SlowBowl Festivities continue: Saturday

Mike and I got up early Saturday morning. We drove the short stretch of country road, Hwy 46, to the quaint little coastal community of Cambria a short 20 minutes from Paso Robles. There we had a leisure breakfast at Linn's Bakery and then headed across the road to Moonstone Beach.

We met up with the Slowtravellers at Midnight Cellars Winery at 11:30

Everyone had fun wine tasting inside

Look at these great snacks lovely enough for Royalty that Wendy, Jerry and Paul provided

Our 2nd winery visit was at 1:30 to the lovely setting at JADA. They paired cheeses with all their wines. We had the whole deck to ourselves with breath-taking views in all directions of the lovely vineyards surrounding the winery.

Alex, the two Mikes, and Ken

Dan contemplating all the choices

Brad from Palm Desert, Scott and Ann from Seattle

The more wine I drink the better my Danish gets. Alessia is so patient.

Dinner at the cottage. Another feast.

Look at Palma's beautiful Toffee caramel cheesecake

and her lemon filled lemon glazed cookies!

Ann and Barb

Brad and Scott having some fun

Mike and Dan relaxing

Jane, Nancy, Joanne and Deborah (the liquer/hootch master)

Deborah from St. Louis packed 12 bottles of home made liquors for a special sampling after dinner. Some flavors were lime, russian tea, sundried tomatoes and witches brew. Mike was very impressed and tried them all but his favorite was Russian tea.

What a great week-end we had at SlowBowl 2009! Cheers to All!

Heading home on Sunday.

Note: Most all photographs on this post were taken by various slowtravellers Palma, Wendy, CathyT, Jerry, Marcy and others. Thank you for sharing them with all of us.

SlowBowl Paso Robles in Review-Friday

Driving through the hillside roads of Paso Robles

the serenity and peaceful setting has the feel of the Italian countryside. Everywhere you pass, lovely, vast stretches of farmland and vineyards.

Friday night potluck features the "lasagna smack-down" competition...here are some of the entries.

Yummy...so different from one another and each one a winner!

Here Pete is explaining his mushroom bechamel lasagna.

Pete making his own pasta for the lasagna...

MMmmmm let's eat!

Barb with Palma, cook extraordinaire!

Palma's spicy teralli's. Bet you can't eat just one.

Alessia is our resident native Italian slowtraveller. She hails from northern Italy. Besides speaking perfect english imagine my surprise when I found out she lived in Denmark and speaks Danish! When I heard that I greeted her with, "Hvordan har du det?" (How are you?) She had the most surprised look on her face. We had so much fun conversing in her very good Danish and my "not so much" version.

We celebrated David's birthday with a big, wonderful chocolate cake.

Loved seeing Roz from Boston and Sharon from the Bay area.

Laughter and smiles from every room abound.

Now it's time to eat. Who's your vote for Marcia?

Here' Pete and his wife Marcy. After Pete received his doctorate from Berkeley they lived in Sienna ,Italy for several years where he continued his research in Microbiology. Both speak italian and their son Nico was born in Italy.

This is Shannon, our slowbowl "Skipper". We owe all the planning and choreography of this cool event to her. She coordinated all the weekend winery tours, meals and fun activities.. Here she is announcing the winner of the lasagna smack-down. And the winner is:

" PETE" !

Shannon is busy prepping the aeration wine test....same bottle of wine decanted in different ways.

Paul taking the "aeration" test

After you taste each one you must order your favorites from 1 to 4.

Fun and games throughout the night

The third annual "SlowBowl" Paso Robles was held last weekend. This gathering is always held on SuperBowl weekend but has little to do with football and everything to do with slowtraveller friends (new and old from all parts of the country) coming together for food, fun and comradery. Now that a week has passed I have had time to reflect on what a perfect weekend it was: Simply divine in all respects. This was the first year that Mike and I had attended. It was nothing short of "wonderful" -completely easy, comfortable, hilarious, invigorating, and joyfully fulfilling. The setting, the company, the food and wine beyond compare.

*Please note that most all photos on this post were taken by slowtravellers, Wendy, Palma, CathyT, Marcy and others. Thank you for sharing your great photos with all of us.

The Opposite of SLOW

I have a favorite joke:

"A man and a woman meet at a singles resort in the Catskills.

They are dancing together on a Saturday night.

He says, "I'm only here for the week-end. "

She replies,

"I'm dancing as fast as I can."

-Barbara Gordon from her book "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can"

The ABC's of shoes and more

Shoe cake

Chocolate "Ruby" Slippers

ABC's of Shoes

A shoe for every occasion...

My mother was a shopper. She especially loved a good bargain on shoes. Once she found a store which was particularly interesting...a hidden gem, tucked in a distant place. It sold alot of crazy stuff but it was one of those stores that had lots of treasures too...you just had to hunt for them. This place was appropriately called, "The SURPRISE" store. Like my mom, my sister also loves shoes. Getting them at a good price is a bonus so it made perfect sense that my mother would share her discovery of this store with her. As luck would have it my sister found several great buys at the store including a very cute pair of shoes. When they arrived home my sister opened up the box of shoes that the salesgirl had placed in her bag. Excitedly, she opened the box and pulled out one of the brilliantly beautiful shoes. She admired her new possession. What a find! Then she proceeded to remove the other side of the shoes...hmmm wait a minute...one pair of shoes but both were for the left foot..."Ohhhh...", my sister said disappointedly, "So that's why they call this place "the Surprise store!"

Slowtravel

As many of you know I am a follower of a travel site called, "Slowtravel". You will find it here:

http://www.slowtrav.com/

Some may ask, "What is slowtravel?"

With Slow Travel you experience a deeper type of travel by staying in one place longer and seeing the things that are close to you. It is an easier, simpler and slower way of traveling. There are two components to Slow Travel:

Spend one week in one place:

Spend at least one week in one place on your trip to Europe. To do this, base your trip around one or more weekly stays in vacation rentals instead of hotels.

See what is near you:

Use the "Concentric Circles" theory for day trips. Think of your touring area as a series of concentric circles around your base. See what is close to you instead of dashing about on long day trips to see the "must-sees".

"In Praise of Slowness"

Take the time to enjoy the beauty that surrounds your world

There is a book written by Carl Honore', entitled, "In Praise of Slowness". On the inside jacket cover one reads the following:

"Living on the edge of exhaustion, we are constantly reminded by our bodies and minds that the pace of life is spinning out of control. ...Why are we always in a rush?"

Here is an excerpt from a page within:

"The sense that something is missing from our lives underpins the global yearning for Slowness...The great benefit of slowing down is reclaiming the time and tranquility to make meaningful connections--with people, with culture, with work, with nature , with our own bodies and minds. Some call that living better. Others would describe it as spiritual."

A Month of Blogging

My slowtravel blogging friends had an idea last February. It was open to anyone that was blogging. They made a kind of a group pact to blog every day for that month. I was not blogging at the time but enjoyed reading all the things they posted. They have just decided to try it again this year and I am joining in. I will do my best to make an entry every day this month.

I have listed on the sidebar of my blog all those who will be joining me in posting daily for the month of February. You can click on their names to take you to their blogs. They are a great group of interesting people. Take a peek at what they are writing about. You'll have a great time.