This morning we had the breakfast from hell with too many screaming children. Tim scorched the toast to be met with a lot of glares. We were beginning to wander how fun memorial weekend would be!
Tim led me astray and took me for a tour and wine tasting in the Simi winery. A great couple from New York (the girl was called Kendra) and their friend were intrigued to find out what we were up to and they appeared to be on the same level of wine tasting experience as ourselves.
Cool cork tree:
The tour was fascinating, as much as the origins of the business were interesting and the wine tasting at the end of the session was of course well received. Feeling a little sozzled we wobbled back into Healdsburg and grabbed sandwiches in the downtown bakery.
We then managed the 30km of cycling to take us into Santa Rosa and out the other side to a campsite. California state parks are nothing like the Oregon equivalents - the North-South divide exists here too - there were no signs or indications on the map as to which side we could enter. Left or right - we chose left - 20 mins later we were a few hundred metres from the right hand turn we could have taken. Of course when we got there is was memorial weekend so all the pitches were full and apparently there was no hiker/biker section. Luckily a park warden took pity on us and they let us in to a site that was closed - I can only imagine why this was so.
Derek rang and we cycled back into Santa Rosa to meet him and his girlfriend, Jen for dinner and some art. They took us to a great Indian where Tim got to exercise his preferred form of bird watching due to the Saturday night belly dancer. One guy was so mesmerised he was almost on top of the poor girl. I'm sure his Dad had a great evening out with him - ogling and conversation not being a combination of tasks possible to most guys.
As we left, Jen and Derek navigated us through the dark back streets of Santa Rosa in search of beer. We met up with some of their friends in a cool bar playing live music. Back on the road I wandered if Jen and Derek were in fact axe murderers, preying on naive tourists as we passed under the freeway and what looked for a while like out of town. They laughed but did not dispel the suggestion. We popped out in the downtown area and up to a bar with numerous bikes outside. It was difficult not to get jealous of all the single speeds, although I am not sure I would have been able to make it over into the lost coast on one!
Derek's friend Chris had an art installation in the bar but it was so small they wouldn't let us in. We hung around outside, forming the new kitchen party on the pavement for a while then decided we should head back to camp.
Safely back at the campsite we realised quite how terrible our back ups were when there were no street lights to help them out!
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