Oregon Vacation Day 4

Today was our last day at Le Case de Amore :( so we spent the morning collecting all of our trash and getting ready to leave. Beth, Dave and I caught an early morning treat (Eric was still snoring like a log ;) when two deer ventured up not more than twenty feet from the house.  I crept out as quietly as I could, but this is as far as I could get before they ran away...they deer seemed more grey here than brown, but they were beautiful...if you look very closely at the picture above, you can see the mother doe and baby doe.  

goodbye little round house in the woods..we loved you!

We had one last winery to visit, St. Innocent, and while I have to admit I was just kinda sorta dragging my feet at this point, I am SO glad we went.  The tour was more informative than any I had been on, and their innovative strategies for making, storing, fermenting and aging their wine were incredible.  They also are nestled on some of the most beautiful property I have seen in Williamette Valley.  The winery also serves as an event hall, and they had the most beautiful wedding albums of bride and grooms getting married literally in the middle of wine country...!! Ahh...be still my beating heart.

After our last winery, we headed into Amityville for some much needed retail therapy (at least on my part :)  We were a little dissapointed that, because it was Sunday, many of the stores were closed.  The weather was beautiful, just like it was for most of the trip...high 50's, but a lot of clouds and fog.  While we were eating lunch at a brewery when the sun finally burned off enough of the fog that I could take a picture of my beloved Mt. Hood!  Oh...I thought I was going to have to leave my West Coast without a glimpse of a mountain!  I found some super cute stuff for people back home, as well as a few decorative things for our new house.  It was a beautiful morning and afternoon.

(if you know my email addy, and you know why it's my email addy
then you understand why I took a picture of this sign :)

Mt. Hood!  You ARE there! 

The day was flying by, so we packed up again and started to head for downtown Portlad for our last night of our trip.  We stayed at a gorgeous five star hotel, and wanted to make great dinner plans for our last night there.  The hotel had a steakhouse but we felt adventurous.  Oh, and what an adventure this was!  We started out with advice from our concierge for a great seafood restaurant right on the harbor, but we walk in literally as they are closing.  They referred us to a different restaraunt, which we made our way to with just a FEW detours...  Beth and I had amazing filet mignon, and Eric and Dave had seafood.  There may have been several martinis inbetween there, I definitely know there was a lot of laughing.  It was a perfect way to end our vacation, laughing with the friends who helped make these memories possible. 

Thank you both for all the memories!

the road home...

This time, I will just let the pictures tell the story of our road back home, and our view of the night...

Oregon Vacation Day 3

After my aforementioned disgruntled meeting with my interior alarm clock, and my refreshing morning walk, we packed in the car, turned on Bessie and headed out for a long day of testing, visiting, listening, learning (at least that's what I was doing)....

just a beautiful cherry blossom tree I caught along the way...

Our first stop was at the Evergreen Aviation Museum, the home of the "Spruce Goose" and a plethora of other amazing planes from different historical time periods.  You will see a barrage of photos below :)  The location wasn't my favorite of the day...wait until you see my pics from the Stoller Vineyard...but it was my favorite wine of the day.  Each glass was different and remarkable....

planes, planes, and more planes...



this is just one of the tail wings on the "Spruce Goose"  If you don't know about this
historical artifact, I highly recommend reading about it.  This absolute monstrosity of a plane was
built entirely out of wood because metal was being rationed because of the war.  When the plane
was restored for this museum, workers spent over a year scraping off a layer of white paint by hand to restore it to it's natural beauty.  It was really was an ubelivable sight.


(this one's for you...dad)





After basically having to drag ourselves out of the museum (we could have stayed there for days!), we were off to our next stop, Stoller Vineyards. 


The scenery surrouding this winery was breathtaking.  I learned, during our tour, that the land of the winery used to be a chicken farm, and they still have several goats and an alpaca on the property.  Also, close to 70% of their energy comes from solar power.  Definitely cool.  The people here were so friendly, and while I didn't love the wine, their chardonnay was very "oak-ey," and the reds were very strong.  Regardless, I am so glad that I was blessed to witness this view.  Why do I not live here?





(dave couldn't decide which one he liked best :)

(at least we know it's spring somewhere..)


okay, okay...enough pictures of that winery.....

Our last stop of the day was to visit a mutual friend of Dave and Eric's, Peter Rosback of Sineann Wines.  This tasting was really laid back and fun...much more low key and formal.  They enjoyed catching up, as Peter is from Indianapolis.  The wines were fabulous, and I was really interested in his knowledge of grapes.  For some reason I absolutely love the look of the rows of grapes....it really is beautiful.






