Drive to Berkeley in rush hour traffic and head to Peet’s for a latte. Busy place and Peet’s is celebrating 45 years in business. Did you know that Peet’s was the learning ground for Howard Schulta, the founder/owner of Starbucks?...It's less structured than Starbuck's, but just as busy. Lunch at Slow, a small bright spot […]
Hearty breakfast at Gillwoods café (multi-grain blueberry pancakes with a side of bacon for Jon and a breakfast sandwich – bagel, egg, cheese and bacon –for me). It’s off to the Rutherford area to tour some wineries: William Harrison, purchased a bottle of their cabernet franc; Rutherford Ranch, purchased their port and zinfandel; and St. […]
We continue touring wineries along the Russian River: Mill Creek (produces about 8,000 cases per year); Hop Kiln (a beautiful historic building that had been used to dry hops); Thomas George winery with a new cave that opened in 2010; and lastly Porter Creek winery (we had to stop here as Jon’s sister and family […]
Continue down the coastal hwy to Ft Bragg and purchase some smoked products (turkey and pork chops) from a local deli. We decide to head east on Dry Creek for Healdsburg (the north part of Sonoma). It’s a good thing we did this in daylight, as we climbed up to elevations of 2000 ft on […]
Our stop in Port Orford included a dinner at Griff's by the water. If a picture could tell a thousand words, it would tell mariner's tales I'm sure. Right on the water, this restaurant/shack claims that it serves the freshest seafood on the Oregon Coast and uses fresh catch of the day including some flash […]
The food cart phenomenon is well worth the visit. Food carts are scattered throughout the city. We head to Alder and 10th Street following the recommendation of neighbouring eaters last night at The Little Bird Restaurant. Carts/wagons/booths of all shapes and sizes are situated on perimeters of parking lots (oh what we could do with […]
I am not used to being insignificant. At six foot four I usually stand out in a crowd (except when I go to basketball reunions) so it is a bit of a shock to run under the radar at campsites. Gail and I are travelling in a 15 foot camper and when we pull into […]
We’re really impressed with Portland. Like Edmonton, it’s a city that is divided by a river. But unlike Edmonton It’s an easy city to drive around (with triple the bridges) and for a city of half a million people, they have great bike paths and a well-designed public transit system that includes low-profile streetcars (similar […]
We stop at two wineries that were on our original culinary tour to Seattle, way back in 1999: Columbia and Chateau Ste. Michelle. Since our tour, wineries have increased from about 70 to well over 200. The route definitely looks different…A wine passport event is taking place, so at 11 am, it’s very busy with […]
We rise early, and after tuning up our blog at a coffee shop, head to two wineries that we visited on our culinary tour of Seattle in 1999 – Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia. Both wineries are extremely busy at noon as they are part of a 40 winery passort program. People everywhere are pulling […]
