Day 2 around Costaklis

Then it turns out much of today was worth writing about as well, so here goes. Our morning started with a walk along the river to the farmers’ market about 10 minutes away. One of the things I most love about living here in the Willamette Valley is that there’s a farmers market almost every day, and the one here in Corvallis is very nice – about the same number of fruit and veggie vendors as Hillsboro’s, with not quite as many food and craft places. My goal was peaches, because Oregon peaches are the best, and I did well there. I also bought some table grapes, but the absolute star of the market was the 3.03 lb orange watermelon I bought from Gathering Together Farm – yes, the same place where we ate last night. To save Dave’s shoulder I carried it home, and it is a thing of great beauty and charm. It lends itself to being an imaginary bowling ball, shot put, and arcade basketball, and in the elevator on the way up to our room I also realized it makes a tremendous goddess globe. I don’t know if I’ll be able to eat it when the time comes, I love it so much.

Once I managed to put the watermelon down we headed off for our day. Our first destination, driving around the OSU campus, was not very exciting, although we did see the stadium where they play football and the giant beaver store across the street. They were doing much construction, so getting around was tricky, Then we headed off to Mary’s Peak, the highest point on the coast range, which is a scenic botanical area and a Fodor’s choice. The drive up is quite pretty – it was logged some time ago and has more deciduous trees than we’re used to, so the greens were very varied and the views were good too. What was not good was the signage and the trail maps, which were pretty much useless until after you knew where you were. We managed to find the gravel drive up to the peak which was well worth the walk, because the scenic botanical area turns out to be a large and beautiful meadow surrounded by noble firs. We took the trail down, but chose the least good of the 3 possible (unmarked) trails, which involved a very steep descent on a bare dirt path with lots of slipping and sliding. Once we crossed the road, though, the trail wended its way through more meadow and down into the firs and was lovely. Faithful readers know that I’ve had some knee trouble on similar hikes. I did not have any such troubles today, and I am hopeful that some physical therapy is responsible for that, and it wasn’t just that the hike wasn’t long enough.

  

We went to downtown Corvallis for lunch, a place I'd never been where they don't allow bicycles or slugs - it was a good thing we didn't have Tim with us. We ate at Block 15, a totally forgettable brewpub with a major fly infestation, and then went back to the room for some very good napping. After napping I did the Nia routine Feeling with the video while Dave did travel writery things.

Dinner was in Albany, about 20 miles away. It was super easy to get to – turn right out of the hotel parking lot, drive 20 miles on hwy 20, then turn right and the restaurant is on the left. The drive was quintessentially Willamette Valley – one lane each way beside a river, with lots of rolling hills and trees and farms, not too much traffic, and the constant possibility of getting stuck behind a piece of farm machinery. I mentioned it to Dave and he said it was missing a winery – so moments later we saw the blue sign for Springhill Winery (we used to be big fans of their Mer Vin but we’ve moved on). Because in the Willamette valley, what you want always happens.

Dinner was at Sybaris, and I would give it a solid 4 stars. The appetizers and entrees were very good, but lacking that whatever that makes food truly memorable. There were, however, some things which were 5s. Our server, who was very engaging, and the wine, a 2007 chateuneuf-du-pape that was completely memorable even if it didn’t have the glass seal on the bottle (which explains why it was not as expensive as many c-d-p’s). Also the dessert, the 2014 Liberace, which was Valrhona chocolate sorbet, salted caramel gelato, coffee granita, hazelnut oil ice cream,  foamed milk and chocolate ice cream in the kind of stemmed metal ice cream dish that they had at Friendly’s when I was a kid (only this one was silver), with chocolate filled macaroons pasted to the outside with chocolate. It turns out that if you finish it and then pour your coffee in the bowl the attaching chocolate melts enough that you can lick the macaroons off the side. Or so I’m told – I would never do something like that. Well, I blame Nia for training me to always ask the question, “what can I do to make this even more delicious and wonderful?”

Then I drove us back through the warm sunset next to the river to our hotel, with only one scary moment of not being sure where the lanes were exactly. The hotel has a parking garage under it that’s mostly empty, unlike the above ground parking lot, so I parked in our favorite spot by the elevator and we went to the room where I communed with my watermelon. Another good day in the mid valley.