February 2010 Issue | Download the Full Issue

“All you need to make chocolate is three things: cacao, cocoa butter and sugar,” says Mariella Balbi of Guanni Chocolates in Fallbrook, who is a purist about her chocolates. “Why do you need extras?”
Her chocolates have no preservatives. No additives. Nothing except the basics. Because of that you must eat them within about 14 days or they will spoil, unlike commercial brands that are so loaded up with additives that they can sit around for months. “That is not my concept of fresh!” sniffs Balbi.
You know she’s something of a fanatic about her product, since she writes things like this: “Chocolates reveal our connection with the Earth; each bite contains the life of the Sun. We can taste the whole universe in a piece of chocolate!”
Her chocolates are not cheap. They are about twice as expensive as commercial brands. But your taste buds will be able to tell the difference!
To ensure freshness they are made just before they are shipped. But if you want them really fresh, just walk into the factory and store at 550 Industrial Way. You can also buy them at a variety of farmers markets (see their Web site below for locations).
Because they are a back-to-basics chocolate, they are actually good for you. They contain some of the same antioxidants and flavonoids contained in red wine. Often people who are allergic to chocolate are not allergic to Guanni Chocolates, unlike those “other” brands, that she considers too sweet and too waxy. “The flavor of our chocolates is honest,” she says. “It’s often the bad things that they put in chocolates that make people allergic to them.” When they are overloaded with additives, they have to cover up the flavor of the additives by adding more sugar.
Unlike commercially-made chocolates, Guanni Chocolates don’t contain lecithin—an emulsifier often added to help ingredients achieve a smooth consistency because the butter fat of chocolate is so unstable—or gluten.
It’s ironic that Mrs. Balbi, who first came to the U.S. from Peru nine years ago with her husband and three boys, is so fussy about the purity of her chocolates, because she doesn’t really have a sweet tooth.
What she does have is a background as a professional chef who was certified at the National Culinary School of Peru and who also earned a master’s degree in the culinary arts.
Her family, which had made its living from commodities, was forced to move away from Peru when the commodities bubble burst in that country.
Both she and her husband tried a number of jobs in the states. Her husband, trained as an engineer, wasn’t certified to practice that trade in this country, and so at age 51, did any kind of job he could find.
At first she cleaned houses. “It was a humbling lesson for me. But life teaches you in unusual ways,” she recalls.
She cleaned for “a beautiful group of ladies.” She used to tell them, “You have beautiful kitchens. Why don’t you cook?”
This led to her catering for some of her ladies and to becoming a “personal chef.” More and more people that she knew insisted that she needed to get into the food business.
She and her husband looked at the three ways to enter the market that required the minimum initial investment: by making beer, bread or chocolates. They concluded that chocolates required the smallest investment and gave a good opportunity to grow.
First, she introduced her chocolates to her catering customers, who raved about them and wanted more.
“I decided to jump into the pool,” she recalls. Guanni Chocolates was born in July of 2006. She started selling at the Escondido Farmers Market with an initial investment of $500. “The beauty of the farmers markets is they allow you to create a business without much money, to open it and experiment with your product. If your product is good you can make a living.”
She expanded to other farmers markets and now has Guanni Chocolates at nine area markets.
The Fallbrook factory opened in April of 2009. The Guanni name is a construction of the names of her four children, Gianni, Juan Alvaro and Ian.
“The beautiful thing about food is the act of creation,” she says. “Before I started to make chocolates, I didn’t actually eat sweets.”
When she went into making chocolates, she said to herself, “Why do things the same as others do?”
“This is not commercial chocolate. Everything is made from scratch. It uses nothing that is already made,” she says.
To show what she was talking about, she went to a shelf in her factory and laid out a cacao bean, which, when peeled, reveals the nibs, which provide the chocolate flavor.
When the nib is ground it produces the cacao liquor, which is the base of chocolate. It is high in fat—cocoa butter is 53% fat—but it is a healthy fat, high in antioxidants.
The chocolatier mixes the cacao butter, liquor, some vanilla beans and sugar. “You don’t need anything else,” she says. Because it doesn’t have additives, it requires less sugar, so it’s less fattening.
Working with chocolate at this elemental stage can be tricky.
Cacao butter, for instance, is either in pieces or is a liquid. There is no middle stage. “It will drive you nuts,” she says.
But the result is something magical. Mrs. Balbi encourages you to sample one of her chocolates like you would a fine wine. As it melts, it pleases the palate with complex flavors and leaves an interesting, lingering aftertaste, particularly if you have one of her truffles that also has a hint of hot pepper in it. “I like to touch the little doors in your palate,” she says. “Our palate is a laboratory for flavors.”
One such is the truffle “Aruma,” described as “Extra bittersweet chocolate and Peruvian hot peppers ganache, enrobed in 75% chocolate and Quinoa.” Or how about: Loreto. “Passion fruit and apricots in 45% milk chocolate.”
She uses cacao from Peru, one of the places where cacao originated. “I think it tastes better if you buy it from where it’s from,” she says.
She also uses the Criollo chocolate, which, of the top five varieties, is the one used by the top chocolate makers. It is more fragrant and less bitter than other chocolate varieties.
For those who care about such things, the chocolate she uses is a “fair trade” product from a single plantation in Peru that grows it using organic principles.
Besides her decadent truffles, she also sells chocolate bars, trail mix, cacao beans in burlap bags, cacao powder, cacao nibs, sugar free chocolates sweetened with yacon, pastries and even hot chocolate mix. Needless to say, everything is fresh.
Find out more about Guanni Chocolates by calling them at 760-468-4295, emailing them at info@guannichocolates.com or visiting their Website: www.guannichocolates.com.

