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My wife and I spent the past weekend in Walla Walla, Washington, for an anniversary trip to check out the booming wine scene they have going on. How booming? Well, they have some 130 wineries in the Walla Walla Valley (an area that also encompasses Milton-Freewater in Oregon), and 85 of those have tasting rooms open to the public.

And, an interesting coincidence: the weekend we were visiting also happened to be the weekend of the Wine Bloggers Conference.

I'm not going to give a blow-by-blow account of all the wineries we visited, but I will highlight at least a few that stood out:

• L'École No. 41 is one of the biggest and oldest wineries in the area and on Friday afternoons (starting at 2:00) they have a special "Honor Roll" tasting for a nominal fee. We got there just in time to not only get an inside tour (with tasting wines from the barrels, even) but to enjoy a vertical tasting of their Perigee line of estate wines. Pretty fantastic.
• Tertulia Cellars was a fun stop not only for the wines but also the lively conversation of the hostess (I don't remember her name).
• Similarly good conversation and wines at Rulo Winery, along with a large platter of artisan cheeses to help ones' self to. We loved their Syrca red wine and I particularly enjoyed their oak-aged Chardonnay—I was most impressed with the side-by-side tasting they did with their stainless steel-aged Chardonnay so you could taste the difference: it was like the kind of beer geekery I'm all over.
• Saviah Cellars was another great source of conversation and information; in addition to getting an interesting impromptu lesson in viticulture, we got the lowdown on some good sources of beer in the area (though we didn't get any) and some inside info on the local wine industry. Oh, and good wines, too.

Friday night we attended the Walla Walla party of the year: the Charles Smith/K Vintners party held in part for the Wine Bloggers Conference. It would sound much cooler to say, "we crashed the party," but in reality we were legitimately on the list so there was no party-crashing involved.

And by "party of the year" I mean just that: apparently Charles Smith is a rock star in Walla Walla, the area's larger-than-life personality who is eccentric, makes incredible wine, and throws the best parties. We had no idea who he was or that the party was a big deal; we almost didn't go until we heard it was going to be the place to be. (And afterward, everyone who heard we were at the party was highly impressed.)

In addition to the free wine tastings, live rock band, and burlesque dancers, the other highlight of the party was meeting fellow beer blogger The Beer Wench (AKA Ashley Routson), who was undercover attending the Wine Bloggers Conference and, well, generally partying, as near as I could tell.

By our count, we ended up visiting 13 wineries, and tasting the wines of several others. That sounds like a lot, but on our first day (and second winery), we met a couple who was on their 20th winery of the day. They were tasting then pouring their wine out, but even so, how they were still standing (much less driving) is a bit of a mystery.

A good weekend, all told. And I may have some more anecdotes from it to post. We'll see.

In June my wife and I spent the weekend in Lincoln City, Oregon, for an anniversary trip. It was fairly low-key, and though we've been to Lincoln City a number of times before, we're usually passing through; our last "big" trip there was in 2006. This time around we were able to spend some more time than usual exploring the town.

I've said before, Lincoln City is one of my favorite Oregon Coast towns, and it may well be moving close to the number one position. It sits about halfway between Newport and Pacific City, two other towns I really like; it's big enough to be a destination city but small enough to be charming and quaint; it's the easiest coast city to reach from Bend and sits at a relatively major intersection of Highway 101 and Route 18 (a connector for McMinnville, Salem, and Portland); the weather is (anecdotally) more temperate than other areas on the Central Coast.

Most of this travelogue entry is going to consist more of random notes I jotted down than any particular narrative.

Lincoln City is funny in that it seems more like two towns than one, due largely to the fact that most of the town is stretched out along Highway 101 and is roughly divided into distinct north and south sections. When the highway hooks east around a promontory, you feel isolated enough so that you think at first you're leaving the town (if you're unfamiliar with the area).

The "northern town" stretches roughly from the Lighthouse Square and Chinook Winds Casino area to the Factory Stores; the "southern town" looks noticeably older and houses the Taft Historic District, before Highway 101 curves south and east around Siletz Bay.

Chinook Winds Casino is to a large extent what Lincoln City is known for these days, from a tourism standpoint. We spent some time there, naturally, but didn't win anything. (Overall I rate their casino experience as "kinda meh".) More interesting was the fact that they were celebrating their 14th anniversary the same weekend we were; not only did they have Billy! Ray! Cyrus! live in concert both Friday and Saturday night that weekend, but they also had a fireworks show on Saturday night that we were able to see from our room overlooking the beach.

(A hint for those foregoing the concert experience but still want to catch some of the live music: in the gift shop, a vent in the back corner pipes in the music from the theater really well.)

Yes, we splurged a bit an got a nice beachfront room for the weekend, at the aptly-named Beachfront Manor Hotel. It was quite nice, and we had a terrific view of the beach and ocean from the deck.

Just up the road from the Beachfront Manor there is another hotel called Surftides, and they have a restaurant on premises named Mist that we checked out. It's a hell of a neat place—the lounge in particular has a funky '70s maritime Tiki bar feel to it, with low-backed faux-leather chairs, bench-style seating in one section, a sunken bar, and a central open fireplace with a hammered-copper hood above it. (No torches, though, so it's not a complete Tiki experience.)

They have good drinks and good pizza and a decent beer selection (for a small coast town)—stop in for happy hour.

