Wine Tasting in the West Hills

Ah, wine, how I love thee!

For my sister's birthday last weekend she decided she'd like to go on a tour of our local wineries. We've both done some wine tours in Napa and Sonoma wine country down in California, but hadn't really done a nice winery tour around our own famed Willamette Valley wineries.

We did a little internet research ahead of time and found that the tasting rooms just west of Salem are MUCH more reasonably priced for tastings than the ones to the north towards Yamhill and Dundee. Most of the wine tastings we did were in the $5 range for a flight of 5-10 wines. The Yamhill county wineries tended to be somewhere around $10-$15 per flight.

We found about 5 tasting rooms we wanted to try out and mapped out our journey. We hired a friend to drive us and my sister packed a cooler of snacks, which turned out to be the most excellent idea EVER. We got pretty hungry along the way and there is no place to stop for a bite to eat once you are out there in wine country.  There are, however, many vineyards and wineries that provide picnic tables, so it worked out well.

We ended up going to Orchard Heights, Cubanisimo, Redhawk, and Stangeland. We really wanted to try Bethel Heights as well because we had heard lots of great stuff about it, but we didn't make it there before they closed. Each winery we visited was unique, but they were all great and had delicious wines, so its difficult for me to pick a favorite. Orchard Heights had some great wines, Cubanisimo had a beautiful tasting room, Redhawk had amazing views from the tasting room counter, and Stangeland was a friendly little spot with a great Rose wine (which I normally don't like).

There were so many other wineries that we didn't make it to, that we all decided we'd have to do it again sometime. I figure by the time we get through all the wineries in the area, they'll have wines from a new year and we'll have to start over and try them all again. Oh well! I think I can handle that just fine.

Lady Who Lunches - My Summer Persona

During the school year, I rarely have to time to go out to lunch because I just have 30 minutes between classes in which to eat, go to the bathroom, etc. Ah, the life of a teacher. So, come summertime, I like to catch up on lunches with friends.

This summer I am really living it up, trying out different restaurants with other ladies who lunch. A true "Lady Who Lunches" meal consists of a long, leisurely summer lunch at an outdoor table with a cocktail in hand. But a picnic at the park with takeout from a deli works too. Or brunch with family members. Or a happy hour drink and snack with coworkers. Or a sampling of food from the farmer's market all by myself.

As you can see, I'm pretty easy. That's me, Lady Who Lunches.

Spring Break, Part 2

Spring Break was just all around a good week for me. I felt productive, but I also got in a lot of fun and socializing. I finished my taxes and dropped state taxes off at the Revenue office downtown, saving myself a stamp. I dropped off a huge bag of stuff at Goodwill, and sold some books at The Book Bin, resulting in a nice little credit for future book buying. I spent a lovely, rainy evening at f/stop Fitzgerald playing trivia and drinking Wandering Aengus cider with friends.

Then I took off to Seattle for a weekend getaway with some girlfriends. We stayed at the beautiful Alexis Hotel in downtown Seattle right down the street from Pike's Place Market. The weather gods blessed us with beautiful weather and we wandered the market, had lunch at Pike's Brewery, and generally enjoyed the sunny day. In the evening, the four of us girls decided it would be fun to have a few cocktails on the town, so we hailed a taxi and made our way to The Chapel on Capitol Hill for happy hour martinis. We had a great time and ended up at a little pizza joint in Belltown on 1st Ave. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the place (Hmmm. Perhaps one martini too many??), but it was delicious and made a great nightcap slice before we headed back to the hotel.

The First Half of my Salem Staycation

Since I just took a long weekend at the beginning of the month I decided to stay around Salem and vicinity for Spring Break.
My staycation so far: Pub crawl through downtown with friends old and new, Saturday morning walk with my nephew and a cup of coffee at the Beanery, a side trip to Portland for a manicure and dinner at Pambiche (awesome Cuban tapas!), lunch with friends at Sushi Kyo, a night at my personal hotel in Willamina with my good college friend, breakfast at the Casino and whale watching in Depoe Bay, Happy Hour at Boon's with friends, housecleaning which resulted in a giant bag of donations for Goodwill, and today I'm working on taxes.
Whew! I think I need a nap now.

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