Just a little more

You’d think we were done, since it was checkout day, but we’ve changed our checkout process. Dave and I were at Pig’n before 8, and got seated and served very quickly. We ordered our usual, but for the first time ever I couldn’t finish my second pig in a blanket. It reminded me of the time Ben and Joan came to visit and Ben ordered too much food.

We got back and Jen was headed out for coffee. We got packed and loaded the car up, but it seemed like it was a little too early to get going, so we hung out for a half hour or so. Then we hopped in the car and drove to the watershed for a nice hike. We discovered this hike when we were staying in Cannon Beach in September, and it’s a pretty hike with a steady uphill climb. 

We found it on AllTrails, and it really shows how AllTrails does their hikes, because the trail line on the map just ends, while the road goes on. We are curious if there is a connection to Tolovana. In the summer we crossed a small stream towards the end of the hike, and we were a little concerned about it the whole way back. It turned out we were right to be concerned, because it was no longer a small stream, it was a big stream and much higher than our boot tops. We debated turning around and going back to the turnoff, but we were hungry (for the first time this trip) and it seemed too far. So we took off our boots, rolled up our pants, and crossed over. It was VERY COLD. Once on the other side Dave gave up his waffle weave shirt to be our towel, and we got our shoes back on (not without difficulty) and our pants rolled down (this was particularly challenge for Jen in her skinny leg jeans) and finished the hike.

Lunch at Bill’s was an excellent reward, and the drive home was uneventful.

That is the end!

A Good Day with Good News

Dave and I started with a nice walk on the beach and through town, then there was relaxing until it was time to walk down to Pelican for lunch. Today was supposed to be an even kinglier tide than yesterday, but during our morning walk which was at about the same relative time as yesterday the waves were much further out, and the breaking waves far out seemed smaller. We were able to walk on the beach all the way to the beach bike ramp, which again we wouldn’t have been able to do. We were too early for lunch, so Dave and Josh stayed at the ramp to see if things would get more royal while Jen and I walked up to Miska to visit the angry chicken paintings, which I should have bought several years ago when they were merely expensive. Oh well. We got to Pelican before they did, and told the servers that the other two in our party were delayed because they were doing manly things in honor of the king tides.

Lunch at Pelican was good – Jen says their clam chowder wins for best tasting, but it’s thicker than I like. I had a banh mi sandwich which was quite good. Dave managed to be happy there, resigned to both their prices and their ABVs being higher than he thinks is necessary. We split up after lunch, and I stopped at the gallery next to Bald Eagle where I found many mugs I liked. I had choice paralysis and ended up not getting any. I also stopped at Icefire and saw them blow one of the gin and tonic glasses start to finish – it’s a nice short project.

When I got home everybody was there. We relaxed a bit and then Dave and I headed out to do some shopping for him in town. There used to be a shop called “El Mundo for Men”, and every year he’d get his casual clothes for the year there. They closed, but a new shop called Maggie & Henry’s opened, and then he got his yearly casual (and cotton oxford shirts) there. Now they have closed and it turns out there is nowhere in town for him to get his casual clothes, so when the ones he has wear out he will have to go naked.

We were going to head home but I hadn’t been to Dragon Fire yet, so we went through there, where we saw a lot of things we liked. A Willamette View resident used to have some of her (wildly expensive) abstract art for sale there, so I always like to visit it. This year they had what looked like the same kind of pictures in that spot but it’s a completely different artist. Still expensive.

The house is between Taft and 1^st, so we went up to Taft to avoid unnecessary elevation loss. EVOO restaurant used to be on the corner there – it was sold at the beginning of this month. So Dave went to look in the window to see if he could see anything happening, and the new owners were in there working and came out to chat. In a true Miracle on Taft Avenue, it turns out that they are the previous chef/owners of Calypso, one of the restaurants whose name is recited on the list of Restaurants of Blessed Memory. Hooray! They plan on opening in January, so we are excited to come see them. There’s also a possibility of Dave teaching wine classes there, which would be totally cool.

Then it was relaxing until almost time for dinner, with a short break for our 4th sunset of the trip. No green flash tonight, but we still can't believe how clear it's been. Josh has to work on Monday so he would be leaving after dinner, and in order to fit Jen in our car we needed to send a bunch of stuff home with him. So we got that stuff packed up and had our last showers (excellent water pressure, not a big enough hot water tank) and took two cars to the Stephanie Inn for our goodbye dinner.

The building was very nicely decorated for Christmas with white icicle lights outlining all the edges; it looks a lot like a classy wedding cake. The multi-colored net lighting on the bushes is a little out of place but very cheery.  The dining room was redecorated last year as well and no longer looks quite so much like your grandfather’s dining room at the Club. It had a big Christmas tree with all-white decorations set up against the front window and felt very festive. Dinner was very good, and both the pork and sole entrees were equally good, which is unusual. The Pavlova for dessert was weird, but everyone had a good time.

We all ended up coming back to the house as the restrooms were occupied at the Stephanie Inn. Then Josh headed home (he got there around 8:40, as predicted) and we watched the original Miracle on 34^th Street movie which was very good but we missed the singing. And then it was bedtime of our last night.

Yes, we did end up falling in love with the house, mostly because of the location, but also because it’s a nice, comfortable place. Would recommend.

