Chanra's Bicycle Racing Team

Our friend Chanra in Siem Reap, Cambodia, participated in a mountain biking race this past weekend. He finished 16 out of 150 riders. Chanra is the one in the orange jersey holding up the bicycle. That's his wife in some of the photos.

Our friends John and Pauline recently returned from a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. They met Chanra when they arrived in Siem Reap. Coincidentally, their tour guide rented bicycles for them from Chanra. Little did they know that they helped Chanra (and me) make some money.

Barrel Tasting the Good Stuff

Our friends Margot and JP are over from Australia. They spent the Thanksgiving holiday on the East Coast and then headed to LA before their long flight back to Sydney.

We took them up to Santa Barbara County for a night to do some wine tasting, enjoy the scenery, and sample some good food.

We spent a couple of hours at Tantara Winery outside of Santa Maria. We last visited Tantara about three years ago. This is the winery where we know one of the owners.


We sampled various Pinot Noirs, Syrahs and Chardonnays from the barrels for about two hours. Fortunately, we didn't have to drive back to LA that night.





After the barrel tasting experience, we headed to Solvang to spend the night and had dinner at The Hitching Post in Buellton. This restaurant was made famous in the movie "Sideways" and is famous for their wood grilled dishes. We did NOT order Merlot (the big joke in the movie).