Mooooooon!

There have been some components of this wedding that have seemed impossible to make decisions on:  the centerpieces, a necklace, transportation to and from the wedding for us and bridal party (still not figured out by the way) and the honeymoon.

The honeymoon should really take priority over the whole shindig but we found it difficult to find, and stick with, a plan.  Our starting criteria was that it should be someplace special, exotic, a once in a lifetime experience.  So we went with this:

an African photo safari to Tanzania and Kenya.  My dream trip as long as I can remember. Since Kevin had already done this when he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro he wanted to add something that was new for him and one of his dream trips.  Since we were already going to be over Africa way we decided to add this:

Also, because we decided to do this trip later in the year we decided to go on a mini-moon to the Oregon Coast.  We wanted some sort of vacation right after the wedding to unwind and relax and we know a beautiful romantic spot right on the beach that fit the bill.  Perfect!  All settled!  But then Egypt had to go and get all revolution-y and even though things have kind of settled down, until they get an actual government in place it doesn't seem like a great bet for all of your vacation dollars.  On to Plan B.

Where else have we both always dreamed of going?  How about here?

Greece!!  Great!  Done!  Settled!  That is our big Autumn trip.  Except......the more we thought about it the more we realized that as much as we call our little post-wedding trip a mini-moon it is still really our honeymoon.  Neither of us wanted our honeymoon to be the Oregon Coast.  It is lovely but did it fit the "special and exotic" criteria?  No.  So the plan became a mini-moon here: 

the beautiful island of Maui.  We could relax, unwind, not feel like we had to go exploring and do much since we had both been here before.  The further we got into this wedding business the more a relaxing spot seemed desirable to us. It is a gorgeous place and we both really like Hawaii.  So it was settled:  mini-moon on Maui and then Greece in the fall.  Except........neither of us were really excited about it.  We knew we would like Hawaii but it didn't feel special.  I thought of Hawaii as a honeymoon cliche, which I know makes me sound like a world class tool.  But really, it isn't that I find it so much of a cliche as it didn't feel right for us because of the aforementioned need for something exotic, once in a lifetime, truly special but where we didn't have to spend all our time running around being tourists and could just sit and relax.  Since we have both been to Hawaii and plan on going back a few times it didn't really fit the "specialness" part of the equation. You only get one honeymoon and you want to do it right.  We would have had a lovely time and been very happy but we jokingly started looking at some other options and then, quite by accident, found the perfect place.   So where is this magical place that will fit the bill?  Why it is right here....

Bora Bora and Tahiti!!!  We are staying a few nights in Tahiti and then a few more in Bora Bora in an over water bungalow that looks just like this....

...complete with "glass" floor to watch fish through.  The place we are staying is also a turtle sanctuary so we get to swim with these guys too!

We are both super excited about this which we weren't really about any of the other options. Nothing else really seemed to fit for us right now.  Yes, it Bora Bora and Tahiti are total honeymoon cliches but it doesn't matter because it fits perfectly with the criteria we had decided need to be included in our honeymoon:

• A trip right after the wedding so that it feels like a real honeymoon and not some regular, albeit very nice, vacation?  Check!
• Exotic, special and once in a lifetime?  Check!
• Time to really relax and spend time together because there isn't a ton of stuff to run around and see and do?  Check!
• But still has some interesting things to do like swim with sharks and rays and see the Gauguin museum and hike a little?  Check!
• Warm? Check
  
  South Pacific here we come!
  
  
  

The Happiest Place on Earth

Kevin had some "use it or lose it" vacation days so we planned a quick, cheap Disneyland trip for January.  By the way, January during the week is the way to go.  Thursday there were almost no lines or crowds and even on the weekend days the wait times were never too bad. 

We both had an amazing time and just played like little kids from the time the park opened until it closed.  It is impossible to have a bad time at Disneyland.  We were also reminded how exhausting Disneyland can be.  Being on your feet and walking around for 10-12 hours really takes it out of you, we even had to go back to the hotel on Saturday and take a quick nap because we were both completely done in.

Day one was spent entirely at Disneyland.  I also (pat myself on the back) got up early and ran around the mean streets on Anaheim for my scheduled six-miler before we headed into the park.  The weather was gorgeous, blue skies and high 70s for all three days we were there. 

