For a town of roughly 30,000 people, Paso Robles is crazy busy and as I have stated before…it’s hard to decide what to partake in and what to skip. There is always something happening downtown, at a winery, at a restaurant, at a brewery, or some other place around town. Here are a few things you may not have heard about but should know about.
November 29th – Light the Downtown
November 30th – Broken Earth Winery Holiday Lighting Program– 6 to 9pm. Check out the link because they are doing A LOT that night and it goes to benefit must! charities. (Disclaimer: I work for Broken Earth Winery and do some pro bono work for must! charities, that said, I REALLY hope you go to this event…pretty please?!?!)
December 7th – Paso Robles Downtown Christmas Light Parade
December 14th – Vine Street Victorian Showcase
December 31st – Glow in the Park New Year’s Eve Celebration
A couple of other really cool tidbits for Paso Robles, aside from receiving the “Wine Region of the Year” award from Wine Enthusiast magazine for 2013 are…
The 2014 Wine Bloggers Conference will be held in Santa Barbara (July 11-13), granted that is not Paso Robles but I already have word that many media/ blogger folks will be stopping in Paso Robles and hanging out a bit. This is great news because it will give Paso even more online exposure but it will also bring a little extra revenue…and we like revenue.
It was very recently announced that the 2014 Wine Tourism Conference will be held in Paso Robles (the host hotel is the Paso Robles Inn). This conference will be held from November 12-14 and in my estimation will bring not only revenue to the city but bring tons of exposure. Both this conference and the Wine Bloggers Conference only add to the significance of Paso Robles and show how important this area has become. I know some people may hate the added tourism but I’m not sure what else to say other than get over it.
The secret is out, Paso Robles is on the map.
With all of that out of the way…today is Thanksgiving. I don’t know what I think about today, truth is…I guess I don’t. I mean, I do and I don’t. To me, being thankful needs to happen on as many days as we can remind ourselves to be thankful. Marking a day on the calendar and calling it “Thanksgiving” does not remind me to be thankful, instead it reminds me to be thankful more often.
It makes me think of the things I am not content with in life and fix them. It also makes me think about the endless number of people that are less fortunate than I am. It makes me think of our soldiers that are off protecting our freedom and do not have the opportunity to spend this day with their families. It makes me think about how much we have bastardized the meaning of this time of year. It makes me think about how sad it is for all those people that think Black Friday and “deals” are more important than sitting the hell down and relaxing.
That said, Happy Thanksgiving to all those that read this and celebrate this holiday. I hope you are with family and friends and not with strangers at WalMart or Best Buy. I am thankful to all of you that take the time out to read the ramblings I write…it means a lot to me. Have a great Thanksgiving and weekend!
Wow! So many events taking place locally, as well as new honors received for Paso Robles! Thanks for the heads-up! Great rant on Thanksgiving too. I totally agree! Happy Thanksgiving, Matt & Annie (and Little Browne too!). I hope your day involves plenty of relaxation and several awesome bottles of Paso Robles’ wine! ^_^
Thank you, Diane and a very Happy Thanksgiving to you. 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving to you, Annie and Sammy Liberty! Enjoy the day with family and friends and we will see you at many of the events you noted!
I am sure we will see you at the events, Steve! Happy Thanksgiving, your turkey was looking good!
It’s crazy. Every year I can’t wait until the holiday season so we don’t have to be out selling wine in the heartland. Then it gets here and all hades breaks out. Tasting room so busy we can’t handle it and all I do is tell people we’re doing the best we can with 9 people working the TR, and there is so much else going on that it is just crazy. Now I understand Scrooge. Bad Hamburg.
LOL…you guys are doing awesome, Gary! No worries. With 9 people working the tasting room the customers should just be patient at this point!! 🙂
Ya think? Come on out and watch patience at work.