Temecula

Since my parents have been here, there have been many things going on. Many new wonderful places we've discovered and many old favorites we've revisited. Many good meals at restaurants we've shared and many awesome home-cooked meals we've savored. Many long conversations and much laughter. Several shopping sprees and sightseeing excursions. And of course, even if I could not take every day off from the office, there's the wonderful anticipation of coming home to my mom and dad after a long day at work.

Because of all that has been happening, I've been a little remiss at recounting our adventures in my blog. But in order to share what's been going on, here are some highlights:

Last Saturday, my parents, Jules, Jojo and I spent the day exploring Temecula. We started the day off with a long drive through the city proper and along Rancho California Road to explore the wine region. It was a really nice, cool day and as we coasted along, my mom and I agreed that Temecula is such a wonderful place and one where we both would not mind settling down. Maybe one day when Jojo and I have enough money to retire in luxury! Our first stop was at a flea market located on the grounds of the Maurice Car'rie vineyards. Next stop was the gift and wine shop which is a great place for wine tasting, browsing for knick-knacks and even shopping for a picnic. It was pretty crowded though so after picking up some souvenir wine stoppers we headed three vineyards down the road to the Ponte Family Winery. Our plan was to have lunch at their patio restaurant called The Smokehouse. I love this place because of the food but moreso because of the ambiance. However, when we found out there was a 90-minute wait, we decided to go somewhere else. After picking up some homemade bottles of porcini/parmesan pesto at Ponte's wine shop, we drove 6-miles to Old Town Temecula.

Old Town is an interesting place with a small town feel. The streets are lined with antique shops, quaint restaurants and lovely Xmas decor right on the streetlamps and sidewalks. We had lunch at a Texas barbecue cafe which was completely taken over by a bunch of little league players and their families. The place was crowded and noisy and the food that was served in huge portions was typical American fare (my chili cheese burger was bland and a bit of a disappointment though). After lunch we walked down Main street and stopped by a Xmas shop called Harmony (I loved this place!) where I bought snowflake garlands for my Xmas tree. We browsed the Temecula Cheese Shop next door and then walked over to the Temecula Olive Oil Company where mom and Jules sampled various varities of the oil (and buying several bottles of the best ones). Our day in Temecula was capped off with rootbeer floats at the Rootbeer Company (where they sold over 300 varieties of soda!).

On our way home, we could not resist stopping by the Lake Elsinore shopping outlets. The night was cool and the place was brightly lit (it was their tree lighting ceremony) and so it was pleasant to walk around and get a headstart on Xmas shopping. There weren't that many stores with slashed prices but the biggest surprise of the night was the outrageous sale at Bath and Body Works. They were selling their lotions and creams (normally priced at $10.50) for less than $3.50 and their travel sized bottles (normally prices at $4.00) for $.99! And since I love Bath & Body, I went a little crazy in there! It was a quiet drive after that since we were all tired but happy on our way home.