The Lee Family: California, Day 8: Walk Down Memory Lane.....With Wine

We woke up and made pancakes and tried to decide what to do with our last full day with Becky. Finally we decided to drive to Los Alamos and walk around and have lunch. The town looks very much the same as it did when I lived there from 1978-1987 with really very few new buildings, but everything just looks a lot nicer! Many of the same restaurants, like Charlie's Place are still there as well as some of the antique shops and gas stations/mini marts. Now, the Union Hotel is under new management and the bar, which is only open Friday - Sunday, is run by Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. The slaughterhouse/meat market is now a cute upscale grocery shop and there are a few places open to wine taste. A ceramics studio has also opened up as have a few bed and breakfasts, but all in existing buildings. Plus, many of the homes have been worked on with cute yards and nice yards.

We parked next to the Texaco, where we used to get snacks or if we needed milk or something we'd forgotten to get at the real grocery store 20 minutes away. We also rented VHS movies and I can remember spending many Friday afternoons trying to sift through their very limited supply to find a movie that we'd care to watch. We decided to eat first and wanted to try a new flatbread restaurant that looked really cool, but is also only open Friday through Sunday. Becky said it's so popular and people drive from miles away to eat there! Instead, we went to Charlie's Place, which also looks a lot nicer than when I was little. The food was about the same and I had a burrito that was huge. After filling up, we walked down along Main Street and looked into shops, art galleries, a new bakery that is set to open and little wine tasting places. Hard to believe we grew up in this tiny town. It's only a few blocks long, so we were done pretty quickly and drove around the neighborhoods for a while before deciding to stop in on Shortie Rantz, a long-time family friend. His wife, Jackie, had recently passed away and it was great to see him and wish him well after such a loss. He looks exactly the same as he did 30 years ago!

From Shortie's house, Becky wanted to take me to her favorite winery, Riverbench and we decided to drive down Foxen Canyon to get there. Foxen Canyon has vineyards on both sides of the road now, where there used to be cattle farms. Further down, the road actually runs through the ranch I grew up on and I wanted to see it even though I never felt like I spent much time on that side, but I knew I couldn't get through to the front of the old ranch since it is now gated off. We continued to drive and the long, wide field where we grew hay is completely covered in grapes (and isn't nearly as big as I remember). The gate to the property was open so we decided to drive up onto our old farm. It was so cool! It looked very much the same, except covered in grapes. The roads, which were dirt when I was little are now paved and the barbed wire fences are all gone. We drove up over the hill and looked down on our old corral area. The main barns look to still be there and trucks were near them so we decided to turn around. It was so cool to see!!

We continued driving down Foxen Canyon and I loved seeing the area since it brings back so many great memories and hasn't changed much except for vineyards now being everywhere. We made it to Riverbench, which is beautiful and has a lovely outdoor area. The girls took off with Megan and played in the grass while Becky and I went inside. Becky knows the ladies who work there so they were all happy to see her. We did the wine tasting and I must confess I was shocked at how good the wines were. I figured they would be pretty terrible but they weren't. We watched the girls play and enjoyed the beautiful day before heading back to Becky's house.

We made tri-tip sandwiches which were delicious and Megan suggested we watch another favorite of hers from when she was younger, a movie called "Short Circuit". It was maybe the worst movie I've ever seen, but Sofia loved it. It also had words that weren't age appropriate which was surprising because it was PG. I was shocked that it was a PG movie! Finally it was over and we all went to bed because no one had slept well the night before. The girls were still wired up and gave me a difficult time putting them to bed.

Becky, Megan and the girls in Los Alamos