Here are two pictures I like very much from the Miska Gallery

King Tides & The Coaster

There are king tides this weekend, so Dave and I went for a walk to see them. We went down the bech access path just north of us and walked around the point towards Ecola creek. There was not a lot of sand between the water and the point, it was pretty impressive. The creek was completely under water, and there was only a thin strip of sand between the water and the walls in front of the Waves motel. Water had clearly come all the way up to the walls, but we didn’t think much of it and kept going. 

You can see where we had some excitement!

As we were walking past one of the walls a big wave came in and tried to get us wet! We did the thing where you see the wave so you walk a little faster, and then a little faster, until eventually we were flat out running – at which point my hat blew off my head! Fortunately Dave was a little behind me and was able to grab it on the fly. We made it past the wall just in time! I might have done a little shrieking.

We walked up to the nature trail (stopping in to look at Hipnest, the newest home décor shop in the area), and then took the nature trail past the sewer ponds to midtown. We went down to the beach bike access ramp and the water was coming all the way up to the wall there. There were king tides last year when we were here and they were a letdown – these have been very good.

We walked back to the house and when we got there the kids were out and about. I went out to the back lawn and there they were walking by on the beach. Dave came out and we watched the waves for a while – they’re very big and splashy, like surfing waves, throwing up lots of spray. At one point I was watching an older couple who were standing on the beach taking pictures of the shore, with their backs to the waves. They were too far away to yell at but I did keep repeating “don’t turn your back on the waves” as a big wave came in and soaked them up to their knees. They didn’t seem too put out, although it must have been very cold!

We’ve never stayed at a place this close to the beach AND town and it’s super nice cool. We have first dibs on this house for next year and if it’s not being renovated we may very well be here.

Josh and Jen got back and we had some relaxing before lunch at Warren House. Our original plan was to walk there but the tides were too kingly, so we drove instead. The weather continues to be chilly but clear, and it was warm enough on the Warren House deck to eat outside. Josh would like it recorded that while the ribeye sandwich was tasty, if you ordered it without the blue cheese and mushroom add-ons it would just be a piece of meat on a bun.

The tide had gone out enough that Dave and I decided to walk back to the house. J&J drove the car back and then went into town for some more tasting at the distillery. They got a bottle or two and came back to the house to drop it off, then headed back into town for more shopping and also ice cream. This house is just super convenient. Meanwhile Dave did some napping while I got caught up on writing and did some knitting.

Dave and I each made one more trip into town, him for batteries and me for a short #6 circular needle. We were both successful (Dave also found Tillamook mudslide ice cream sandwiches) and continued on with our relaxing afternoon. We all went outside to celebrate sunset with our 3^rd consecutive green flash, a record which I can’t imagine will ever be beaten.

Dinner was at Bistro, very tasty as always. The timing was about perfect for us to get to the Coaster for Miracle on 34^th Street, which none of us had ever seen. The production was true Coaster and we all enjoyed it – well, maybe not Josh, but he kept his thoughts to himself. They seem to have had trouble getting enough adults to commit, so about a third of the cast were middle and elementary school students. This was particularly fun in the card game scene (“She hadda go back”) where all 3 of Fred’s card playing buddies were kids wearing large fake moustaches. Cameron Lira, our favorite leading lady, doesn’t seem to be doing Coaster productions anymore. We were nervous because the show’s lead actress, Emily Dante, was Dorothy in the Coaster’s 2017 version of Wizard of Oz that was absolutely terrible, but she has gotten much better and was fun to watch.

It's only two blocks from the Coaster to the house, so we were home moments after the show ended. After a short duolingo break (Dave and I are both trying to get into the diamond league finals) we watched the Garfield Thanksgiving special and then it was bedtime.

Friday with a twist

Our bed is small (a double) and comfortable, but the pillows are terrible. We slept well anyway. Josh and Jen were in the queen sized bed upstairs and couldn’t figure out how to turn the radiator off, so they didn’t sleep as well as we did. Fortunately there are more bedrooms so they will try a different one tonight.

Dave and I had pie for breakfast, then walked on the beach down to midtown. We popped out there to use the public restrooms and also to see the restaurant “coming soon” that we both remembered seeing this summer. It was in the same parking lot as the Speakeasy, which we will never go to because it is CRAZY expensive and each person is required to order their own entrée which we are now too old to believe in. The sign says the restaurant is called Flatbread Fred’s and it is still coming soon, which makes us think maybe it is not coming at all.

When we got back to the house the kids were at Morris’ Fireside for breakfast, which Josh thought was good and Jen thought was meh. I went into town to do some Black Friday shopping and found some good shirts and a pair of pants at Ter Hars. I took my purchases back to the house and we all walked over for our annual family yoga class at Cannon Beach Yoga Arts. It is one of my favorite traditions; we do lots of twisting poses designed to make more room for pie. All that twisting also makes my back feel really good.

We got done with yoga at 12:15, which always makes us a little nervous that we won’t get into Bill’s, but there were still two booths on the adult side when we got there. Earlier, Jen had pointed out to Dave that we’re lucky we don’t have to worry about finding a table on the minor’s side, a reverse nag that he and I thought was very daring. Not much to say about Bill’s except it was its usual excellent self.

