Temecula Wine Country

In 1973, Burlington Mills passed over Ely Callaway for the Chief Executive Officer position. Unlike most people who harbor such fantasies when their employer deals them what feels like a bad card from the bottom of the deck, this Company President had enough money saved to live comfortably the rest of his life, so he abruptly quit. After sulking for a week, he headed to California, where he had previously purchased 150 acres of land, and built a winery in the gently rolling hills.

In 1976, his 1974 vintage White Riesling won a competition to be served to the Queen of England during a gala Bi-Centennial reception honoring her at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Queen Elizabeth was not known as a wine drinker, but not only did she find the wine palatable, she ordered a second glass. This event triggered the national success of Callaway Wine. By the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan ordered a supply of Callaway Wine to be served to his guests in the White House, and reportedly Callaway sent the White House a bill rather than simply settling for the prestige as payment.

In 1981, Ely Callaway sold the winery for $9 million and started his golf company that became famous for the Big Bertha, turning another of his personal interests into gold, but that's another story. I just remember reading about Callaway in a magazine in the mid-1980s, prompting Julie and I to take a drive out there to see what Rancho California's Wine Country looked like. We took the tour at Callaway Winery, learning the legend of a “V” in the hills that allowed for a natural air conditioning of ocean breeze to ventilate the vineyards, creating the perfect condition for growing grapes. The wine was, it turned out, quite good, so we bought the logic.

The hills and valleys not planted in vineyards were rather ugly, just dirt and scrub brush in their natural condition. We've returned several times over the years and watched the scrub brush gradually disappear.

Houses, golf courses and strip malls cover much of Temecula, and the hills just outside of town now feature lots of vineyards along Rancho California Road and its asphalt tributaries. There's just enough scrub brush left to remind us of the alchemy of human sweat and selected grape seeds that turn the land into gold.

This weekend, we met our good friends Mike and Linda at the Temecula Creek Inn, a casual golf resort, where we were allowed to check in early. We bought three wine tasting admissions for $20 at the front desk, charted out our course on a map, and off we went. Our first visit was Hart Winery, which I remembered I liked from a visit with wine connoisseur Rich Love and some other folks who worked with Julie in the 1990s. It looked like a shed, leading to mild ridicule from the others, but when we saw the price board, I remembered why I liked it: the tasting was only $5 for six wines with a free logo wine glass to take home or $10 for eight wines, including a couple of special vintages and a larger glass.

Julie and I went with the $5 tasting, but Linda wanted the larger glass to take home. Julie and I always split tastings, because she likes white wine better while I prefer red, and Mike and Linda decided to follow suit. Splitting the tastings allows us to visit more wineries without getting totally smashed. For me, the best wine at Hart was the whimsically named Drive Way Red, which was made from grapes grown along the driveway. While the extra carbon fumes from car exhaust obviously seasoned the grapes to perfection, all of the Hart wines I tasted were pretty good, probably because they seem to specialize in reds.

For our next stop, we went next door to Callaway, still the most prestigious brand in the area. It has a beautiful tasting room with a long window-lined bar overlooking rolling vineyards, reminiscent of the Domaine Chandon Winery in the Napa Valley. Callaway has remained famous for their white wines, but their red wine isn't bad. It's a $10 tasting, and even though our pre-paid tasting wouldn't apply there, no visit to the Temecula Wine Country would be complete without stopping at Callaway. I couldn't convince the others to take the free tour, which leaves every hour on the hour and is on par with the best, as I recall from our visit long ago. Instead, we dove into the tasting at Callaway, finishing up with a delicious sweet dessert wine.

Linda heard we needed to go to the Palomar Winery, and it turned out to have a beautiful patio area that would be great for a casual party. Like Callaway, Palomar wouldn't accept our vouchers, but I would put this on the can't-miss list too. The wine was good, but it was the lunch that was especially great. Small pizzas (we had one Sicilian and one Tuscano), cheese and salami cubes with bread, and sour dough with asparagus dip were each about $8, and they were all delicious. Mike added a bottle of wine, which came with two more free wine glasses to join the free ones from the $10 tasting. Halloween weekend was a great time to visit Temecula Wine Country, as we never found any crowds. Just before we left Mount Palomar, Mark Huston and the Workin' Men started playing country music, something that seems more suited to Temecula than Napa, where wine would more likely be the order of the day. We wanted to hear more, but there were wineries to visit, so we decided to try to return before they stopped playing at 5.

