Morro Bay State Park and the Creston Rodeo

 

Sep 7, 2025 - We're done harvesting the grapes but now Kev is loving some tractor work.  

Kevin's dream tractor

Todd's making pizzas

in the new Ooni oven

we tried a few different toppings

picture perfect...yum

Sep 8, 2025 - Last morning at the Vineyard and this afternoon we'll head to Morro Bay State Park for the week.

more tractor work

this view of the vineyard never gets old

some deck work

Kitty wants to join us

some Marilyn time

do those fingers taste good?

Marilyn gets a great view while getting changed

a walk on the bike trail

we are loving the home grown tomatoes from Karen

brats and tots at the campsite

Sep 9, 2025 - Today we did a hike from the campground.

Morro Bay SP isn't the greatest campground, the sites are pretty packed in, but should be nice to be so close to Morro Bay.  It's a mile and a half walk to town and the Morro Bay SP boardwalk trail is just across the street

doesn't it look like a button?  It's a Eucalyptus seed pod

Nice walk along the bay next to the heron rookery

so green!

beautiful bay

Elaine and Ian (and Marilyn) invited us and Todd and Laurie for a cook out.

lots of snuggle time

perfect-ness

the guys

Sep 10, 2025 - Today was a lazy day, but we did make it over to check out the marina and do the .7 mile Morro Bay SP boardwalk.

the marina

the boardwalk trail before the boardwalk

the kayak shack (we need to do some paddling in the bay)

that's a view

 the photographer

we found the boardwalk

and some views of Osos across the bay

Sep 11, 2025 - Thursdays are concerts at the Tidelands Park in Morro Bay

great spot for a concert if it wasn't so darn windy!

but another cool part of Morro Bay that we hadn't been to

Relax!

Sep 12, 2025 - We stopped for a visit with Marilyn before heading to the Vineyard for the weekend.

Tummy time

I think she likes it?

that neck is getting strong

Elaine and Ian went out for happy hour sushi while we babysat before our 40 minute drive to the vineyard!

sunset at the vineyard barn

Sep 13, 2025 - More tractor work and the Creston Rodeo today.

there he goes

cute little stump

it's only a 10 minute drive to the tiny town of Creston.  They have their local rodeo in September and we're so happy to be here for it.  We love a rodeo!

A very patriotic opening to the rodeo

that's lots of cowboys

We've never seen magic carpet ride race at a rodeo before

we always love the barrel races

and then relay races

we went to Long Branch for dinner and live music in the garden.  It's not very often you see a horse parked in front of a restaurant.  (it's the only picture I got and blurry, but I had to include it)

gotta love an "EAT" sign in front of a restaurant

Sep 14, 2025 - Last day at the Vineyard before heading back for another week at Morro Bay SP

A walk around the vineyard...a nice collection of mailboxes

prickly pear

different view of the mailboxes

pretty mimosa tree on my walk

good night

Last Day of Harvesting and a SpaceX Satellite Launch

 

                                             

Sep 5, 2025 - Today is our last day of harvesting (we're picking the Syrah).  It took the five us about 2 and a half hours to pick and then we took the grapes to be processed (720 pounds of grapes today) and we got to help with the processing by stomping the grapes.  They want a light pink color for this batch and stomping helps attain the color wanted.  We stomped for 15 minutes and it was amazing how much juice was released during that time.  At first it's hard to get your foot to go to the bottom of the bin, but by the end we were always hitting the bottom.

It's a foggy morning

The Syrah seem to me like they come in a thicker, more compact clump than the Merlot

As we harvest we clip longer vines and pull off leaves so we can see hidden clumps of grapes

That's a nice looking bunch of grapes

our last bins have been added to the large harvest bin

the rows look like a tornado came through

Pacific Wine Services

I'm in

Now we need to get to work (and by the end of our 15 minutes, it was feeling like work!)

A quick video of the stomping

after stomping

it was added to the bladder press and we've got a pretty pink color

This is the cool storage for Pacific Wine

and a mash that's sitting before the bladder press

That's a lot of wine

pretty flowers

and some grapes from the vineyard

nice evening views from the deck

we got to play with a Celestron telescope that Todd got as a b-day gift

an almost full moon 

Sep 6, 2025 - We didn't know what to do with ourselves today without our early morning grape picking.  Todd & Laurie had told us that they could see Space-X launches from their deck, so Kev looked up the launch schedule and found that there was a launch today at 11:06 from Vandenberg Space Force Base (75 miles from here, south of Santa Maria).  The mission, Starlink 17-9 carried 24 broadband satellites into  a low Earth orbit.  SpaceX used its Falcon 9 first stage booster B1075, which launched for a 20th time.  Eight minutes 19 seconds after liftoff, the first state landed on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You".  This was the 149th touchdown on this vessel and SpaceX's 501st booster landing to date.  With this launch Space-X has launched over 2000 satellites in 2025.

While we waited for the launch we worked on the telescope settings some more

Lift Off!

contrails from the rocket

Kitty time

another game of cribbage

beers at Ancient Owl Beer Garden in Atascadero

a grain bin clock tower at TinCity (we went to Etto for dinner)

Night time view of Anderson Hill