The Final Chapter: A Road Trip! Cali Coast with my Two Main Men. HOTEL CHEVAL in PASO ROBLES!
The last stop on our holiday family road trip was again, Paso Robles as it is the perfect halfway point between LA and San Francisco. On our way home, we stayed at Hotel Cheval, a charming, quaint and quite luxurious boutique hotel right on the town square. I loved our room on the second floor with a beamed ceiling and fireplace but did despair a wee bit that our family of three would again be sharing the same room which translated on this trip to champ sleeper Baby Ever waking up several times.... Alas, a delightful room to share it was.
We put the little fella to bed and with baby monitor in hand, descended to the hotel bar/restaurant for dinner. Only to be told that they weren't serving food. What?! I guess they had had some shake ups in the last week over the holidays. After mildly freaking out as we couldn't go anywhere with a sleeping baby upstairs, the bartender came to our rescue with some local take out menus. Twist our arm, we had to order zucchini sticks and pizza from a local Italian joint. Accompanied by boats of wine - the heroic bartender happily gave us complimentary refills for the inconvenience- it was a fun and festive dinner. After dinner, we took our wine into the cozy library and played backgammon before the roaring fire.
The next morning we loved the complimentary breakfast buffet served in the bar/restaurant. Although there were no cooked items (damn kitchen shake ups!), it was really a hearty and gourmet breakfast spread. We strolled the town square after breakfast and picked up picnic supplies at the cheese shop next door to Hotel Cheval. With a wine trails map in hand, we drove some scenic country roads to Sculpterra winery-- a stunning sculpture garden and winery with quite good wine. Even in the middle of winter, the rolling hills and dormant vines were breathtaking. It was an bucolic picnic spot and perfect swan song for our family road trip!