Insane…it’s literally the only word that comes to mind after sitting for minutes trying to figure out how to start this post.
We’ve had quite a few memorable experiences since the beginning of this journey and this one, well, was insane.
We kicked it off with Sean & Pat arriving in Paso and taking a drive along Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) up to Hearst Castle.
Let me just say, William Randolph Hearst was a baller! This place is official; the outside and inside décor is a mix of super exclusive stuff from all over the world.
At one point William had acquired 250,000+ acres of this amazing real estate.
While the tour itself was pretty weak, just walking around on our own and enjoying the scenery was fantastic.
Wish we woke up to this view every day!
And basically, right across the street, were a whole lot of Elephant Seals – no way we don’t check that out on the way home.
The next day we sampled the winery scene that Paso has to offer starting with lunch and a tasting at Cass Winery.
Fantastic food and wine! We’ll be back, Cass.
With full bellies and a buzz we hit up Sculpterra which came highly recommended; it didn’t disappoint.
The folks providing the tasting took our craziness in stride and actually seemed to be amused, or at least did a good job of pretending to enjoy our presence.
Can’t say that the band outside thought too highly of us though. They probably figured they’d be playing in front of a low key audience on Super Bowl Sunday…
Yeah…no.
Mammoth
The ride to Mammoth is about a 7 hour trip, but it didn’t matter; the drive was gorgeous with incredibly diverse scenery.
After passing through lush green hills, somehow the terrain turned to desert in an instant and we were headed toward Mammoth on the Eastern Sierra Scenic Byway.
This stretch of 395 is so gorgeous, Sean risked life and limb to get theeee perfect picture.
Even more impressive was our 50 mile detour off 395.
Death Valley is unreal!
The National Park is HUGE and we barely scratched the surface; nonetheless, stopping off to see Rainbow Canyon was so worth it.
After an early night following a long drive, we woke up ready to take care of business; as you can see, we completely crushed those bunny slopes.
Pat and Sean on the other hand were a bit more adventurous.
Who’s that third guy in the picture? Oh, just Tom who happened to be at Mammoth…what a random/awesome surprise.
Couldn’t be more grateful to our friends for such an awesome trip.
After a week at Mammoth, Sean parted ways and took a flight to SoCal while Amy, Pat and I doubled back to Paso. The three of us spent the rest of the weekend as it started: eating, drinking and scoping out the scene.
We sampled the local breweries, BarrelHouse & Firestone which are 10 minutes from our spot in Paso – amazing.
This place is getting better and better!
Wrapping up the trip, we decided to ride Pat by Morro Bay on the way to the airport.
Not sure if it was nice or cruel of us to stop at the coast knowing Pat was on the way back to below freezing temperatures in Philly…