We drove across the street to the Stuart Winery, where we took my favorite picture from the trip, but be forewarned that the wine didn't live up to the setting, in our opinions. The server was nice, and the price was right (they took one of our vouchers in exchange for two tastings), but the wines consistently included a vinegary taste, leading us to pour a lot out.

We ventured off Rancho California Road on a side trip up Calle Contento to the Falkner Winery. For our voucher, they gave us tasting glasses and $5 off coupons for wine purchases. After the affable pourer Darlene gave us our first sample, Julie and I meandered over to a picnic table to enjoy the scenic location while Mike and Linda stayed at the bar. When we returned for a refill, we found Darlene had convinced them to join the wine club with what must have been the deal of the century, because Julie and I, not known for our extravagance for such things, joined too. The winning pitch was that our tasting that day would be free, and we could return whenever we wanted for free tastings. The $10 tasting fee would be applied to our first wine club order, on which we would also receive a 10% discount. Any way I calculated it, my normal wine buying at home is still cheaper, but it was somehow fun joining. No longer restricted to the normal half dozen tastings, we saw no reason to seek out another winery. Falkner's wines were all very good. I particularly liked the Merlots, but their break-through product was their Hot Lips. This mulled wine served warm would be an excellent holiday treat for adults, and Falkner sell the kits consisting of two bottles of their Luscious Lips red wine and the mulling mix for about $35. Lots of people walked out carrying the boxed kits, including us.

We headed back to Mount Palomar Winery to hear some more of the great music , snacking on bottled water and cheese cubes. We probably should have called it a day, but we headed to Robert Renzoni Winery, which was open until 6. Located out in horse country off DePortola Road, Renzoni would have taken our vouchers, but instead we went with a two for one coupon with the $11 price tag. Probably because of the sweet Hot Lips spoiling our palates, none of us were too impressed with their servings, which will save me retelling their rather interesting wine history.

We moseyed into western themed Old Temecula for dinner, where we had a so-so meal served by beautiful waitresses at Texas Lil's. Each couple split one of the $22 three-item barbecue combos, and they certainly gave us lots of food. The baby back ribs, chicken and pulled pork were all good though not great, but the side dishes left something to be desired. The mashed potatoes had an earthy taste, which based on the hash browns I had the next morning seems to be due to the kind of red potatoes used by restaurants in that area.

Our rooms at Temecula Creek Inn were large and comfortable, and we enjoyed a great night's sleep. The next morning, Julie and I headed over to the lobby where they have complimentary, delicious coffee and tea as well as crisp apples. We read magazines and the free Sunday paper delivered to our room before heading to meet Mike and Linda for breakfast at the golf course view restaurant on the property. For about $14 per person including coffee, we enjoyed the terrific food and lovely setting. Breakfast was cooked to perfection, including the chicken apple sausage which shouldn't be missed.

The pool area includes a hot tub at an ideal temperature, and Julie and I enjoyed our morning lounging around there reading while Mike and Linda drove home to watch the Seahawks game. Temecula is a great place for Southern Californians to take a quick trip, but it also shouldn't be underestimated by out of town visitors who come to California to catch a Mexican Riviera or Hawaii cruise.

Return to Temecula for Valentine's Day

Okay, I know what you're saying. How could Julie and I have returned to Temecula for Valentine's Day when it doesn't come until this coming weekend?

To make a long story short, we went a weekend early, and we made it a triple date, with all of us getting rooms at the Temecula Creek Inn for Saturday night under a romantic weekend promotion that included chocolate covered strawberries in our individual rooms and a multi-course pre-fixe dinner in the hotel's Temet Grill, where we've previously experienced their great breakfast service.

As we made our way out past rain-induced accidents on the freeways, the gray skies made us question our choice of weekends, but then behind us, Julie spotted the biggest, brightest rainbow we have ever seen, bigger and brighter than the ones in Maui or Ireland, and we decided to consider that an omen of good times ahead.

The hotel had also ran a promotion for golfers that weekend, and the rain had scared many of them off, so the property wasn't at all crowded. We were upgraded to their deluxe rooms with terrific views of the golf course and its lake. Actually, besides the big lake, there were a lot of smaller lakes when we arrived, all over the fairways. It surprised me when I learned that in the afternoon, golfers had been out on the course. They apparently have a great drainage system.

