Halfway Round the Planet, Part 2

Each morning we walk along 3rd Street which in considered the historic downtown area. We aren’t sure if it’s the heat wave, COVID, lack of staff or normal BC hours (Before Covid) but most of the stores close at 4 or 5:00. We aren’t usually back by then so we haven’t had a chance to go inside. We thought about getting back to do some shopping today, but after window shopping for the past 4 days, there wasn’t anything that caught our eyes. Well maybe the adorable vegetable t-shirt for Ellie or Remi but would anyone really appreciate that as much as I would ?!

Our walk back always includes a detour to Flag and Fire. A cute and delicious coffee shop in the middle of the Granary – a block off 3rd Street, that’s full of tasting rooms. Even though it’s been really hot in the afternoon it’s cool in the morning. We’ve had a chance to sit outside and enjoy our coffee while we plan our day. Yesterday was so cool I really wanted my sweatshirt.

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Believe it or not you can get tired of tasting wine! For the most part we really only did one tasting before lunch and one after. Most places let us split the tasting so we probably had 1/2 to 1 glass in the morning and 1/2 to 1 glass in the afternoon. We were most definitely sober and never had to “sober up” before we drove to our next stop. So we weren’t drinking a ton of wine each day but your taste buds can still get tired.

A number of people told us about a winery called Violin. Mindy, at the very 1st winery we went to, told us it was her favorite when she wasn’t drinking her own wine. After another person told us something similar we decided to check it out. He’s a small wine producer so his tasting room isn’t open unless you call to make an appointment. He also does all the tastings himself. Today it was our one and only tasting. Will spent about 2 hours taking to us as he poured his wines. It was a delightful way to end our wine tasting and I forgot all about being tired of it! We had a few bottles shipped home so we are excited to share it with you.

Just down the road was the Brigittine Monastery. They live the contemplative life and “by the labor of their hands” support their community by making artisan chocolates. My taste buds could use a break from all that wine! The setting was serene and peaceful. A sign as we got out of our car reminded us to keep the quiet. We had to ring the bell and wait patiently for someone to let us into a small room full of truffles. We made our selections and quietly left the way we came. Although we might be excited to share, it’s way too hot for them to make it home and more importantly, they are way too delicious.

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We checked an empty box when we flew out here. It was a wine packing box that we hoped to fill with 6 bottles to take back home. We bought two from Left Coast Winery and needed to fill it with four more. The best place in the area to buy wine is the grocery store (every place in the world except Minnesota). It was fun to look through all the wine – some places we had been, some places we drove right by and some we wanted to try and just ran out of time. We had a hard time choosing just four but I’m excited to try them when we get back home.

The Willamette Valley has over 700 wineries. We went to 11. You’ve heard of the six degrees of separation, right? Our experience in wine country was far less than that.

• On a whim we went to Flanauer Winery because our AirBnB wasn’t ready. We met Mindy and Vic.
• Vic originally planted the vines at Bethel Heights back in the 70’s.
• We went to Bethel Heights because I really liked a bottle of their Pinot Noir that we had before we left. Our wine concierge happened to mention that to Ben Casteel, the wine maker, so he stopped by to talk with us.
• Will Hamilton, the winemaker at Violin, buys grapes from Bethel Heights and tells us that…
• Mindy (from Flaneur) used to be married to Ben Casteel.
• We went to a wine bar last night on 3rd Street where we shared a wine flight. Out of wines from over 700 wineries, Violin was one of the wines in our flight.

Did you know they grow hazelnuts in Oregon? I didn’t! But all the signs around here tell me they are quite famous for it. We’ve seen these hazelnut orchards all over the place so I don’t think they’re lying. But I do wonder why the ground beneath the trees is always so immaculate. Every. Single. Orchard.

Tomorrow we are driving to Portland before heading home on Wednesday. The heat wave is supposed to break tonight so hopefully it will make walking around Portland more enjoyable. 🤞🏼

We are geeking out on wine! I won’t bore you with all the details, rather I’ll just show the pretty pictures 😁 Plus mention that today we scheduled a hike through the vineyards in the heat 🔥. Yikes! Luckily it was at 11:00. It cools off a lot once the sun goes down. It’s one of the reasons this area makes great wine. When we went for our early morning walk it was in the low 60’s. Sadly it wasn’t quite that cool on our vineyard hike but they provided water and wine along the 1 mile, 500ft elevation gain hike.