Everything is Big About Escondido’s New Lexus Dealership

Most people first find out about the Lexus Escondido Center when they see its giant 1,296 square foot, high-resolution TV screen from the I-15.
The screen, located 450 feet from the freeway, cannot be used for “advertising” and will feature the works of local artists, seascapes, landscapes and historic landmarks from around the world, but it will draw attention to the Escondido Auto Park.
But just about everything is BIG at the “super luxury” Lexus Escondido auto dealership that opened at 1205 Auto Park Way in December. At 330,000 square feet, it is easily the biggest car dealership in San Diego County and may be one of the biggest in the country, although similar ones have opened in Florida and Orange County.
According to General Sales Manager, Marc Bechard, the dealership is a longtime dream of owner Judy Jones-Cone of Fairbanks Ranch.
“We’ve been building for two years, and we actually started on the project seven years ago,” says Bechard.
Mrs. Jones-Cone, who also owns the Toyota Carlsbad and Lexus Carlsbad automotive family, commissioned a study to find an area that didn’t have a Lexus dealership and determined that Escondido was the ideal location.
“We are a mom and pop business,” says Bechard, who notes that the owner likes to stay “under the radar,” except for a few causes, such as a non-profit foundation dedicated to children. You’ll find references to that foundation throughout the center: a fountain with statues of children that greets visitors when they walk into the huge glass-encased lobby, and large screens throughout the dealership featuring scenes of children.
Water is a dominant theme in the center, which also has a large mirror pool out front that reflects the building and surrounding palm trees. Water comes from a well that was drilled under the pre-owned automobile lot. Well water is also used to wash the cars and on landscaping.
Building the dealership, which cost about $30 million, might seem counterintuitive in the current economic climate where several area dealerships have closed, but Bechard believes the figures show that it is in just such an economy that a car like the Lexus is a good value.
“We’ve been blessed with a great name and a good product,” he observes.
The dealership has about 60 employees and 155 cars. But with three levels, including a parking lot on the roof, the dealership can easily store and display as many as 800 cars.
“The Lexus is without doubt a ‘high-end’ vehicle in the same league as BMW and Mercedes Benz. Our average customer is a repeat customer,” says Bechard. “People buy them for their reliability and durability, but quality and luxury are the most popular motive.”
The most popular models are the RX-350, a sport utility vehicle, and the EX-350, a mid-size luxury sedan.
“A lot of people who buy a Lexus do their own research and find out what a good value it is,” says Bechard. “That is even more true when you consider that today you can pay thirty thousand dollars for a new car that isn’t even a luxury car.” The average pre-owned luxury car will cost you $27,000.
The dealership didn’t have a grand opening in December. That will probably happen when the planned upscale restaurant with a capacity for 150 diners opens on the third level. A flower shop and more retail boutiques are also coming.
On the entry level near the entrance is the Cyber Café on 9th, operated by Damon & Barbara Parker of Escondido Joe’s Café. There is also a complimentary WiFi business center, a golf simulator and a kid’s recreation area—even a small library with massage chairs.
The west outdoor area on level three is an outdoor event area with outdoor fire pits, tables and a capacity of over 300 guests. This space is available for private and public parties, weddings, concerts and other events. The East-outdoor area is a more intimate setting for up to 150 guests with the ability to showcase movies or live concerts..
Because, you see, the development isn’t just a car dealership, it’s a business center. The Lexus Escondido dealership is inside the Lexus Center and uses about two thirds of the space, including the entire second floor. But it also has about 50,000 sq. ft. that can be used for other retail and office space.
“People have no idea how many operations meetings and design meetings we had over the years to make sure this was absolutely perfect,” recalls Bechard. “I went to meetings about meetings! Until you actually do a project this big, you don’t know how much is involved. Getting it perfect was one of the reasons why it took so long to actually get built. Every ‘i’ was dotted, every ‘t’ was crossed.”
The center is a “green facility,” that uses low output bulbs, timed lighters and is oriented to maximize sunlight, and it was built using recycled steel and concrete. The exterior glass coating cuts down on energy transfers.
“That’s another reason we built it so large, to ensure a controlled environment,” says Bechard.
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For those interested in renting conference space in the center, contact Peggy Kelcher at 760-496-2931.
Operating hours for Lexus Escondido sales are Monday through Friday 8 a.m.–9 p.m. Saturday sales hours are from 8 a.m.–6 p.m. Sunday sales hours are from 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Lexus Escondido service hours are Monday through Friday from 7 a.m.–6 p.m.

Retired FBI agent has a new book

Towards the end of his career as an undercover FBI agent the younger agents used to refer to Bob Hamer as the “old Mitch Rapp.”
Rapp, for those who are not fans of veteran thriller writer Vince Flynn, is the next-to-superman-like all-purpose hero of such novels as Consent to Kill and Pursuit of Honor. So it’s kind of appropriate that Hamer is putting his years of expertise and adventure to good use to write about a hero of his own invention: Matt Hogan.
That’s a good name for a hard-as-nails hero. “I always thought that Matt was a ‘tough’ name and my best friend in high school was named Hogan,” says Hamer.
The book, Hamer’s second, is entitled: Enemies Among Us. It tells of an agent who goes undercover in a non-profit organization that has been infiltrated by terrorists.
The Hidden Meadows resident, who retired in 2006, wrote of his 26 years as an agent in his first book: The Last Undercover: The True Story of an FBI Agent’s Dangerous Dance With Evil.
He had to clear the book with his former employer, but all that the FBI asked him to do was to change the names of the agents.
The second book, to be released March 1, is pure fiction, but uses Hamer’s vast knowledge and experience to give it a realistic edge.
Writing his first book was fairly easy, he says. It was all in his brain. He just needed a few months to bring it out in a coherent form.
The novel, on the other hand, took a lot longer.
Why fiction after writing a very well-received autobiography? “I like fiction because you aren’t married to the facts,” admits Hamer, who could have written more of his FBI exploits, but says, “I didn’t want to pound my chest and try to tell everyone that I’m really cool.”
Enemies Among Us is being published by a publishing house that was created by Oliver North: Fidelis Books, which has also published American Heroes, Saving Freedom and Blackbelt Patriotism.
The bulk of Hamer’s career was devoted to fighting organized crime and drug trafficking, mainly as an undercover agent.
Of the 12,700 FBI agents, a couple of hundred are certified as undercover. Hamer has posed as a contract killer, a drug dealer and as a member of the Los Angeles mafia. He has bought counterfeit bills from North Koreans and surface to air missiles from Chinese criminals.
He has dealt with gangs in South Central L.A., and as part of his final sting operation, posed as a member of NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Assn.), a national organization that promotes pedophilia. He adopted an assumed identity “Robert William Wallace,” that included pretending to be handicapped and walking with a cane. He helped to send to prison a flight attendant and a psychologist who wanted to travel to Mexico for sex with underage boys.
“We convicted one key member for distributing child pornography and the remaining members for traveling in interstate commerce to have sex with children,” recalls Hamer, who recounts being handed a disk of images by an ordained minister who was a member of the group. He swallowed his revulsion, never looked at the images on the disk, but simply handed it over to his handlers once he was back at the office.
Although he was good at pretending to be someone he wasn’t, Hamer wasn’t big into disguises. He relied on his acting ability.
“I loved it!” he recalls. “It was an adrenaline rush, and I enjoyed the chase—being face to face with the bad guys without being a bad guy.”
While Hollywood likes to emphasize the temptation for undercover agents to “cross the line,” Hamer says it was sometimes a challenge.
As he writes, “Part of the thrill and challenge of working undercover is posing as a bad guy but staying within certain boundaries in dealing with the criminal element.”
In this interview he added, “In my first undercover sting, mob members passed the cocaine around. I just passed it on to someone else.” They put a gun to his head and threatened to blow his head off if he didn’t do a line of cocaine. “The main target of our investigation also refused to do a line of cocaine and came to my defense. Both of us passed on using the cocaine.”
He was never asked to prove his bona fides as a contract killer by killing someone in front of someone, as is often shown the movies about undercover agents.
He did help to stage a killing that involved taking photos of a fake corpse to prove that the hit target had been killed.
Once he used a Hollywood make-up artist to make someone look like he was covered in blood. “It was so warm that the make-up blood dripped and looked like a fresh kill!” he recalls.
He would occasionally play a private game of cat and mouse during investigations, providing “my own personal soundtrack,” playing music such as Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock, while the subjects of his investigations rode in his car!
His writing career began in 1999 on a fluke, while he was still in the bureau. His son was a ball player being courted to play professionally. He began keeping a journal about his son’s journey.
“I got into the habit of writing daily and after the NAMBLA episode I decided that I wanted to write something to expose them. A lot of people think that NAMBLA is a joke, but it is perfectly serious and it has an agenda.
“The boy lover movement sees itself in the same position as the gay movement of the 60s and 70s and believes it will be mainstreamed in a decade,” he says.
To make the story book length, he added episodes that fleshed it out into a story about his career.
One thing Hamer discovered, from nearly 30 years of dealing on a day-to-day basis with evil people, is just how much like you and me they can seem.
“Many people I dealt with while doing the NAMBLA case seemed like normal, high functioning members of society. One had a Ph.D in psychology. Another was a dentist who was married for many years and whose wife had no idea about his predilection. One was an ordained minister, and one was a chiropractor. Two were special education teachers, and one was a personal trainer.” Several had professions that at least made it easier for them to be near children.
“You won’t find too many forest rangers who are pedophiles,” Hamer notes.
The reaction to The Last Undercover was mixed, although more positive than negative. “I got a lot of emails to my Web site. Some accused me of being homophobic,” he recalls.
What touched him most were contacts from those who had been molested as children and thanked him for going after the same types of people who had harmed them.
He has appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show, as well as the John & Ken Show and the Bill Handel radio show on KFI AM 640, out of Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, he has also been working on screenplays for a possible TV series and has served as the technical adviser for other shows—and, of course, a sequel to Enemies Among Us.
I asked Hamer how Hollywood “gets it wrong” in portraying the FBI. “One inaccuracy is that too often they show the FBI giving criminals an even chance. In real life the FBI shows up in overwhelming numbers. The FBI doesn’t believe in fair fights. That’s why the most dangerous law enforcement jobs are lone cops responding to domestic dispute calls.”
Of course, the undercover agent is also in great danger at all times.
“They are working on a high wire without a net,” he says.