Soon both Jay and Katie as well as Mike and Linda arrived, and we were off to tour wineries. After re-visiting the Hart Winery, we headed for the Winery of the Year, South Coast. It's understandable how they won the award. The winery itself is beautiful, with a large tasting room decorated as nice as any tasting room in the Napa Valley. The wines are consistently good, inducing Mike and Linda to purchase a case, and in their usual generous mode, they ended up giving a bottle to each of the other two couples as well as sharing another bottle at dinner. We especially liked the combos like Merlot Rose. The wines were modestly priced compared to other wineries and probably geared less toward wine connoisseurs, which might be why we all liked them.

On a previous trip, you may recall that we had joined the Falkner Winery's Club, and on this day, we decided to enjoy lunch there, taking advantage of our 10% member's discount. We didn't use the half price wine discount for club members, preferring to sip water with our late lunch. The Pinnacle had a great menu that, while not cheap, is reasonably priced. The large, open floor plan surrounded by windows takes advantage of the hilltop views of Temecula Wine Country, and it's spacious interior is casually elegant.

We all enjoyed our lunches. I would recommend the Coastal Cobb Salad with roasted chicken that I had, and I think everyone else would recommend theirs too. Mike had the Lobster Mac & Cheese, which is sort of the Pinnacle's signature dish, and he said it was great with big chunks of lobster.

Of course, we returned to our club winery for a few free samples, including the famous Hot Lips, and then headed to Mount Palomar, where we have also been on previous trips, to chat by their outdoor fire ring. I thought we were heading home from there, but in response to Linda's lament of only having been to one new winery, we stopped at another we had never visited: Thornton. (insert doom sounding music here)

They have an odd system, at least at the time we went, where they sat us at a linen clothed dinner table and served flights of four wines at once as a tasting. After protesting that we really didn't feel right taking up one of their dinner tables, we sat down and ordered two flights between the six of us. Service turned out to be extremely slow, taking fifteen minutes to bring out the wine, which was somewhat irritating since we had told the waitress we had dinner reservations at our hotel.

The waitress never smiled and acted in all ways like we were a major inconvenience. The flight of sweet wines wasn't too bad according to Jay and Katie, but Linda's flight of red and white had three marginal wines and one that literally smelled and tasted like turpentine. It was nasty, and Linda wrote a note saying so.

The waitress was nowhere to be found to bring us our bill, but when we left money on the table to pay the bill, including a totally unwarranted generous tip for the lousy service, she appeared from nowhere to head us off like we were high schoolers skipping out on a bill. While perhaps we just went on the wrong day, there's no point in risking this kind of terrible experience when there are so many great wineries in the area. We won't be back.

Dinner turned out to be okay but certainly not worth the $60 per person at which it was valued. The mashed potatoes had so much horseradish in them that most of us left them on our plates, which if you know this group is really saying something. The appetizer and choice of soup or salad were good if not great. The meal came with both salmon and steak, and the steak was terrific. The salmon was okay. The creme brulee desert was reportedly good, but I was too full to have any.

A hot tub dip preceded a good night's sleep. Julie and I took a walk around the property in the morning, but with that being Super Bowl Sunday, we all checked out before noon to head to the next part of a great weekend.

What are you doing for Valentine's Day? My buddy Nick knows how to do it right. He's taking his sweetie on a Western Caribbean cruise aboard Voyager of the Seas. It may be too late to make plans for a Valentine's Day cruise this year, but what about next year?

Baily Winery in Temecula

My cruise blog keeps veering towards being a wine blog this winter. Blame it on the Temecula Valley being a quick escape for Southern Californians.

Invited to the wine pick-up party for the Falkner Wine Club, Mike, Linda, Julie and I headed over to Rancho California once again this past Saturday. Julie and I made our now usual stop at Jack In the Box at the Green River offramp of the 15 freeway. Their staff is friendly, their bathrooms clean, and their breakfast menu not only features inexpensive specials but has proven to be consistently well-cooked. A guy about my age on a ten speed bike had ridden there from Newport Beach, making me think I should start riding a bike again to get into shape to make long rides. As my dad used to say, I guess I better lay down until that urge goes away.