After lunch we all headed for Bruce’s where I got salt water taffy and salty licorice for myself and some gifts to send to absent offspring, and Josh and Jen got a mega-assortment of gummies and some chocolate truffles. Dave and Josh took the candy back to the house (that was the plan, at least) while Jen and I stopped at the knitting store (we touched all the yarn), the toy store, and the store with exceptional things that is where Maggie and Henry’s used to be. We had a funny moment at the exceptional things store (I can’t remember what it’s called) where a woman was trying on a very handsome corduroy coat and her friend was asking her “how many coats can a person need?” and I said “how many days are in a year” and the coat-buyer was quite pleased. Then it turned out the coat was even on sale (I verified the price tag) for $29 which was just amazing. I feel like every time she wears the coat she’ll think of me.

When we got back to the house the door was locked (there’s only one key to the house, but it’s in a combination locked box by the door so that works). We checked life 360 and sure enough Dave and Josh were at Pilot Distillery doing a tasting. They liked the gins and some of the infused vodkas but not the whiskey, even though it is aged in barrels that are lashed to ocean going fishing boats for a year.

Then it was relaxing time at home until dinner at Castaways, which is a nice walk from here. It’s cold and Dave didn’t want to mess up his hair with a hat so he was a little chilled when we got there, but a warm welcome from our usual waiter made him feel much better. The food and drinks at Castaways went through a doldrums period but since Covid have really perked up; the menu is very tempting even if the jambalaya has disappeared. Dinner was fun and we didn’t have dessert. Josh told the waiter no before Dave could order the brownie with ice cream – he says if we want to order chocolate desserts we need the other brother).

The walk home felt much warmer, and after a brief duolingo break we broke out an escape game from a new manufacturer, only to discover that it needed batteries (??!). So we did one from a series that we’ve done many from before. It was a difficulty level 2, which is a bit too easy. The last time we did one it was a level 3 and it was too hard, so now we know level 2.5 is where we want to be. It was a fun game and we escaped from the haunted roller coaster with all of us having both flashes of brilliance and moments of total incomprehension.

Then it was finally time for group pie and relaxing. It wasn't much of a picture taking day.

Thanksgiving at Thayer

Because of Cannon Beach rental rules, the rental for our house couldn’t start until Thursday. The rental agency called Wednesday night and said the house was ready and we could get there “as early as we wanted”, and I wondered if that meant (wink, wink) that we could go on Wednesday night. It didn’t matter because we weren’t ready anyway.

Our rental this year is Thayer house at 123 Laurel, just a couple blocks west of the Coaster Theater. It’s the best location of any house we’ve ever rented, close to town and on the beach. It’s also badly in need of a facelift – it just looks old and tired inside. That said, it’s very comfortable and super convenient to town (did I mention that) and everything works and we’re happy to be here.

We left home a little after 9 and were here and unpacked by 11. Jen made the traditional Stromboli (if it starts to get brown too soon, cover it with tinfoil and keep baking) which we had with a bag of salad. After lunch Dave prepared the bird and the rest of us relaxed. I started working on the first sleeve for my Dubioza sweater, which I worked out the chart for and which I am hoping will go well. Once the bird was in, Dave and I went for a walk down towards midtown, but turned back when Dave’s turkey sense told him the turkey was starting to get too brown and needed to be tented.

We came back on the beach road that goes past Captain Kellogg’s (aka Crab Shack), where we stayed two years ago, and Sea Forever which is next door to CK aka CS where we stayed last year. Faithful readers will recall that we stayed at Sea Forever last year because we couldn’t rent CK/CS because it was being “renovated”, and it turned out that in fact it had been torn down and a new house was being built on the lot. We’re staying at Thayer this year because Sea Forever was being “renovated”, and when we walked by it sure was – the balcony on the second floor is mostly removed and the door leading out to it is boarded over, and the entire inside has been gutted, including removing several of the walls. With a track record like this, we would not be surprised if Thayer is the next in line for renovations.

Anyway, when we got back to the house Josh was just checking the turkey, which he said was starting to "smell brown". I am amazed to be among people with such strong turkey senses. Eventually it was time for Josh and Jen to join Dave in prepping the other meal ingredients – 

Jen does the mashed potatoes and Josh does the gravy and the grandma salad (with honeycrisp apples this year – we all agree they’re better than the traditional golden delicious). We all took a break to go out and watch the sunset. Although there were clouds on the horizon the sun set through a gap in them and there was even a small green flash. Then back in and back to work. Dave has the timing down even working with a different oven every year, and we sat down to dinner a little before 6, as planned. After dinner we got the leftovers put away and the kitchen cleaned up, and then there was a little game playing in which I didn’t win anything. But I did beat Josh at Trouble – we were 2^nd and 3^rd losers. Jen won, of course, because she used up all the threes.

We were all too full for pie, even after all the game playing and duolingo-ing and reading. So we went to bed without eating any. This has never happened before.

Napa 5 Last Dinner in Napa and Going Home

We'd been looking forward to tonight's food adventure at Press since Dave made the reservation. They have two menus, a 7 course pairing chef’s tasting menu and a 4 course menu where you choose your plates. We went with the 4 course menu, and the first wonderful thing is that our waiter Vince (who’d only been at Press for about a month – “we’ll learn together,” he said) was able to do ½ glass wine pairings for Dave.

For the first course, I had a fluke crudo which was really delicious, perfectly balanced and beautiful, but Dave’s “chips and dip” of deep-fried salmon skin “chips” and an avocado kosho dip was off the charts spectacular. The salmon skin was seasoned with something totally yummy, and the artichoke dip got more interesting as we ate it. Second course for me was the best beef tartare I’ve ever eaten, served with little orbs of deep-fried naan that were a perfect complement. Dave’s gnudi in parmesan broth were like puffy cheese matzo balls in the best way imaginable, little balls of perfection in an amazingly tasty broth with thin shavings of Burgundian truffles on top. All of these dishes were quite small portions, enough to share (we swapped plates ½ way through) but not enough to get tired of.

