Round 2 of Rob's 2008 Christmas Vacation Photos
January 13th, 2008

This year for our two week, PAID holiday vacation, my wife and I spent the first week at home enjoying Christmas and then got the hell out of hell and headed to the coast for New Year’s week. Last week, we posted photos through Christmas Day, this week we cover New Year’s week, which took us to California’s central coast and a rented home in Cambria, which is just north of Sam Simeon.

The best part of renting a home is all of the privacy and freedom. The worst part is having to lug all of your own food and liquor with you, thus the Escalade was packed high and ready to go.

Nothing makes me smile more than a 5 hour drive.

The truth about renting entire homes is that you never really know how nice they are until you arrive. This home turned out to be a monstrous home run; 3500 square feet with ocean views on one side and mountain views on the other. The kitchen was a cook’s paradise, the bedroom and bathroom perfect and three indoor fireplaces to boot!

We knew it was a good omen when we arrived at the house to our welcoming committee of cows grazing on the property! The home sits on 4 acres, next to hundreds of acres of farm land and the cows come over and keep the grass mowed.

First things first; liquor gets unpacked right away.

Having unpacked our stuff, My wife Janell and I are able to ham it up for a moment while enjoying the view from the kitchen (which you can’t see in this picture…sorry about that)

Next thing of importance is to get started cooking in my gorgeous new kitchen for a week.

These are those views I was mentioning earlier from the kitchen window and back deck.

We spent the week with our great friends, Tony and Carolyn, who drove from Tucson Arizona.

Tony is also my business partner, so this was a working vacation, which is proven by the fact that they brought a cake celebrating the 2009 Rob, Arnie and Dawn symposium (which did not include Arnie or Dawn).

Since Tony and I are both pretty damn good cooks, we ate like kings all week. Night one included some of my pasta fagioli soup and Tony’s homemade raviolis and sauce.

Sadly, it also included my ghetto-ass wife drinking champagne on ice. I have trained her better than to put wine on ice for goodness sakes!

Speaking of my wife, now seems like a good time for another picture of us.

Here we have the luckiest cows in the world, grazing with the Pacific Ocean behind them.

Night two brought grilled porterhouse steaks for the guys and salmon for the ladies, topped off with a very in depth work-related discussion between Tony and me while we enjoyed 20 year old cigars and 30 year old scotch.

No trip to the coast is complete without a collage of gorgeous California sunsets.

On Day three, my wife and I ventured out for the day bright and early to avoid people. As we drove along the coast, Janell captured this fantastic picture of the fog rolling beneath the lighthouse.

Eventually, we made our way to 4 different beaches…we are so adorable aren’t we?

My wife, of course, dressed perfectly for the occasion, complete with her newly purchased Juicy Couture beach-going boots.

Having grown up in the Bay Area, I love to walk along rocks waiting for giant waves, just to see if I can avoid being swept out to see. So far, so good.

Having scared the crap out of Janell with my attempts at drowning us, it was time for a healthy lunch of beer and fried food at a local dive in Cambria.

Eventually we made it home and I decided to lounge around and wait for Tony to serve us his awesome seafood pasta.

The next morning we got early again, to avoid people again, and started in town with an alcohol filled breakfast.

Next up, more adorable beach photos.

Eventually we made it the day’s destination, Elephant Seal beach where we were all alone as we visited Arnie’s relatives, who were nice enough to treat us to baby seals suckling their mother and a Sumo wrestling fight.

On the drive home, we spotted a bunch of vultures ominously lined up waiting for a seal to just die so they could eat enough for the year.

Back home, it was time to relax…and cook lobster which I forgot to take a picture of because I am a dumbass…or a drunk, one of the two.

The next night, we all headed out for a tour of the famous Hearst Castle, built atop of the world decades ago and famous for a variety of reasons.

Not all of the pictures I take work out. Dummy.

As for Hearts Castle, it’s something everyone should do at least once (this was my second time) even though the castle is gaudy as hell and the tour is completely fictional. This guy’s decorating tastes makes Elvis and Graceland look like a museum piece. As for the tour, they try so hard to make William Randolph Hearst sound like some kind of hero I almost wretched at all of the lies and omissions of fact.

Back home, my wife and I nestled into bed.

The next night was New Year’s Eve, complete with home made prime rib and dessert from a local Italian Bakery.

I hate New Year’s eve, which is why I am not in pictures here. People act silly.

Remember my top 5 favorite holiday foods list? Mixed nuts baby…

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