Anyway, after breakfast we continued our drive. A major traffic jam forced us off the freeway, and of course that is the systemic condition that has dulled Southern California's luster for tourists in recent years. Nonetheless, as my brother-in-law Brooks says, you can't let the challenges of driving somewhere stop you from going. We found driving on the side roads actually more pleasant than the freeway would have been even without the clog, and eventually we made it out to Rancho California.

Getting on with the signficant part of the story, we visited the Baily Winery. Small but attractive and classy, the tasting room includes some interesting gift items, like a wick kit that converts an empty wine bottle into a candle lamp. More importantly, Baily features consistently great wine. While other wineries have definite specialities, Baily's wine is excellent across the board.

We had the good fortune of being served by Ricardo for our ten dollar tastings. Ricardo is a youthful octogenarian oenophile with a sharp mind filled with encyclopedic knowledge of wine and memories of a fascinating life. Born in Brazil, he traveled the world as an international consultant. With one child who lives in Florence and one in Stuttgart, he spoke of flying to Germany, renting Porsches to drive through the Alps between his children's homes, and sampling regional wines en route.

Ricardo told us how the Cabernet Sauvignon grape is believed to be the result of a natural grafting of nearby vineyards, one planted in Cabernet Franc and the other in Sauvignon Blanc. The field between the two pure vineyards created the new grape which became extremely popular worldwide. In fact, while there are now over 2900 varieties of grapes, originally there were only six, according to Ricardo, and he rattled them off. When we drank a Baily Sangiovese, Ricardo shared that this is the grape at the heart of Italy's famed Chiantis. He spoke in glowing terms of Italian wines which are not exported and require visits to Italy to enjoy, but as he rapidly swirled each glass of Baily wine to ensure the perfect release of aromas for perfect tastings, he also proudly presented these locally produced wines.

I asked if he was the owner of Baily Winery, because he certainly had the knowledge and love of his product. He replied with a smile that he had a small stake in the winery, but mostly he just enjoyed working in the winery to keep his mind sharp and give him something to do. I think I speak for all of the people he has served in saying that he is a true professional in a world of amateurs. We weren't the only ones who walked away with more than a case of wine to share with friends after being dazzled by his show of knowledge and flair.

While all the wines are excellent, the dessert wines proved to be of particular note. We all felt Baily's port to be the best we have tasted anywhere. Baily also has a white dessert wine called Serenity, which is a sweet, late harvest Sauvigon Blanc with a strong shadowing of hazelnuts due to the grapes having been planted near the nuts. Ricardo suggested it be used not only as a dessert drink but as salad dressing, either alone or mixed with olive oil.

For passengers going on cruises from Southern California, a side trip to Temecula Valley including the Baily Winery is an extra treat.

Why Not Live the Southern California Dream This Summer?

Redondo Beach

People who've lived in Southern California most of their lives sometimes take it for granted, but we live in an amazing state, one that everyone should visit.

The weather along the coast in cities like San Diego, Laguna Beach, Malibu, Redondo Beach and Santa Barbara is perfect nearly year round, and you can do essentially anything you can imagine over the course of the year here.

I'd like to invite you to visit my amazing home state this summer and take a cruise.

Over the last couple of years, I have lamented the fact that cruise lines have pulled most of their ships from Southern California ports for summer to serve other markets, but the more I think about it, the better I understand.  Why cruise down to Cabo and Puerto Vallarta in the summer, when temperatures can get well above 90 down there while we stay comfortably in the seventies or low eighties from San Diego through Santa Barbara?

Carnival Imagination

The main reason to cruise is for the cruise ship experience itself, and you can definitely make a relaxing ocean voyage from Long Beach, with all the onboard excitement, delicious meals and terrific entertainment, the centerpiece of  your California vacation.  In fact, Carnival has two fun ships doing three and four night cruises to Ensenada all summer, with Imagination embarking on Thursdays and Sundays while Inspiration cruises from Long Beach on Fridays and Mondays.

For your summer vacation, I recommend the four night voyages, which give you a greater chance to enjoy cruising plus the bonus port of Santa Catalina Island. I've said this before, but I will repeat that if you enjoy having chips and cervezas at a Mexican Restaurant in your home town, you can enjoy the real thing in Ensenada. If you want something more exciting, go four wheeling in the desert while there.

It's always surprising to me how fully relaxed and rejuvenated I feel after one of these three or four night cruises.

However, for your family summer vacation, you should definitely enjoy Southern California, too. 

