January Ends
As January comes to a close, it is hard for me to believe that 8.5% of 2007 is already over. It seems like just yesterday that it was rolling over to the new year, and yet that was actually 31 days ago. The year has been busy and exciting already. I returned to the Bay Area after the holidays on Jan. 2 and have been going strong since then. Whether I've been keeping busy at the office, hanging out with friends or escaping from the world (see photo - Pigeon Point Lighthouse), the last thing that I've been is bored. To be fair, unlike the last four months of last year where I was constantly BUSY, this year has been active, but in a much more relaxed sort of way. Instead of galavanting off to far corners of the world, I haven't actually flown at all since returning at the beginning of the month. I've already turned down two invitations to Germany and an invitation to New Zealand. The only trip I've taken was my "Escape From Life," which was a leisurely drive.
One of the stops during my "Escape From Life" was a little town called Solvang. I had actually heard of this town before, though I didn't recall it at the time I was there. Solvang is a little Dutch town in Central California, not too far from San Luis Obispo, and it happens to appear in the movie Sideways. I ended up in Solvang quite by accident, to be honest. During the drive back to San Francisco from Los Angeles, I decided that I wanted to stop off at several of the California Missions along the El Camino Real. I didn't have a set plan as I left LA, but I had my GPS and a map and knew basically where the Missions were, so I felt set. 
One of the Missions, Santa Ynez (pictured right), turned out to be less than a mile from this little Dutch town. I finished at the Santa Ynez Mission around 3:30 or 4 p.m. and knew that I wouldn't be able to make it to Mission San Luis Obispo before they closed, so when I saw this little Dutch town, I stopped to take a look. It turns out that Solvang is in the heart of the Central Coast's wine country, so there were several tasting rooms in the town. How could I not stop and do some wine tasting? After doing some tasting, I went to Cafe Angelica, a local establisment recommended to me by one of the pourers in a tasting room. As I was sitting at my table, I distincly recall thinking to myself, "nobody in the world, with the exception of the people sitting here right now, knows exactly where I am. Sure people know I'm in California, but nobody actually knows exactly where." It was a good feeling - the feeling you get when you're living your own life, and not someone elses.