CalActive.com Activities Blog

Last Friday we received a visit from our friends and makers of the fantastic Go San Diego Card (click the link to order your very own card). Actually, they make Go Cards for many different destinations, such as Los Angeles, Boston, Orlando, Miami, Chicago and many others. It’s such an amazing idea, really. You purchase a card that comes with a free guide. The guide has tons of ideas for things to do locally and will get you in at no additional cost to about 50 different attractions.

The representative that paid us a visit was nice enough to leave us a couple of Go San Diego Cards to try out. At some point in the next couple of weeks two of us will be going to San Diego to enjoy the benefits of the card. Looking at the guide, there are so many different things to do, it will be tough.

Here are my initial thoughts:

Breakfast at the Cheese Shop Restaurant and Delicatessen. I LOVE CHEESE AND BREAKFAST. We get 20% off our breakfast and a Free Frisby! We need one of those down in Laguna Beach - Orange County!

Tour PETCO Park. I am a big baseball fan, and going to take a tour of the San Diego Padres home park sounds like a perfect thing to do. How could I miss this?!

Wine Tasting! Why would we not go drink some free wine?

You will have to wait to find out what we actually end up doing

Sometimes fear stops us from doing some of the most exciting and adrenaline packed things in life. Ever since my friend passed along her copy of “One Month To Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life,” I treat everyday as the most important!

News or friends inform us about such stories that relate to life, and often make us wonder why things happen the way they do. For example, this morning there was a rare and freak shark attack in Solana Beach, San Diego. A 66 yr. old man in great shape was training for his next triathlon and was freakishly bitten by a shark and didn’t survive. And then I stumble upon a more uplifting story where a 96 yr. old former US Navy pilot took a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm so he could take in some excitement and ride the fastest rides there, regardless of being in a wheelchair.

His daughter mentioned that “He doesn’t get out at all, so sometimes I plan a day where we go out,” she said. “That morning, I told him, ‘If you get out of bed, I’ll buy you breakfast, and maybe we could take a ride up to Knott’s.’ He liked that idea.”

How I look at…we’re dealt with a deck of cards each day - you can play or pass. I’d rather play!

Inevitably, each year we have the pleasure of turning another year older. Lucky me, I turned 30 last Friday. While I’ve always yearned for a weekend of wine tasting, I haven’t been fortunate enough until last weekend. For a birthday surprise, my boyfriend spoiled me with a week of wine tasting in Napa Valley and a private limo to tour us around (may I add, the best way to go!).

The Napa region tends to grow some of the greatest grapes that produce the finest wines. How nice to have the option of visiting wineries in this renowned winegrowing region. My favorites are Cakebread Cellars, Robert Mondavi and Mumm Napa (great for the bubbly connoisseurs). At each winery “the pourer” led a little 101 training about how to wine taste starting with the basics – look, smell and taste. Expand from their and you’ll be tasting like the pros in no time. With wine tasting comes wine pairing. Choosing a wine, pulling the cork and exercising arm to mouth with full glass in hand comes quite easy to me, but knowing how to pair wine with foods, well….not so much. I’ve been told from the “wine experts” (a.k.a my sisters) that white wine should be paired with fish, red with beef and the sweet wines are to be enjoyed with dessert. If I shall fall out of bounds from any of those categories, the wine police may track me down. My Napa wine tasting 101 taught me the best rule of thumb is to go for flavors that complement each other. My advice…stay open minded and taste frequently! It will make for a fabulous day.

I’ve been building our golf pages on the CalActive site and for a few worrisome moments thought that I was in danger of getting The Bug. I’ve never been a big golf fan (I was a golf-widow for a number of years as my then-boyfriend was a lot more enamoured with the game than he was with me) but have always toyed with the idea of taking up the game when I am older, more patient and have enough time on my hands to justify chasing a small white ball around on a manicured lawn whilst wearing ridiculous clothes (there are whole blogs dedicated to this very alarming subject). However just recently while I was checking out all the stunning courses in Palm Springs, I found myself toying with the idea that perhaps I should give it a shot now, just to see what all the hype is about.

Fortunately, I have come to my senses and found an alternative manner of getting closer to the game whilst combining two of my great loves: Ernie Els and wine. I have always felt that Ernie is a great sportsman, a great ambassador for South Africa and apparantly a really nice guy to boot, and when I discovered that he recently established a winery back in my hometown of Stellenbosch, South Africa, I felt a wonderful sense of harmony, peace and relief descend upon me. I can leave the plaid knickerbocker trousers for a later stage of my life after all.

Check out another great blog that shares my appreciation of The Ern. Cheers.

Up until about a year ago, I had absolutely no interest in drinking wine. The look on my face the first time I tried wine must have been priceless. It just tasted like…. well…. old, bitter grape juice. Doesn’t sound very appealing when you think about it. I can’t quite remember the label, but I do know that it was red, maybe a Cabernet Sauvignon. Probably not a good idea to start off with a red, especially a Cab, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

It took me a little while to really get into wine. I loved champagne/sparkling wine though, which was really the closest I would get to wine. But eventually, the champagne kick wore off and that didn’t seem to be my first choice anymore. Now I love wine and would order a glass of Pinot or Grenache any day over a glass of champagne (or sparkling wine). However since I’m still fairly new at this, I usually stick to the California wines as they’re nice and juicy.

I wouldn’t say I know a whole lot about wine, but I read an interesting blog from someone who seems to know quite a bit about different varietals and regions. You’ve got some of your common regions like Napa, Sonoma, Santa Barbara, France, Oregon, Washington, Australia, Italy, Spain, etc. Would you ever consider Mexico to be a good wine-growing region??? I would’ve never guessed, but apparently some of the best wines are grown just 70 miles south of the border. There are three regions where the largest wineries in Mexico can be found - San Antonio de las Minas, San Vicente Valley and the Santo Tomas Valley. Some of the common reds grown in the Baja region are Cabernet Sauvignon, Ruby Cabernet, Zinfandel, Grenache and Mission. Whites include Chenin Blanc, Palomino, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Saint Emilion and Malaga.

I have never tried many of those varietals, so I think I need to make a trip down south and do some wine tasting!!! Who’s with me?