Knott's Independence Hall Replica

One obvious choice is a stay at Walt Disney Resorts in Anaheim.  While Orlando's amusement parks may have grown larger, the foundation really started in Southern California at the original Disneyland, and it is well worth seeing.  Right next door, Disney's California Adventure is a wonderful second park to visit while in town, and it is the perfect addition for a California Dream vacation.  Perhaps like me, you've been going to Disneyland since it opened, but have you ever stayed on resort at the beautiful Disney Grand Californian or one of the other great hotels in the area?  You know you would think about doing it if you went to Orlando, so why not do it in California?

I could go on and on about amusement parks like Universal Studios, Knott's Berry Farm, Magic Mountain, LEGOLAND, SeaWorld and San Diego Zoo, but that's only part of the California story.


For a tropical vacation, the big allure is our beaches, and you can find great hotels to enjoy a few days, including the Portofino in my home town of Redondo Beach, which is conveniently located between Los Angeles International Airport and the cruise port.



Wes demonstrates that almost anyone can kayak.

  Again, the choices of great beach cities could go on and on, but I don't think you can find a better place to stay for walking to different shoreside activities than Redondo Beach.  We have harbor activities like sailing, kayaking and paddle boarding, or walking a little further on you'll find wide beaches for boogie boarding or sunbathing.  There's great live music at Baleen Kitchen, a lounge at Portofino, or you can walk to the world famous Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach for jazz on Saturday or Sunday.  At Redondo Beach Pier, there are great bar bands with free admissions and reasonably priced drinks.  The many restaurant choices include Barney's Beanery, Kincaid's. or Tony's Fish on the pier, and numerous affordable sidewalk cafes on the piers in both Redondo and Hermosa as well as at the nearby Hollywood Riviera. 

If a cruise is to be the centerpiece of your vacation, you should consider Hotel Maya in Long Beach for at least the night before the cruise.  It has beautiful panoramic views of downtown Long Beach as well as the Queen Mary, which is permanently dry docked by the Long Beach cruise terminal.

By the time you spend a couple of nights in Anaheim, Redondo Beach and Long Beach, plus a cruise, you will have experienced the vacation of a lifetime. 

Wine tasting with friends in Temecula.

However, you definitely could do much more, including viewing world famous art at museums like the Getty and Huntington Gardens, attend sporting events like Angels or Dodgers baseball, Galaxy or Chivas soccer or L.A. Kiss Arena Football, visit L.A. Live or Hollywood, explore the mountains by Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead, go wine tasting in Temecula, attend classical music concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and rock or country shows at one of our many venues, attend Broadway quality plays (including at the beautiful Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center) and much, much more.  In fact, if you can do it anywhere, you can probably do it in Southern California.

Summer is a great time to visit California, and I can tell you how to do it while avoiding the pitfalls like unnecessarily wasting your vacation in traffic.  I've lived here most of my life, so allow me to help you get the most from each area you stay as well as choose the best locales for what you enjoy doing.

Groups Are Easy

Traveling with family and friends is always fun.  Meeting to tour wineries in Temecula or taking a quick trip to Las Vegas can be planned on the fly, but if you want a truly amazing vacation, you must plan ahead.  I specialize in group cruise bookings. 
It's no secret that cruises are hands down the best way for a family or group of friends to travel together.  On board the ship, everyone can enjoy a vacation their way but still get together for dinner, and you don't have those uncomfortable moments when the bill comes and your brother-in-law throws in $40 to cover his $60 share.

Being bombarded with travel promotions on a daily basis, a lot of people think they can put together a cruise group on the fly, but people can't drop everything to catch a flight to Fort Lauderdale for a Panama Canal cruise just because you always wanted to do that trip and an ad caught your eye.  A group cruise requires advance planning.

Part of the planning is knowing when your friends and family can go.  The lowest rates are always off-season.  A Caribbean cruise in October will always be less than in July or over Christmas week.  It's just supply and demand.  You can, however, compromise.  For example, you and your friends could meet in New Orleans to catch Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas cruising to the Western Caribbean ports of Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel on February 18, 2012 for just $549 per person.  Why February 18, 2012, instead of a week later?  Because many schools shut down for President's Week, so more potential passengers are likely to be able to go, but it is still modestly priced.  Why New Orleans?  Well maybe it is a shorter flight or within driving distance of your friends and family. It's whatever works for you.