Last night, way after the sun set, we ventured out. Our AirBnB is only a few blocks from 3rd Street – old town McMinnville. They close the street to traffic on the weekends and setup tables for dining and wine tasting. By the time we went it had cooled off significantly and the place was hopping. In a few minutes we are going to venture over there. Perhaps we’ll try one of the free wine tastings our host left us, or get ice cream, or maybe go to one of the breweries…

Remember when I said we have to be flexible? Today was another perfect example. Wine Jason (the guy who we take a lot of our wine classes from) gave us a list of recommendations for both wineries and restaurants. We were planning to try one of the restaurants for breakfast only to discover they are permanently closed. A casualty of the pandemic. One of the wineries we planned to go to emailed me earlier in the week to cancel our reservation due to excessive heat. The forecast was for 104 today and all of their tastings are done outside. Hard to blame them!

So here’s a recap of our need for flexibility:

1. The restaurant is suddenly closed because of staffing issues.
2. The restaurant is closed because someone has Covid and they have to quarantine.
3. The excessive heat closed restaurants/wineries/full service gas pumps.

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The Governor is instituting a state-wide indoor mask mandate starting tomorrow.

One place that wasn’t closed was Nikki Jane’s boutique in Dundee. A sweater in the window caught my eye. I know… who thinks about a sweater when it’s 103 degrees! Luckily the store had awesome a/c and was full of adorable clothes. The sweater wasn’t the only thing I bought. Now I just have to figure out how to fit three sweaters, a top and jeans in my already full carry-on!

We were able to enjoy two wineries today – both with indoor tasting rooms. Sadly it was just too hot to take many photos. We did not linger outside!

At Le Cadeau’s tasting room we got our dog fix by saying hi to a Sheepadoodle. Oregon is very dog-friendly. Not only do many places allow dogs on the patio they also allow dogs inside! He looked a lot like Rosie. 🐾

While we were petting him a guy across the room had too much heat. He fell out of his chair and onto the floor. Not sure if he passed out or what happened. He and his wife had just arrived and had not been to another winery so we know it wasn’t that. They were staying upstairs so she helped him up and they left. We never got to find out if he was ok.

So far we haven’t joined any more wine clubs 🤣

Figuring restaurants would be either a long wait (since so many aren’t open) or too hot, we went to the grocery store and shopped for dinner. Just as I’m about to wrap this up I noticed a beautiful sunset out the window. Good night everyone!

The winds have shifted. This morning there was a strong smoke smell in the air. Hopefully it will stay south while we are in wine country. People say this area is like Napa Valley used to be 25-30 years ago – more down to earth, less pretentious, a more relaxed vibe. We were about to find out if all that was true. St Innocent Winery was our 1st stop. It’s a small winery on the edge of Williamette Valley. Since it was early and the temperature was only 80 we elected to sit out on the patio. There was a nice breeze for most of the tasting but we were glad to head inside when we signed up for their wine club. Yup! One winery, one wine club. We both agreed this can’t continue!

We got into McMinnville before our AirBnB was ready. We didn’t really have anything else planned for the day. Back when the weather was supposed to be reasonable we thought we’d walk around the cute little town. At 102° that idea no longer sounded fun! So again we had to be flexible 🙂

The host of our AirBnB mentioned a new tasting room about 15 minutes away. It was an old grain elevator that had been converted into a tasting room. With time to kill and intrigued by the idea, we went to check it out. It was busy about 25-30 people were there as part of a bus tour. It really wasn’t that big so we had to sit upstairs. I loved the decor. It was very well done. But we soon felt sorry for Mindy, our wine concierge, who had to keep climbing up and down the stairs to bring each wine. As soon as the group left we went downstairs to enjoy the rest of our wine and appreciate the decor.

Since it was almost closing time Mindy’s dad stopped in to pick up some Chardonnay. He seemed like a nice guy so we started talking with him. He seemed to know a lot about wine! I thought maybe he was the wine maker so I asked – nope. We talked some more and Jon asked what his top Oregon winery was. We were surprised he didn’t say Eyrie. David Lett is one of the pioneers of Oregon wine, credited with planting the first pinot noir grapes in the late 60’s. Bethel Heights is also right up there with Eyrie for being one of the first to grow pinot noir grapes. We talked some more and I asked why he thought Bethel Heights was better than Eyrie. He very casually and humbly said, “I founded it.” Say what?!

