Saturday, March 23, 2013

Wine Country, Near Celebrity Sightings, & Near-Death Cycling Experiences

So if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you'll know Bryant & I went to California a couple weeks ago. My husband manages and rides on an elite cycling team here in Memphis, and the team was invited to go out and for some training and fun in Santa Barbara, CA.

So you know what that means, right?
RHOMC overlooking LA
Ruth, Molly, Me, & Rebecca

Us wives decided we need a little "Real Housewives of Memphis Cycling" bonding time out in Cali as well!

So we all packed up and hopped a flight to LA, excited for a little R&R... at least for us females! My in-laws were amazing enough to come into town so Bryant & I could have one last little vaca before Numero Dos arrives.

We got into LA late and stayed the first night there. The next morning, the boys men piled into an 12 passenger van with their cycling gear and headed north to Santa Barbara County, while us girls stayed in LA for a day of site-seeing, shopping, and celebrity stalking.

And it was an absolute blast. I can't even begin to describe to you the blast the four of us had that first day. We did a celebrity homes tour, ate lunch at the infamous RHOBH Lisa Vanderpump's Villa Blanca, and moseyed up and down Rodeo Dr. We almost saw like 67 celebrities that day too.  Below are a bazzilion just a few pics of our entire trip.
Dining at Villa Blanca.
My fav pic of us.
Molly almost looking like a celebrity ;-)
Ruth & Molly
Somebody who was definitely ALMOST a celebrity
walked in & they couldn't help but stare

Rebecca, Ruth, Myself, & Molly about to head out
on the celebrity home tour
Tom, Katie, & Suri Cruise's old home
Because I had to snap a pic of this place! 
We went right by James Franco getting his Hollywood Star.
You can see this in US Weekly this week!
Dining a few feet away from us was Ken Todd.
The husband of Lisa Vanderpump dining
(from RHOBH & Dancing w/the Stars
Gate to the Playboy Mansion
This is the home Michael Jackson died in.
Where the Osbournes reality show was filmed.
Currently, Christina Aguilera's home.
We were TOTAL tourists in our buddy bus! And we loved every second!
Lucille Ball's home
Rodeo Drive
Aaron Spelling's old home. Largest home in LA & where Tori
Spelling was married. I almost sprinted inside the gate.
Had somebody dared me to... I totally would have have chickened out.

After our fun day in LA, we piled into our own rental and headed north to Santa Barbara to meet the boys men for dinner.

The next few days were packed with all kinds of California-Goodness. Friday, the girls went shopping. Which, let's be real... since becoming an M-O-M, I never get to do for myself anymore. And I must admit, it was a successful day of ME-NESS on State Street. :-)  

EIGHT hours later....
I did some damage to the 'ole bank account.
Shhhh... don't tell Bryant.
We added the Queen of Memphis Cycling on Friday to our click!
Myself, Ruth, Molly, Rebecca, & Janice. 

The next day, we got a driver and headed to Santa Barbara County's best wineries for a day of wine tasting! Being the lame preggo that I am, I wasn't able to partake too much, but Janice was sweet enough to grab me a couple bottles of NA wine! #SCORE #NOMNOMGRAPEJUICE

The wineries were absolutely BEAUTIFUL and we had so much fun. Go ahead and call us all wine connoisseurs now.


Ruth, Rebecca, Georgette, Janice, Molly, & Myself
The complete group of RHOMC
Bachelor fans will recognize this winery. :-)
Yes. These are cupcakes with WINE in the middle them.
Amaze.
We did have some drama on our winery day. What could have been MAJOR drama, was (thank God) only minor drama.

So there was a massive century ride going on all throughout SB County that day (which our husbands were all a part of). Cyclists were everywhere. In town, out of town... everywhere. Well, it turns out our driver had NO REGARD FOR CYCLISTS WHATSOEVER! 

Seriously.

Not an exaggeration. 

We came within inches of plowing a cyclist over when our driver decided to pull out of the parking lot right in front of him. I'm talking INCHES. The cyclist had to swerve into the other lane (of on-coming traffic) and proceeded to throw up a few well-deserved fingers in our direction.

Then, our driver decided to motor past other groups of cyclists at break-neck speeds, almost hitting at least 5-10 others.

Now y'all... I've been known to exaggerate stories every once in a while for the sake of dramatics... but for real....

OUR DRIVER ALMOST KILLED LIKE FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY SEVEN CYCLISTS!!!

All within fifteen minutes of each other.

And he had a load of CYCLING WIVES in the car with him!!

W. T. H.

I mean, our husbands were out RIDING right at that moment!!

While all of this was happening...
Myself, Janice, and Georgette's automatic reaction was to duck our heads and not look. (Yeah, I know... shameful. I'm surprised this was my reaction. I'm normally a pretty vocal passenger.... okay, or just vocal in general...Whatever.)

Molly was busy trying to brace herself after being slid around the back seat while the driver swerved back and forth across the double yellow lane into oncoming traffic. 

Rebecca was loudly calling from the backseat, "There's another one! Oh my god!"

And Ruth was busy hanging on for dear life while politely yelling in her sweet southern accent, "Sir... Sir.... SIR!!!  There's another one right there! THEY HAVE THE RIGHT AWAY, SIR!! Treat them like another vehicle! SIR!!!!!"

After we successfully almost killed the 567th cyclist, the driver then had the gall to ARGUE with us about cyclists on the road and tell us how irritating they were.

Alright, so let me set something straight for everyone reading this.  This is a very short and condensed version of how to obey traffic laws in reference to cyclists that may be around you.

If you are driving and see a cyclist... by LAW you must treat them like another vehicle....because technically - they ARE. (No shit, Sherlock) When passing a cyclist, you must give a minimum of 3 feet between you and them.  If they are in front of you.... THEY HAVE THE RIGHT AWAY.

Anyway, the driver eventually shut the f up when he dropped us off for lunch and sped away.

However, we DIDN'T shut up about what a complete moron he was. We ended up calling the driving company and demanded a new driver and may have told the owner of the company that cyclist-killer may have been drinking or something.

Luckily, a new driver picked us up after lunch and he was much better. We were then able to relax and enjoy the rest of the wineries we visited.

Whew.... that was a day.

*To all the cyclists who rode in the Santa Barbara Century ride a few weeks ago.... 
I sincerely apologize for the black Lincoln Navigator that decided it might be fun to buzz your tower over and over again. He was reported.


So our final full day in Santa Barbara was spent working out, lounging and exploring the beach with the entire group. It was beautiful.

The crew.
Ruth, Bryan, Scott, Yosh, Dale, Molly, Janice, Jimmy, Ben, Rebecca, Me, Bryant 
B got mad at me for posting this filter on Instagram
because apparently I made him look like a lobster.
Oops.
The ridiculous-ness hardly ceases

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That sounds like a fun week for you guys, minus the rude driver, that is. I seriously think he might have sampled a wine or four himself beforehand. Those cupcakes look fantastic, and not just because they have wine in them. Well, maybe partly. And I would definitely like to try visiting (borderline stalking) some of my favorite stars’ houses if I had the chance. :)

Corey Glenn