And then the mains came, and the perfect evening crashed to a halt. My steak, recommended by Vince, was undercooked, oversized, and, frankly, boring. It came with a tasty bite of eggplant and a sticky, too-sweet sauce. It would have been disappointing even if Dave hadn’t had a perfectly sized and seasoned steak in his tasting menu at Goose and Gander. Dave’s black cod was better, perfectly cooked and very tasty, but again not the fascinating, I-need-another-bite kind of delightful exploration of the first two courses.

I know you’re dying to know about dessert; Dave had a cheese “plate” that was more like a salad, very interesting but not totally successful. I had a chocolate crème with an orange semifreddo that lived up to the first two courses – it was spot on delicious.

The service was wonderful, with plates and silverware and glasses of wine appearing and disappearing. A similar ballet to the night before at Don Giovanni’s, except here the server-to-customer ration was much smaller. The restaurant is very pretty and comfortable and ¾ of the food was fabulous. Would we go again? Still wondering.

Wednesday

Since we’re doing the drive home in two 6 hour days (give or take), we had time to go for a hike (about 3 miles) this morning in the Napa-Bothe State Park. We paid our $10 day use fee (yes, it’s in Napa) and headed toward the top of Coyote Peak. We are usually goal oriented hikers but in this case we knew we were going to have to turn back early to be on the road by 10-ish, so we ended up only going about ½ way up the trail – we stopped when it got steep for the second time. We came back through the campsite, which is really wonderful and reservable, including some yurts and cabins. Wine and wine tasting in Napa have gotten so expensive, we’re not sure if we’ll come again, but if we do a yurt or cabin at Napa-Bothe is a real possibility.

We ate breakfast and got packed up and were on the road by 10:10. We used the Rachel Method of stopping every 45 minutes or so, and got to Yreka about 4. We are staying at the Best Western Miner’s Inn, which is the first hotel we ever stayed at with Josh and is also where the phrase “Is the baby happy? Is the baby safe? Then don’t bother the baby” comes from. I found Strings Italian Café within easy walking distance of the hotel and we had a very satisfactory dinner. When we got there the restaurant looked completely empty, but it turns out there are two rooms you can’t see from the street and it was the happenin’ place to be in Yreka, which also has some art galleries and is a more interesting place than we thought.

It got very cold overnight – frost on the car – but a satisfactory night at the Best Western and a relatively easy drive home with the now usual number of stops, including lunch at Plank Town. A couple things to remember are that the dirty salad at Plank Town is delicious; get the roasted garlic vinaigrette on the side. The nachos are good but not worth having again. And I-5 stops being curvy at Cottage Grove.

Napa 4 With a surprise visitor

We both went to breakfast, although it was just scrambled eggs today. Then we went for a short walk around the Bale Grist Mill, which once we found the start of the trail was a really nice walk through some undeveloped land just a couple miles north of our hotel. 

Our first wine stop was Honeig winery, our best find of the trip. Our guide, Edgar, took us in a golf cart tour of their vineyard. They have a lot of similarities to David Hill and it was really interesting to see how they do things. We had a nice Sauv Blanc during the vineyard tour; many wineries here heavily oak their Sauv Blanc in a style sometimes called fume blanc. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much – it worked very well here. After the tour we went inside and did a nice tasting of mostly Cabs, which were delicious, and a late harvest Sauv Blanc & a port-style Cab, all very good. Edgar had a lot of good things to say about Hoenig. “It’s the last winery I’ll ever work for” is what he told us, which for a second I thought meant he was done working at wineries, but he clarified that he planned to work there until he retired. Like Black Stallion, they purchase almost all of their fruit; unlike Black Stallion they are laser focused on Sauv Blanc and Cab.

Next stop was Gott’s roadside (AKA Taylor’s Refresher) for burgers for lunch. When we drove by yesterday it was jammed – we hit it just right, arriving just before the crowds. The burgers are very yummy. And then it was time for our last winery stop, Rombauer. Yes, the same as the Joy of Cooking Rombauers, although they just sold to Gallo. They’re known for their oaky, buttery chardonnays and big jammy zinfandels. Their wines are still oaky, buttery, and jammy, but the trend towards “restrained and elegant” that has swept through Napa Valley like a plague (if I wanted restrained and elegant I’d stay in Pinot Noir country – I want a big old honkin’ red) has even gotten to Rombauer. Still, pretty good stuff – we came away with a couple of bottles of zin and a cab. I was really excited to go to Rombauer to see if my strong memory of their tasting room was accurate. It was inconclusive, but it’s probably a strong memory of somewhere else, which makes the copy of Joy of Cooking on a shelf over the windows at the place I remember a little hard to explain.

Back to our hotel for a short rest and then down to Napa for a Surprise Visit with the Bro! We went for a walk at Kennedy Park near the river and had ice cream at Foster’s, and talked. It is good to have a brother who will drive over an hour just to walk and talk and have ice cream.

After we sent Ben on his way we drove back up the valley for a more relaxing in our wonderful hotel room, and then it was time for our food adventure at Press.  You'll need to read the next blog to find out what happened there!