Turns out he has quite a few stories to tell for a 73 year old. He started in Napa Valley. Worked with some big names out there – Charles Krug, Robert Mondavi (or Mr Mondavi – told us he often called him crazy but never called him Robert!) and Andre Tchelischeff. He came to Oregon, after looking at all the data, to find a place where pinot noir grapes would flourish. We talked some more until finally Mindy was all cleaned up and ready to go home. We asked for a few of their favorite wineries to visit in the area. We’re planning to go to them. After all who better to take recommendations from than the guy who planted some of the very first vines of pinot noir?

Today was our longest day of driving. It would have been a bit longer had we gone to Crater Lake. Looks like we made the right call! Crater Lake has webcams. Unfortunately the one that shows an actual view of Crater Lake was struck by lightening over the weekend and is offline 🤨 But the other two were working.

The drive up the coast before cutting east to Eugene was clear and cool. We tried to soak up as much cool air as we could before the heat wave. We also stopped at the one lighthouse we missed on our drive down.

We’re staying in a fun area of Eugene and a swanky hotel that just opened in September. (Why Eugene you ask… No good reason other than it made the drive reasonable so wine country is only about 1 1/2 hours away.) Everything is not quite open yet (like the rooftop restaurant) I think that’s why we got a good deal. The restaurants, wine tasting rooms and cute boutique shops right outside our door are open. I know this because 1) I can see them from the balcony and 2) the room came with it’s own iPad/Lenovo highlighting the neighborhood and hotel.

Signs like this are common all over Oregon. We first noticed them along the coast. The brewery we enjoyed in Yachats had a sign for the weekend “Closed Saturday and Sunday” because they didn’t have enough workers. Imagine having to close on what are your busiest days. Many of the restaurants’ new post-COVID hours are Thursday through Sunday. Had we wanted breakfast this morning we would’ve had a difficult time. The barista said three breakfast restaurants have already closed permanently in a Brookings and the other two weren’t open. Mondays are a common day to be closed. The coast is full of small family restaurants. They don’t have the resources to survive like the bigger fast food or chain restaurants. We rarely saw the McDonald’s, Starbucks, Applebee’s or Pizza Hut along the coast. It was one of the reasons we loved it!

We woke up to sea smoke so today we decided to zip into California to see the redwoods, hoping that would be long enough for it to burn off. We’re less than 10 miles from the border and 30 miles from Jedediah Redwood Forest. Plus I didn’t think my eyes could take more coastal beauty – they needed a break!

Wow! That’s all I could say as we hiked through the groves in the Simpson Reed and Peterson Trail. A “must do” according to the park ranger. It did not disappoint! I took a ton of photos but not one of them captures the beauty of these giants. They are so big! The tallest trees in the world. As tall as a 35-story building. Taller than the Statue of Liberty. We then drove to another trail – Stout Grove. Equally as stunning and a bit different. This one had a section of trees that had fallen down. It gave us another perspective on just how massive they are.

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Time got away from us again. Not a bad thing to be so immersed in the beauty of nature that you lose track of time! We made the “long drive” back to Oregon. Apparently our timing was impeccable. The sea smoke was just beginning to lift at ~3:00. It gave us plenty of time to hike around Samuel Boardman State Park.

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Our eyes were growing weary from all the beauty. We skipped a few pullouts because we didn’t think they were pretty enough to stop and see. Imagine that! The reality was we were getting tired. Plus the balcony back at our condo was waiting to be enjoyed. The view from there is incredible. So we ordered Thai food to go and went back to relax for the rest of the evening.

Until I had the brilliant idea (I had to drag Jon away from the balcony!) to go back out and watch sunset ~ 5 miles up the road. Turns out it was a pretty good idea. The colors lasted forever. Now it was time to go back and relax.

Tomorrow starts the second half of our trip. We leave the ocean behind. Way back when, when we planned this vacation last summer but had to cancel it because of the pandemic, we planned to go to Crater Lake, take the boat out to Wizard Island and hike around. Even though you can’t do the boat ride and wizard island this year (still because of the pandemic) we still planned to go. It’s kinda in the middle of nowhere but we were as close as you could get. And who doesn’t want to see the blue, blue color of Crater Lake?!

Two things changed our mind…

1. The smoke report. We were listening to the weather a few nights ago and the wind is supposed to change tomorrow and bring in smoke from the California fires. WE may not even be able to see Crater Lake, at the very least it will be hazy.
2. This pandemic! Masks are required indoors once again. That’s not a big deal for us but apparently because of the Delta variant the visitor centers at Crater Lake will be closed.

