My parents were in town this past weekend, and left early yesterday morning. They got in late thanks to a mechanical problem on their American flight. We ended up eating a late dinner at Epihphany. Epiphany is a nice restaurant with pretty good food and a great ambience. We always end up having a nice meal there, which they were very nice about letting us enjoy dinner even though we didn't get there until 10 pm. On Sunday we went wine tasting up around Solvang. This was the first time I really enjoyed wine tasting. I tried to pick out flavors of each wine, but I couldn't tell you the difference between blackberry and cherry aromas, nor do I have a chance in hell at picking up a flutter of Edam cheese. We started at Bridlewood, which features mostly syrahs. My favorite was the Dusty Trails syrah, for no other reason that it was kind of spicy and complex (That's about as sophisticated as I get when tasting wine). I also bought a wine tasting party kit.

Next up was Sunstone, another winery that specializes in reds, but this time in merlots. They had six wines available to taste, which was pretty nice. The most surprising one was the syrah rose', a pink wine. It's made from syrah grapes, but the skins are removed after about 14 hours so it doesn't pick up the red color. It's rather fruity, but wasn't sweet like the stereotype for most pink wines. I convinced my parents to join their wine club, so I got a few bottles of their cheaper label at a discount. Our last stop was Gainey, which specializes in merlot, but also makes pinot and syrah plus some whites. I've never been terribly impressed with them, but my parents love them and are wine club members. We did get to try their new label, Evans Ranch, and wow, I was impressed. It's from their new vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills, and it's going to be a premium pinot noir. It was probably my favorite wine I tasted that day. I tend to like a lot of wines from the Santa Rita hills, so if you're in a restaurant and want a pinot noir, something from the Santa Rita Hills is probably a safe bet.

For dinner, we went to the Wine Cask, which is my favorite Santa Barbara restaurant, and probably the most expensive, too. I had "fresh bacon" for an appetizer, which is braised or roasted pork belly. I highly recomend it. It's basically bacon turned into a steak without the crunchiness or saltiness. On Monday, I played tennis with my mom on Monday, then we played golf at Glen Annie. We only played through 12 holes because of dinner reservations. I shot a legitimate 51 on the front 9, which certainly isn't great, but I haven't played much over the past year. I'm determined to spend more time at the drvining range and playing on some of the municpal courses around here. That night we had another great dinner, this time at Elements. The highlight for me was ordering a Firetini, which was vodka infused with habanero and passion fruit puree. On Tuesday I worked in the morning, then had lunch with the parents before playing golf at Sandpiper.

I've played Sandpiper twice, and both times have been brutal. I stopped keeping score after 3 holes, it was just too depressing. If my tee shots were a little more consistent and accurate, I don't think it would have been that bad. I still have fun, but it was a little dissapointing after Glen Annie. We had dinner at Citronelle Tuesday night, and my parents left early on the 7 am nonstop flight on Wednesday morning. I had a great time with them, as always, and will see them again around the 4th of July when I go back to Denton.