Napa 3 - With Automation

As often happens when we travel, Dave skipped breakfast. I did not, and was rewarded with some sort of delightful breakfast egg custard which I hope they have again tomorrow. The rains had paused so we took a walk around the grounds and across the path to Freemark Abbey – the grounds are very pretty and we enjoyed the walk.

Our first appointment was at Trefethen and included a short walk in their “zoo” vineyard – a small block with lots of different varietals. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and engaging and clearly enjoyed doing what he was doing. Although he was from Kansas, he also had New Zealand accent when he chose. His information ranged all over, from the history of the winery to grape growing in the Valley to information about the various wines. During the tasting someone asked him about the “best” wine, and he answered that it was like zebras and giraffes – which is best? I’m stealing that. We enjoyed the tasting, although in general the wines were not quite what we were looking for, just not to our palate.

We had a little time to kill so we drove back to St Helena to walk along their main street, which we’ve driven through a lot and always thought it looked interesting. It was interesting, but not nearly as interesting as the public toilets WITH AUTOMATION. I’ll do my best to describe it but if you can get to St Helena you should definitely stop and go, if you get my meaning. So first you walk down an alley to a parking lot and there is a kind of lean-to looking building with buttons, and you push the button and a door slides open. Inside is another button flashing green that says “push to lock”, which after you do the door slides closed and a voice announces that the door is locked and you have 10 minutes. Such pressure! The toilet has a sign that it will flush automatically when you a) wash your hands or b) unlock the door. Also this whole time jaunty jazzy muzak is playing. The sink is in a recess in the wall, with automatic places for soap, water, and air drying. The air dryer is so loud that I had to yell and leap backwards when it came on. I was loathe to leave but I’d done all I needed to, so I pushed the button and the door slid open. What an experience!We did a little window shopping and did not spend $3.25 on a single small chocolate truffle, then hopped in the car. On the way we got stopped by the Napa Wine Train. We’d thought about doing a lunch aboard the Napa Wine Train – it sounds like a fun afternoon – until we found out that the lunches start at over $300 per person and go up (and up) from there. We were pleased to see, as the train passed, that it was mostly empty. Good grief!

Our next stop was Black Stallion, and when our pourer found out we were from Oregon and knew something about wine he put together a custom tasting of 9 wines for us, and he chose well because we bought 5 of them. There was a flight of 4 cabs – no lyft or uber, he told us. They also had what they called an education vineyard, short rows of different varietals, which was fun to go and taste grapes from – we’re just at the end of harvest. Unlike Trefethen and our next stop, Regusci, they have a small estate vineyard but buy most of their grapes for the 30 wines they make.

We again had a little time to kill before our next stop (as a tasting room employee I love reservations; as a consumer not so much) but we decided just to go and if they couldn’t serve us right away we’d just hang out. It turned out they could. It’s an interesting pre-prohibition winery whose original owners got caught bootlegging, and the current owners bought it from the bank and turned it into a dairy farm. A few years before the judgement of Paris they’d decided to try growing grapes, so they were well situated when the wine industry in Napa took off. The wine was interesting, especially a cab sauv aged in so much American oak that it tasted like coconuts and cherry cola. We both liked their Merlot. On the way out we walked through their beautiful vegetable garden and stopped at their farm wagon and picked up a little produce – a few walnuts, a persimmon, and some peppers.

We had a break back at our hotel before dinner. Our room (Winery House room 1) really is lovely; it’s a corner room with double doors out to a small balcony, and the two comfy chairs and sunshine coming in through the windows makes it especially nice. I have to admit there are times while we’re out that all I want to do is go back to the hotel and put on my leisure pants and hang out.

Dinner was at Don Giovanni’s Bistro in Napa; it’s an old standby for locals and well worth a visit. It’s classic Americanized Italian food (west coast style) and tasty, but what’s really amazing is watching the waitstaff hustle. They really have it down to a science; water and bread appear almost instantly; plates appear and disappear, and although everybody is moving very fast they all seem to flow past each other. Each table seems to have one senior waiter keeping an eye on things, and everything else is a group effort. They were full the entire time we were there, but our waiter said it was actually kind of a slow night. We skipped dessert but the coffee was delicious.

Napa 2 We're into Plan A now...

We only took one picture today - Dave in the Cave at Hans Fahden

We slept in and hung out in the hotel room until a little before 10 (a note here that the breakfast buffet in the doubletree is ridiculously expensive and not very good). The drive up was easy, but yesterday’s good weather gave way to rain the further north we went. We stopped for lunch at the Dutch Door in downtown Napa, which turned out to be just that – a door with the top half open, where you could order, and seats outside. The rain had stopped and we enjoyed our sandwiches and fries – the bread on my banh mi was exceptional. Next door was a tasting room for the Alpha Omega collective, with wine from Alpha Omega (Napa), Toloroso (San Luis Obispo) and Perinet (Priorat, Spain). We used to be club members at AO when their wines were merely expensive, and we loved our time in the Priorat. So we made an exception to Dave’s rule about downtown tasting rooms and had a very enjoyable time. Our pourer was knowledgeable and kept to our timeline and the wines were all very good. We brought home a couple of bottles of Priorat red.

