California

One of the biggest highlights of the winter season in San Diego is the Holiday Bowl. While it is small potatoes compared to bigger events like the Fiesta Bowl or Rose Bowl, it's a pretty cool event withe parades and marching band demonstrations as well as other festivities. When the stadium where the Chargers used to play was demolished there were questions as to if the Holiday Bowl would stay here in San Diego or move on to another city. Luckily, we now know the answer!

Santa Maria is the last of the Central Coast wine regions for us to explore and after spending a few days here, I'm ready to head back... and I want to bring some guys with me! Santa Maria is situated at the north west end of Santa Barbara County and roughly half way between Santa Ynez Valley and San Luis Obispo. On the surface, it lacks the glamour of Santa Barbara and the prestige of Paso Robles and that's why we'd passed over it so many times before, just simply driving past. However, this might just be one of the most exciting destinations when it comes to planning a guys weekend getaway anywhere on the Central Coast.

I'm guessing most of you guys love beer, I do too! Luckily, I've been blessed with numerous opportunities to visit some of the best beer cities in the country and in fact I live in San Diego - which is at the top of most lists of places for beer lovers to visit. However, these beercations are more than just hopping in the car and drinking. To make the most of your time and money it's important to plan ahead. This is your opportunity to try new things, expand your boundaries, and bond with your buddies around an awesome shared experience.

There are only a handful of restaurants that are more iconic as The Hitching Post and it's cousin The Hitching Post 2 (immortalized in the movie Sideways). These are icons of the "real California", a land between the big cities filled with ranches and cowboys where we roll the clock back a few decades and the only thing that matters is big hunks of beef and great wine. Leave your fancy clothes at home because unlike pretty much every other legendary steakhouse, The Hitching Post is laid back and casual. It's a place you go when all that matters is having a huge meal with friends.

Santa Barbara's Urban Wine Trail is something that I'm honestly pretty amazed at but I didn't quite understand the diversity available here until our most recent trip. I had looked at the wineries located in their legendary, "Funk Zone" and thought that was pretty much it. However, Santa Barbara's Urban Wine Trail includes seven different areas including four downtown and in three other neighboring coastal communities.

Yosemite and the surround areas in the Sierra Foothills area of California is probably one of the most in-demand areas this summer. That's true for us as well since we're now planning a potential visit this summer. However, while it makes for a family vacation destination, it's also a fantastic area to visit for a guys trip too. We loved talking with Tony from Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism so much earlier this year that we asked him to follow-up with some advice specifically for guys planning a weekend getaway.

When planning a romantic getaway to Santa Ynez Valley wine country, several options come to mind from corporate-brand hotels to bed and breakfasts but Hotel Ynez offers something in the middle. At first glance it appears to be a renovated 1950s style drive-in motel but the new owners have taken it sever steps further than that to create an unexpectedly enjoyable oasis of relaxation at an affordable price.

Don't worry... I still love my big burley trucks, but EVs fascinate me. They are, without a doubt, the future of personal transportation. However, the future is here already. While it can be challenging today while charging infrastructure catches up, even in a less than ideal environment, a weekend getaway in an EV is possible. To illustrate this, Nissan sent me a Leaf S Plus and we drove up to Oceanside, CA.

Ventura California is one of those iconic Southern California "surf towns" that you probably have heard of from classic rock songs like, "Ventura Highway" or seen in countless TV shows and movies. It's essentially the bridge between the laid back country living embodied by Central Coast California and everything you think you know about Los Angeles. Personally, I've driven through here several times on my way to somewhere else but never stopped. Last week I broke that cycle and now I'm wondering why I didn't visit earlier.

One of the things I absolutely love about Joshua Tree National Park is that it is a near perfect spot for people to learn how to drive off road vehicles. You can dip your toes in the sand rolling along Geology Trail or get the adrenaline going in the Old Dale Mining District and still have a great time. This park is your place to advance skills at a pace that you are comfortable with and that matches personal experience and technical abilities of your vehicle. Over the years I've done exactly that, first having explored trails with a Jeep Cherokee and now, earlier this month I returned with the Jeep Gladiator Rubicon. 

California's central coast is a hidden gem. Even most Californian's don't consider visiting here as often as I think they should and folks from other states gravitate towards LA, San Francisco, and San Diego as well as the national parks along the Sierra Range. There's another side of California though. A more laid back and fun place filled with history, heritage, fantastic food and incredible wine. California's Central Coast is a collection of individual communities and today we're going to take a look at Northern Monterey County.