At the other end of the day you might want to try Richens for breakfast; they're a bit pricey but they serve up some of the biggest (no joke) portions of, well, everything on their menu. Seriously, I couldn't finish my omelet (with bay shrimp and Tillamook cheddar, I think it was), and that's unusual. And just look at the size of these mimosas:

Yes, those are large wedges of orange on the sides; you almost need both hands to drink these. We ordered them expecting the typical champagne-and-OJ in a champagne glass!

Though the prices were a bit on the high side, don't expect anything too fancy—they're a down-home diner with comfort food and no pretensions. I enjoy that sort of place, my wife not so much, so your mileage may vary. (But I recommend it.)

Cognitive dissonance: there's a restaurant named Lil' Sambo's right there on Highway 101, on the north end of town. It's a pancake house, and even has a statue of a tiger out front with a big stack of 'cakes and lots of melted butter... yeah, it's like that. There's even a Google Street View so you can see for yourself.

We discovered what may be the greatest used bookstore ever (outside of Powell's): Robert's Book Shop. We stopped in because I wanted to check it out and it was across the street from a series of quaint gift shops we were visiting; from the street it looks like any run-of-the-mill used bookstore in an older building but it looks promising. You enter, and right away you know you've found a gem: the shelves are packed, and spaced pretty close together—two people don't easily squeeze by each other.

You wander the shelves, checking subjects and picking up the occasional book, when you realize that you've reached what you thought was the end of the room (based on how big you thought the store was from the outside), and there's another large room of books beyond that. And then there's yet another larger room beyond that. And you wander back the other way and head towards the "back" of the shop and there are more rooms than keep going like the others.

This place was like, five times bigger on the inside that it appeared on the outside, and they've packed an astounding number of books into the place, so it feels like you've entered a TARDIS. Lots, lots, lots of great books and I could easily blow a day there. If you love books, there is simply no excuse not to visit Robert's if you're in Lincoln City.

At the south end of town is the Taft Historic District: a shopping district with a bunch of public parking and beach access. Mo's Restaurant is located there, and you can get a (free) WiFi signal from the parking lot nearby, in front of the Looking Glass Inn.

The beach from Taft is pretty awesome: it fronts the Siletz Bay and has a real park-like quality to it, the kind of beach you want to bring a grill and several coolers down to and spend the day, with a big driftwood bonfire. (Several groups were doing this, sans the bonfire.) A bit of a walk takes you to the entrance of the Bay where the beach turns into the "real" ocean beach and curves north.

There's a ton of driftwood and really good beachcombing to be found here. And a lot of people were fishing and crabbing right off the sand in the Bay.

Some warm summer day we're going to go to Lincoln City and just spend the day chillin' on this beach, with the afore-mentioned grill and coolers. And maybe a bonfire.

In the older northern stretch of town—you'll know it when you drive through it, it seems like it might once have been considered "downtown"—the Bijou Theater claims to be the oldest theater in Oregon (their website says since 1937).

In the same stretch of town, close to the Bijou, the Old Oregon Tavern looks similarly historic. It intrigues me, but I'm sure it's just a seedy old dive bar. Inexplicably the sign has a rainbow on it. (Sadly, I did not take a picture.)

And finally, while walking along that stretch of "old downtown" shopping, I came across the greatest (or most evil?) car ever:

I have some other notes about Lincoln City, but they'll wait until our next trip. In the meantime, you really should go visit.

Ever since our friend Kina and her husband moved to Baker City to open a pizza restaurant a few years back, we'd been saying, "We'll come for a visit" every so often, but there never seemed the time for it. Distance was a major culprit; Baker City is about 230 miles from Bend, a good hour farther than we're used to traveling for a weekend.

But we kept hearing about Kina's amazing pizza, and we've been especially curious about that section of Oregon, so over spring break we made definitive plans to visit.

The drive turned out to be not as bad as we'd feared it could be; we made it in about four and a quarter hours, if memory serves, and that was with a few stops. The weather was nice on the drive over, and that section of Eastern Oregon through the Ochocos and Wallowas is extraordinarily scenic—arguably one of the prettiest routes in Oregon.

Passing through Mitchell (48 miles east of Prineville), we stopped to see the only thing of any note in the town: Henry the Bear. Yes, right there in the middle of nowhere, there is a bear in a cage.

According to the (worn and peeling) sign, Henry is an American Black Bear who was born on a bear farm in Iowa. His owner, Hugh Reed, will also apparently wrestle the bear on occasion.

No, I am not making this up, nor will I debate the ethics of, well, any of it. It's small town Americana, what are you gonna do?

Are next stop was in John Day, where we were planning on having lunch. It had been awhile since I'd been to John Day, so I wasn't sure what was there that would be convenient—the GPS listed a Dairy Queen and a Subway, but you can never be sure: when you're visiting towns in Eastern Oregon with fewer than 2000 people, it's like the land that time forgot. You might be lucky to find an Arctic Circle or a Kentucky Fried Chicken that didn't get the "KFC" name memo.

I needn't have worried. Right at the western edge of town is a shiny big McDonald's.

John Day and Prairie City (both just over 1000 people and only about 12 miles apart) are the last "major" towns before you hit Baker City. By contrast, when you roll into Baker, you hit a relative metropolis: 10,000 people and Interstate 84. (Not even Bend has an Interstate!)

We checked into our motel (by the Interstate on the east side of town) and then set off to find Paizano's Pizza (in the northwest part of town). Turns out it was very easy to find—but then I'm guessing most places in Baker City are easy to find. Rolling up north on 10th Street, the restaurant stands out really well—bright, maroon with green trim, and a big sign with lights.

