My wife and I have just returned from an all too short, but well-deserved long weekend / vacation. I have a very good friend and co-worker who has a home in the Santa Ynez Valley who was gracious enough to rent us her house for a few days for a getaway.

The Santa Ynez Valley, and it's quaint towns such as Los Alamos, Solvang, Santa Ynez, Los Olivos, Buellton, and some others are famously known for their great vineyards. Not to be confused with the Napa Valley, my friend Kathryn says "Napa makes auto parts. Santa Ynez makes great wine!" This statement couldn't be closer to the truth.

The area is also known quite well as the setting for the movie Sideways. I will admit, it's on my list of favorite all time movies - and I'm somewhat related to one of the writers (who's worked with Alexander Payne on other movies - I've never met him, but my dad knows his dad, etc, etc...), but the locals seem to have a love / hate relationship with it. I found that while out there, being able to say we were staying at a local friend's house got us much further than saying "oh, we just loved the movie and had to come out!" which, believe it or not, I heard a lot. In fact, when we decided to go out, I didn't even realize the association with the movie until after I had booked tickets, all on our friend's claims of how much she loves living there.

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