Meet The Unsung County Road Workers

When we eat a steak, we don’t think about farmers who raise the beef. When we switch on the lights, we don’t dwell on power generators—and when we drive on the roads, we don’t think about who keeps them driveable, who fills pot holes, clears debris after storms, and returns them to service during and after fires.
They are the road crews of the county Department of Public Works. The workers you take for granted, even though they help get you to work every day.
Day or night, when a boulder falls on the road, when flash flooding creates a sump, when a fallen tree blocks traffic, they are there.
The crew of the Bonsall/Fallbrook Road Station, located at 2370 Pala Rd., Bonsall, are responsible for 250 miles of country roads in Bonsall, Fallbrook, Rainbow, Pala, Oceanside and Deluz.
The 35 acre station has 15 pieces of equipment including pickups, backhoes, loaders, chippers, rollers and stockpiles of DG (decomposed granite), asphalt, rock sand and patch. It has on hand 2,000–3,000 yards of recycled material from other jobs.
This fall and winter has so far proven to be higher than average in terms of rainfall. The first rain washes debris into the roads. You’ll see the crew out cleaning culverts, dealing with downed trees and mud bars (sediment that flows onto the road), removing rocks and closing roads that have become hazardous due to water running through dips.
That first big rain will usually create immediate problems, including causing oil to rise to the surface, making the road extremely slippery for hours.
This crew consists of two supervisors and eight employees—all rated to operate equipment.
Last December I interviewed four of them: Garry Evans, senior equipment operator: Brad Hill, Jeff Farrington and Pete Velasco, all equipment operators. Their supervisor, Pete Swenson, stepped outside so they could fully express themselves.
Pete Velasco has been with the department for three years. He is an equipment operator who started as a PWT (public works trainee). His main job is to operate a street sweeper. But he is rated to operate all the machines.
“I like keeping the roads safe for my wife and kids. It’s interesting work and you definitely meet all kinds of folks!” he says.
Brad Hill has been an equipment operator for eight years. “I like the opportunity to be outdoors and to do public service. There’s something different going on every day,” he says.
Most construction companies don’t work during winter. That’s not true of these guys. As one told me, “We are like a construction company that works in the rain. When it rains—we get wet!”
So it bothers them when the public sometimes “growls” at them or makes their job harder.
Often motorists don’t stop to think that the people they are swearing at under their breath—or not so quietly giving the finger to because they are causing a momentary delay—keep the roads passable. Without them—especially in winter—the roads would rapidly deteriorate.
Jeff Farrington has been with the Dept. of Public Works two years this month. “I like working outside, being part of a team,” he says. “Something different is going on all the time. We work with a good bunch of guys. It makes it easy to come to work.”
Gary Evans is the senior equipment operator and has worked for the department 18 years.
“I’m like the puppet master,” he says. He and Pete Swenson are responsible for training the equipment operators and keeping them current on equipment that includes chippers, backhoes and chainsaws.
“We have two hundred and fifty miles to patrol. We try to look at every bit of road at least every two weeks. Routine work includes culvert cleaning, sidewalk and pot-hole repairs.”
If a traffic light stops working, they fix it, or put it back into service with a battery back-up.
For two days in November the area was hit by extreme rainfall that began on a Sunday night.
At 6:30 a.m. on Monday the crews were called into 12-hour shifts. During inclement weather they are “on call” 24-7. Some roads were closed by flowing water, rocks or mud. Trees were down.
During the next few hours, the crew placed 35 flooding signs and closed three roads. Most were reopened by 8 p.m. They answered a half dozen calls for trees blocking the roads. They opened blocked culverts.
Occasionally property owners will place sandbags to redirect flooding. This can cause flooding on county roads. If that happens, the crew will arrive and remove the sandbags. You are not allowed to block a public drainage.
The public cooperates 99% of the time. But there is the 1% who calls and doesn’t understand that the crew only has so many people to respond to a call. Then it requires a little bit of diplomacy to calm them down.
If there is anything that all of the crew members agree on, it’s that they would like the public to pay more attention to flagmen.
“Please look out for our work cones,” one of the men told me. “If a sign says ‘roadwork ahead,’ there is a reason for it! They are there for our safety and for the safety of the public.”
They put out those signs and barricades and close off roads—not for the fun of it—but because it’s dangerous to drive on it.
“Some people think if they can just get around the sign that it’s OK to drive through,” says Evans. “We have had people drive around a road sign on a motorcycle and then drive their bike into six feet of water!”
Deluz, which abuts Camp Pendleton, and which is the most rural community whose roads they maintain, is the one whose roads go out the most. It has low-travel rural roads that continue on to Riverside County, but they are used.
On that rainy day in November that we mentioned earlier, they put out five signs in Deluz alone.
It’s not unusual to be answering a call in Deluz and be called to the other end of the territory in Vista.
But for all that, this road crew is very close knit and loyal to each other.
“I go around to a lot of road stations in the county,” says Michael Drake, the public affairs officer for the Dept. of Public Works. “You find a lot of camaraderie here. These guys are family.”
“We are public servants and the community is a real concern,” adds one of the men.
All of the road crews throughout the county support each other. If another crew needs help, the other crews give it.
At 2 a.m. if a tree goes down in the rain, the Bonsall/Fallbrook crew will get the call. If it happens on Christmas Day, they will show up to move the tree.
* * *
If you see a tree or other obstruction on a county road, call the county operations office at 877-684-8000. The after-hours or holiday emergency number is 888-565-5262.
Issues can also be reported via the department’s Web site: www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dpw/roads (click on the “roads home,” then on the Service Request Form link in the middle of the page next to the photo. These messages are immediately delivered to the DPW service desk with a backup copy coming to Drake’s office.
You’ll find information on road conditions, particularly during an emergency, by visiting www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dpw and “click” on “roads.”
You can arrange to get Twitter updates from DPW by visiting twitter.com/sdcountydpw/