Next stop was Hans Fahden vineyards – well, we stopped in Calistoga for a short walk around to get the timing right – and it was as different from AO collective as could be. For one thing, the tasting was in a cave dug out of the hillside. For another thing, our pourer was as far from knowledgeable as it’s possible to get. He was crammed full of knowledge but much of it was just completely wrong – like he’d overheard a lot of stuff and made his own information out of it. And the first 3 wines we tasted (Suav Blanc, Viognier, Pinot Noir) were all, well, not good. But the cave was fantastic and we were having a great time. There were two women who’d come in at the same time we did, and only one of them was tasting and she was uncomfortable being in the cave but kept insisting she was ok when they suggested she move. Fortunately the second 3 wines (Bordeaux blend, malbec, cab sauv) were pretty good, and we got the pourer (a Napa native) talking about Napa and not wine, and that was really fun. Also the cave walls and roof were really interesting – most of the cave had been hollowed out by a boring machine, and had circular grooves, but the owner had dug the last 20 or so feet using a tractor with a drill attachment, which left very interesting patterns on the wall.

Also at HF was on older guy who might have been the owner, a very strange character who kept popping up and having weird conversations with customers. He told us about azolla, a pond plant that’s nitrogen-fixing and high in protein and is being used as cattle feed, and also about how to make nociollo, which we got a sample of. It’s a delicious sweet fortified wine made in a bathtub from green walnuts. Dave is going to try making some but in large plastic containers.

Then we went and checked in at our hotel (Wine Country Inn and Cottages, St Helena) which is wonderful. Our spacious room is on the ground floor looking out over a patio and gardens, and has TWO comfy chairs. We got everything unloaded (Dave has A LOT of recorders) and unpacked and had some relaxing time before dinner.

Dinner was just a short drive away at the Goose and Gander and man was it good. It’s a gastropub, and it looks kind of dark and old-school when you come in but the food was fantastic. Dave had the tasting menu and I had lots of apps. Dave’s first three courses – salad, duck confit, and filet mignon – were all delicious and got better every course, which was amazing. I especially want to call out the filt mignon, which was extremely small and tasty – so often in a tasting menu the meat course is huge and boring but this was spectacular. I had radishes with hummus (yummus) and an incredible octopus and bean and romesco dish, and a wedge salad which was disappointing. For dessert Dave was given the hummingbird cake which was good, and I had a pumpkin cheesecake that was extremely delicious. The prices were surprisingly reasonable and if you are in St Helena you have to go here.

Then it was back to our hotel for relaxing – Dave tried out one of the Inn’s bathrobes and found it very satisfactory.

Napa 1 - Plan B

It starts with Dave at recorder camp in Carmel Valley, and a plan for me to fly to SFO on Friday and have a special brother-sister dinner with Ben that night, followed by Dave driving up and both of us spending Saturday night there. Unfortunately there was illness with fevers at Ben & Joan’s, so we quickly changed to plan B, which was very good in every way except missing out on SFO family.

Plan B: First, on Friday I got to sub Barre and Senior Fit at 1440 and I got to be home when Jen got back from her long trip to Kansas and have dinner with her, and then she was sweet enough to drive me to the airport Saturday morning for my flight to San Jose, which means we don’t have to go to the airport on our drive home.

Dave picked me up at the airport, only a day or two more than a year from when he picked Bubby and me up on our way to Tim and Alyssa’s wedding. We decided it would be fun to drive up to the Lick observatory and get some lunch on the way, which was a little more complicated than we thought. San Jose has an interesting food scene downtown but not so much between the airport and the suburbs. We ended up at Rosie’s fish house with a 4 page menu of fish dishes and a strong smell of fryer oil. The food was good – my seafood soup was well cooked and seasoned – but we’d both like to see what Robert Irvine would do.

Lick was great, especially once we figured out that gentle steady driving rather than “having fun with the curves” makes me not get carsick on the 10 miles of twisty roads. The google lady took us over Quimby road where we saw some sort of amazing church-like structure with colored onion domes which disappeared completely as we approached it. We had a good time walking around between the various domes and admiring the 3M telescope. There were no Wilmerdings.

We got down and decided not to take the back road Google took us on; CA 130 had just reopened and Google didn’t know about it yet. It’s just as twisty but wide enough for two cars, which made the driving much less nervous-making.

We got to our hotel – the Doubletree at the airport – and more fun began. Unbeknownst to us, PawCON 2023 was happening at our hotel, and it was like nothing we’d ever seen. If you’re not familiar with “Furries”, do some googling. We were just amazed at all the costumes we saw. The convention was very well attended so we had some trouble finding a parking space. Dave finally found the last one, so we took an Uber over to the pre-anniversary dinner.

We started with a tour of Tim and Alyssa’s cute house in a very nice neighborhood (Willow Glen), and then walked to dinner at Braise restaurant. They are lucky to live in easy walking distance to nice shops and restaurants. We had a great time with them and enjoyed getting caught up. I am ridiculously proud of remembering to get a picture of us. Tim drove us back to the hotel which had cleared out a lot (they were all at various parties) but he was able to see one furry. 

Bend 3: We're smokin'

Saturday 9/16

Sadly, we woke to a moderately smoky sky. We decided to go for a hike anyway, and began with a short hike on the “other” side of Shevlin Park, which turns out to be part of the Bend watershed, which I am going to digress and talk about a little. Bend is high desert, meaning they don’t get a lot of rain and the air is very dry. From the very beginning, they’ve needed to irrigate, which they did by digging ditches or creating wooden aqueducts for the water to flow through. The ditches lose a lot of water to evaporation, and the wooden aqueducts get slimy and also decay over time. So they decided to put the channels underground in pipes, a project which is still ongoing. The pipes need to have access roads, and what is cool is that many of the access roads have also been opened to the public as trails for hiking, biking, and running. The trail we hiked on the other side of Shevlin (I call it the other side because usually we park in the parking lot across the road and hike the other way up the river) has a loop section, where part of the trail is along the river and the other part is on the access road. It was a very nice hike. We saw more of the mystery drips that we saw on the hike to Riley Ranch, and may have figured out that they come from dog drool. But we’re still not sure. We took no pictures.