Unfortunately, I for some reason never took a picture of the building itself. Suffice to say, it looks like what an old-school pizza parlor should look like, both inside and out: lots of seating, TVs on the walls with sports on, an arcade game and a pinball machine in the corner, counter service, and people having a good time. You can get a good sense of the place from their Flickr photo stream, but here's a picture that was too good not to take:

Yes, I took a picture of a toilet. I'm classy like that. That's what's staring at you in the men's room when you walk in. Think you can use the bathroom with that guy giving you the eye?

It's the little things like this that makes these trips worthwhile. And for the record, Kina wins. Her restaurant with its creepy toilet man restroom is awesome.

Dinner was at Paizano's, of course. I had to take a picture of the pint glass (with beer in it, naturally) because of the logo, but what I actually ate for dinner was the barbecue chicken stromboli.

How was it? Let's just say I would use the letters O, M, and G to describe it. Seriously, it was so good that I literally could not stop eating it. I blame the barbecue sauce. All of us had similar sentiments about our dinners.

The next day was lunch: giant slices of pizza with drink combos. Maybe a salad. But their single slices are cut from their 24-inch pizzas, so are freaking huge. One'll do ya. I had a slice with the can of PBR (one of the lunch deals). You can't go wrong with pizza and PBR.

Of course, when we left Sunday we bought a giant 24-inch pizza to take home for dinner:

We were eating for days.

The rest of Baker City, you ask? Oh yeah, we did do more than just eat Kina's food...

Downtown Baker is picturesque and charming. The central feature of downtown is the historic Geiser Grand Hotel, which at one time was considered the finest hotel between Salt Lake City and Portland (back when Baker was a booming mining and agricultural center of the Pacific Northwest).

Over 100 years old, and renovated and re-opened in the mid-90s, the Geiser Grand is famously reputed to be haunted. Visitors can check out the lobby and the basement area, where they have meeting areas along with bits and pieces of Baker City history on display. We looked around but didn't see (or hear) any ghosts.

Baker City has a microbrewery, too: Barley Brown's Brewpub, and you just know we went there. Twice. I wrote up both visits on The Brew Site here and here, so I won't reiterate my review here, other than to say, it was good. One of the best dining options in town (besides pizza, of course).

We wandered the downtown a bit, doing some browsing and shopping, and I have to mention Bella Main Street Market: a boutique kitchen-gift-food-wine store that is definitely one of the star attractions downtown. They have kitchen items, knick-knacks, gourmet foods, a decent wine selection, a decent beer selection, gifts of both a serious and silly nature, candy, and much more.

On Saturday we visited the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, located 10 or so miles outside of town. Their description says they offer "living history demonstrations, interpretive programs, exhibits, multi-media presentations, special events, and more than four miles of interpretive trails." The day was chilly and windy, so we didn't walk the trails, but the Center is still an enormously fascinating place to visit, especially if you're a history buff or have any interest in the frontier lifestyle and/or the Oregon Trail. It's full of exhibits like this:

There is also a bunch of hands-on activities (especially appealing for kids) and a special kids area. The people there were very helpful and gracious, and I highly recommend visiting.

But the truly amazing aspect to the Center is this:

That is a marker for the Oregon Trail. Not just your typical "Something Was Here" touristy signpost planted in a general area of interest, this is a marker for the actual Oregon Trail.

The passage of tens of thousands of wagons over many years' time had worn near-permanent ruts into the land itself, still present over a hundred years later: hardpacked earth that leaves a clear, easily-followed path whereupon many, many people made the passage West. This portion is accessible from the highway just below the entrance to the Interpretive Center.

I'm not sure it's possible to convey how amazing it is to be able to engage such a real, visceral chunk of history without having done it in person.

That's right: I walked the Oregon Trail. And I didn't die from dysentery.

That largely sums up our trip to Baker City, though I will note that one drive home, we ran into snow in the Wallowa Mountains going over the pass: almost enough so that you would need chains. Not quite, but almost.

This year—and this summer in particular—we've done quite a fair bit of traveling, possibly more than we have in the past. I've chronicled some of it as it applies to beer over on The Brew Site, but have been sorely lax in documenting the various trips here.

Here's a summary of the notable travels, with more detailed posts to follow for some of them:

• During spring break in March we visited Baker City for fabulous pizza and, well, seeing someplace new.
• In May, we spent a weekend in Portland doing some shopping and visiting friends.
• June was a big travel month: an anniversary trip spent in Lincoln City followed two days later by a longer visit to San Diego to see my brother.
• In July, we made a day trip up to Hood River, which I already chronicled here.
• Later in the same month, we made a quick day trip to Eugene. For beer.
• August saw our annual family reunion convene for a camping trip at the coast, just outside of Garibaldi.
• And, travels in August (and thus far this year) have more-or-less concluded with this past weekend, where my wife and I spent a night at Kah-Nee-Ta Resort (and Casino).

We'd been talking lately about taking some day trips during the summer, nothing stressful or too much driving (since we did all the driving we want just last month) but a nice getaway for a day. Sort-of spontaneous. Since we had a nice trip to Hood River last October (chronicled here) to pick apples, we figured, why not Hood River again?

Right now the fruits in season in Hood River—it's actually near the end of the current seasonals—are cherries, blueberries, and raspberries. So, once again consulting the Hood River Fruit Loop, we picked out some likely places to visit and set off. We had to drop the dog off at the kennel, and we were on the road by roughly 8:30.