After such a long day we didn't really feel like going out, so we found a really incredible restaraunt that offered carry-out and the boys had steak and Beth and I had fabulous margherita pizza. 

Who could resist going home when this is whats awaiting you...
(see next post ;)

let me introduce you...

(if you're wondering who the other people are in these pictures....)

to...Dave and Beth, people that I have been blessed to know since Eric and I started dating.  Eric worked with Dave for several years selling wine (hence the "wine" theme), and a few years after Eric made his career shift to Monster, Dave opened his own wine distribution company, World of Wines.  So..basically, I was traveling with great people who knew their wines! 
there are SO many great stories...laughing until we couldn't breathe, the "gals" beating the "guys" thoroughly in a euchre tournament (even the rematch :), getting very comfortable with "Bessie" our GPS navigator, who got us lost quite a few times, but for the most part was a good gal to keep with us :)

to me, these two have become like family, and I look forward to spending much more time with them.  One of the particular things I noticed, which I even commented to eric, was how strong and loving their marriage is.  it was such an example of love to me, not to sound cheesy :)  Thank you both for such a wonderful trip.

Oregon Vacation Day 2

Warning: Ridiculosly long picture post ahead...just fair warning :)
What a day! One regret I have of this vacation is that I definitely should have spent more time writing down my thoughts...good thing I can organize my pictures by day...and then the memories follow.

We left the Avalon mid-morning, and headed for our first couple wineries of the day.  We visited a distribution center, where the rep wasn't really interested in a tasting...rather just gave us a case of wine.  Okay, I'm cool with that ;)

The next winery, hip Chicks do Wine, was uber cool, I could have stayed there for hours...

Some of my favorite titles... "Drop Dead Red," "Bad Girl Blanc," "Blush Bunny Rose," and or course their Moscato, which is my favorite kind of wine, although Eric would probably call me wine "sissy" for that, because it's a pretty sweet, almost dessert wine.  One of the negatives (okay, really the only negative) about this trip is that I can't drink red wine.  Corinne + Sulfites = Migraine from Hell.  BUT...I was able to taste some really really good white wines, and one day I even braved it, took a pre-cautionary Imitrex (I don't really think you're supposed to do that...ooops) and tasted all the red wine I wanted.  I ended up with a little headache, but nothing like I expected.  I digress...  When we move, our awesome eat-in kitchen has a built in wine rack and a place for Eric's gorgeous stemware from when he worked with wines.  So... I bought this beautiful art print, which will be framed in that room.  I love it.

I left with a bottle of their Moscato, and the above bottle of Wine Bunny Blush.  Secretly, I could have bought the whole store.  Dave was so cute...he said we HAD to visit this little winery because of the "hip chicks" traveling with him.  That's right, Beth, we are pretty hip :) 
"Bessie" our beloved GPS navigator...managed to get us out of Portland, and off to our home away from home in Amityville, "Le Casa de Amore."  Settled on 20 acres of property, the view was spectacular, the house was just the right size, and I marveled at how easy it was for my West Coast born self to feel at home in the mossy, foggy air.  I miss this side of the country... (note to self: get rich, so you can visit MORE :)

if you're wondering if it really is a "round" house..you are indeed correct.  There is the most beautiful skylight at the top of the roof inside...we didn't use it because it was a little too cool at night, but I can only imagine what the view of the sky would be like...

some pictures of the scenery:






Although we found it difficult to leave this gorgeous place, we mustered up the energy of a long day and dealing with the time change (we were three hours ahead there), we ventured into town, picked up some essentials for the house (for me that would mean diet coke) for the boys that was a veritable selection of fantastic cheeses, artisan breads, and breakfast food.  If you know me, I could have just lived on the diet coke.. :)  We picked up some take out chinese...too tired to find a restaraunt, and went home where I am proud to say Beth and I throughouly whomped on the boys and beat them hands down in a euchre tournament.  Just admit it, guys, we're awesome...  The house had the most amazing couch ever, and I fell asleep nestled with a book in one hand and my journal in the other.  Sometime during the night I actually made it to the bedroom, instead of sleeping in the living room. 

Now, internal alarm clock, you and I need to have a little discussion.  A-hem...when I am on vacation, you are supposed to turn OFF.  I don't have to be awake at 7 am.  I don't have to go to work, I don't have to feed children breakfast and get them ready for school.  I don't have to do anything.  But what do my eyes do at promptly 7 am....fly open.  I could not go back to sleep no matter how hard I tried, so I got up quietly, put on my coat and tennis shoes and took a really nice walk in the cold-ish morning air.  We were so lucky that it was in the mid to high 50's the entire time we were there.  A lot of fog...but more on that later :)

It was a beautiful day....