Sage Flats from Archie Briggs Trail

The Shevlin Park hike was about 3 miles, and since it was mostly flat we felt like we had some hike left in us. So we decided to do the Archie Briggs Canyon hike that leaves from Sawyer park. We’ve done the hike before, and it turned out that the drive from Shevlin to Sawyer crosses the trail several times. Another coincidence is that the hike is almost entirely along the irrigation access road. It’s more in the sun that I remembered, and also has a steeper climb than I remembered, but it was still a good hike. Since we’re goal oriented and didn’t want to do the whole loop we had to find a turnaround spot, and there’s a place where the trail makes a sharp left to run along the canyon that was perfect for turning around. After we turned around we noticed a large and beautiful meadow on the other side of the canyon (did I mention that the trail runs along the Deschutes, which has created a deep canyon in this section? Well, now you know). We got out our map apps and discovered that the meadow is the Sage Flats section of Riley Ranch, and in fact we could see an overlook that we’d stood on. This made our brains do that thing where they rotate an internal map, one of my favorite sensations.

Archie Briggs trail from Sage Flats

By the time we got back to the truck we’d hiked about 7 miles total and we were hungry. Fortunately we’d planned an excellent lunch at Worthy Brewing, and were not disappointed in the food or the beer. We were very content after lunch, and as it was smoky it was a perfect afternoon to head back to the trailer, turn on the portable air filter, and do some serious relaxing all afternoon. When we were young people doing tent camping we would look scornfully at the folks in the campsites who never seemed to come out of their trailers. “What is the point of being here if you never sit outside?” we would ask each other, feeling superior. Well, now we know.

We had dinner in the trailer and took a short evening hike at Riley Ranch, which was looking lovely. We went to the overlook we’d seen earlier and overlooked. We were a little pressed for time since the park closes at sunset, and also my legs were really tired, so we didn’t get all the way back to the sun position overlook.

We were glad to get back to our recliners for the evening.

Smoky Sunset at Riley Ranch

Sunday

Smokier. No point in staying, so we did a quick clean on the trailer, drove home and did the quick turnaround, returned the trailer, and were happily eating lunch at Grand Central in Hillsboro (BLT’s!) by 2.

Bend 2: Surf and Turf

Friday 9/15

Overlooking

Another good night of sleeping. Our original plan was to go kayaking at 10, when the rental place opens, but we both realized it would still be too cold then – the nights are in the upper 40s/low 50s even though it’s 80-90 during the day. So instead we decided to drive the 5 minutes to the other end of Riley Ranch and explore a little. It’s a great place for hiking; there are 3 main loops (Juniper, Sage Flat, Canyon) that are stacked on top of each other kind of like a snowman, with each successive loop getting a little larger. We walked around all three loops (ok, not quite – Juniper and Sage Flat are more like one elongated circle with a line through it, and unlike Johnny Cash we didn’t walk the line). It’s a great “intro to high desert” hike, with the river and the meadow and the juniper trees. They have a lot of overlooks/viewpoints, and we learned a lot. 

Sage Flats with Rabbitbrush

At the Ben Newkirk Overlook we learned which mountains we could see, and at the Sage flats overlook we learned the names of many of the common plants (Dave was especially excited to learn Rabbitbrush, and pointed it out A LOT for the next two days). Most interesting at Sage Flats were three arrows, pointing to the position of sunrise at the winter solstice, the equinoxes, and the summer solstice. The solstices are 22 degrees on either side of the equinox, and we spent the rest of the walk with me trying to understand how the sun can appear to travel different distances over the same length of time at the equator. This involved drawing quite a few circles with lines on the path, and we wonder if anyone who saw them figured out what they were. A final feature on the sagebrush loop was some overlooks out over the river. We admired the huge houses across the way.

We got done around 11, and decided to go do kayaks before lunch, because lunch was probably going to include beer and that’s not a great combo with kayaking. So we zipped into town and the rental people zipped through the rental process and we were on the river at 11:23. We’d noticed that the river seemed higher than we remember, and once we pushed off we realized the current was stronger than we remembered too. We worked our way upstream, and as usual I spent the first 20 minutes really not enjoying myself. As always, it got better, but it was still a slog to get all the way past the four bridges to the turnaround at the rapids. I did an obligatory turn into the rapids, and Dave did two of them. Then it was time for the payoff, the float downstream, which makes it all worthwhile. We ended up doing a little more paddling than we might have since it was lunchtime.

We got out of the kayaks with no issues (always a concern!) and went across the street and up the stairs to Monkless, a brewery specializing in Belgian beers. We had a sampler and they were fine but pretty hard to tell apart, especially since we’d stuck to the lower alcohol ones. My pulled pork sliders were good, but Dave’s bratwurst and poutine sandwich was much more interesting. We enjoyed ourselves, especially since we were starving, but we don’t need to go back for the beer or the food. The bathrooms, however, were excellent – how often do you hear plainchant in a restroom?

