Attack of the Santa Cruz Mountains

This past weekend the BS Club tackled the Santa Cruz Mountains as we had heard rumors that there were some very interesting wineries in that area and the Queen wanted to have breakfast at this great hole-in-the-wall-biker bar place called Alice's. (I guess it can only be considered a biker bar place because it is a really cool drive up to it and rumor has it that it is a lot of fun to take the drive on a bike.)

For those of you who are fans of the Queen B's blog, you may recall stories of our previous trip over the mountains (http://queenbisme.blogspot.com/2008/01/playing-hooky.html). Well, this time we didn't fair much better. On Friday before we left the office, we told friends and co-workers what our plans were: Alice's for breakfast, Thomas Fogarty Winery, Bonny Doon Winery, Santa Cruz to see the ocean, David Bruce Winery, then to our friend Jill's house for a bar-b-que and goodbye party for the Queen. Everybody kept saying, "you know it is supposed to rain this weekend, right?" Well, we just laugh in the face of weather "HA! HA! HA!"And yet, we probably should have listened.....

We set out around 10ish in the morning and while it is cool the skies seem relatively clear for Northern California and the drive up through Woodside to Alice's was very pleasant. We had a yummy breakfast and Sam and the Queen had wine-based bloody marys. I, ABBA, being a designated driver expertise, had a glass of chardonnay. But we figured since we were having such a large breakfast that it would be okay.

We left Alice's and headed to our first winery, which is used quite often as a site for weddings and we could completely understand why. Even with the rain, as it had started to pick up, we could tell how beautiful the view would be. And, for those of you who are REALLY interested, this will be the place where ABBA is wed, if that day ever comes!! Thomas Fogarty Winery was established by Dr. Thomas Fogarty who was the creator of the Fogarty heart balloon catheter that is used during heart surgery. AND he makes a pretty decent glass of wine.

After Fogarty's we headed up and over and along the ridgeline of the Santa Cruz mountains to get to Bonny Doon Winery. Now supposedly we went the backwards way in, but crikey!! I thought there were times where we were going to have some hillbilly, hippy inbreed with one tooth jump out and attach the ABBA-mobile!! The road was little more than a single lane all along the ridge with a number of very tight switchbacks and steep hills. And of course it didn't help one bit that it had started to sleet some and it felt like we were driving through the clouds. Needless to say, I was VERY glad when we finally came to Bonny Doon. This is a winery that I would definitely recommend on ambiance and quirkiness alone. (But I would wait until you have good weather to get there, they say it is great in the summer when it is really warm down in the city.) All of their wine labels are very eccentric, and I think we can say that ABBA loves a good wine label. Again, like so many other wineries they seem to focus on reds, which ABBA is not a big fan of, but for some reason she managed to be coerced into joining the wine club at Bonny Doon so that Sam and the Queen could get the private vintage wines at a discounted rate. They also promised that they would buy the red wines from me, if they weren't my cup o' tea!!

While we were in Bonny Doon's, the sky literally opened up and dumped rain on the mountain top, se we decided that we just needed to stay indoors and drink a bit more. After the rain let up, the three of us piled back into the ABBA-mobile and headed down the mountain into Santa Cruz and Capitola so that the Queen could see the ocean one more time before she headed back to the dustbowl known as Texas. Naturally, as we are parking in Capitola near the area where Sam and the Queen learned to surf (http://queenbisme.blogspot.com/2007/09/surfing.html) the sky opens up once again. But that didn't stop the BS Club from climbing out of the ABBA-mobile and going to look at the pounding surf. The Queen jumped up on the wall and got a coupld of pictures with the ocean behind her and then we raced back to the vehicle in hopes of not being completely soaked. Luckily I thought ahead and packed a couple of towels for us for just such an occasion.

We dried off and headed BACK over the mountains to our third and final winery of the day (I know, compared the the precious weekend, this was pretty light-weight of us!). The turn-off to David Bruce's Winery was scarey, to say the very least. Again, we were back in the mountains on uphill, switch-back turns, with pouring rain and sleet. The windows of the ABBA-mobile were starting to fog up, so we had to use the towels for drying off after Santa Cruz to clear the windows. And yes, you are probably saying "ABBA, why did you not turn around? Why did you not take your precious cargo to some safe dry spot?" First, there was no friggin' way I could have turned around. And, second, we decided that neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night would stop us from our winery route!!!

We finally made it to the winery and Sam and the Queen both enjoyed the wines and even purchased some for those "special occasions" because I have to say, David Bruce is pretty darn proud of his wine!! We also explained to the barrista, who was no where near as fun as the Sonoma barristas, that I was the designated driver for two weeks in a row and as I was offering to go get the car and bring it up for Sam and the Queen, she asked if I would be her friend too. Its not every day that a stranger asks to become your friend!!

As the afternoon drew to a close, we headed off the Santa Cruz Mountains and over to Jill's warm and comfy home where a spread of great munchies were available along with great company and good laughs.

I don't know if I'll ever make it across the Santa Cruz Mountains without the storms, but I can only hope...someday.....