You know your friends and family better than I do, so perhaps you know another date that will work better.  Perhaps none of them are teachers or have kids in school, so you can go the first week in December when prices are even lower, or perhaps you want to cruise over New Year's Eve regardless of cost. 

What is imperative is that you plan your trip early, about a year in advance or even earlier, if you want to have a likely chance of filling your group.  One of the best times to start a group is when the cruise line releases its space for the next year on the itinerary you want.

Princess is well-known from its popular TV series as the Love Boat, but  it's reputation has been built for a warm, welcoming attitude, great itineraries and knowledgeable experts onboard.  This week Princess opens 2012-3 cruises for sale, so you'll never have a better chance to choose from the selection hotlinked to this sentence.

If you want to book a group cruise to Europe in 2012, this week is a great time to commit.  In addition to Princess, Celebrity and Oceania will be opening Europe 2012 for sale this week.

Celebrity still lags behind Princess in recognition among the general public, but they are well known among cruise afficionados for gorgeous big ships and amazing meals. Now they've expanded onboard educational opportunities through partnerships with Rosetta Stone and Apple Computers.

Oceania (click here for hotlinked info), a line made up of small ships, sometimes scares potential clients with their prices, but their port intensive itineraries peppered with small ports that big ships simply can't fit in as well as extended time ashore including overnight stays in more prominent ports shouldn't be underestimated.  And by the time you add it early booking discounts and free air, these introductory rates represent tremendous value.

If you don't know which cruise your friends would like, you're not alone, but you can't let that paralyze you.  Pick the one you like, book a group with me, and then tell your friends about it.  Don't worry about it being a big commitment.  If no one else decides to join your group, I will take care of that, returning the inventory to the cruise line without further obligation, except, of course, your room and those of any friends who decide to join you.  Even then, I charge no cancellation fees, and you would be subject to no cancellation fees by most cruise lines up until the final payment date, about two and a half months before the cruise embarks, even if you change your mind about going.

If you somehow manage to get eight double occupancy rooms filled by your friends to sail with your group, then you can earn a tour conductor credit, which can save you hundreds of dollars on your own vacation.

To make it easier for you to convince your friends to join you, we can set up special amenties for your friends and family that will stay with your bookings even if fewer than eight cabins book.

In other words, there is absolutely no risk but quite a bit to gain.  Some people feel silly when their groups turn out to be just their own staterooms, but that's not a problem.  I'm happy to see you try, and I will never make you feel like you failed.  After all, it's not a failure at all.  It's a victory to come up with a plan and see if anyone is interested.

So ask yourself, where in the world would you like to go?

Viña del Mar, Chile

The best part of a ship-sponsored transfer at the end of the trip is the certainty it provides.

You will be led off as part of a herd to gather your luggage and get on the right bus.

As we disembarked in San Antonio, Chile, we found our luggage before Mike and Linda made it through a random debarkation search.

Apparently they had not secreted any sacred artifacts, explosives, conflict diamonds or ship's cutlery in their carry-off bags, and we were soon dragging our rolling suitcases to join hundreds of others among the hubbub of taxis and tour guides hustling passengers.

We'd scheduled a private excursion with drop-off at Santiago International Airport through Viator, so we brushed confidently past, constantly watching for an appropriate Chile Vivo Tours sign featuring our names.

Our confidence waned as the minutes ticked away, but a young man eventually approached us and whisked us to his van a couple of blocks from the port where our driver awaited.

Jaime began by telling us about the area, including how labor disputes had resulted in the port of Valparaiso being replaced by the new terminal in San Antonio.

Jaime said we would start our tour in Viña del Mar rather than Valparaiso as indicated in the itinerary.  He said something about morning demonstrations scheduled in the bigger city.

We stopped first at Museo Fonck to see an authentic Moai Statue from Rapa Nui, which stands outside the museum.

The Fonck houses other artifacts from Easter Island as well as ancient ruins from throughout Chile.  The museum itself has free admission, but it was closed that day.

I don't think the interior was supposed to be part of our tour, but it had been touted as a clean restroom stop.

Around the corner was a distinctly different sculpture by famed French artist Auguste Rodin in front of Palacio Carasco.  Rodin submitted the work to the City of Valparaiso for a contest dedicated to Heroes of Iquique.

Rodin had entered the same stature in a different contest in France with a different theme, so apparently like many writers and artists, he re-purposed his work to submit to contests for which it might fit the parameters.