Last time, we drove up Highways 97 and 197 to The Dalles, and then followed Interstate 84 into Hood River. Going that route takes just about three hours—perhaps a bit under—but just for grins, we set the GPS to show us both the "fastest" and "shortest" routes. Turns out, coming from Bend—according to the GPS—taking Highway 26 through Warm Springs and then turning off onto Highway 35 at Mt. Hood is both the shortest and fastest route.

What's amusing, though, is even after we were well on our way up the Highway 97 route, the GPS was adamant about directing us back to Highway 26—apparently even detouring back is shorter up to a certain point. That's technology for you.

I like the 97/197 drive up through the middle of Oregon. Lots of rolling hills, dry Eastern Oregon, and wheat fields, a nice change from driving through the mountains or the Willamette Valley. Probably the most interesting town on the route—one of the only ones between Madras and The Dalles—is Maupin.

This tiny little town (population: 408) is nestled down against the lower Deschutes River, in the river canyon carved out by the Deschutes. It's sole purpose seems to be to provide a tourist base for river recreation; it's a major destination for rafters and kayakers and that seems to be the trade of half the businesses in town.

Of course, you don't just pass on by, you have to drive through the town. What that means is you descend the river canyon, cross the old stone bridge over the river, and ascend the other side: lots hard corners and a few 15MP hairpin switchback turns. To get an idea, Google Maps actually has Street View running the route through town.

We pulled in to Hood River right about 11:30, just in time for lunch: at Double Mountain Brewery, which also opened at 11:30. We parked right in front and were the first customers of the day.

(As a side note, Hood River downtown streets all have parking meters. Seems odd to me for a town of only 6500 or so to have parking meters—but then, Bend as a city of 80,000 has none, so that's what I'm used to.)

After a nice lunch and a taster tray of good beer later (I'll review Double Mountain in more detail over on The Brew Site), we were off in search of fruit. Our first stop was Wilinda Blueberry Patch: an acre or so of blueberry picking (only several rows of which were ripe for picking—the different varieties apparently ripen at different times). The day was already hot, but we managed to pick something like three pounds of berries.

Our next stop (after picking up ice and Gatorade) was a winery (actually, we visited two): Hood River Vineyards, followed by Marchesi Vineyards. Hood River produces some fantastic and delicious ports and dessert wines—both with grapes and other seasonal fruits—and Marchesi specializes in Italian varietals.

The hostesses at both tasting rooms were very friendly and knowledgeable, and we left with a couple of bottles of wine from each.

Our next stop was Lavender Valley Lavender Farm. Most types of lavender products you can images, and immense fields of "U-cut" lavender that we were interested in. Like the fruit, different varieties of lavender bloom and can be cut at different times; we were directed to specific rows and cut ourselves three nice bunches of lavender. The kids stayed back, out of the field directly: too many honey bees (no kidding, there were hundreds) were making them nervous.

After cutting lavender, we had an ice cream break before visiting Alice's Orchard. We visited this orchard last October with good results, and had good luck again this time around. Cherries were available here for picking, and were practically falling off the trees. In no time at all we had filled two small buckets for about 12 pounds worth of cherries. We could have easily doubled that amount with little effort.

I have to say, as someone raised in Central Oregon on the edge of a desert, I'm always amazed at the sheer amount of fruit these orchards and berry patches produce. It's almost appalling, really, and it's really easy to get greedy: I could have kept right on picking and filling buckets just because there's so much fruit.

After a couple more stops, we found ourselves on the road to Parkdale, heading more-or-less for home (along the Highway 35 Mt. Hood route), and stopping at the Draper Girls Country Farm, only because they advertised U-pick raspberries—the other berry we were keeping an eye out for that nobody else seemed to have.

It's the very tail end of raspberry season, though, so we only managed to pick a pint of raspberries. The Farm itself is also a fruit stand, and they offered a number of other seasonal produce: apricots, cucumbers, more cherries, beans, and I think I saw an eggplant or two. There are also a number of antiques and rustic knick-knacks for sale, if you're into that sort of thing.

Thus ended our fruit picking excursion to Hood River, except for a quick stop at the Mt. Hood Country Store in Parkdale. I wouldn't even mention this except for the fact that they have an amazingly well-stocked cooler full of craft beer—many of which you won't find in Bend—and had six beers on tap—also well-chosen craft beer that you won't likely find in Bend. Literally, a country store and deli where you'd expect to find a jar full of pickled eggs and a cooler full of Bud and Coors Light and maybe an ancient six-pack of Lucky Lager, instead is a damn impressive beer oasis. That's Oregon for you.

Final tally from the trip: three pounds of blueberries, 12 pounds of cherries, three nice bundles of fresh lavender, four bottles of wine, and a pint of raspberries.

We pulled back into the garage around 7:45 in the evening, and I do indeed think the Mt. Hood route along Highway 35 is a bit quicker.

Last week, we went down to San Diego for a quick(ish) trip to visit my brother and his wife. We left Tuesday afternoon after I was off work, drove all day Wednesday, and then returned on Monday—doing the full San Diego to Bend drive in one day. I won't recount the full blow-by-blow here (and I'm blogging my beer notes of the trip on The Brew Site, of course), but just a series of notes, observations, and tidbits.

(A big reason for the visit was because my brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first child this August, and the baby shower was on Saturday. So we couldn't pass up the opportunity.)

At about three and a half hours from Bend, Weed is a town you can't ignore: it's the junction of Highway 97 and Interstate 5, and is the first "real" town you hit in California when traveling down 97. (I'd count Dorris, but that seems more like a truck stop/border crossing than a town.) I find the town fascinating: its population is exactly 3000, it sits in the shadow of Mt. Shasta, and in many ways it's the gateway to Northern California.