Barb’s Beads: A Labor of Love, A Gift of Hope and A Prayer for the Cure

Four years ago, Barb Feezell found out she had breast cancer. After following the recommended medical treatment, she was eventually declared cancer free and was in remission.
It was a moment her sister Julie Conner will never forget. It was a feeling of relief, and a time to celebrate. It was also a time to focus on finding a cure for the disease that has plagued their lives for generations.
Breast cancer—their grandmother passed away from it, Feezell was in remission from it and Conner – well, Conner has been a breast cancer survivor for 23 years. With such prominence of breast cancer in their lives, the sisters decided to participate in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk for the Cure.
“The walk was such a powerful and emotional experience,” Conner said. “To see and interact with all these wonderful people who have been affected by the same disease – you can’t help but get totally consumed in the moment. Your feet hurt, but you don’t care.”
Feezell, who was in remission at that time, was too tired to make the full 3-days, but she joined her sister Conner to walk the last stretch. Unfortunately, two weeks after the breast cancer walk, Feezell found out that her cancer had returned.
“The cancer had spread to her other breast,” Conner said. “They tried everything. She took every chemo treatment available and tried alternative treatments, but the doctors finally told us her time was very limited.”
Two weeks before Feezell passed away, Conner had gone to spend the day with her sister. They talked about a lot of things including one of Feezell’s favorite things to do – bead jewelry. Feezell loved beading so much that she had started up a small business. It was called Barb’s Beads.
Now, less than a year after Feezell’s death, Conner has her own beading company. It’s called Barb’s Beads by Julie, and every cent of profit made goes directly to the Susan G. Komen Cancer Foundation for research.
“This is my way of honoring my sister’s memory,” Conner said. “I knew I wanted to do something special and this was something she loved doing.”
One of Feezell’s favorite things to make were sun catchers because they capture the sun’s rays and spread brilliant, glistening colors from the crystals. In a similar way, by carrying on her sister’s beading legacy, Conner captures the essence of her sister’s spirit in the jewels she makes and spreads the same brilliance.
“It’s a labor of love,” Conner said. “Each piece I make, I can feel Barbie working with me. She was such a happy, loving and fun person. I try to capture that in the pieces I make.”
From bracelets and earrings, to key chains, ceiling fan posts, eyeglass holders, sun catchers and Christmas ornaments, Conner has learned and honed the craft of beading using a variety of gems and stones including Swarovski crystals.
“I knew nothing about this when I started,” she said. “But during Barb’s last days, I was sitting with her looking at all of her beads. I mean, there were containers full of them. And I said to her that I’d really like to continue what she was doing with the beads and donate the money to research. I’m still learning every day, but I do it because I love my sister and because we need to find a cure.”
Conner said her sister is not just her angel and inspiration, but that beading has been therapy for her and has helped her heal. It’s helped others heal as well.
“People hear my story and they can relate,” she said. “Barbie fought a good, long fight. Some people buy my jewelry because they have been affected and they understand. Some buy because they know the money is for a good cause and some people just really like the jewelry.”
Conner said she likes the idea that there are Barb’s beads in each and every piece she makes.
“Barbie had so many gems and stones left that I haven’t had to purchase any. To me, it’s touching that the jewelry I make is with her beads. It’s like she can live on forever in the crystals.”
If you would like to purchase some of Barb’s beads and help donate money to breast cancer research, call Julie Conner at 626-536-9167, or email her at barbsbeads2@aol.com. Custom orders are accepted and all profits are donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Master Luthier, John Kinnard, Wants to Pass On His Secrets

