San Rafael

We reached San Rafael late at night. Stayed in an overpriced American style hotel/casino suite. If it weren’t for the lack of alcohol in my body, I would have went down to the Casino and gambled a little bit. Due to the price, we left that morning for another hotel. El Jardin reminds me of Melrose Place. (see above) I guess I’m dating myself now. If you’re not in your late twenties or thirties, you probably will have no idea what I’m talking about. Melrose Place was basically a teenager/young adult soap opera. Needless to say, this place has a little less amenities that the casino/hotel offered. But 1/3 price.

San Rafael is a bike friendly town. I haven’t seen this many people ride bikes since we left Chico. Aah CHICO!!! That brings back good memories…Maple and Popular lined streets make this a attractive town if your able to look pass the typical bars on the windows. However, I do find this city to have more attractive buildings than others. Per capita, it appears that the whole downtown and surrounding areas are older 1900 classic style Argentine building. Much more here and obvious than Buenos Aires.

There are 80 bodegas around here. We don’t plan on visiting all of them, but a few of them are within biking distance. We will buy a bike for Jen with a baby carrier. (I guess Payton isn’t a baby any longer, but like my parents tell me, I will always be there baby!) Some of these bodegas are still manually grinding the grapes!

There is tremendous investment potential down here, especially it terms of bodegas and real estate. It appears that North Americans are openly accepted here. There was an article in a new tourist pamphlet that intereviewed recent Oregonian’s, in their 60’s, who moved down here to retire and live. From the interview, it appears that they like San Rafael and plan to stay.

On our winery tour we met two guys from Seattle and three girls from McCall, Idaho. Really nice people. Instead of the tour, we talked for 30 minutes before the winery closed. It appears the guys, including myself, are in agreement that we would all stay here longer, however, the girls on agreement that they are homesick and miss a lot of the things we all take for granted back in the U.S. It was good for Jen to meet these girls, not only for emotional support, but someone else to confide into…Payton appears to be liking boys now. She kept on asking Jen what the boys names were. She appeared to be fascinated with them. I don’t know if I can handle Payton be curious about boys yet. She should be saying “Yuck!” I guess I will have to work on that. Number one goal! “Boys are Yucky!!!

Here is a photo of a passenger barge touring a reservoir near San Rafael. Look at the front of the boat. It was taking water the whole time. I was a little nervous for them!