov 5-8, 2009

Finally got my first trip down South under my belt!  Scooted down to Hilton Head Island for a little golfing with Ryan and his folks after my 3 week "I need to learn how to golf, NOW!" crash course and then continued on for some oldschool South in Savannah, GA.

First off, I CANNOT GOLF.  Yes that required all caps.  Thanks to my favorite John C. Riley doppleganger/golf instructor at Griffith Park, I suppose you could consider my recently acquired swing and golf game passable, though a special thanks would have to go out to Ryan's Dad for helping my shanks mysteriously just 'find their way' out of several sand traps. 

Did I mention the Hilton Head wildlife is rediculous?  It's tough to keep ahead of the impatient old ladies creeping up the tees behind you when you can't keep your eyes off the millions of birds and occasionally alligators (!) running around all over the place.  And I guess the ocean wasn't too shabby either.

27 holes later, Ryan and I headed down to Savannah and on the drive we passed numerous advertisements pointing us to where we could meet all our "Fireworks, pecans, country ham and Nascar souveniers" needs!  All in once place!

Note to self: after a few cocktails, Ryan WILL have a Tennessee/Georgia/Texas/Kentucky accent depending on what new friend he is making at the bar.  Little bit of history, tomfoolery, Paula Dean and bacon grits later, and the Georgian weekend was over way too quickly.