In short we didn’t want to risk the 4 hour drive if we weren’t going to be able to see much 🙁. Instead we are headed to the middle of the state where it’s going to be between 100-106 degrees for the next few days. 🔥

Good bye ocean. Until next time…

It was another beautiful day! We had a lot of ground to cover to make it to Brookings so we got some coffee and started out. Our 1st stop was Strawberry Hill – just a pull off on the side of the road that promised extraordinary views. I couldn’t help but sing “I found my thrill on Strawberry Hill (I know the song is really Blueberry Hill but play along with me) as we drove into the parking lot. Find my thrill I did! Laying on top of the picnic table, just a few feet from the road, was a dude sunbathing in the nude. Here’s the picture to prove it!

I really thought the coast was beautiful by Cannon Beach, then I thought it got better along the central coast. Well today tops them all. The southern coast of Oregon is the most stunning. I look at the pictures I took and they look ordinary. I wish I knew how to capture the breath-taking beauty of what we saw today. Look at these and just imagine they are 10x more beautiful when you are actually here.

We stopped to watch this guy wind surf. I think that’s what they call it 🤷‍♀️

Have I mentioned our rental car yet? We rented an ordinary full-size sedan. They let us choose between a gray one and a white one. I choose the gray one because I liked the color better than the white and it had a fun scoop in the front. Turns out it was a Dodge Charger Hellcat. It’s a sports car. It goes fast – really fast! And it keeps track of things like top speed, how many seconds it takes you to get there, G-forces…It hugs the road through the crazy curves along the coast and it feels like it’s barely moving when you’re going 90 mph. Jon even gained on a corvette going up hill! He topped it out at 102 mph today! He wants to get it to 110 because the person who had it before us got it to 109. I keep telling him this isn’t the autobahn! I’d be more scared but it honestly never feels like we are going that fast.

The Airbnb we are staying at in Brookings has a drop-dead gorgeous view of the ocean. Rather than waste out time at a restaurant without a view, we went to Fred Meyers, the grocery store, and bought everything to make steak dinner. It’s hard to beat sipping wine, staring at the ocean while Jon makes dinner.

Tomorrow we are going to explore the 9 miles of Samuel Boardman corridor. It’s a beautiful area along the coast. We caught glimpses of it today and it looks spectacular. If that doesn’t take up the whole day we’re getting our chairs and walking right outside our condo to the beach below. It’s going to be hard to leave this place.

We woke up to more sea smoke 🤨. Not as thick as yesterday but also not sunny blue skies. What to do… do we get up and start driving the central coast or do we wait so the sea smoke has a chance to burn off. Turns out we did a little of both. The coffee shop our server told us about didn’t open until 9:00 so we headed to Yachats Beach. At least we could see the ocean and the waves which was more than we could see at times yesterday. We walked the shore a bit, watched the waves and lost track of time. It was past time for the Beach Street Cafe to open! We ordered some lattes and breakfast burritos and hit the road.

Our first stop was Cape Perpetua. Since the skies were starting to clear we headed up to the second highest point along the Oregon coast. A short hike to the summit and we found our perfect breakfast spot. The view, coffee and burritos were perfect- but what isn’t with a little ocean air!?

Jon really wanted to see and photograph Thor’s well. It’s a formation along the rocky coast that creates a waterfall at high tide. It’s a little dangerous – you can only see it at high tide and you have to be close to it to take pictures – yikes! We hiked down to the rocky shore and guess what… the tide was coming in. All the photos are again just the ones from my iPhone. The photos Jon took are spectacular. He took some time exposure shots with a neutral density filter = stunning.

Besides the many pullouts for the scenic vistas, our next stop was Heceta Head Lighthouse. Lighthouses generally aren’t easy to get to – there’s a reason they build them where they do. This one required an uphill hike. Normally not bad, but we misjudged the weather and were dressed in jeans and long sleeves shirts. It was warm enough for the people at the beach to be “swimming” in the ocean or laying in the sun without the sweatshirts we’ve grown used to seeing. Nonetheless we made it to the top and the views were spectacular. No more sea smoke, instead bright blues skies.

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We continued on down the coast to Florence. We needed gas and Florence was big enough to have some. And since they had B&J’s ice cream we had some of that too. No, it wasn’t Ben and Jerry’s but my coconut toffee crunch was better than any flavor I’ve had from Ben and Jerry’s.

Since the day turned out to be beautiful we decided to head back to Yachats to enjoy the coast right outside our hotel. To spend a little time relaxing and staring out to sea. I’m not sure I understand the weather patterns here… as we were driving back, in the middle of the afternoon, the sea smoke started rolling in. What had been beautiful blue skies at the lighthouse not even 2 hours before was now so foggy we could barely see the lighthouse. And it got thicker the close we got to Yachats.

