VFA-125 drinks itself into oblivion...

VFA-125, the Rough Raiders, is being dissolved as a squadron on October 1. This is the squadron that Mike finished his training at here in Lemoore. As a last hoorah for the squadron they took the money for the patches and coffee and other such thinks and organized a wine tasting trip to Paso Robles...and of course Mike and I had to go along. The nice thing about this time was that neither one of us had to drive, they had rented a tour bus to take us for the day.

Stop 1: Castoro Cellars

(Tasting Fee is normally $3 to taste 7 wines for military, or $5 to taste 7 wines for non-military, they also have a 20% or 30% military discount if you purchase wines)

Mike and I have been here before and have always enjoyed their wine. They had a list of 17 wines for us to taste, 5 of them were whites and the rest were reds. You could taste all 17 if you wanted too, I think Mike and I each tasted like 10. We had "boxed" lunches waiting for us here and they were really good. Thick foccacia bread sandwiches and homemade kettle cooked chips!

Here are some of the people at the bar tasting. We were in a separate room from their normal tasting room.

Walking up to Castoro you walk through this gorgeous pergola that has grape vines growing all over it. The harvest time for grapes is September and October so the vines were had bunches of grapes rowing all over them.

If you enjoy reds I would recommend the Primitivo it was very good (we bought a bottle). I am not a huge white wine drinker anymore but I did try the Tango, which was a white blend, and thought it was very good. 

Stop 2: Midnight Cellars

(Tasting Fee is normally $5 I believe, and they have a 30% military discount on any wines you buy)

This was a winery that Mike and I have not been too before, and we are always excited to try new places. Penguin (call sign of the instructor that organized the outing) is a member at this winery and really likes their wines...he is also a fan of Justin Vineyards so Mike and I feel like we can trust his recommendations. 

The wine was pretty good. There were a few that we like quite a bit and then some that we didn't really like at all. They had about 8-10 wines for us to taste, including wines that they don't normally have open for tasting. The Gemini was very good and we got a bottle of that. They also had a Petite Sirah, which you don't always see on it's own and it was good as well so we got a bottle of that as well.

Stop 3: Opolo Vineyards

(Tasting Fee is normally $10, waived with wine purchase)

We had not been to this one either Penguin recommends their wines, as well as a few other people. They have one white wine and the rest were reds, I think there were 5 or 6 of them. These wines were pretty good. I'm not sure I would rate them as high as Justin Vineyards which is what some people were comparing them too. Their Syrah was great, and we ended up getting a bottle of that. I would come here again after a bit to bring someone for the first time, but not sure if it will make it on our regular go back to list.

We got to taste their wines in their wine cellar where they keep all the oak barrels and big stainless steel tankers as well. they had grape skins and just fermenting in some plastic crates that they opened up for us to see and smell which was pretty neat. They also were pouring us a wine that they didn't normally have open, and that was the Syrah...which we wouldn't have bought had we not tried it.

Stop 4: Vina Robles

Mike and I have been here numerous times and we love a lot of their wines. We didn't actually buy anything here, although at the end of the night we did get two free bottles of wine from here. Penguin had set up for us to have a catered dinner here before heading back to Lemoore. It was great good, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. The leftover wine that didn't get drank at dinner came home with Penguin since he had payed for it, and since their was like 8 bottles of red and 8 bottles of white he gave Mike and one of each so he didn't have so many.

This was a great trip for 125 to go out on. For the most part everybody got along great, student and instructor alike. Good times all around. 

I'm so glad that the weather is cooling down a bit so that we can start doing more Paso trips again!!!

Getting Creative is Always Fun, Making Magnets

So my girlfriend bought a magnet at a thrift store and decided she was going to recreate...and that's just what we did!!

Supply List:

- pictures to use (you can cut them out of magazines or use your own pics)

- round clear acrylics (similar to the little ones used in flower vases only larger)

- mod podge

- small paint brush or foam brush

- scissors

- magnets

- hot glue gun

Step 1: Gather pictures or cut them out from magazines. It helps if you have one of clear crystals so you can see exactly what will show up.

(here are the crystal things we used)

 Step 2 & 3: Apply Mod Podge to the back of the acrylic crystals and then fit the picture, allow that to dry. Once that is dry apply Mod Podge to the back of the picture, making sure to glue all the edges to the acrylic, allow that to dry.

 Step 4: Using the hot glue gun, glue the magnet to the back of the picture, make sure to apply ample pressure so the glue coats the entire backside of the magnet.

Make as many as you want! They will make a great gift, a home-made "set" of magnets. I did some with an animal theme, and sunset theme, an outdoor/hiking theme...You can do whatever you can find pictures for! It's a great way to pass the time on a rainy day or a lazy afternoon.

In other news...

Mike has recently carrier qual'd in the F-18 Horney! Yay!! We are done with official training and have joined the "big" Navy. When Mike was practicing to go out to the carrier, his family and I were able to go out to the runway here and watch him "bounce" or do touch-and-go's. We were able to get pretty close as evidenced by the following pictures:

While Mike has landed on the carrier before, in the T-45, this time he had to do it more times....AND AT NIGHT!! Scary...I wouldn't want to do it. We were lucky enough to have a buddy in another squadron on the same carrier and he was able to get some pics of Mike:

(Mike sitting on the deck waiting to taxi and take off)

Also for neat...Mike was able to get some pics of him flying over the Grand Canyon...

Pretty neat!