In front of Main Street Station

This was the scariest sight in all the land: a sea of strollers in front of It's A Small World.  Actually the little kids weren't obnoxious at all, it was the junior high aged kids running around on their own that you wanted to smack.  But even they weren't too bad 'cause it's Disneyland and you are HAPPY.


Speaking of scary, on our second time through It's A Small World our boat got stuck.  Like something from a bad sitcom we were trapped inside It's A Small World for 20 minutes.  And when you are trapped the song and the dolls don't stop.  So between the ride and the stoppage we were exposed to 30 minutes of It's A Small World and lived to tell the tale.  No noticeable post-traumatic stress either.

Smiling the first time through the ride unaware of the terror that laid in wait for us later that day.

We did every single ride in Disneyland at least once, except for the ones that were closed which included my all-time favorite Splash Mountain.  I was quite distraught to find out we missed it by a week but that just means we have to go back again so we can ride it together.

We got this cup spinning hard.

Kevin in Mickey's car in Toon Town

The second day was split between Disneyland and California Adventure.  I braved the Tower of Terror which does indeed live up to its name.  However, it is terrifying in an exhilarating and fun way.  For those who don't know it is an "elevator" that takes you up in this building and then suddenly and randomly drops you straight down a few floors, takes you up a few, drops you a few and then at some point you drop the entire 13 stories.  I found out afterward that the ride designers didn't think the 13 story free-fall was fast enough so there are cables that are actually pulling your car down during the free-fall to make it more intense.  Awesome ride and a nice Twilight Zone tie-in.

The Tower of Terror at night

Best. Ears. Ever.

The third day was spent mostly at California Adventure exploring that park and getting SOAKED on the Grizzly River Run ride (twice) and then back to Disneyland at night. More eating, riding and marveling at all the little details Disney puts into everything before heading back to Seattle early Sunday morning. 

Apart from the amazing amount of fun we got to have together we also had three days of almost no wedding chat.  Three blissful days of no planning other than "what ride do we want to do next" or "hmmm....more popcorn or a chocolate frozen banana".  Three days of....well, almost.....

Costa Rica Trip Report (sort of)

I've been back from Costa Rica for a week and haven't been able to muster the energy to log in and post anything yet.  Saturday night while watching Roger Water's The Wall , unexpectedly amazing by the way, I started to get a bad sore throat.  I chalked it up to the amount of pot smoke wafting through the Tacoma Dome but by Sunday I had become full-on sick.  In between this and trying to get the house decorated for Christmas and go to work (I finally took today off) I haven't had the energy for much.  We set up the tree Sunday night and it still isn't complete.  Our tree takes hours and hours of work because I am an ornament whore and I am starting to feel like it will never get done.  But I digress...

Costa Rica was fun.  See the above mentioned illness?  That is about the energy I have to describe it.  There are pictures that I took and 90% of them suck (Look, it's a ........blob in a tree!  Maybe bird, monkey, sloth?  No clue!)  Others from the tour part of the trip have uploaded photos to Picassa but I am too lazy right now to log-in and look at their photos and find nice ones for you.  Yeah, even creating a Picassa log-in seems daunting right now, it's that bad.  Maybe when Kevin goes back home for the holidays I might find some time to post a few. 

Here's the trip in a nutshell:  There was a jungle yurt with howler monkeys above.  Many birds and interesting insects including:  mot mots, toucans, parrots, macaws, hummingbirds, leaf cutter ants, tarantula, bullet ants, and stick insects.  We saw sloths, howler monkeys, porcupines, coati mundis, caiman, and crocodiles.  A few of us spent a few hours at an animal sanctuary where I got to hold a kinkajou and have a racoon try to climb up my arm and I got to tickle his feet while questioning my decision not to get the rabies vaccine. 

