Australia Meets Temecula March 25th 2011

Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used. - William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Off We Go For An Adventure 4/25/2011

87 miles door to door
87 miles door to door

Visiting Temecula with friends
The newlyweds go wine tasting

Visiting Temecula with friends

Visiting Temecula with friends

Wine Tasting At Faulkner

Visiting Temecula with friends
Ed studies the offerings and is confused about etiquette


Man with an empty glass.... This is bad

Visiting Temecula with friends
Vicky and Del (the designated watchers) enjoy the kibitzing

Visiting Temecula with friends
"Here's mud in your eye"


"Na back home even the Roo's drink a bit"

Visiting Temecula with friends
Vicky demonstrates how to wear the lastest in fashionable glasses.. Vicky is fair dinkum

Visiting Temecula with friends
Do not drink and gamble...

Visiting Temecula with friends
Vicky gets a wine tasting class

Wine Drinking Professionals... Check Out The Clothes

Visiting Temecula with friends
Wine makes Paul serious

Visiting Temecula with friends
What... no wine in his hands???

Visiting Temecula with friends
Meanwhile Ed studies the menu some more

Visiting Temecula with friends
Oh oh... Del, I have an idea...


We need a wine bottle chandelier in our house...
But who will drink the bottles empty?? Oh, Paul.....

Visiting Temecula with friends
Poor Del

Visiting Temecula with friends
"Hey... that's not too bad after all"

Visiting Temecula with friends
It's you!

Visiting Temecula with friends
Vicky doesn't want Del to see the price tag

Visiting Temecula with friends
We ought call him "Muggs" from now on


He looks to debonair with the wine glasses... Or are they specimen glasses

Across The Parking Lot To The Restaurant

Visiting Temecula with friends
The peacocks watch the valley below


The peacocks gave Vicky an idea.... Where is Ruby?

Visiting Temecula with friends
Neat porch

Visiting Temecula with friends
Great view over the grapes

Lunch At The Pinnacle Restaurant

Four years of planning and construction was completed in September 2006 with the Grand Opening of The Pinnacle Restaurant at Falkner Winery. The Pinnacle offers great panoramic views, outstanding Mediterranean style food, and high quality service. This outstanding restaurant is open for lunches 7 days a week. Best of all, it offers the finest Temecula wine

Set on a 1,500 foot hilltop, The Pinnacle offers customers seating in the air conditioned indoors or on the open-air outdoor balcony. The restaurant also serves as an evening wedding and banquet venue.

According to Ray Falkner, "There are many fine Temecula restaurants. But the Pinnacle Wine Country Restaurant is is unrivaled in the Temecula Wine Country. Plus, we offer a unique dining experience in our VIP Room located in our "Wine Cave" below the Restaurant".

Visiting Temecula with friends
Tummies are full

Visiting Temecula with friends
It's costume time

Visiting Temecula with friends
We begin simple

Visiting Temecula with friends
Its a veiled threat...


Vicky remembers High School

Visiting Temecula with friends


Priceless....

Visiting Temecula with friends


What a bunch of nuts

Visiting Temecula with friends
We had loads of fun

Visiting Temecula with friends
Debbie sneaks into the picture

Visiting Temecula with friends
Debbie knows how to take a picture

Wilson Creek Winery

Visiting Temecula with friends

Visiting Temecula with friends
Super California Spring day

Visiting Temecula with friends
Flowers were quite beautiful


One has to look up close to see the flowers

Visiting Temecula with friends
Wine in the garden... Life is good

Visiting Temecula with friends
The pepper trees were in full bloom

Visiting Temecula with friends
Iris flower were simply magnificent

Did You Know? - In water purification, Yellow Iris (I. pseudacorus) is used. The roots are usually planted in a substrate (e.g. lava-stone) in a reedbed-setup. The roots then improve water quality by consuming nutrient pollutants, such as from agricultural runoff.

Visiting Temecula with friends
Purple bearded iris

Did You Know? - Irises are extensively grown as ornamental plants in home and botanical gardens. Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in New Jersey, for example, is a living iris museum with over 10,000 plants, while in Europe the most famous iris garden is arguably the Giardino dell'Iris in Florence (Italy) which every year hosts one of the most famous iris breeders' competitions in the world.

Visiting Temecula with friends
The preferred method to get to the other side of Wilson Creek

Visiting Temecula with friends
The footbridge was freshly painted

Visiting Temecula with friends
Look carefully to see crockagators... No really, Vicky saw one...


Vicky's description of the croc was a little difficult to believe


Look carefully

Visiting Temecula with friends
Just simply beautiful

Time To Imbibe

Did You Know? - From Latin prefix im-  (“im-”) + bibere  (“to drink”), from whence also beverage (via Old French).

Visiting Temecula with friends
Last one in gets the bill

Visiting Temecula with friends
Belly up to the bar... Wine tasting is hard yacka


Yeah yeah.. The gang's all here

Visiting Temecula with friends
Yes Dear... Daniel is learning quickly


Looking good

Visiting Temecula with friends
Today no wine is onkus


I like this one...


Wine tasting is in full swing

Visiting Temecula with friends
Getting the scoop

Visiting Temecula with friends
She is studying too hard me thinks... This is a great water hole


Del found a "Gotta have"

Visiting Temecula with friends
Snort..... No No Vicky, it's SNIFF


By golly... she's got it

Visiting Temecula with friends
Bye winery

Over The Ortega Highway

Did You Know? - State Route 74 (SR 74), a part of the Pines to Palms Scenic Byway, is a mostly scenic highway in the U.S. state of California. It runs from Palm Desert in Riverside County westward to San Juan Capistrano in Orange County.

A portion of Route 74 in Orange and Riverside counties is named after the famous Spanish explorer Sgt. Jose Ortega, who led a small party of men around the newly discovered San Francisco Bay from Palo Alto to the Carquinez Straits.

Visiting Temecula with friends
Above Lake Elsinore

Did You Know? - Lake Elsinore was a popular destination in the first half of the 1900s for celebrities to escape the urban Hollywood scene. Many of their homes still stand on the hills surrounding the lake, including Aimee's Castle (Aimee Semple McPherson), a uniquely shaped house perched on a hill above the water.

Visiting Temecula with friends
Hope we do NOT see one of these for the next 30 minutes

Did You Know? - A road train or roadtrain is a trucking concept used in remote areas of Argentina, Australia, Mexico, the United States and Canada to move freight efficiently. The term "road train" is most often used in Australia. In the U.S. and Canada the terms "triples," "Turnpike doubles" and "Rocky Mountain doubles" are commonly used for longer combination vehicles (LCVs). A road train consists of a relatively conventional tractor unit, but instead of pulling one trailer or semi-trailer, the road train pulls two or more of them.

Visiting Temecula with friends
On top of the world


I think there mean "Look out!!!"

Visiting Temecula with friends
Stop... Go no further... Alert alert


The guys are about to break out in song... Run for your lives


Bye for now... See you soon