The master guitar maker wants to pass on his secrets to a few select students.
John S. Kinnard is a luthier who has made guitars for three decades.
A guitar, as Kinnard points out, is basically “a box.” But the creation of this instrument is anything but simple or basic. It is part art and part craft and takes about 80 hours from start to finish.
For those who are interested in learning how to make this most popular of instruments, Kinnard can impart the wisdom of the master craftsman.
Kinnard makes two kinds of guitars, the folk or flattop guitar and the acoustic jazz guitar. Both use steel strings and traditional woods such as Indian rosewood and Honduras mahogany.
The wood ranges in thickness depending on the part of the instrument whether it’s the front, back or the sides. The back, for example, is about a tenth of an inch thick.
Kinnard is best known for the Dell' Arte Instruments brand, which has been given considerable notoriety by several prominent Gypsy jazz guitar artists, including Jimmy Rosenberg and Angelo Debarre, both considered among the best contemporary Gypsy jazz guitarists.
Gypsy jazz (which is also sometimes called Gypsy swing) is a style of music developed and popularized between the 1930s and 50s by Gypsy guitarists working in and around Paris. It is basically what France did with American jazz.
The Dell’ Arte brand is the largest manufacturer of Gypsy jazz guitars in the world. In addition to producing the Dell’ Arte brand, he also produces guitars under his own John S. Kinnard Instruments brand.
Kinnard’s work was featured on the cover of Acoustic Guitar magazine (Dec. 2008) and he was also profiled in the publication.
Kinnard, who has had his guitar making shop in Fallbrook on Industrial Way for the past three years, has made guitars since he was 18. He is self-taught (there were books on how to make guitars even then) and during the years that he was learning his trade by trial and error, “I made all of the mistakes that it is possible to make!” he says.
Mistakes in those early years included using whatever wood he could find. “In those days I would find a pallet and use the wood, or use something that had floated in to the beach,” he recalls.
Kinnard’s guitar saga begins when he first moved to North County at the age of 10 years old, when his dad, who was in the Marines, was stationed in the area.
“The hippy thing was full on—everyone was playing guitars,” he recalls. He composed some songs, and as a teen and in his early 20s, he would often hitchhike up and down the coast with little else to his name but his guitar.
He often thought to himself, “I can build one of these,” and so it began.
At age 21 he moved to Fresno, where he made guitars as a hobby. In 1975 he opened a music store in Clovis and started to do repair work on musical instruments. With better tools and more time to devote to the job, he started to make what he calls “decent” guitars. “That’s when I went pro,” he recalls.
Even then he was only making about ten of them a year—compared to the 44 guitars he made in 2008. Then in 1980, he moved to Oregon with his wife where he continued to repair guitars and to hone his skills.
“Repairing is harder than building,” he says. “Someone who does that can make the jump into building them rather easily.”
In the late 1980s, Kinnard took a “sabbatical” from guitar making and repairing to operate a jewelry shop. This detailed work with cutting jewels and making jewelry helped him to further develop his skills as an instrument maker, he believes.
Then in 1996, he opened a shop called Finegold Guitars and Mandolins and two years later met Alain Cola, who was producing Selmer-Maccaferri guitars in Mexico. They became partners in the Dell’ Arte Instruments brand.
Few customers come in off the street and want a guitar made. “Ninety-nine percent of my business is wholesale,” he says, to a distributor in Japan and one in Europe.”
Such handcrafted guitars can cost as much as $3,000 per instrument.
Kinnard considers what the luthier does as both craft and art.
“When you carve a neck it’s a sculpture. You take a piece of wood and sculpt it. I carve them as close as I can but there is something unique about each neck,” he says.
A guitar has two sides, a top and a back. The sides and back are made with a hard wood and the front is made with a soft wood. This is similar to how a violin is made.
He starts by picking out the woods. The first process is to bend the sides with a pipe that heats up the wood and makes it malleable.
Kinnard’s extensive shop is laid out with various stations that show the step-by-step process of building and carving the guitar from this point.
He is seeking students who want to learn the craft and art of the luthier.
Learn more by calling him at 760-731-3352 or visiting his Web site at www.johnkinnard.com/

The Fallbrook Running and Walking Club

Did you make a resolution to exercise more in the new year? Have you found yourself slowly losing steam? Has it become harder and harder to motivate yourself to workout?
If you’re having trouble sticking to your exercise schedule, or just need to give your workouts a boost, consider joining the Fallbrook Running and Walking Club. The club is a group of like-minded individuals teaming together for the benefit of their health. There is no pressure, just lots of support.
According to founder, Hank Donigan, the club provides encouragement to all those seeking to improve their health and fitness, and also provides an opportunity to meet other members of the community with similar interests.
“I’ve been a serious runner since 1977 and a member of many running clubs as I moved around during my military career,” Donigan said. “The clubs have helped me stay motivated through the fellowship of other runners and walkers.”
Donigan and his wife moved to Fallbrook in December 2003 and were surprised to find that there was no organized running club in the area. There were rumors of a club in years past, but nobody knew of a current, local club. It took until 2006, after a deployment to Iraq and his pending retirement from the military, for it to be the right time for Donigan to start a club. He began by announcing workouts on Saturday mornings in several local newspapers.
“The workouts started at the library,” Donigan said. “A friend of mine and local running legend, Ted Plautz, agreed to show up for the first get together because we didn’t know who would show up. To our surprise, a small group of runners and walkers quickly came together, many of whom have remained loyal members of the club to this day.”
These days Donigan uses e-mail and the online community called Meetup.com to keep members informed about club activities. He points out that runners and walkers of all ages and abilities are welcome, including parents with their children. The club averages between ten and 12 members on a typical workout with an equal number of runners and walkers.
“Our club is a very friendly group that encourages both beginners and accomplished athletes,” Donigan said.
The club meets Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. at the Trail Head of the Santa Margarita Trail off Vista del Lago. They also meet on Sundays at 7 a.m. at the Trail Head of the Santa Margarita Trail at Sandia Creek Park on Sandia Creek Road. Each workout lasts about one hour.
But it’s not all just about the workout.
“Fallbrook Running and Walking Club supports other community activities throughout the year such as community clean ups and charitable fund raising,” Donigan said. “We hold an annual beach run and barbecue each summer, and we will sometimes organize club events such as a Turkey Trot at Thanksgiving or a Jingle Bell Run.”
Working out on a regular basis is a lifestyle that is not always cultivated easily. If you are finding it hard to stick with a routine, perhaps the Fallbrook Running and Walking Club is just the thing you need.
“The hardest part of a long journey is taking the first step,” Donigan said. “We hope that we can continue to spread the word about our activities to promote health and fitness in Fallbrook.”
There is no charge for club membership or any of the club events. For more information about the Fallbrook Running and Walking Club, contact Hank Donigan at 760-201-7613 or hammerin77 @yahoo.com.

The Right Kind of Curves

Attention women, here are some curves you can welcome! The Curves club franchise is one of the largest fitness franchises in the world that caters strictly to women.
With locations in more than 70 countries, including the United States, Canada, Europe, South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Japan, it’s refreshing to know one can be found close to home in Bonsall, California.
Christy Nannis and her husband, Peter, recently took over the local club because they felt an obligation to the community.
“There are so many dedicated and loyal customers in the Fallbrook and Bonsall area,” Nannis said. “We really had a motivation to keep the club open for them, especially since there are no other clubs around.”
The foundation of Curves is 30 minutes of circuit training. Circuit training is a combination of aerobics and resistance training designed to target fat loss, build muscle and improve the fitness of your heart and lungs. The time between each exercise is short with rapid movement to the next exercise, which is how you get a thorough workout in just 30 minutes.
“That’s the key with Curves,” Nannis said. “It’s not brain surgery, and it’s not something that has never been done before. It’s just 30 minutes of support and encouragement with the right equipment and the appropriate guidance of what to do and how to do it.”
Curves provides members with a complete cardio and strength training workout that can burn up to 500 calories in half an hour. More importantly, it works every major muscle group which helps members achieve quick results when it comes to toning and body mass.
This year’s corporate theme is “Stronger Together,” which Nannis says is very fitting.
“It’s all about helping other women feel strong and healthy,” Nannis explained. “It’s a collaborative effort – we’re a group. We’re a team, and for thirty minutes, we are working towards the same goal of health and fitness.”
Bonsall Curves not only makes it easier by requiring just 30 minutes to fit a workout into your day, but it also helps make working out easier on the pocketbooks. Nannis said her club provides monthly educational classes that are free and open to the public, and they offer free membership trials.
“Not everyone is aware of the free weight management classes we offer,” Nannis said. “You don’t have to be a member, and you don’t have to buy any food to participate. The classes are simply to help educate our community about healthy living and healthy eating habits.”
Classes cover everything from how to eat right and how to buy the right foods to weight control, portion management and how to monitor your progress.
Bonsall Curves actually has a cool, new system to help monitor your progress. It’s called CurvesSmart and it’s considered a state-of-the-art coaching system. Not every club has one, but Bonsall’s does and it’s changing the way members workout.
“Every piece of equipment is programmed with your body's information to give you moment-by-moment feedback,” Nannis said. “It automatically adjusts to your body's endurance level and computes all your workout information. Then it gives a report that shows your muscle strength, your calories burned and how close you are to reaching your goals. It really helps motivate members.”
Bonsall Curves is currently offering free monthly trial membership and free weekly passes. The club is located at 5525 Mission Rd., Bonsall. For more information, call 760-945-3536 or visit the club’s Web site at www.curves local.com/1713/