Tours included a pineapple plantation, coffee plantation and cocoa plantation all of which were fascinating.  Also, it seems even countries we consider "poor" have immigrant agricultural workers.  Most of the food you get from Costa Rica?  Probably picked by Nicaraguans.  Best pineapple I ever ate was picked right from the field where the workers were harvesting it.  It makes you think again about the importance of organics when you see those workers surrounded up to their armpits in pineapple plants about the toxins they must encounter regularly.  This particular plantation was part organic and part conventional and they were picking organic at the time.  Pineapples are done by hand by the way.  We also took a night hike to spot noctural critters and a hike through a deluge that ended in the dark where a view of the elusive Arenal Volcano should be.  Most of us went ziplining through and above the cloud forest one day.  If you ever get the chance to do this you must, must, must.  Exhilirating to say the least.  Just don't think about how if the cable snapped while you are 300 feet above the ground and 1km between trees you would be a little stain on the forest floor. 

There were exploding glass tables at our authentic home cooked Costa Rican lunch, torrential rains that caused washouts and flooding and a general dampness that pervaded everything, a windstorm that caused a power outage and gave us a memorable meal in the dark and a walk through the pitch dark town up the huge hill back to our hotel.  No cabs to be had because it was the night of the, ironically named, Festival of Lights in town.  The bus that skid backwards trying to get up the same gigantic hill and ended up with  its back tires stuck behind a concrete barrier and hanging over a drop-off.  Luckily no one but the driver was on the bus at the time and he was fine.  The boat across the estuary to get to the town that had the ATM that involved boarding in the mud not 100 yards from where I saw the biggest crocodile earlier that morning.  Those were some of the little adventure parts of the trip.

I also spent a few lazy days at the beach by myself just sleeping, reading and walking around.  I did run three times while I was there and I am pretty sure I will never see anything cooler on any of my runs than the howler monkeys I saw on my run through the beach "town" I was staying in. 

So there it is in a nutshell.  Costa Rica was good but I was sure glad to be back home.  I am glad I went ahead and did the trip by myself because I always would have had that goal in the back of my mind if I didn't but I can tell you that being alone doesn't hold the charms it used to.  I missed Kevin horribly and kept thinking how much he would have enjoyed all of the trip especially the night hike, chocolate plantation (he's the biggest chocolate lover I know) and ziplining.  I don't ever want to take a trip like that without him again.  He has kind of ruined being alone in a good way. 

Almost Trip Time

Holy crap,  I'm going to Costa Rica next week!  I am feeling fairly unprepared at the moment in spite of the purchase of some new hot weather clothing (tough to find in November) and a pair of light hiking shoes (my hiking boots are waaaaaayyy too heavy and clunky).  Other than the newly purchased items I have no idea what I am going to wear.  I don't really have a wardrobe for Seattle summers let alone one for Central America.

I did get my suggested travel vaccinations for Hep A and Typhoid for a dollar amount that made me cringe and caused wallet pain.  They had better be worth it.  This also prompted a statement I'm not sure gets said a lot:  "For our honeymoon we really need to go to a country that has Typhoid."  You know, just to get my money's worth out of the deal.

I "know" a few of the people that will be joining me on this trip.  Through message board posts on the travel company's website I have learned that there will be a group of four "women of a certain age" who are docents at their local zoo and are primarily interested in the birds of Costa Rica.  There is also a recent female college graduate from New Jersey.  In my mind my trip now includes the Golden Girls and Snooki.  Let's get realistic though, ain't no way Snooki is a recent college grad.

As the time for departure nears I am getting pretty excited about this little adventure.  Still trying to decide if I am going to try and run when I am down there.  The hot humid weather and the unfamiliarity with the area is giving me pause.  Who knows, maybe Blanche and Sophia will want to join me for a run through the jungle.

Welcome to the Jungle!

Sometime in my life I got the idea in my head that as some sort of rite of passage a woman should take at least one trip by herself.  Not a little local trip but someplace far and exotic, preferably where she doesn't speak the language.  No waiting on a boyfriend or a friend to go with her but just go because she wants to go and can go.  I am finally making that trip.  The day after Thanksgiving I am leaving for two weeks in Costa Rica! 