Like I said, we are officially done in the training squadrons and have joined a fleet squadron. Mike finished the boat on August 31. Normally the pilots find out within a week of finishing the boat what squadron they are going to...not so with us. There was only Mike and one other guy that finished at the same time. When pilots find out what fleet squadron they are going to there is something called a patching, where the new squadrons cause some raucous at a bar location and put the new patches on the pilot, it's a many ceremony. Well we didn't get one of those...instead it took us almost three weeks of getting jerked around before Mike was told where he was going. We had a knock on our door Tuesday morning and there were about 12 guys in flight suits standing on our front door...quite a wake-up call. We are now proud members of VFA-146, the Blue Diamonds. Mike leaves next weekend for a month of training on the carrier and then deploys for 7-8 months in February.

Newspaper Tycoon's Castle on the Coast

William Randolph Hearst...quite the eccentric man. He wanted to build a "small" cottage on the hill of his family property. Some three decades later he still hadn't completed his dream of a cottage on the hill and it is by no means small. The main house has something like 20,000 square feet or more, and there are 3 guest houses that are 4000+ square feet each. Hearst Castle is quite a marvel:

There are five different tours you can choose from when visiting the Hearst Castle. The basic experience tour shows you the highlights of the estate, which is what we did on this first visit. The other tours show more of the rooms inside the main house, including Hearst's own bedroom, as well as the bedroom of his mistress. There is also an evening tour you can take in which the employees dress up in decade garb from Hearst himself would have lived and had parties here. The Garden Tour, which only occurs during summer months, is a more in depth look at the botanical gardens and the poolside dressing rooms.

Just one of the spectacular views from atop the hillside. It was quite incredible to look out over the railing and see so far in the distance.

Now for the guest house...The guest house we went into consisted of four rooms, each with their own separate bathroom. This would have been the way the guest would have reached this particular guest house the first time the arrived. There is a small courtyard around back, which is how they would have left to head to the main home for dinner. 

Mr. Hearst spared no expense when it came to building his little oasis on the hillside, not even for his guests. The one thing he did insist on however, was that all guests eat dinner with him at the main house. The guest rooms were equipped with electricity and running water but there was nowhere to make food, or even tea or coffee.

Just one way Hearst was known to spare no expense: gold inlayed ceilings in the guest house

The magnificence didn't just happen inside the homes. The Neptune pool started out as a small sized pool, and was redone three or four times (and it was rumored that Hearst had plans to tear into it and add more to it). White marble with green marble inlaid in the pattern that can be seen. Pretty impressive, even the ladders to get out of the pool were made of white marble. Our guide informed us that the great-great-grandson of the gentleman who built this pool had his 16th birthday party here just a few weeks before we had been there; and the employees have open swim days as well. 

A gigantic outdoor pool wasn't enough for Hearst though, he had to build an extravagant indoor pool underneath the tennis courts. Blue italian glass, as well as clear italian glass with 24k gold leafs embedded within the tiles.

Here is a view that shows the white marble ladders to get out of the pools, both in here and the one outside:

Amazing to have all that money and just build with no mind of expense!! While the Hearst family no longer lives in the property open for public tour, there is a Victorian style house hidden in a grove of tree on the property that they still use for family vacations. Quite a legacy to have left behind! (But what about the Patty Hearst, I guess every tree has a bad apple once in awhile)

Elephant Seals are funny looking!!

About 20 minutes north of Cambria there is a turn off to view elephant seals on the beach. Way cool!

Quite the life to just lay on the beach in the sun all day with not a care in the world! I've heard that at certain times of the year there are thousands of elephant seals on this one particular beach.

We got to see quite a few of them come of from the ocean and work their way to the giant sand pit that a few of the others were resting. This guy up above did this just before he moved about 5 feet. Apparently trying to move that massive body isn't so easy on the land, he had to work himself up to it. In all I think it took him close to ten minutes to make it maybe 50-75 feet. You can see that a few them decided the effort wasn't worth it and just stayed close to the water.

They like the loose dry sand so that they can flip it up onto their back with their flippers. It's suppose to keep the bugs off I guess. These two had a little altercation about space, then the older guy on the far right sat up and said a few words, and all was quiet again. It would be way cool to see this beach line with these guys. I also learned, that it is only the males that have the elephant snout, the female elephant seal just looks like a giant harbor seal.

Mike and his sister enjoying their time together. What do you think of Mike's hat? He's pretty impressed with himself in it, and I say not too shabby!

A day on the coast in Cambria

There is an adorable little town on PCH. It's filled with quaint little shops and cafes along the main road. There is pebble beaches and places to see the seals soaking up the sun on the rocks. Cambria is almost like stepping back in time, if it weren't for all the big SUV's parked along the road. There are people strolling Main St with their dogs wandering in and out of the shops. The first time I went there with my mom and my aunt we stopped in to do some wine tasting at Moonstone Cellars. The people were incredibly nice, it was the wine maker and owner in their chatting up the customers and pouring the wine. It was a bit overcast, as it always is till mid-afternoon on the CA coast. There was a 40 degree temperature difference between the coast and two hours inland where we live.

If you are going to visit this little town, and I suggest you make a stop if you're traveling in the area, Moonstone Beach Bar has good food and it's right on the water! The picture above shows the patio with all their umbrellas, and below is the view towards the water.

There is this great path to walk on along the water as well. It is a great place to hang out for an afternoon.  I have been back to Cambria since then. The second time I went I also ate at Moonstone. 

Here are a few pics from the coast. The rocks out in the ocean are bit are filled with seals at certain times of the year. 

I would recommend taking even just a few hours to stop into this cute little town to walk around and have some lunch.