And it's like Bend in several ways: it had its start as a lumber town, has a similar climate and the same elevation, and now derives a good portion of its economy from (mountain) tourism. What little I've seen of it—besides the fast food restaurants and gas stations marking it as an Interstate connector—seems charming and picturesque.

Tuesday night we stayed in Anderson, California (just south of Redding) at the Gaia Anderson hotel. Even though it was just a waypoint on the trip, it was actually quite a nice place for a really good price. It's new and built to "green" specs—energy efficient, with water conservation in mind, and organic and health-conscious. And it's just off the freeway, which was convenient.

The drive that first afternoon—Bend to Anderson/Redding—took us about 4 hours and 45 minutes. The next day, we drove about 11 hours through to San Diego, hitting rush hour Los Angeles traffic and losing about an hour and half to it.

I completely hate Los Angeles traffic. And that pretty much mars the whole city for me.

Driving through central California, south of Sacramento on that long, lonely stretch of I-5, is long, tedious, and a bit depressing. Desert and failed agriculture, with communities that only seem to have sprung up to service the Interstate. How people can live there is beyond me.

And it's crazy hot, from Redding on down; on our return trip, it was 105 degrees in Redding! At one point the kids wanted to open the windows so I let them briefly. It was like opening an oven door.

After Wednesday, we were in San Diego four full days before returning on Monday. It was a great trip, and the weather—which had been forecasted to be 70 and overcast the entire time—actually turned out sunny, clear, and nicely hot (but not too hot).

Which was a good thing, because Friday we hit the beach and had a great day—the water is cool but much warmer than the Oregon Coast, so we were able to actually, you know, go in it. My brother and I spent most of the time out in the surf, while I kept an eye on the kids and the women stayed on the beach. At one point I was far enough out so that when a wave crashed over me—intentionally—I couldn't touch bottom. That was a bit spooky.

Sunday we all went to the San Diego Zoo. Something like 16 of us total. It was a bit chaotic, but a good day. And it was hot—the hottest day in San Diego since we arrived. There were several sunburned people to show for it.

Interesting fact I learned (but didn't personally verify): apparently the Howard Johnson on Hotel Circle has a lifesize Hulk Hogan statue in the lobby.

As much as I dislike Los Angeles, I like San Diego. The big negatives are (obviously) the traffic and the urban sprawl; everything is very spread out, along freeways, and tuned to the stripmall. Something might be "just across the freeway" but to cross it you might have to jump on, exit a mile down the road, loop around and cross another exchange just to get there. But for that, it's appealing and likable. And of course, it's a great beer town.

Not much to say about the Monday drive home except that we went straight through (stopping only for gas, bathroom breaks, and fast food), and made it in 14.5 hours. We left at about 7:30 in the morning and were home by about 10 that night. The kids held up remarkably well, better than I hoped. So it's doable—but I'm not sure I'd want to do it again.

Although you do save money if you don't stay overnight...

I had actually hoped to start writing a lot more here since my last post, but August slipped away and September is here with all its changes. But before I get to those, here's how the rest of August went.

The week following the 8th, we had to travel to Florida for unavoidable family business. It was fairly last-minute, and traveling cross-country is no picnic. We were essentially gone from Monday through Sunday.

The week after that was a continuation of the job search and interview process. I actually did a fair amount of running around and, of course, it was the "recovery week" from the previous week's trip to Florida.

The final full week of the month was spent essentially getting ready for school and the Labor Day weekend—my brother and sister-in-law were coming up from San Diego and they were staying with us at least part of the time (that we knew of—it actually was the whole time) so there was a fair amount of shopping and cleaning to do in preparation.

Labor Day weekend rocked, and I can safely say I exercised my liver quite a bit without any ill effects. (It's all in how you pace yourself.)

There you are, the capsule version. My next post will encompass what's happened since the beginning of this month.

Finally, some pictures to accompany my Oregon Coast travelogue post from the beginning of this month. Nothing earth-shaking here, just what you'd expect.

Their big sign on Highway 101. You can't miss it.

Click through for the rest of the pictures

We spent the weekend on the Coast, and while I don't feel like writing a 2000+ word recap like I did for our Ashland trip last year, I wanted to highlight some of it—the (shall we say) less obvious things. So I thought I'd present it more travel guide style.

(Inspired largely by the Fodor's Pacific Northwest guidebook I picked up from the library for ideas. It covers a lot of ground but is still frustratingly sparse.)

Tillamook, Oregon

First thing to note: Tillamook smells like cows. Lots of cows. To me it's not at all unpleasant since I grew up around cows; to others, it depends. Sometimes it smells only like cows, sometimes there's also a bit of cow manure in there too.

The Tillamook Cheese Factory - This is the thing to see when in Tillamook. Open seven days a week, from 8 until 8 during the summer (8 until 6 the rest of the year), tours are self-guided and best of all, free. Kids will love it, as you get great views of the vats, production, and packaging lines—but note, the packaging line (the biggest part with the most moving parts) only operates from Monday through Friday. So if you come on a weekend (like we did), you'll just see a lot of inactive machinery.

There are two gift shops, a café and, of course, a full range of flavors of Tillamook ice cream for sale. You can't stop here and not get a cone.

Blue Heron French Cheese Company - Down Highway 101 a ways from the Tillamook Cheese Factory, Blue Heron specializes in French cheeses: Bries, Camemberts, blue cheeses, and the like. The have a charming gift shop/deli/wine bar with lots of samples of all sorts of foods: cheeses (naturally), dips, sauces, jams and jellies, wine tastings, and more. They also have a very decent beer selection by the bottle (not that I'm an expert for the area, but it could be the best in Tillamook for all I know).