My original vision involved Germany where I would eat lots of pig products and drink copious amounts of Reisling and Gewurtztraminer but cost got me looking elsewhere.  I looked at an adventure travel company that Kevin has used in the past and started looking for trips in my price range and stumbled on the Costa Rica trip and was hooked.  Jungles, monkeys, birds, volcanoes, hot springs, coffee and chocolate plantations, and after the tour is over I am heading off to the beach for a few days of hanging out with the leatherback turtles and swinging in a hammock.  Maybe if I am feeling particularly ambitious and graceful I might even take a surfing lesson.

Beach Weekend Getaway

Mom and I went to the beach for a long weekend and this was my view for three days.  It was fabulous.  I basically did nothing other than sit on our deck and look out at this for days.  The weather was warm, blue skies and no wind.  Abnormal for a Washington beach especially in October.

To break up the sitting and reading and talking to Mom I ran five miles on both Saturday and Sunday.  The last time I went that far was quite awhile ago so it felt good to get into "high" mileage again.  In addition to the running I also did some swimming and, like a good Finn, some sauna-ing. 

We also ate some wonderful food including a pumpkin yogurt/honey granola trifle that haunts my dreams.  Movies and horrible wedding shows were watched and a good time was had by both.

This weekend was probably the most relaxed I have been in awhile.  Our typical vacations are "go go go" the entire time and this was refreshing to just do nothing and have no agenda.  I know it was a much needed escape for my mother too.  She almost didn't go but gave in to me and was extremely glad she did.  After the crappy year she has had she deserved a few days of R and R.

Oh, and on our way down to the beach on Friday we stopped at a bridal store and I bought my wedding dress!  Whoo-hoo! 

Tour de Colorado

We are back from a much needed vacation and I feel a little more like a normal human being again.  It has been kind of a stressful summer for some very obvious reasons and I really needed a complete change of scenery.  Our vacation took us on a tour of dang near all of Colorado.  Since Kevin and I both want to visit all of our National Parks we built the trip around hitting as many of those that we could and getting to spend some time with our good friends in Denver.

The first stop on our trip was Great Sand Dunes National Park.  We climbed the big sand dune and I was fairly certain that was going to do me in.  However, Kevin's mountaineering skills came in handy as he encouraged me to do kick steps in the sand and do rest steps with each step.  That made it much easier to climb the dunes and we made it to the top.  The big dune is 650 feet high and the elevation before you even start climbing is 8200 feet and it was sunny so you can see that it was a bit of work to get up there.  Well worth it even though I will be picking sand dune sand out of my shoes and pockets for the rest of my life.  Running down the steep slopes of the dunes was a blast though!  Hooray for gravity!!!!

The next stop was Mesa Verde National Park to ooh and aah over the cliff dwellings built by the Ancestral Puebloans (can't use the term "Anasazi" anymore) and the overall beautiful area of SW Colorado.

We took a couple of guided tours into some of the cliff dwellings including one that involved a climb up a 30 ft ladder to get in and a crawl through an 18 inch wide 12 foot long tunnel and then some more ladders and such to get out. I was kind of convinced my ginormous ass would get stuck in the cliff dwelling and then oh, what a tourist attraction I would become. 

This is one of the small exit ladders for one of the Cliff Dwellings.  Imagine one three times as long to get in.

Mesa Verde is really an amazing place and one that is well worth your time.  So much history and so beautiful.

Kivas, kivas everywhere!  I am pretty sure I have had my lifetime fill of kivas.  Besides, I think they were probably more ancient living rooms rather than holy sites 'cause, well, you know I have that anthropology degree and everything.  Or at least a degree that alphabetically precedes anthropology in the course catalog and that should totally qualify me to make these statements.

Look!  I am doing women's work!!  The women would grind corn with these HEAVY rocks for 6-8 hours a day. 

After camping and exploring Mesa Verde we headed up to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and camped there for two nights.  I also got to experience my first night camping in a thunderstorm with torrential rains.  Wheee!  On the way we stopped for a gold mine tour that seemed like it might be cheesy but was actually really interesting and informative.  I learned a ton about mining and got to see a hundred year-old porta-potty on tracks that the miners used to use in the mine.  Yes, even a mine tour can be turned into a discussion about poo.  That is just how I roll.

