Well, we're back. We had a very nice trip to the Oregon Coast and into the South Willamette wine country. Much seafood and wine was consumed, a good time was had by all.
While on the coast, we stayed at
The Landing at Newport. It was nice, with a lovely view of the marina, and the bridge across the bay. The sun never came out the entire time we were there, but it didn't rain during the day. It was cool, but not cold (unless you ask Laura).
We didn't spend a ton of time in Newport, as there's really not much to see there but fishing boats (some of them are quite impressive) and tourists. While in Newport we ate nearly every meal at
Local Ocean Seafood. Everything we had (tuna steaks, tuna skewers, Dungeness crab, halibut tacos, halibut fish & chips, crab cakes...) was wonderful. Very fresh, and amazingly inexpensive. Casual atmosphere, classy menu. My kind of place.
One day we drove up the PCH (Hwy 101) to see a bit of the coast. We made a few stops along the way but mostly drove. We stopped in Tillamook to see the
worlds famous cheese factory, but arrived just as a bus load of school children arrived, so we just grabbed some cheese curd and an ice cream cone and left.
On the way back we stopped in Otter Rock to see the
Flying Dutchman Winery. It was tiny (they produce fewer than 1,000 cases per year), but they had a surprising selection of wine. We did the Flight, and tasted 13 different wines. Most were quite good. Their 2004 Chardonnay was disappointing, their Devil's Punchbowl "Pretty Good Pinot Gris" was lovely (we bought a bottle). We also quite liked the 2001 Pinot Noir Reserve, but at $55/ bottle we didn't want to risk it in our checked luggage. The 2002 Rogue Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was yummy (bought one of those as well), as was the 2003 Syrah.
Before we headed back to the condo, we went and checked out the
Oregon Coast Aquarium. It was pretty cool, but much smaller than we expected. The "Passages of the Deep" exhibit was arguably the high point.
The following day we headed down to Eugene to visit friends. On the way we visited
Secret House Winery, which was very much like a small hippie commune that grew wine. They had a tiny vineyard, but only grew some of their own grapes. (IIRC, they grew their own Pinot Gris/Noir grapes and purchased the rest). It was a cool and intimate type place. We had the grounds all to ourselves. High points- 2005 Muller-Thurgau; 2003 Pinot Noir (bought this one); Vinotaboo (a very sweet desert wine, one small glass is plenty).
After Secret House, we headed to
Silvan Ridge - Hinman Vineyards. All of their wines were decent, nothing really stood out. The best of the group was the 2005 Pinot Noir Reserve. Their 2005 Early Muscat Semi-Sparkling was one of the better sparkling whites we tried.
Across the road from Silvan Ridge was
Sweet Cheeks Winery. Their vineyard is over 30 years old, but the winery is new within the last couple. their 2005 Pinot Noir was arguably the best Noir we tried the entire time we spent in Oregon (unfortunately at this point we were concerned about space in our checked luggage so we didn't buy any). Beyond that, I was not blown away by any of their other offerings, though their Riesling was dryer than most which, IMHO, is a good thing.
Down the road from Sweet Cheeks, we went to
King Estate, the largest of any that we visited. Their grounds are absolutely beautiful, and their operation is impressive. A larger bottler to be sure, but their offerings don't seem to lack as a result. Highlights- 2005 Domaine Pinot Gris; 2005 Signature Chardonnay; 2005 Signature Vin Glacé; and a Syrah I forget the name of but it was only available on premises.
When we got to Eugene we stayed at the absolutely craptacular Best Western Green Tree Inn. We had dinner at a wonderful bistro whose name escapes me. Fresh seafood, extensive wine list (our friends picked some brilliant wines that also escape me, I believe one of the labels was Argyle, the other was a northern Berkley offering). We had breakfast at
Cafe Lucky Noodle on 5th avenue and Pearl. One of the best omelettes I've ever had, coffee was exceedingly average.
We wandered around Eugene for several hours and eventually sat down to have some beers and watch the Ducks (and the entire city of Eugene) get their hearts broken by Florida. We then headed north to Portland to drop off the
worst.rental.car.evar and breeze through the non-existent security line at PDX to wait 2 hours in an empty airport for our flight home.
We congratulated ourselves far too early on a smooth trip as our arrival in SLC met us with a 20 minute wait on the tarmac for the airport to clear the gate for our arrival and the valet parking at the airport lost our car, resulting in another unexpected delay. Monte was thrilled to see us, as we were him.
Today we spent more than the entire vacation cost having trees removed from our yard. Good times.