There is also a "petting farm" for the kids; for 75 cents you can buy a small bag of animal food and feed it to the goats, donkeys, and miniature horses on the property.

Oceanside, Oregon (9 miles west of Tillamook)

This beachfront community strikes me as being almost entirely a vacation rental "town." Aside from a couple of restaurants (one of which was closed) and a gift shop, it looked like there were only vacation rentals and very nice houses. Odd, that.

Down on the beach, there's a great find: a tunnel cut through the cliffside that juts out into the water, leading to a very secluded rocky beach on the other side. Great adventure for kids.

Roseanna's Cafe - The only restaurant of note in Oceanside. It overlooks the beach and occupies a creaky old building built in 1915 or something. It was pretty good food, but we had a bit of a wait—they don't take reservations. Other than that, it was worth the visit.

Newport, Oregon

Newport is my favorite city on the Oregon Coast (though Lincoln City and Pacific City are tied for a close second). There's just so much to like about it: their Historic Bayfront, the Nye Beach district, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, good food, and of course, Rogue Ales.

Prepare for chillier weather than you'll get elsewhere on the coast, though. Lincoln City was in the 70s (and maybe 80s) during the weekend, and Newport barely broke the 50s and low 60s.

Fishtails Café - This has to be the best-kept secret in Newport, because in my opinion it's the best breakfast place in town. Though I had their excellent salmon hash, the breakfast they're known for is their marionberry French toast. Check this out:

A favorite at Fishtails Café, we take our homemade bread rounds and stuff a slightly sweetened Cream Cheese mixture between two slices, dip it in Cream and Eggs and sautee it to a delicate golden and top it with our homemade Marionberry sauce.

It's a steal at only $6.95 (I'm not kidding), and this thing is huge and freaking delicious. The restaurant itself is homey and charming and over in the South Beach section of town (across the bridge).

Port Dock One - This restaurant is located on the Historic Bayfront and overlooks, er, Port Dock One. The food is decent, but the real draw is the view. Not only of the Bay, but also of the sea lions that tend to sun themselves and nap on the piers below the main dock. It's like every visit comes with a show.

Rogue - Being the only brewery in Newport, Rogue is of course big in the area. Most restaurants have Dead Guy Ale on tap, but you'll definitely want to visit their Public House, also on the Bayfront. Not only are all the Rogue beers on tap (along with several from their Eugene and Issaquah breweries), but they also have their full line of Rogue Spirits, and good food. Plus, there's an adults only section of the place decked out with video poker and pool tables, so they're covering all the bases.

You can visit the actual Brewery itself in South Beach, where they also have a tasting room and restaurant and gift shop. Tours are available, as well.

And across the lot from the Brewery, in the South Beach marina area, is the Rogue Spirits Distillery (though their main one is in Portland). You can pop in here to check out their distilling operation (three years old) and get a drink from the bar. Beers and gift shop breweriana are also available.

Ugh, did I say I didn't want to write 2000-plus words? I'm already approaching the halfway point for that with this post. So I'll wrap it up for tonight, but I'll probably have a bit more to write about Newport before all is said and done. And of course, I have some pictures, but I don't have them on the computer yet so those will have to wait for a later post as well.

We are off to Portland for the long weekend; the first such trip we've done in awhile. A chance to relax, do some shopping, maybe visit OMSI, that sort of thing. No real plans, just a relaxing vacation trip.

One stop I'm definitely planning to make—the only one I actively campaigned for, actually—is John's Marketplace. It's a stunningly amazing beer store, with more selection than I've ever seen. I blogged about it on The Brew Site last year after my first trip there; this time I'll take the real camera and get some proper pictures. And some beer.

As usual, computer with us, but I don't know how often I'll be online. If anyone wants to reach me, shoot me an email or fill out the contact form. Otherwise, have a good weekend!

We left Friday morning (just the wife and I; Grandma had the kids for the weekend) and headed down to southern Oregon for a play and a getaway. The weather turned out great, and the trip was largely a winery tour, among other things; we visited four wineries and ended up buying just over a case of wine.

The last time we'd been to Ashland was nine years ago, before the kids were born. Compared to Bend over the past decade, few things in the area have changed; both Medford and Ashland have remained pretty stable, and even though there are signs of growth, much of it (particularly downtown Ashland) is as I remember it.

(Holy smokes, this post got long.)

Click through to read on...

A few link-worthy items that caught my eye but that I can't squeeze a full post out of (yet)...

The Real Oregon: a new(ish) blog subtitled "Oregon for the eccentric traveler." Looks promising, with travel tidbits about Oregon that seem pretty interesting to me.

How a $2 bottle transformed the wine industry: Charles Shaw wine (AKA Two (or Three) Buck Chuck) turns five. Who'd'a thunk it? And for the record, I rather like the wines.

Burst Culture: A bit of brilliance from Warren Ellis that's been making the rounds online. Pretty much ties in with ideas I've been having about the web and blogging, and giving me stuff to think about.

Next week is spring break around here, and this year we decided to pack up and head down to San Diego for the week, to visit my brother and his wife.

We're driving down, spreading it out over two days each way. It's roughly 1000 miles from Bend to San Diego, so that's a lot of driving. But hey, that's the Jack Kerouac experience, right? Sort of. Though I'm pretty sure Kerouac didn't have a family along with him.

It's been awhile since I've taken this much time off from work. I wonder if I'll be able to go back.

