On Friday we discovered that there was a farmer's market in Rancho Bernardo, which is not too far from where Sara lives, so we headed to that in the morning. At first it looked like we were just driving through a neighborhood - actually a retirement community! - and then out of nowhere we ended up at this small little village with a winery, tasting room, cafe, a few shops, and the farmer's market! I absolutely love our market here, but it was so neat to see all the different things they grow in California that we just can't quite grow here due to the cold and rain. Tons of citrus, avocados, almonds... even their berries were out already! We ended up buying stuff to make guacamole for lunch (4 avocados for $2!? It was crazy!) and I got a few tangelos because I couldn't resist their color, they were so beautiful!
We made the guacamole for lunch and stuffed ourselves silly before deciding to go on a mini winery tour before I left to spend the weekend with Jonathan. The first place we stopped was a little family run winery - Ferrara Winery. This was another place that seemed like we were going to the wrong spot since it was right in the middle of a neighborhood practically. We were the only ones there and the wine maker himself greeted us as we got out of the car - he was headed out to run some errands but told us that someone would be with us in the tasting room shortly. We headed in and soon after a woman entered and greeted us - she is the grand-daughter of the man who originally started the winery, it is her brother who now makes the wines and runs the place. She immediately started pouring us wines and telling us about each of them as well as telling us some of the history of the winery. They actually had several very sweet wines that I enjoyed, and I am not usually a sweet wine fan. Sara bought a bottle of the Demi Sec Muscat Alexandria and we headed off to our next stop - Orfila Vineyards and Winery.
This winery had a much different feel to it - for one it was huge. It looked very obviously like a company as opposed to the small family operated winery we had just come from. I was actually a little put off by it at first - it seemed cold and not very inviting, but in the end it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. They charge $10 for a set of six tastings and you get to keep your wineglass at the end. Not too bad of a deal really - especially since their taste sizes are fairly generous. I think we each ended up with an extra taste and a half too because one of the wines we asked about was actually not one that the server recommended he gave us a taste of it without it counting towards our total and another one we wanted they ran out of after pouring for only one of us, so we just split that one.We ended up spending so much time here that Jonathan was finished with work and had to come meet us. That actually worked out really nicely because we bought some cheese and bread and took our last taste of wine outside to sit on the patio overlooking the vineyard. I can't believe I didn't think to take a picture of this because it was gorgeous with the sun starting to go down!
We said goodbye to Sara and then headed back towards downtown San Diego. We stopped in Old Town for dinner and spent a little bit of time walking around there - it was a pretty neat area but quite touristy. We ate at a Mexican place - not the most vegetarian friendly (lard everywhere) so I wasn't super thrilled, but the margarita was good! Once we got back to the hotel and dropped my things off we decided to head over to a dessert place I had read about nearby - Extraordinary Dessert. I did not anticipate the wait being almost 45 minutes for some dessert and coffee, but I convinced Jonathan to wait it out anyway! The place was very cute and their desserts were huge so one was enough for us to share. We had the Blackberry Cheesecake and some coffees.
I was really excited for Saturday morning because the Little Italy Farmer's Market was literally right outside of our hotel. We spent some time wandering through that - the market was gorgeous with a view of the ocean at the end of the street as you walked along. They had crafts and tons of food vendors along with the typical farmer's market fare - the things I was most excited about were sundried tomatoes and apricots and a red walnut that I had never seen before. Apparently there are only 5 acres of them grown anywhere! We hurried a little bit through the market so we could head to the San Diego Zoo before the crowds got too large.
I was going to wrap up the rest of the trip in this post, but since I'm being kind of wordy today I think I'll save the rest for another time!
-C
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