Rambling Roads

Kem had business to do in New Orleans that lasted most of the week after Thanksgiving. Seemed like it would make a great time to meet up with her at the end of the week and take in the sights in New Orleans. Hadn’t been there for years and when I had, it was certainly long before Katrina created havoc there in 2005.

For me, going to New Orleans is largely about the food, the music and finding interesting art and galleries. We found plenty of all of that. On Friday, we ended up going to dinner at Coop’s Place. It came recommeded. Billed as ‘Where the not so elite meet to eat’ by Zagat, it’s not a fancy place but has New Orleans staples like Jambalaya and Gumbo. I had the ‘Jambalaya Supreme‘. Tasty. The place was definitely popular. We probably had a 20 min+ wait, queued up outdoors with several other people. From there it was a short walk back over to Frenchman Street. Multiple locals had steered us over to this area and we found music up and down the street. We’d originally attempted to do dinner at the Three Muses but a band was about to start and the place was jammed. But we headed back over that way after dinner at Coop’s. We pulled in first to “d.b.a” and listened to a little of The Hot Club of New Orleans. These guys do swing music. Fun to listen to but they were just finishing their set and it didn’t last long. So, we wandered right across the street to The Spotted Cat Music Club. Here we found the Washboard Chaz Blues Trio playing. Click thru to listen to some music. We stuck around there for awhile. You can see a picture of the trio in the photos here.

On Saturday, we tooled around the French Quarter on a couple cruiser bikes the B&B we were staying at allowed us to borrow. It’s a great way to get around the Quarter. First stop was Jackson Square. That’s me in the pic at the park at Jackson Square with St Louis cathedral in the background. We locked the bikes and wandered around the square. There are artists that show their stuff all around the square.

Ordinarily it’s fun to stop in to Cafe Du Monde for some coffee and beignets when you’re at Jackson Square but the line of people waiting was outrageous. Instead, we found a really great alternative on Royal street at Cafe Beignet. The nice thing here was there was a cello player that had found a spot on the sidewalk just outside the cafe and he was really pretty good.

For several hours after that, we wandered up and down the streets of the Quarter but spent most of our time on Royal Street. There are lots of galleries to pull into on Royal. All kinds. Painting, photography, sculpture… all kinds of stuff. Kem found a framed photo she liked and while we looked around at other places that day, we eventually returned on Sunday to get it.

After wandering around for a few hours, we had been told about an interesting wine shop and also a BBQ place out in Bywater. So, we mounted the cruisers and took the bikes for a longer ride out to there. The wine shop, Bacchanal, was having a wine tasting at 3 and we were a little early for that so we went up the street a couple blocks and hit the BBQ place called the Joint. Totally a hole in the wall. For 2:15 in the afternoon, the place was still jammed though. Obviously popular. I’d hoped to try the brisket but unfortunately they were out of that. So I got the pulled pork and ribs. Wow! Fantastic BBQ. Check this place out if you get to New Orleans. We did eventually get back to the wine tasting. Nice folks and casual place. They had the LSU game on at the tasting.

As Kem said, we were eating our way across New Orleans and we weren’t finished. Later that evening the BBQ was wearing off and we couldn’t help seeking out another recommended place called The Green Goddess. This place was down a little alley and had some very funky choices. Honestly, we weren’t terribly hungry, so we just opted for the chef’s choice cheese board and I got the ‘wedge salad’. Interesting cheeses, and some good wine choices to go along. The salad – with green goddess dressing of course – was excellent. (We liked this place so much we went back again for lunch the next day.)

The next day we spent more time on the bikes and headed toward Audubon park. Kind of a long trek out there on cruiser bikes but it was still a fun way to spend the time. Later we pulled into a very cool gallery called the Big Bunny Fine Art gallery. The artist there, Steve Lohman, was a really personable guy and he chatted with us for awhile. He does some fairly large sized metal/wire sculptures. But, he’ll also do similar sculptures just using copper wire. We especially liked the one he did of the ‘bike lady‘ and he offered to do both a man and a woman on bikes. He did them in about 30 minutes! Both small enough to go in a cigar box and with us back on the plane.

We’ve spent a fun long weekend in the Guerneville area. I took a number of interesting photos along the way but we spent so much time enjoying this view from the deck/windows of the home we’ve been staying in that it seemed the most appropriate to post. I took this one only minutes ago while enjoying my morning coffee. It’s perfectly still this morning without a cloud in the sky and if you look close you’ll see the trees reflected in the Russian River far below.

