CA wines/festivals/wine shops - Help!

[lizardbrains]

I have the opposite problem as Serengeti. Due to my husband's military transfer, I have moved to Oceanside, CA from Pensacola, FL! I'm glad to finally have wines available to be shipped to me. (Being in a wine club is difficult when living in FL, because I found that nobody wants to ship to FL!)

Though I'm originally from CA, I moved away when I turned 18, so I really don't know the area. I'm living 1/2 way between San Diego and L.A. I'm looking for ways to become more experienced in wine: going to wine festivals, visiting wineries, buying at good wine shops, etc. Does anybody have any suggestions for me? I'm not sure how to find wine festivals in my area. The billboards say that Temecula is "Wine Country", so I think it's a place I'd like to visit, but I'm not even sure where I'd go once I got to Temecula!!! EEK!

Also, I remember that somebody on here is the owner of a REALLY cool wine shop/warehouse-type-place, but I'm forgetting who it is and where it's at. Can anybody refresh my memory? It sounded like a great place to go to buy wine, but at the time I didn't think we'd be getting stationed in CA so I didn't pay much attention.

I'd appreciate any help from you guys. You've really been helpful to me in learning more about wine (I'm almost done with Wine For Dummies!), and you've been very patient with my questions!!! [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]