road trip to Paso

Our birthday present to Van this year was to hop in his car, bring Olive along, and get to Paso Robles for a couple of nights, a place he hadn't visited in almost four years.  On a sunny Saturday morning, we set out northward.  Van drove, I commandeered the back seat, next to the little girl.

Up the 210 to the 5, over the Grape Vine and into the Central Valley,

then we headed west into the Cuyama Valley.  That was where we stopped for lunch, at this cool little place that Conrad and I had visited once before, called Cuyama Buckhorn.  

Lunch in our bellies, we set off toward Paso Robles.  I dozed off after we hit the 101, I think, and woke up just as we made our way into San Luis Obispo.  Onward north, and we were at our hotel, the Piccolo, before it got dark out.  We unpacked, Olive staked out her territory,

and we all relaxed.

A little later it was time for dinner.  We cut across the Christmas parade route twice to get there, but that was no trouble.  And it was cool to see the small town parade.  Lots of folks out watching it, too!

Dinner was at La Cosecha.  We shared small plates, like the croquettes

and the lamb ribs. 

I didn't take shots of all of the food, which was too bad, because the later dishes were actually the better ones.  The kitchen surprised us with a dish of octopus, and wow, was that tender.  A nice place to enjoy that Friday night.

Through the park once dinner was done, window shopping in the stores around the park, then enjoying the holiday lights in the park itself. 

Off to bed soon after that.  A good long night of sleep to prepare for an arduous (ha!) day of wine tasting to come....