self-portrait

My mom and I spent the majority of today at the Atascadero Lake Park enjoying the shade of a wonderful tree, the fantastic view of Atascadero Lake, the beautiful works of photography and art from local talent, the fun, danceable music of the Mighty Croon Dogs, and some truly delicious wines. The Atascadero Wine Festival is always a great deal of fun, and this year was no exception!

California poppies.

View of Atascadero Lake.

We went to the park early, bringing with us our breakfast of coffee and cinnamon raisin bagels with peanut butter. We walked around the lake, which was sadly devoid of interesting flora or fauna, likely because I actually remembered my camera this time (there's always a plethora of wonderful birds, plants, flowers, etc. when I forget my camera!). After our walk, we had our breakfast, and watched the artists and wineries get set up for the festival. We found The Perfect Tree to sit under this year: it provided us a wonderful view of the lake, and kept us shaded and comfortable all day long!

Our favourite tree!

The Festival began promptly at 11:30, and mom and I got our tickets and glasses, and began browsing the wineries. Whenever we go to this or any other local wine festival, we try to sample wines from places we don't normally get wine from, can't buy in the grocery store (or at least, can't afford to buy), and haven't tried before.

My ticket.

Complimentary wine glasses with 8 tasting tickets inside.

The festival.

This year we tried a few new ones along with an old favourite:

Bianchi Winery: Sauvignon Blanc (Actually we tried this one three times! Once early on, then at the end, we each used our last two tickets for a full glass. It was, by far, the best wine we'd had all day, and we told them so.)
Five stars.

Pretty-Smith: Mom tried their Chardonnay and I tried the Fume Blanc.
Two stars for the Chardonnay; Four stars for the Fume Blanc.

Frog Pond Mountain: Viognier. Mom tried the lighter, fruitier one, and I tried the drier one.
Three stars for each

Tarrica Wine Cellars: Chardonnay (We'd tried this one last year, but the wine is apparently not available anywhere, so we naturally wanted to try it again!)
Four stars.

Pipestone Vineyards: Viognier.
Four stars.

River Star Winery: Sauvignon Blanc.
Three and a half stars.

Pretty-Smith tasting table.

Artist's tent.

As we wandered around sipping our one ounce pours, we browsed the numerous displays of photography, paintings, drawings, sketches and pottery from local artists. There are some incredibly talented people out there, for sure! One photographer in particular, Curt H. Bentzinger, had some wonderful photographs, and he went about describing how he pieced smaller pictures together in PhotoShop to make one larger picture. It was awesome! I need to look into taking some digital photo classes, or classes in PhotoShop or Paint Shop so I can start doing something with my pictures, too.

Festival goers.

The Mighty Croon Dogs.

Mom and I finished our wine tasting at about 3:30, after which we headed off to the Charles Paddock Zoo to check out the animals. The Zoo is located next to the park, and the Wine Festival is a fundraiser for it, so when you pay to get into the Festival, you get free admission to the Zoo. So, off we went!

Self-Portrait.

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