Welk Resorts Theatre Presents Its 2010 Season

Josh Carr, manager of the Welk Resort Theatre, sat down with us recently to talk about the very exciting season upcoming at the resort theater.
Carr, who has been at the resort since last May, took over from Sean Coogan, the longtime theater manager, who was promoted to manage the whole resort.
He talked about how this season is different from recent seasons. “We’re bringing back the celebrities, with Vicki Lawrence and her two woman show, the Smothers Brothers, and Steel Magnolias with Cathy Rigby and Michael Learned (which ran in January).”
He added, “It’s in the tradition of Welk’s to have some celebrities, and to offer some variety, including some shows with shorter runs.”
Usually Welk’s has six shows per season. This year it will have 12. The 12 will include family shows, such as The Pirates of Penzance, Suessical and Footloose, and adult shows, such as The Full Monty and Noises Off, along with traditional Welk fare, such as Tom Netherton, a regular from the classic Welk TV show.
“We’re reaching out to new audiences,” says Carr. “Our demographic on site has changed with younger people and families. We are reaching out to new audiences in the community to get some different things going.”
Carr added that Welk’s is trying to change the perception that it’s a retirement center and that all it offers is things for seniors—although they are a valued clientele. “That has changed since we introduced the timeshares. Now we have 2,000 people a week, and with the on-site villa rentals, we have more families, more young people.”
They brought in Brian Kite, from Los Angeles, to direct Steel Magnolias. Barbara Epstein, who is new to the Welk theater, will direct I Do! I Do! She is a director from Universal Studios, Disneyland and many cruise line productions.
Ray Lamon will direct Pirates. Lamon has been with Welk’s for ten years, just recently directeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat there.
Nick DeGruccio, who will direct the the musical comedy The Full Monty, just finished directing The Andrews Brothers at Welk’s. The Full Monty, a show that gets close, but not quite, to frontal nudity, shows just how much the entertainment line-up has changed at the theater.
“We’re trying a new process. There is something for everyone, and we want people to know that we are not just Rogers and Hammerstein any more!”
“We’re trying to promote that this is a new process and there is something for everyone.”
* * *
Remaining shows at Welk Resort Theatre are as follows:
Feb. 4–March 7. I Do! I Do! A classic broadway musical, follows a couple from wedding day to their child’s marriage, and the different stages of their life. It includes the hit song: My Cup Runneth Over.
March 11–May 2. The Pirates of Penzance
May 6–June 27. Footloose
July 8–July 25. Suessical
July 29–Aug. 29. Noises Off
Sept 3–5. The Smothers Brothers—Tom and Dick Smothers—Comedy at it’s best!
Sept. 9–Oct. 17. The Full Monty
Oct. 28–Nov. 14. Welk Show, starring Tom Netherton, the music, the laughter, and the memories.
Nov. 18–Jan. 2. It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play
Nov. 18–Jan. 2. A Big Band Christmas (In Rep)
In addition, the theater will present two festivals: a summer BandFest in July and OctoberFest in October.
The theater will also present a special Halloween Bash with dinner, dancing, costume contest and a special showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
For more information about the Welk Resorts Theatre, visit www.WelkTheatreSanDiego.com, call the box office at 888-802-7469, or for Internet ticketing, visit www.WelkTheatreSanDiego.com/

Bonsall Woman Rides in Rose Parade

“There is no way to prepare for riding in an event like the Tournament of Roses Parade,” reflects Debbie Herzman, a Bonsall woman who rode with and made the Indian costumes for the Calizona Appaloosa Horse Club, which participated in the event for the first time on New Year’s Day.
The club had ridden in parades in Norco and in Moreno Valley, but nothing of the scope of the Rose Parade, one of the most venerable and well-known parades in the U.S.
“The amount of people. All of the action going on. Good luck trying to prepare for that!” says Herzman. “When the crowd gets going, it’s like going through a gantlet. One of our members bought a one man band to get the horse used to the noise. But there’s nothing you can do to prepare for all the floats, the people and the noise.”
In spite of the fact that the float directly in front of them broke down during the parade and delayed them for half an hour, the club members enjoyed themselves so much that they want to do it again next year—if they can.
Besides riding with the Calizona club, Herzman also belongs to the Vista Palomar Riders, the national version of the Appaloosa Horse Club and ETI (Equestrian Trails International).
She rode a friend’s horse named Rocky, a 13-year-old.
The ten members of the equestrian unit rode behind the City of Torrance’s float (“Garden of Dreams,”) and in front of the Burbank float. When the Torrance Float broke down a third of the way through the parade, it was just short of 10 a.m.
“We stood there. We played to the crowd. People ran off the crowd to have pictures taken with the horses. When you’re stuck, you’re stuck,” she says. “You have to give credit to the people of Pasadena, and the road crew. They take care of everything. They do their jobs. Everything is laid out for you. They made it totally easy. I give them a lot of credit.”
The Tournament of Roses Parade is actually the finale of a week’s worth of activities that includes the Equestfest 2009, which was held on the Tuesday before the parade. There was also a reception for the equestrians on Monday.
As with all parade participants, the Calizona Appaloosa Horse Club stayed in Pasadena the night before the parade—members were up long before the dawn, at 4 a.m., to be staged and put into the parade formation.
“We were up to enter the parade at about 7 a.m.,” Herzman recalls. “Before you see us come around Colorado Boulevard, we have three blocks where we are going through camera crews and bleachers.”
In between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. she had to not only get her own horse and costumes put together, she had to do it for six other horses.
“I was running between horses quite a bit, putting war paint on the horses, and on the warriors.”
That was the beginning before the beginning. The actual parade route is six miles long and takes an average of two hours to traverse—unless someone breaks down.
“It is total people the whole route, whether in the grandstands or sitting on the ground,” she says.
The riding unit included eight women and two men. Horses were caparisoned and riders were decked out in Native American regalia of the Northern Plateau Plains style, specifically that of the Nez Perce tribe.
The Nez Perce are credited with developing the breed until just shortly before Chief Joseph tried to lead his tribe to escape from the U.S. cavalry in 1877.
Most of the tribe’s horses were confiscated by the army. The breed was diluted until its recognizable features were almost lost. Then early in the 20th century, more and more breeders became interested in the Appaloosa, and it made a comeback.
Herzman made seven of the ten costumes in the equestrian unit. They replicate costumes the Indians used on special occasions, such as festivals where they would honor their horses. She makes them with trade cloth (a wool cloth) elk skins and French and Czech beads. Each costume is worth between $15,000–$20,000—if you could buy it. She hand picks the elk skins.
“When I buy furs and hides I usually like to see them in person first. When I put the costumes together I have a look that I’m striving for,” she says.
The costumes have all won first or second prizes at National Appaloosa Horse Club world championships.
She spends three to five years on each costume before she is happy with it. “It’s like a living creature. You keep adding to it,” she says. She started riding with the club in 1974 and began doing costumes a few years later.
The costuming is strictly a hobby, or as she calls it, “an addiction, obsession or whatever you want to call it. When the money is not going for the horses, it’s going for the costumes. Some people have therapy—I have beadwork.”
She has never considered doing it as a profession. She is one of a rare few who make the costumes. She knows a few others, but they are scattered far and wide.
“It’s one of those things where—if you get into it as a business—the fun would go out of it. Then you have to satisfy everyone else for their needs instead of doing it because you like it. I could probably go into the business and sell everything I have, but that’s not that appealing,” she says.
Participating in the parade was the reward for many years of work.
“It was something totally different—to be able to get out there and show them off in the Native American costumes,” she says. “It was a once in a lifetime deal, even managing to get selected for it. That was a long process.”
They submitted their application to be in the parade in May. In August they were told they would be in the line-up.
Herzman lives in Bonsall right off Gopher Canyon Road on an acre with her horses and barn.
She does parades to promote the Appaloosa breed beyond the show ring. “A lot of people who don’t have horses like to look at them, to see the Appaloosas in their costumes. Parading is more eye-appealing to spectators if it gets more colorful. That’s how they envision the horses. They want to see the mystique of the horses.”