We are nothing if not flexible… so we decided to go back to Yachats Brewing to enjoy the beer and food. It’s a farm to table type of menu – my favorite kind so I was not disappointed!

Tomorrow we head to the southern coast…

Why don’t people flock to Oregon like they do to California? So far the Oregon coast is every bit as stunning as California’s coast. The drive to get there was also beautiful – through the tallest evergreen trees you’ve ever seen. We spent our first two nights in Cannon Beach. The beach goes on forever! We could walk miles in either direction. During low tide we could walk right out to Haystack Rock.

We’ve explored tide pools in Florida before – even went out with flashlights during low tide in Florida – eek! Here you see tons of starfish, bright green anemones, jelly fish and crabs in the tide pools and on the beach. I’m really not sure why you’d ever swim in the ocean with all those things!

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The pictures don’t capture just how big it is. Our hotel room had a beautiful view of Haystack Rock and a balcony to feel the ocean breeze. If we weren’t exploring Ecola State Park and the beautiful vista’s along Highway 101 we were sitting on our balcony enjoying the view. One night we even ordered pizza and ate it on our balcony. Plus it’s sweatshirt weather along the coast – low 60’s.

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We are exploring the central coast next. Our drive to Yachats was very foggy – so much sea smoke that it was difficult to see the ocean. We are hoping it clears today. Our hotel is again right on the ocean but this time the coast is rocky. We walked along the coast and stopped to watch the tide crash against the rocks last night. The tide was coming in and the waves were huge – way over our heads.

Oregon is known for it’s craft beer so tonight we ate at a craft brewery called Yachats Brewing (original, I know!). They also smoke their own meats. It was the best meal we’ve had so far. Our server recommend a great coffee shop (coffee out here is also a big deal!) I can’t wait to try it!

Two interesting things about Oregon. No sales tax. So if anybody wants something let us know – a new phone, iPad, electronics… The 2nd thing, it’s illegal to pump your own gas! All gas stations are full service. I might move here just for that! Knowing this we wanted to get gas last night just in case there was a beautiful sunrise. We weren’t sure a gas station would be open that early so Jon asked at the front desk for the nearest gas station – 7 miles up the shore or 23 mile down.

“You don’t have any here in town?” Jon asks.

“Oh we aren’t that big!” says the guy behind the counter.

Funny because they have a brewery, at least 10 restaurants and 3 coffee shops, but apparently not big enough for a gas station 🙂

*We are sending our positive vibes Amber and Ellie’s way! Hoping they get stronger every day. And Erin’s dad – who was admitted to the hospital last night with an infection. Get well everyone!

It was our final full day in Alaska. We walked to the coffee shop right next door. Have I mentioned that Alaska seems to have more coffee and espresso places than Seattle? They are everywhere! Lots of drive-up little huts along the road and at least 4-5 cafes in every small town. The friendly barista asked us where we were heading – Anchorage and then to Eagle River we told her. “Oh! You should stop and see my mom in Town Square Park, she has her hot dog cart parked there and she makes the best reindeer dogs.” We were going to need lunch at some point and we wanted to try reindeer so off we went!

It wasn’t the clearest day – the clouds were really low but at least it wasn’t raining. We had a little time to kill before going to see Jeanne and Larry so we stopped at the Eagle River Nature Center to hike. It didn’t take as long as we thought. Now what?! Jeanne and Larry weren’t expecting us until 4:00. A quick google search and we discovered a brewery close to her house so off we went.

Odd Man Rush was a brewery that belongs in Minnesota! It even had a Golden Gopher hockey jersey hanging on the wall – the only hockey jersey in the whole place. Since we were there on a Tuesday afternoon it wasn’t busy so we talked to one of the owners/brewmasters. Turns out his father-in-law played for the Gophers. Almost everyone we’ve met up here has some connection to Minnesota. (Oops forgot to mention the reindeer cart lady lived in Farmington as a little girl.)

Jeanne and Larry live halfway up Mount Baldy in a beautiful house with views of the mountains and Anchorage.

Her daughter, husband and 2 kids joined us for dinner. We had a wonderful time. Jeanne and Larry have traveled all over the world so we spent the evening talking and telling stores about our travels. Since it never gets dark it’s easy to lose track of time. That’s why I’m writing this blog after midnight!

An unexpected gift: They have a fishing boat slip in Homer. The whole family loves to fish and has a freezer full of halibut and salmon. Larry packed up a cooler full of ~25# of halibut for us to bring home.