He lost both contests, but nonetheless "La Defense" remains a powerful work by one of my favorite sculptors.

With the museum bathrooms locked, we walked around the corner to a small café where we bought coffee and used their restrooms.

Back on the road, we stopped to stroll along the rugged, scenic coastline of Viña del Mar.

Terraced apartment buildings across the street in various states of beauty and disrepair were perched to take advantage of panoramic seaside views past craggy outcroppings similar to Laguna Beach or Malibu.

Our van met us further down the beach and took us to the fresh fish market near a pier.  There were so many seagulls and pelicans that the ladies were quite concerned about being dive bombed or some other kind of aerial assault to their hair and clothes.

We went past a large clock made with flowers and hedges, but Jaime pointed out that vandals had stolen then clock's hands, bringing the old Bob Dylan line about "the pump don't work 'cuz the vandals took the handle."

We stopped for lunch at a lovely seaside restaurant, Club Union Arabe.

The views were excellent from our window table in this elegant restaurant perched across the street from the beach.

The stately building was apparently at one time a stately private club.

I had a local fish and chips dish.  It later turned out the fish was some kind of ugly conger eel, but it tasted great.  Julie said her lasagna was also tasty.


Cristal Beer was so-so at best, and Julie's Diet Coke was probably a better choice with a full afternoon ahead of us.  Our next stop was the big city of Valparaiso.

It is more than a bit disconcerting that there seems to be an anarchist revolutionary movement just below the surface in most South America cities we visited as evidenced by graffiti of an A in a circle that we saw many places in South America, although it might be more a sign of permissiveness of government for misguided students defacing buildings to release political steam.

We would see more graffiti as we drove through downtown Valparaiso, but we didn't stop until we reached a hilltop famed for beautiful murals painted on the side of buildings.

Graffiti pissers have respect for the real artists apparently, as they didn't deface too many.

The buildings on the hilltop reminded me somewhat of San Francisco's older neighborhoods back in the 1970's when I visited my friend Pete, who over the years has tended to live not exactly in but near that kind of artsy neighborhood.

There's a kind of hippie chic vibe, though what should be brighter colors seemed a bit faded from a few sunny summers between paint jobs.

We took the historic funicular train down to the city, where our van picked us up to drive to the Indomita Winery.  On the way, we learned that the winery had been owned by three women, who were powerful industrialists with fingers in many business pies, including horse racing.

In recent years, these ladies, now all well into retirement years, had sold the winery to a Chinese businessman in order to focus on their 700 thoroughbred racers.

When Mike and Linda lived in Orange County, we would sometimes meet them over in Temecula Wine Country, so in a way this was like flashing back to those wine tasting days.  After moving to Seattle, they became regulars attending concerts and tastings in Washington wine country, with Linda now storing over 300 bottles of wine, according to Mike.

Chile's wine region's claim to fame came in 1994, when a French wine expert drank what at first seemed to be of an odd-tasting Merlot.

It turns out the wine had actually been a Carmenere, which is lighter than Merlot or even Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Carmenere grape had been one of six from the Bordeaux region, but an aphid infestation had wiped out all Carmenere vines in Europe in 1863.

The best Bordeaux grapevines had been previously brought for cultivation to wine regions in the Americas, including California's Napa Valley and Chile's Casablanca Valley near Santiago.

For whatever reason, the Carmenere grape assumed to be extinct somehow maintained its exclusive qualities only in Chile.

Indomita proved to be pretty good wine, and our server gave generous pours.

So generous, in fact, that we all became quite relaxed.  Our guide and driver wanted to beat the traffic to the airport, but in retrospect, we should have given them an extra $100 or so to let us stay at the winery until it closed and then find a restaurant for dinner.

Instead, we were dropped at the airport with four hours to spare.  In this long ago age (two months ago) before COVID-19 had killed international air travel, we found a long, long line waiting for literally every counter for every airline to open.  It was absurd.

We must have been in line for two or three days.  Okay, maybe not that long, but way too long.

Unexpectedly, our jumbo jet was actually parked in Peru, or so it seemed, as we must have literally walked a couple of miles through tunnels without benefit of moving sidewalks to get to our gate.

There was also a long, long line for customs to enhance our experience.

Then again, we've become accustomed to the fact that air travel is always the worst part of travel, and it does make traveling to distant places possible.

And this had been another amazing vacation, including our wonderful tour that brought us to the airport.