I'm taking the day off from work this Friday and going to Portland for the Oregon Brewers Festival! Woo hoo! My original plan was to stay in Portland the entire weekend, but as it turns out I'd already obligated myself to a friend's wedding Saturday evening, so I'll be spending Friday night with my friend Justin (who's also going with me to the Brewfest) and leaving Saturday late morning sometime.

It's going to be an eventful day. Aside from the Brewfest, there's a beer blogger meetup that evening (starting at five) over at the Rogue Ales Public House, so I'll get to meet yet more bloggers from Portland and other far-flung places (Arizona, for one, I think).

Are any other bloggers in the area going to the Brewfest? Let me know.

At any rate, I'll have the camera and notebook and plan on writing a bunch about it. And, Friday right now is looking at an 80-degree forecast for Portland, so that's just about perfect. Three days and counting!

Our big Memorial Day weekend was spent over on the Oregon coast, chillin' out in Lincoln City.

...I of course mean "chillin' out" quite literally; it was chilly and windy and rainy on Saturday and Sunday, and finally started getting nice on Monday, when we were leaving. It was in the 50s and maybe low 60s, so by Central Oregon standards, just like spring!

It was nice. It'd been ages since I'd been to the coast, so the chance to get on the beach and touch the ocean and taste the salty air far outweighed any minor weather concerns. We stayed at the 'D' Sands motel right on the beach, just below the D River (the shortest river in the world). It turned out to be a pretty good place to stay since we had a fantastic view, easy beach access and a full kitchen room (condominium style). That worked out well since we had the kids and didn't have to rush to meals anywhere if we didn't want to.

The trip was split between relaxing, shopping, gambling, and drinking. I know, the perfect trip, right? The drinking largely consisted of driving up to Pacific City and visiting the Pelican Pub and Brewery (right on the beach), and having a bottle of wine later while the kids watched TV, and a few odds and ends here and there. Gambling was two hours spent at the Chinook Winds casino (not my cup of tea). Shopping was, well, shopping... Lincoln City improbably has a large and busy complex of factory outlets, and then there's all the tchotske and souvenir shops that you invariably find on the coast.

The relaxing was the money, though. The kids and I flew a kite. We walked on the beach and played in the sand and threw rocks at the ocean. We swam in the swimming pool (a bit chilly there, too). We lazed around the room. I even got up early in the morning and walked barefoot on the beach, collecting a few rocks and shells here and there and splashing in the sea a bit. Yes, nippy! But totally worth it.

Unfortunately, those coast trips never seem long enough. We left Monday bound for Portland, as we had an early Tuesday morning eye doctor appointment for the kids there. Perhaps we'll have to see about a summer trip, when the weather is much nicer... the ocean's still damn cold even then, but that's never stopped us from jumping in anyway.

This is sort of like those "How I spent my summer" essays—did anyone ever really have to write those? Anyway...

The main purpose of our day trip to Eugene was to visit one or several of the children's stores they have over there that specializes in kid beds; our four-year-old is soon to turn five and it's time to move him from the toddler bed to a regular bed. We'd looked around here in Bend but there's just not a great selection.

It was a beautiful day to cruise over the Santiam, and aside from some controlled burn haziness, ran into no problems at all. It's been years since I've actually been to Eugene, so it was a nice drive. And only about two-and-a-half hours, easier than the trip to Portland, even.

Our travels brought us first to the Valley River Center, to check out a store that, as luck would have it, was having a 20% off clearance sale. We looked at a few things, made some mental notes, and headed for downtown to check out the other store and get some lunch.

A quick note about navigation in Eugene: it's almost criminally easy. (Granted, we only went to a few places.) I always expect more complication, but the few times I've been there I've never really had any problem figuring out where to go. Today, for instance, I think we found every place we needed despite ourselves.

Downtown Eugene led us to the other children's store and then the Steelhead Brewery for lunch (I wrote a review of that on The Brew Site). We still hadn't decided about a bed, so after lunch back across the street we walked (nice, eh? The store and the brewery were next door to each other) to take another look at the styles we liked, and then it was back to the Valley River Center and the first store again.

That was the store that won out; we bought the bed we liked, but it was the floor model and they needed an hour to disassemble it for us, so off we went back downtown again.

This time, we were looking for a store named Down to Earth, which sells "natural products for the home and garden." My mom had ordered a couple of plants from them and asked if we could pick them up for her; no problem. Good grief, but this is a big store; it's basically a warehouse that spans the length of a city block and packs in an amazing variety of things. We were able to find my mom's plants (they had to search) and while we were wandering around the nursery, an employee asked the kids if they'd like to plant some free flowers for Mother's Day.

Turns out, they had planned and promoted this "Free Flower Day" thing for kids, but not that many showed up. It was a very cool idea though; we left with three extra pots of flowers, all free. And I was even tempted by a "hardy banana" plant, with the bold claim of being able to withstand temperatures as cold as -20°F. It was close, but I resisted. Aside from the exotic idea of having a banana plant growing in the backyard, it's not like we don't already have plants that can withstand that kind of cold: they're called "trees."

Back to the store to pick up the bed components, and some creative minivan-loading later, we were ready to head out of town. Almost, anyway; we had to make the obligatory trip to Trader Joe's.