BLD’s New Menu Offers High End Cuisine at Reasonable Prices

Valley Center’s Valley View Casino’s 24-hour restaurant BLD’s café (which stands for breakfast, lunch and dinner) recently revamped an already impressive menu that offers food that by virtue of presentation and quality will convince you it is high-end—with prices that will definitely not bruise your wallet.
(Note: Don’t miss the $10 Dining Credit in their ad on page 20!)
The motto of this restaurant is “When you’re hungry, we are open,” and with food and prices like this, I could see myself getting hungry at almost any time of the day or night (I do anyway!)
However, since I’m VERY fond of BLD’s Asian offerings (I dote on their Cantonese duck and steamed buns), I decided to try two new Asian menu items: kung pao shrimp, made with peanuts, onion, bell pepper and water chestnuts and shu mai, a dumpling made with steamed shrimp and pork.
I brought along a friend, who ordered chicken marsala, served with garlic potatoes and asparagus in a lovely glazed, rich, brown mushroom sauce and tomato soup with basil, served with a tortilla and topped with mascarpone cheese.
The new menu offers a variety from American favorites to Italian staples to Asian specialties.
The common thread throughout the menu is delicious food and friendly service that makes guests feel at home.
Adam Sacks, director of restaurant services, who oversees things at BLD’s, confirmed that the restaurant goes out of its way to offer a great value, along with TLC guest relations.
“Our point of departure [from other casinos and restaurants, presumably] is the serving of the food,” says Sacks. “We think the dinner experience should be an experience for all of the senses and the wallet is the sixth sense! The flavors, the colors and texture should match the presentation.
“You can have great food and presentation or great presentation without great food. We do both.”
My friend and I noticed that the dishes were not overly salted and mentioned that.
“Yes, you are right, we don’t add a lot of salt. We are happy to salt it up, but we try to create flavors that don’t require a lot of salt,” he said.
Some of the new menu items include chicken fried steak & eggs with two eggs, breakfast potatoes, country sausage gravy and toast for $10.99; deuces wild with two eggs, two strips bacon, two sausage links, two pancakes or French toast for $8.99; and the casino’s signature breakfast feast, steak and eggs featuring grilled New York steak, two eggs, breakfast potatoes and toast for $10.99.
The food was very satisfying, and there was plenty of it, but Sacks insisted that we couldn’t leave without trying some of BLD’s signature desserts.
We tried the six layer chocolate cake, Dutch apple pie topped by a dollop of vanilla gelato, red velvet cake and white chocolate cake with crème fraîche topping.
The desserts at BLD’s, which also include strawberry shortcake and rice pudding range in price from $4.49 to $5.99, and they are big enough to easily share between two or even three.
Mercy! We thought we had died and gone to heaven!
By the way, my Asian dish was excellent, but if you are not into Asian cuisine at the moment, there are lots of other choices at BLDs.
You can start your lunch with your choice of soups or a side salad for just $3.49 including New England clam chowder, chicken matzo ball soup or a mixed green or Caesar salad.
There are five kinds of burgers, all genuine Angus beef, including the classic patty melt with caramelized onions and Swiss cheese on grilled rye bread served with crisp French fries.
There are also traditional sandwiches such as the café club on nine-grain bread with oven-roasted turkey, applewood smoked bacon, fresh avocado, tomato, onion, lettuce and basil mayonnaise served with fries and coleslaw, enough for a meal for just $10.49.
If you want something hot ,there’s the roast turkey platter with mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables, corn bread stuffing and cranberry relish or the fish ‘n’ chips with crispy battered cod, coleslaw and French fries for $12.99.
BLD’s is open Sunday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Visit Valley View Casino online at www.ValleyViewCasino.com for additional information.

Take A Wine Tour In Style!