Kevin summed it up best about Black Canyon:  it is worth seeing but it isn't a "must see" destination.  If you are anywhere near it you should definitely hop on up there and take a look at it.  The canyon is 2700 feet deep at its deepest point and the Gunnison River has some serious drop; 240 feet per mile at its ....um.....droppiest.  Also, some amazing rocks up there.  Quartz, feldspar and mica everywhere you look.  I was a good park visitor though and fought the overwhelming urge to pick some up and take it home.  So. Very. Hard.

While we were camping we made a friend - Olive the camp grouse.  Olive was perched on the picnic table at our neighboring site when we arrived and she hung around for the next two days.  She has been gorging on all the tiny acorns and fattening up for winter.  Smart bird to pick campsites that predators generally steer clear of to live in.  Our bird is wicked smart.

After two days at the Black Canyon it was at trip to Denver to hang with The Blue Sky Girls.  Don't sue me H for unathorized use of your photo!  I'll take it down if you really want.

We went to the Hammond Candy Factory where they have been hand making candy canes, lollipops and ribbon candy for 90 years.  So fun to see how Kevin and I bought our weight in candy at the store. 

We also went to the American Mountaineering Museum where Jim Whittaker tried to kill Kevin,

did some beer tasting, went to a large carnivore sanctuary that was eye opening about how many nutbars there are who try to keep large exotic animals as pets, and had fascinating conversations about pigeons and guinea worms.  And really, can a conversation about guinea worms be anything but fascinating?  The answer is a resounding "no".  If you don't know about the guinea worm you should really Google it because it is insanely creepy and disturbing. Don't be eating spaghetti when you look.

The last day in town we did a Volksmarch through downtown Denver to get to see some of the cool public art downtown Denver has to offer.

We had a great time and are very grateful for our delightful hostesses for loaning us their camping gear and putting us up for three days.  Can't wait to return the favor.

Dream Come True

Guess where we are going in February?If you said Vancouver, B.C. for the Olympics you would be correct.

Kevin got us tickets to a men's long-track speed skating medal event and a men's ski-cross medal event. Any events would have been great. Seriously. Women's curling elimination round between Latvia and Uzbekistan? Great, we'll be there. However, he knew that the event I wanted to see most of all was long-track speed skating. That is what I would most want to compete in out of all Olympic events.

Getting to go to the Olympics is a dream come true for me and this is probably the only chance I will ever get. I am practically bouncing off the walls with excitement.

Oh, the critter in my arms is MukMuk. He is a marmot. I am quite enamored of him.

The Last Few Weeks

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Between Kevin's birthday weekend getaway, cleaning the disorganized and filthy house for Thanksgiving, shopping/prepping/cooking for Thanksgiving, and That Which Shall Not Be Named it has been a little crazy.

Kevin's birthday was great. We went to McMenamin's Grand Lodge and had a great time relaxing, wine tasting, and playing disc golf. Kevin turned 40 with very minimal amounts of weeping and wailing.

Here is the Grand Lodge and the birthday boy posing by a sign in the basement.

This is Kevin gallantly trying to find my bright orange "Frisbee" that I lost in the water feature. Charlie Brown had his kite eating tree; I have my Frisbee sucking pond. We never did find the dang thing and I ended up having to buy one to finish the game. I lost by the one penalty point I incurred by hitting the water feature. Aaarrrgh!

We hosted Thanksgiving this year for my family and our friend J.B. All together there were nine of us but apparently I can't count that high and until my brother pointed out the number of people as we were getting ready to sit down at the table I had no idea. Luckily, we had one extra plate and a metal folding chair so I had a place to sit and eat. Just as we were sitting down to eat, Ollie decided that now would be a perfect time to go on a very vocal, very lengthy "date" with his favorite cat toy. We were serenaded by the sounds of neutered cat attempted fornication while we ate our dinner. Kind of the highlight of the day I would say (for us and for Ollie). Other than a failure to turn on a crockpot, the dinner came off OK. I am always super-hard on myself so I didn't think the food was particularly good but people seemed to enjoy it and enjoy the day which, in the end, is what really matters. I am, however, on the lookout for a good stuffing recipe. Send them my way.

These are the fabulous turkey napkin holders that Kevin made for the occasion. Many hours were spent with the scroll saw to create eight of these little guys.