Come on, you know the routine: Trader Joe's simply rocks, and whenever a Central Oregonian travels to a city with one, they have to stop and stock up on Three Buck Chuck, or shepherd's bread, or ten-pound bars of authentic Swiss dark chocolate, or whatever. Often, there's even a list of things to pick up for other people. It's okay. We've all been there. :)

Anyway, one quick TJ's stop later and we were on our way. We made good time coming back, just as in the morning, and pulled into the driveway at about 6:30. Sure, it made for a long day, but not as long as a Portland trip, for instance.

Hey, that makes me think of a great tag line for Eugene: "We're closer than Portland. And criminally easy to navigate."

Tomorrow we're off to Eugene for a day trip. We doing some kids bed shopping, and will likely stop at the Steelhead Brewing Company (fodder for The Brew Site) for lunch and beer. Likely it'll be a decent trip. It's supposed to be 71 in Eugene tomorrow, so that's good.

On Sunday we'll be heading up to Portland to see Bon Jovi in concert at the Rose Garden. Yes, we've done this before (warning: I sound like a drooling fanboy in that post).

Anyway, we're casting about for something to do Sunday after we get to Portland... we'll be seeing some friends, probably, and of course my wife would love to do some shopping. Myself, I don't really have any real plan; I like going to Powells and I wouldn't mind hitting a brewpub or two, but I'm pretty open.

Would any Portland bloggers want to meet up? I'm not promising anything, but you never know. ;)

For that matter, any bloggers/readers going to see Bon Jovi too?

Ah, we're quite the travelers this year: tomorrow we're flying out to Florida for a week. We'll be visiting my wife's grandparents near Fort Lauderdale and yes, taking some time to drive up to Orlando for Disney World.

It probably goes without saying that I won't be online much, or at all. We're taking the laptop, but time and connectivity may not permit much. I'm not too devastated by this.

See y'all on the other side.

Yep, we're heading up to Portland tomorrow, for the weekend. We've got a bunch of clothes shopping to do. And appointments to keep. And friends to see, if there's time. With all the running around, I wonder when (if) we'll find time to relax...

Taking the laptop, though, so I'll still be checking in.

A bit over a year ago I blogged about the PHP Cruise. Well, this year there's another PHP conference organized by the folks at php|architect, though it's not a cruise this time: php|tropics!

It's in Cancun, Mexico, from May 11 through 15. Now, if I only had a few grand lying around and could convince work that it's a business trip...

Vacation is about to start. Once I leave work, we're pretty much on the road, and while we're bringing a laptop, there's no guarantee I'll be online much, so this may be the last post for a while. Or not; I'll try to update from the road if I get the chance.

Au revoir!

We'll be on the road all next week—well, starting this week, really, since we're leaving Friday night—on our way to visit my brother in San Diego. Road trip!

From Bend, San Diego is about a 16 or 17 hour drive. Since the kids are little, we're spreading that over three days each way, taking it easier than just plowing on through. Of course, the portable DVD player we bought for the car should help out, too.

Needless to say, I'll be mostly offline for nine or ten days, starting Friday afternoon. I have a slightly older laptop computer that I'm taking, but I just got it and it doesn't have network access, either Ethernet or wireless (has the slots for them, though). I may be able to get it set up for network before we go, otherwise I'll just rely on the modem in a pinch.

Or not. We'll just see.

Ha, fooled you. The third day of the trip was pretty basic: caught the hotel shuttle to the airport, caught the airplane, made it home.

Okay, well, something happened: when we got to the airport, we found out that the corkscrew we had bought the day before at Viansa Winery would be taken away if we tried to board the plane with it (really!), so we ended up having to check one of our bags and put the corkscrew in it. I mean, really. A corkscrew?

Oh, and when we got back to Bend, we killed a few extra hours by going to see Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. It was fun; not an Academy Award winner certainly, but a lot more fun than a lot of the dreck making it to the big screen these days.

Saturday the 12th in Frisco was the busy day; we took the Napa Valley Wine Train, which ate up about 8 hours.

It was a lot of fun. The tour bus that took us to Napa only had 3 other couples on it, so there were 8 of us total. The driver was a really good tour guide, named Roberto, with an accent that I couldn't quite peg; I knew it wasn't Spanish, so I had settled on Italian, but he ultimately revealed himself to be Portugese. On the way to Napa he detoured through Sonoma (he does that on weekends, because the train leaves later and there's an extra couple of hours to do this kind of stuff. So take the Wine Train on Saturdays) and stopped at the Viansa Winery. We toured the Winery, tasted a lot of really good wine, and bought a few things. We ended up with 3 bottles of wine to take with us, and signed up for 4 months of their Tuscan Club. Very good detour.

More...

Herewith the beginning of several entries detailing our anniversary trip to San Francisco last weekend (the 11th through the 13th).

It was a good trip! We had to get up too early, though: five in the morning on Friday, so we could be at the airport by 6 or so (our flight was 7:15). I always dread traveling when I have to get up early, but this time it wasn't too bad.

It was a good flight though, quick and without incident. We had everything we needed in carry-ons, so we didn't have to worry about checking luggage. So we were able to go straight from the airport to our hotel, the Tuscan Inn, even though it was too early to check in. We left our bags with the hotel and wandered around the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco.

It was cold, too; we had just come from 90+ degree weather in Bend, to 70-ish degree wind and fog. Fortunately, it cleared up later in the day and warmed up.

More...

This weekend my wife and I are going to San Francisco for our (5th) anniversary trip. Leaving early early early Friday morning, coming back Sunday. It should be a fun trip.

Friday night we're doing a dinner cruise of the Bay, and all day Saturday we're taking a train tour through wine country. Ah, le vin.

Of course, I'd love to be able to stop in at Anchor Brewing, but we don't have the time. Bummer!