Sun, South and Seventy 2013-14 Trip Launched!

Thanksgiving Day….what a perfect day to launch our southbound trip to Baja…South to the Sunny  and Seventy degree days of "winter!"

First stop is Jessica's cottage for a fabulous Thanksgiving Day dinner!  Chef Jess creates amazing bean dish, the turkey is fabulous…we bring cranberries and Steve does his mashed potatoes.  Yum!

Jess, Chef for the day!

Untangle the lights….

String the lights….

We have some fun decorating her little cottage and the weather cooperates!  A fantastic sunny day in Seattle for Thanksgiving 2013.  By dark it's time for us to be "on the road"….and so we are.  We make it almost to Oregon before it's time for sleep.

The trip down "The 5" is uneventful…the kind we like.  A stop at the top of the pass as we head across the California - Oregon border for sleep and then all the way to Harris Ranch which is about two hours north of "The Grapevine."  The next day we are over the top and down into LA…a Sunday morning which is perfect.  Even though there are 8 lanes of traffic, it's not bad traffic and no jams.  We are sitting at South Carlsbad Beach Camp by Sunday afternoon!

One of many outstanding sunsets from beach campground in Carlsbad, CA

We are camped right next to Pete and Nancy, our buddies from Friday Harbor.  They are camp hosts here and have spent several winters in this spot.  We take advantage of the local knowledge and company.

We go on our first craft brewery pub crawl with them on a Thursday afternoon.  Here we are at The Iron Fist Brewery.  They welcome dogs in the tasting room, so Skipper and Sparky get to pub crawl too!  I learn that a "double pale ale" has TWICE the alcohol content of a regular pale ale!  That would be 12%!  Yikes!  And it's only afternoon!

Photo op at The Iron Fist Tasting Room

This same afternoon we head over to the Stone Brewery and get there just in time for the tour!  Pink hair lady is actually a great tour guide and she seems to know a lot about beer and beer making.  We end in….yes, the tasting room….with four taste glasses of beer…and score!  We get to keep the mini glass!

Our tour guide at Stone

Steve, Pete, Nancy and Nan…."It's 5 o'clock Somewhere!"

Then it's to the Thursday night uke jam in Carlsbad…one of the reasons we're staying two weeks!
But more on that in the next post!