The last couple of days have seen clear mornings like this although the first couple mornings were socked in with fog as thick as pea soup. Afternoons and evening have be sunny and clear and we were treated to a full moon last night that we watched rise above the trees. I’ll be sure to include a shot of that in a later post.

The whirlwind trip to Oregon would not have been complete without a stopover in the wine country south of Portland. It’s hard not to enjoy an afternoon in and around the Dundee hills tasting wines. I’d been up there a couple times before and this particular visit didn’t disappoint. On top of the weather being outstanding it was my birthday the day we were visiting – both good reasons to raise a glass.

We just had an afternoon to sample the area so we opted to essentially stay pretty close to just one area around Dundee. First stop was to Lange winery. Lange is a pretty drive out into the hills off the main road and down several miles of gravel road. It’s a fairly small winery and tasting room but has a nice deck and view out the back. It would have been a nice place to picnic but we hadn’t seen an obvious place to stop for food on the way through Dundee. But we asked our very helpful server and she gave us some great suggestions. In fact, she suggested several other great wineries in the area not to be missed as well as great dinner places. She didn’t steer us wrong.

The wines at Lange were excellent. We were particularly wowed by the 2006 “Freedom Hill Vineyard” Pinot Noir. Kem got a bottle of that.

From Lange it was off to pick up some sandwiches and then we headed over to Domaine Drouhin. More excellent wines. In particular we had an excellent 2006 Pinot Noir. We didn’t get a bottle there but Kem has since found it here in Austin. The views from the deck were great at Domaine Drouhin and many of the pictures in the slideshow are from there. We hung out a bit, enjoyed lunch and some of the excellent wine.

Our pace was relaxed and there wasn’t actually a lot of time to take in too many other wineries. We’d heard good things about Panther Creek and it was only a few blocks from where we were going to be staying so we headed that direction. Panther Creek is located in the former power plant in McMinnville. Once again, we were impressed with the wines and found their 2006 wine from Freedom Hills was our favorite. We’ve since found it here in Austin too.

The place we stayed in McMinnville was called A’ Tuscan Estate. I’d highly recommend it. It seems perhaps a little oddly named considering the location, decor and the fact that neither of the innkeepers is from Italy. But it’s a beautiful home and the food was excellent! You can read a bit more about the innkeepers here. They had a very interesting history. Jacques, the chef, is from France and has written culinary books and won awards. Kem bought one of his books and had him sign it. On top of that the two of them were very friendly and helpful. Breakfast on the porch that morning could not have been much better. Fresh made croissants, home made preserves and quiche. Their little pooch, Pololo, shown in the picture at the link above was definitely around the B&B too but he seemed to be tired and resting most of the time.

The visit to the Willamette Valley was too short. Would have been fun to be around another day or two. There are a lot of wineries in the area. We just scratched the surface. No doubt another trip will need to be planned.

The trip to Oregon in August had three components to it. The first was a stopover at Mt Hood, the 2nd was in Bend and the 3rd was a visit to the Willamette valley south of Portland. We spent a couple days in Bend. This is the second time I’ve been to Bend and each time I’ve been fortunate to go when the weather was close to ideal.

There’s something that just seems to suit me about Bend. Part of it’s the beauty of the area around Bend of course: mountains, lakes, streams, trees. There’s great hiking and biking to be had in and around the area. There’s also a small town feel to the place and yet some big city amenities like interesting restaurants, markets and shops.

The picture of me off to the right was taken by Kem as we wandered through Drake park near the center of town. The Picasa slide show below is of various points along a hike we did at Tumalo Falls. Tumalo Falls is west of Bend a short drive and in part of the Deschutes National Forest. The hike was around 7 miles and took us along Tumalo Creek. The parking lot and trail starts within view of Tumalo Falls – the largest and first falls shown in the pictures – but along the trail there were easily a half dozen more falls along the stream.