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday. Thanksgiving has always just been a road bump on the path to Christmas for me so I am (almost) ready to get down to the serious holiday-ing.

Viva Las Vegas

Good gravy. The last four weeks have been insane and I have barely had time to catch my breath let alone write blog posts about what I have been up to other than embarrassing myself in the running arena. So begins the rundown for the last four weeks of summer.

Since it was so long ago I will be brief. We went to Vegas for four days in August to help a friend celebrate her 50th birthday. Wonderful people, wonderful food, good times. On this, my fourth trip to Vegas, I finally got to check "see a show" off my list when we went to see "KA". Well worth the money; really fabulous. I still have not achieved my other Vegas goal of receiving my free drink while gambling but then again I don't spend a ton of time actually gambling so there might be a correlation. Kevin and his friends did try their hands at the craps table and learned how to play the game and, in one friend's case, actually walk away with some decent cash.

We didn't get the nice, hot weather we wanted for lounging around the pool. In fact, they actually closed the pool on the day we had the cabana because it was raining. Sure sign you aren't in Seattle anymore. Even without the sunshine and hot temps we had a good time.

I have decided that I am going to make these guys my posse; my entourage if you will. Somehow I feel so much thinner when I am next to them.

When we got back that Monday night it was off to a Mariner's game and then two nights of shopping and trip planning until the wee hours. Thursday I continued the gambling theme for the week by taking my annual trip to the horse races with my friend Todd. I actually came out ahead on this trip and won a bet in every race but the last one.

Friday night was more wee hour packing for our early morning road trip departure. We wisely gave away our baseball tickets for the night so we could take care of all the last minute chores and tasks that are necessary when you are planning a week long road trip with six nights of camping.

Exhausted and over-scheduled, we headed out early Saturday morning. Stay tuned for tales from the road.

Four Days of Fun

What do you get when you cross cute cat pictures, silly captions and America's pastime? You get "I Can Has Cheezburger" Night with the Seattle Mariners. Over 1000 cheez fans showed up for the game last Thursday night and cheered on the Mariners to a victory over the Texas Rangers. Being fans of both LOLcats and baseball, Todd and I knew this was a "must attend" event for us.

Here I am embracing the theme by wearing my Cheezburger t-shirt while eating a cheeseburger on Cheezburger Night.
Here is Todd willfully ignoring the theme by wearing a University of Minnesota shirt while eating chili-cheese fries on Cheezburger Night.


On Saturday, Kevin and I attended the second of our Adopt-A-Vine events at Chateau Fair le Pont winery. This session was all about blending and was educational, fun and, using proper wine lingo, yummy. Each table got three bottles of wine made from pure varietals: cabernet sauvignon, nebbiolo and merlot. We also got beakers, pipette and Erlenmeyer flasks to play wine scientists. The whole point of this was to play around with percentages of wine and make a tasty blend.

We were all amazed at how adding 2% more of one varietal and dropping another varietal 2% could change the flavor of the wine so dramatically. I think we tried probably eight different combinations before we came up with the blend our group liked the best.

While we were at the winery we visited the vines we "adopted" and pruned in April to see how they were doing. Here is Kevin with Sarah (pronounced like Syrah .. she is a pretentious vine, you know)

Here I am with Matilda. Who do you think is winning the "my vine will totally kick your vine's ass" competition?

Later that night Kevin surprised me with tickets to see Leavenworth Summer Theater's outdoor production of "The Sound of Music". He had no idea I had been wanting to see this for years now. He just thought it sounded like something we would both really enjoy. What a wonderful boyfriend I have.

This is the view from the seats.
You couldn't ask for a more perfect location for this play than in the hills in Leavenworth. Maria even came down from the woods on the hill next to the stage singing the theme song. I didn't grow up with the movie; in fact I didn't even see it until about five years ago, but the music is something that has become such a huge part of our cultural landscape that I could almost sing along with every song. A wonderful end to a beautiful summer day.

Wine Country Weekend

Kevin at the Mumm Napa vineyard

I returned from the most pretentious sounding weekend in the world yesterday. That would be our "weekend in Napa". I find it almost impossible to say that phrase without clenching my jaw and talking like Thurston Howell, III. The actual experience wasn't nearly as pretentious as I thought it might be. Just a bunch of beautiful countryside and friendly people pouring tasty beverages.