It’s a moveable celebration on wheels! A limousine tour of the wine country combines convivial friends, great vintages—possibly a gourmet meal—and the mellow, sun kissed hills and valleys of Temecula.
The Temecula Valley wine region is growing up—has grown until there are now 28 wineries, some of which produce reds and whites that compete with the best that the Napa Valley produces.
And, as we all know, California has been competing more or less as an equal with France for some time in the vintage sweepstakes—although those snooty French will never admit it, will they?
So, it’s no wonder that wine tasting tours have come into their own in the last few years in Temecula. And why not? It’s a relaxing, worry-free way to visit top wineries, or those out-of-the-way boutique wineries you have heard so much about, and let someone else drive.
It’s a celebration! Which is how many people who take such tours view it. The most common tours are put together to celebrate weddings, birthdays or anniversaries. Sometimes customers are visitors from out-of-town who want to experience the vintages that the Temecula Valley has to offer.
Wendy Adame, who manages Sterling Price Limousines in Temecula, moved to the area five years ago. During that time she has noticed how dramatically the number of wineries has grown.
Several companies provide wine tours. There’s Louis Derosa of Esquire Limousine Service, who did the first wine tour in the Valley. There’s Executive VIP Shuttle, which provides a variety of wine country tours (see our list of companies at the end of the article).
Although individual wineries also provide shuttles to their venues, private limo services do the bulk of tours of the Valley.
According to Adame, you have four ways of taking a tour:
1) You hire a limousine and tell them what wineries you want to visit and they take you there. The vehicles Sterling Rose offers hold up to about 28 people. Typically this is a private party.
2) You arrive as a visitor and say, “I’ve never been to the wine country. I want you to do the planning , including providing wine tickets and a catered lunch.” In such a case Sterling Rose works with a caterer to provide a picnic lunch that you choose from a menu. The limousine provides winery vouchers so you don’t stand in line and can go straight to the tasting.
An average such tour takes 4–5 hours and visits four wineries. It will run you about $445 for two people in a Town Car. The price per person goes down dramatically with more people. For example, for eight people, your cost goes down to about $120 per person.
Sterling Rose has deals with some of the bigger, most popular wineries, such as South Coast Winery.
3) A third way is to take the tour and partway through, stop for a sit down lunch at a winery restaurant, such as Pinnacle Restaurant at the Falkner Winery. That brings the time on the tour up to six hours.
4) A fourth option is just to take the wine tour without the catered picnic. You can bring your own picnic and your own snacks. For that experience, expect to pay about $350 for two people visiting four wineries. Here also, the price per person goes down dramatically the more people in the group. So, for eight people you would spend about $585.
Prices vary depending on which limo service you choose, but they are all pretty competitive.
Sterling Rose offers tours seven days a week, although Adame recommends a day other than Saturday, because that’s when everyone else is taking tours!
“You are so much more relaxed, and you are not rushed,” she says. “Fridays are good but Sundays are wonderful!” So are weekdays.
The best times of year are spring and fall. It can get up into the 100°s in the summer in Temecula, and drinking wine when it’s that warm can make you a little drowsy!
Sterling Rose will take you to any of the 28 wineries, although some don’t provide vouchers. All that means is that you have to stand in line.
For groups of more than eight, almost all wineries require reservations—they don’t have the staffs to serve large numbers of people at once without some warning.
If you find a wine that you really like and want to drink it in the car—that’s allowed. The limo company also provides water, soft drinks and champagne. Hard liquor is NOT allowed. Neither is drunkenness or rowdy behavior. Hey, it’s not THAT kind of party, OK?
“Sometimes people do overindulge, and we can’t bring intoxicated guests to a winery,” says Adame. “Wineries have strict regulations. They can’t overserve.”
“Of course, you can get a buzz, but not so much that you become obnoxious. That’s when it’s over.”
Wineries don’t encourage a “party” atmosphere. The majority of people who visit are not there to get drunk. They are there to sample the wines and get educated. They want the wine “experience.”
All of Sterling Rose’s dozen drivers are professionals, rigorously screened and tested for drugs and alcohol. They are background checked, have current DMV print-outs and are over 25 years old.
The wineries requested the most often are the South Coast Winery, Falkner, Leonesse and Wiens, and, of course, the oldest winery in the Valley, Bella Vista. Wilson Creek, which makes an almond champagne, is also popular and provides a beautiful area for a picnic.
“Temecula is becoming a little Napa Valley,” says Adame. “A lot of the wineries have won awards and beaten Napa.”
It has started to dawn on people that Temecula Valley is a major player in the vintage game. “They are elegant. They are not producing swill. The level of tasting is going up tremendously,” she says.
If you are considering calling a limousine service, Adame has some advice. “Do some research to make sure that they are legal. Visit the California Public Utilities Commission’s Web site: www.cpuc.ca.gov and and look under transportation. Put in the name of the company that you are considering and make sure that they have an active business number, carry insurance and if they have workers’ comp.”
Do your homework on Temecula’s wineries by visiting www.temeculawines.org. This site lists all of the valley’s wineries. Whichever ones you visit, you are likely to have an unforgettable experience.
“In the last five years, Temecula’s wineries have become a force to be reckoned with!” says Adame.
* * *
To help you put together a wine tasting tour, try the follow limousine services:
Destination Temecula: www.destem.com
Esquire Limousine Service: www.winetourcentral.com, 951-696-8333
Executive VIP Shuttle: www.execvipshuttle.com, 951-304-0412
Going Grape: www.goinggrape.com, 951-852-1923
Grapeline Wine Country Shuttle: www.gogrape.com, 951-693-5755
Sterling Rose Transportation: www.sterlingroselimo.com, 951-699-9151
West Coast Chauffeur and Transportation: www.wctrans.com, 951-926-1902
Wine Country Trails By Horseback, Inc.: www.winecountrytrailsbyhorseback.com, 951-795-1444
For more information visit the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Assn.’s Web site at www.temeculawines.org.

Make Way For Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday conjures up images of bowls of salsa and chips, buffalo wings, those hugh hoagie sandwiches cut up into neat little slices, BBQ, dogs and hamburgers on the grill and, of course, football. All shared with you and some of your best buddies. However for some, not me, Super Bowl Sunday is another kind of a day all together. Maybe you just don’t like football, or maybe you need to work on that special relationship with that special someone. So if your team doesn’t make it to the big game, heaven forbid, and you’re upset enough to swear off of football until next August when your hopes can be trashed again, make the best of the day, score some points on your own.
Tell your significant other that your going to make the supreme sacrifice, because you love her dearly, and are going to take her to the mall for some serious shopping. Just think, the mall to yourselves on Super Bowl Sunday, sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Just don’t tell her that the team you wanted in the game isn’t there and that’s why you just can’t stand to watch it. Believe me, you can score a lot of points with this mall thing.
Or you can take your sweetie for an early Valentine’s dinner at that special restaurant, no reservations required on Super Bowl Sunday. Just make sure there isn’t a bar or lounge where you could get caught sneaking looks at the game. If you’re worried about a casual glimpse of the game, go to the movies. Take her to that chick flick that you have so successfully avoided, again the supreme sacrifice for you honey, a chick flick on Super Bowl Sunday, I love you so much! Just think no standing in line for popcorn.
How about a nice picnic on the beach? Enjoy a nice fresh salad, a little wine, a casual walk, and enjoy a beautiful sunset. Isn’t this better than a hot dog loaded up with onions, peppers and a beer in front of your giant screen HD TV with your good buddies enjoying the most important sporting event of the year?
Of course, if you can stand to be in the same room with a TV and not turn it on, get out that dusty monopoly game, get your sweetie and a couple of friends and see who can build the first hotel on Boardwalk.
So there’s your ticket for love and romance, you heard it here first. As for me, I’m popping the top, enjoying the dog, trashing my stomach on salsa and chips and doing it in the company of my best buddies right there in front of the TV.

 

The Boulevard Magazine
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688