Oceanside California is located right between San Diego and Los Angeles making it the perfect staycation destination to get away from the city and enjoy some fresh air and a fun surf town vibe. Over the past few years the city has seen a tremendous amount of new tourism development now it is the training grounds for the USA Olympic Surf Team. 

Almost every month a friend or associate talks about visiting, or wanting to visit "California Wine Country". Inevitably this is their way of saying they are coming out to see Napa but the reality is that California has 160,000 square miles of vineyards and more than 1,200 wineries. This "California Wine Country" stretches from the Mexican border in the south, to near the Oregon border in the north. While I'm in love with all of the areas that I've explored so far, Sonoma is possibly my favorite to visit and I can't wait to plan another visit there later this year. It offers a blend of some of the world's best winemaking and viticultural talent, phenomenal soil and environment for growing grapes, and yet it is able to maintain a casual and laid back atmosphere that is all about celebrating life.

California is known as the Golden State for a reason and luckily there is still gold left for lucky and hardworking prospectors to find. While the gold rush is long over, that doesn't mean you can't re-live the golden days where men were men and wealth was there under your feet just waiting to be liberated from the Earth. While there are many places made famous by gold in California, we think Tuolumne County right outside Yosemite might just be the perfect spot.

2020 was a rough year in a lot of ways and generally, we like to do at least one restaurant feature every month, sometimes two or even three. With dine-in options mostly closed or simply not to my level of comfort, I stopped doing restaurant features the way I liked to do previously. I still continued to order out but it took time for the industry to catch up and start producing options that made sense beyond the typical take-out heroes like burritos, sushi, sandwiches, and sandwiches. I was a bit nervous for New Years Day dinner since not only is this a big night for foodies in general... but it's also my anniversary. Luckily we saw Parc Bistro on TV and loved their attitude and creativity so we decided to order their Beef Wellington and try it out.

For more than a year know, the world has been forced to adapt to an ever-changing series of lockdowns, guidelines, and disruptions to our daily life in the name of public safety. This article isn't to say what's right or wrong, only to support an industry that has given me so much personal enjoyment and an opportunity to learn, explore, and travel over the past decade. In California, wineries were lucky to have been able to re-open even while bars, breweries, and distilleries weren't - unless they were serving food. For the most part, California wineries were able to escape the worst restrictions by offering outdoor tastings with a few modifications. Unfortunately, with the most recent lockdown orders, wineries were as lucky. Thankfully, winemakers and vineyard owners are among some of the most innovative and creative people that I know and have already begun to introduce innovative ways to maintain their businesses through virtual tastings, interactive video streams, engaging with influencers, and leveraging the support of their wine club members. To help support them further, we've compiled a list of 50 wineries in California and what they are doing to adapt and what you can do individually to help them during this challenging time.

Fans of Sideways will immediately recognize the iconic "Windmill Inn" located in Buellton, CA. In the movie though, the motel that Jack and Miles stayed in was a budget property that wasn't really all that desirable. Up until a few years ago, that was still true. Thankfully the property was purchased by Highway West Vacations - known for buying affordable west coast properties and bringing them up to a level that would be considered chic while still maintaining an affordable price point.

Paso Robles is an interesting example of the secret side of California. To many folks who have never visited the state, they think only of LA and San Francisco as well as possibly places like Yosemite and Tahoe. When it comes to "wine country" Napa and Sonoma are the go-to places that everyone thinks about. California's Central Coast region however is a completely unique area with wines that are just as good - and depending on your preferred varietal - maybe even better than those areas. However, what makes it truly unique is the backdrop of ranches and a feeling that you are in a completely different world than the rest of the state. That translates into wine tasting for sure... but also other great guys weekend activities such as hiking, off-road driving, and hunting too.

Vineyard getaways, the kind where you actually get to stay in a room not far from the cellars, are fairly common in the wine country regions of France, Italy, and Spain. The gist of a wine resort vacation is to get the most out of your stay by combining a winery tour with tasting, gourmet dining, and the immersive experience of spending a couple of days right where the magic happens. 

When most people think of Catalina Island, the bustling village of Avalon first comes to mind. That’s the Mediterranean-style “city” (by Catalina standards) with shops, restaurants, boutique hotels and funky bars such as Luau Larry’s with its Wiki Wacker cocktail, all of which make it a very popular tourist spot for people throughout Southern California. Well, gentlemen, there is another part of this island 26 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Los Angeles that is ideal for a men’s getaway for a weekend or mid-week escape. It’s Two Harbors.