The view from our hotel window.

We had all sorts of grand plans about all the things we would do while we were down there but we pretty much just did winery tours, wine tasting and lounging around. I only get to see Kevin about once a week so the best part of the vacation was just getting to spend a few days alone with him.

On Friday, we visited three wineries. The best of the bunch was Rubicon which is owned by Francis Ford Coppola. After our tasting there we went upstairs to poke around and look at one of the remaining 43 Tucker cars in the world and who do you think we pass on the stairs on the way up? That's right, Mr. Coppola himself. Turns out they actually live on the back part of the vineyard and CNN was there interviewing him for something. Besides being a great director the man grows some fine Cabernet Sauvignon. Mmmmmm. The grounds here are gorgeous too. The tasting fee is pricey and the wines aren't budget priced but they are definitely worth a try.

Me at Rubicon

Saturday morning I went for a quick run and saw my first vulture. It flew up into a tree and was staring at me as I ran. Damn! I am a slow runner but I am not THAT slow. Sorry Mr. Vulture! Still alive! I told him to go enjoy his roadkill breakfast and went about my merry way.

Kevin and I hit five wineries on Saturday. The first was Castello di Amorosa which is a giant castle that the owner had built a few years back. Everything down to the bricks, the doors and the roof tiles was brought over from old buildings being torn down in Europe. The construction was authentic down to the dungeon and torture chamber he had built. The tour was great but the wines weren't anything special. They even had an iron maiden that they are pretty sure was actually used at one point in time.

Wine caves at Castello di Amorosa

The iron maiden

We also found my new favorite winery on Saturday; Ehlers Estate. Wow! These were amazingly tasty wines and are served in a wonderful old stone building surrounded by vineyards. I could have happily spent all day there.

Saturday also brought us to the last kind of place I think of when I hear "Napa": Prager Winery and Port Works. It is housed in an old clapboard building, has layers of thick cobwebs in the windows, dollar bills tacked up and covering every available surface, and classic rock on the stereo. I haven't had a lot of experience with port but this stuff was delicious and one of the best experiences I had in wine country.

While California wine country is known for some of the best food in the country (The French Laundry is here after all) we balanced out the wine snobbishness by "keepin' it real" with food. We ate at In-N-Out Burger one night followed by a trip to the 7-11 for Spicy Big Bites and potato chips in the parking lot. We found a great little neighborhood breakfast spot one morning but also shoved McGriddle's from McDonald's down our gullets another morning. Next time we might try to hit up some of the nicer restaruants but on our last day in town we saw a drive-in that was advertising .99 cent corn dogs so The French Laundry just might have to wait.

Takin' My Baby to the Poor House

The former Multnomah County Poor Farm (House) to be exact. Constructed to house the poor in 1911 and used for that purpose until the 60's when it was turned into a nursing home. Now it is McMenamin's Edgefield Hotel and it is the Greatest. Place. Ever. This was my birthday present to Kevin.

The Edgefield is this big beautiful building that is surrounded by about 30 acres of vineyards and gardens and open space. They have kept the character of the building and fully embraced its past. This was hands down the most charming hotel I have ever been in. So much character and warmth in this old building. All the old buildings have been turned into restaurants, a spa, a distillery, winery, brewery and lots of little pubs all around the property. Former incinerator? Great place to shove a tiny little bar where you can throw peanut shells on the floor. Former morgue? Home for the pottery studio. Former power station? Pub with movie theater and meeting rooms. As with all McMenamin's properties this one had their distinctive artistic touches everywhere. Most notably was on the exposed pipes throughout the building.

There are creative touches like this everywhere. It would take years to spot them all.

We had the most relaxing weekend I have probably ever had. Lounging around doing nothing, getting a couples massage, soaking in the heated outdoor salt-water soaking pool, eating tasty food, getting ridiculous amounts of sleep, more soaking in pool, wine tasting, beer drinking, more food, more sleep, etc. etc. If you ever get the chance. . . go here! I have heard good things about the other McMenamin's hotels too and we can't wait to try them all.