The kayak rental place and Monkless are just a short walk from the Old Mill District, so we walked over to the REI and did a little shopping. Our big purchase was a very cool “stargazer” camp chair for Dave that reclines for looking at the sky – I am too short to fit in it comfortably but it’s perfect for him. I got some good socks and a towel and some eyeglass strings too.

Then we headed over to a Big 5 and almost bought a chair for me there, until I realized how huge and heavy it was. Next stop was Fred Meyer and in the sporting goods section was a close-to-perfect chair for me, just sitting there. We looked all over to find its box or even a space where it might have been on a shelf but were unsuccessful. Dave took it to customer service and they scanned the barcode and it was in their system, so we bought it. On the way back to the campsite we could see a plume of smoke to the west, blowing to the North. The Pete’s lake fire had gotten bigger, but the smoke was not supposed to come towards us.

We got back to the campsite with our new chairs and tried them out. They were very good, but it was hot outside so eventually we moved inside and turned on the air conditioning. We had a short relaxing and shower time (don’t run the hair dryer and the air conditioning at the same time) and went to Zydeco for dinner. My dinner was perfect – an elderflower, bubbly and grapefruit cocktail; a warm chicory salad with grapes, and clams and mussels in a delicious broth. Dave’s food and wine were good but not as good as mine. And fortunately we’d paid before we saw the carrot cake, so we weren’t stuffed when we left. Downtown was hopping as we walked back to the car, but we’d had excellent parking karma for dinner both nights we were in town.

We tried out our chairs with a fire in the firepit, tea, and reading, and they worked perfectly. Here is a bonus shot of Dave on the path to the canyon overlook at Riley Ranch. 

Bend 1: Arrival and First Day

Wednesday 9/13

Normally we’d be on the road earlier and maybe have lunch at 3 Creeks Brewing in Sisters (so far I have never gone there, but Dave and Josh and Jen have), but Dave had his first Renaissance recorder class until 11:00, so we made sandwiches (PBJ for me, salami & cheese for him) and ate them on the road. I brought some small apples I’d gotten at the farmers’ market and they turned out to be perfect. The drive was uneventful, aside from stopping for gas at an aukuard gas station in Aumsville which we won’t do again.

We got to Tumalo at about 3:30 and slid into site B18; it’s on the corner so it’s especially easy to back into. We got set up and took a walk around the campground, then did some hanging out (and showering in my case) until it was time to go to 900 Wall. We ordered too much food and while it was very good I remember it as being more spectacular. One thing that remains spectacular is their cocktail made with habanero vodka and passion fruit – last time it was almost undrinkably spicy; this time it was just very very very spicy and very delicious.

We got back to the campsite and settled in for more relaxing (relaxing being one of our major goals this trip). I had realized about 15 minutes from home that I left my kindle, but it didn’t seem worth turning back for it since I can read my kindle books on my phone. I thought about 1) having Jen ship it overnight or 2) getting a new one and having Amazon ship it overnight, except this is the second time I’ve looked into that and they can never get it to you in less than 3 days, which is dumb. Also we weren’t sure where we’d have it shipped to. So I just read on my phone, which was mostly fine except that for some reason reading on my phone (even with blue light blocker) doesn’t make me sleepy the way reading on my kindle does, so I stayed up later than I wanted to.

Thursday

Dave has figured out how to hang a towel over the trailer door, which makes it stay dark very long in the morning, so we tend to sleep in until after 7. We got up and decided to see if the trail from the Tumalo SP day use area connects to Riley Ranch nature preserve and we’re back to tell you that yes, yes it does. It’s about two miles from the parking lot at Tumalo to the start of the ranch lands, and we walked a little ways into Riley Ranch and up to the canyon overlook. No dogs are allowed in the nature preserve which is very nice – I was surprised how much it made things more relaxing. The whole walk ended up being about 5 miles, and since most of it is relatively flat it was a nice easy hike. We did see some weird damp spots on the trail that we couldn’t figure out – individual drips spaced pretty close together, and occasionally a larger damp patch, maybe the size of my hand. They are a mystery.

Once we got back it was time to return to the Cellar, an English-style pub in a basement in downtown Bend. Last time we were there we loved all their cask conditioned beers. Sadly, since then they’ve closed their Redmond facility and had to start brewing somewhere else, so they only had 3 of their own beers and 4 imported eEnglish beers. No need to fret, though – they were just as delicious. And best of all the pies (served with crisps, gravy, and your choice of mushy peas or English baked beans) were just as good as we remembered. We brought 4 frozen ones home with us. We did a little window shopping through downtown – like Cannon Beach, so many home décor shops.

Then it was time for more relaxing, and showers, before heading out for dinner. Our destination tonight was Trattoria Sbandati, a small restaurant which turned out to be in a strip mall, next to a circle K gas station. So maybe a slight mark down for ambiance, although they had a nice outdoor patio and the inside was nice enough. The food gets an E for exceeds expectations, and they had a very good wine by the glass list for Dave. We had a thin sliced zuccinin and arugula salad to start that was delicious, and I had a fish in broth with spiced olives that was about perfect. Dave’s pasta was yummy too. On the way home we saw a cool sunset and pulled over to watch it. It's possible that what look like clouds are actually smoke from the Pete's Lake fire. Stay tuned.

We had our own fire back at the campground, and saw an amazingly long pass of the international space station. We discovered that one ice cube in the tea in the insulated mug makes it just cool enough for drinking. This was the first time I used one of the Cannon Beach Property Management mugs that we got at Sea Forever last Thanksgiving.