Redwoods, Wine, and Sea

This past weekend Kathryn and I decided to go checkout what Santa Cruz had to offer. This is what we had planned:

• Check out what's so mysterious about the mystery spot
• Pass by an all organic winery called Hallcrest Vineyards for some wine tasting
• Wine tasting at Bonny Doon's
• Then end the day having dinner at Ideal Bar and Grill

Well we kind of got a late start and arrived at the Mystery Spot an hour before closing. It was wedged in an area surrounded by huge seqouia redwoods. It turned out that the last tour was at 5 an hour later and the same time all the wineries were suppse to close. It really didn't look much but we decided to skip it and Hallcrest Vineyards and head straight to Bonny Doon's

We got to Bonny Doon's just in time. We tasted 7 different types of wines including two dessert wines that stood out the most. This one particular dessert wine called Framboise Infusion of Raspberries just completly knocked our socks off! It some kind of rasberry wine fortified in rasberry brandy. It was served to us in little chocolate cups where the flavors of both chocolate and rasberry wine fused together. I also give props to another dessert wine called Moscato de asti.

Next we were getting hungry and decided to head down to the Santa Cruz shores. On the way down we found a nice little beach called Natural Bridges. We got there just in the time to watch the sun set over the cliff's. We continued on and found a cool little resaurant right before you get on the warf/pier. I have to say I've never had better clam chowder and coconut battered prawns in my life. We were seated outside over looking the Northern portion of the Monterey Bay. (A little geography lesson...santa cruz is part of the monterey bay). I do have to say that the restaurant did need more of those outdoor heat lamps cause we were starting to feel the sea breeze.

Overall I had a blast visiting Santa Cruz with Kathryn. For those of you out there, I'd recommend making the same trip and with someone special.