BBQ, Alcohol, and more BBQ!

I figured I'd finish up about the weekend. I've got a little bit of time at work so I thought I would take advantage of it and finish what I started.

On Saturday, I went with my friends Alan, Wendy, and their baby Jade to a picnic at the Firestone winery. I guess if you are a member of their wine club or something, they throw a huge picnic for you. And you get to bring some friends along with you. I'm not sure how much it cost, because they wouldn't accept my money... In any case, they had all you can eat food and all you can drink beer and wine. I would just like to reiterate that Firestone makes some of my favorite beers. They had their porter, lager, pale ale, and of course, their double barrel ale. And they had the standard fare of wine (cab, merlot, syrah, chardonnay, riesling, etc). I had a glass of the syrah, which was pretty tasty. However, I'm not really a wine connoisseur so I'm not sure how good it was.

On a more interesting note, at about 12:15 or so, we drove past a sizable fire. It was on the south side of 101, and it was burning a 30 yard area or so. It was right after you come out of the tunnel if you're driving north on 101 to Santa Maria. I believe the fire was north of Gaviota. That area is pretty dry, so we immediately called 911, and they already knew about it. At the picnic, they announced that both 101N and 101S was closed off because of the fire. The only way for us to get back into Santa Barbara was to take the 154. A drive that should have taken us just over 30 minutes, took us over 2 hours! The traffic on 154 was awful. It was definitely entertaining that my friends car was running on empty, and we were quite nervous that we were going to stall in the one lane sections. Luckily, the drive back to SB is mostly downhill. Wendy, if you're reading this, notice I said MOSTLY... As of last night at 11 pm, the fire was only 20% contained, and had burned over 7500 acres....

On Sunday we had brunch at El Paseo, and had all you can eat food, and all you can drink again! I love weekends where all I do is eat and drink! After that, we went walking all around downtown looking at stuff. I decided I need to have some Birkenstocks. I've always wanted a pair, but never bought some. We walked past this store called Crispin's Leather (which is never open when I remember to check it out), and after looking at some birks, I've decided its time I buy some. So if I can remember to get there before 6, on a day that is NOT Sunday, I'm going to pick some up (lots of other places have some, but they have the best selection).

Then I convinced Matt to put his BBQ together (told him Alex volunteered to cook), and Alex, Matt, Kelly, Michelle and myself bbq'd some carne asada, vegetables, and a chicken for Michelle. We figured it was a perfect time to bbq because the laker game was on. Disappointing game, but great bbq.

Ok, there goes my allotted time. Back to work for me!