We were well past half way on the hike when the trail just seemed to stop. We backtracked a ways to see if maybe we’d just missed a turn. Nope, so we turned back again. The trail just seemed to end at this rather sizable creek. At least it seemed sizable enough that we didn’t feel like wading across it. As we looked more closely, sure enough, the trail proceeded on the other side. In fact, someone had even carved a big arrow into a fallen log that pointed across to the other side. The only way over seemed to require making our way over a fallen tree that was over the creek, but doing so meant first getting to and then climbing over the tree’s sizable root ball. Hmm, maybe not. We wandered a bit further up the creek and found another fallen log. Thankfully this one was a bit easier to climb up on and get across. Our big adventure on an otherwise easy and beautiful hike.

We’re enjoying coffee on the porch of the Hillside Inn in Bend this morning. 53 degrees. We’re loving it. A welcome change to the heatwave we’ve been enduring in Austin.

We flew in to Portland on Thurs and spent the afternoon out on Mt Hood. We drove up to Timberline Lodge and hiked a small portion of the Pacific Crest trail. It’s right at the tree line starting just above the Lodge. Above us further still there was snow, though not much. ‘Down’ at the tree line where we were at it was warm and dry, and there were lots of flowers. All along the trail we walked there were tons of what my searching would suggest are “Subalpine Lupines”. I could be wrong of course. There seems to be hundreds of different types of Lupines and they all look very similar. (The Texas Bluebonnet is a type of Lupine too, and these flowers were reminiscent of Bluebonnets though the scent is completely different.)

After hiking, we returned to the Brightwood Guest House B&B. Bonnie and Jeff were the friendly hosts there and they have a small guest house next to their own home. It was situated next to a creek with all the amentities of home and then some. The evening air was good for lighting the firewood in what I guess you would call a fire pit though it was more like a portable outdoor fireplace. We hung out for awhile by the fire and were joined by Bonnie and Jeff. Their friendly and very fluffy cat Hoi decided to join us too. Their two dogs were apparently busy elsewhere.

The breakfast the next morning – which was brought out to our guest house kitchette – was excellent! There was coffee, fresh fruit, an egg scramble, hash browns, some interesting vegetarian sausage patties – and blueberry pancakes. Wow! Needless to say we did not go hungry!

We’re back in Austin now and have some great memories and fading tans. Before my memory fades too much, thought I’d jot down a few more notes on our trip to Oahu. It helps to have a bunch of pictures to look back on, and some local art as well.

The picture of the sailboat here is of the Na Hoku II. It was one of the funnest sails we had while we were there. The crew was a lot of fun and we happened to catch pretty good winds and the ride was a bit of a roller coaster. I’d definitely recommend looking for them. It’s the only big yellow sailboat on Waikiki. You can’t miss it. Hour long sails were $20 bucks. If you wanted bottomless cocktails too, $25. We tried to sail again with them on Monday but although they indicate they do a 9:30 sail they needed at least 10 people. We chose another boat instead on Monday. Monday’s are apparently known as “blue Mondays” by the sailboat folks on the beach. They don’t have near the volume of customers on Mondays.

The other picture below is of Sunset beach up on the North Shore. We got up early one morning and beat the traffic so it didn’t take but an hour to get up there. This time of year the surf is pretty quiet up there but in the winter it can apparently get pretty wild. Unlike Waikiki Beach, Sunset beach was really pretty quiet. More people started showing up mid day, but as you can see from the picture, when I took it there was almost no one on the beach.

Among the artwork I mentioned I came home with is a piece of art glass by a woman named Marian Fieldson. On several trips in recent years I’ve managed to find at least one piece of glasswork that I’ve found interesting. Check out the link here to get a sense of what the piece I got is like. It’s not exactly the same as that, but sorta similar.

When to Go, and the Crowds

Given this was my first trip to Oahu (other than flying in and out of Honolulu years ago) I can’t really say with first hand experience that May is any better than any other month to go to Oahu, but we had both read and were told as much by folks that live there. Apparently the crowds are down somewhat in May because it’s not considered high season and we were also told the bad economy in general was having a detrimental impact. From my point of view, I found that hard to believe. The plane out was a full flight and everywhere we went there were lots of people. The restaurants had plenty of people and the beaches and resorts seemed to be full of people. The streets of the Waikiki area were teeming with people night and day. The high end retail (Tiffany’s, Chanel, … ) seemed to be doing as well as the T-shirt shops.

If the crowds were considered ‘down’, then wow. In general, Honolulu and Waikiki are crowded. Lots of traffic! The traffic never seemed to end. If you’re looking for a quiet place, you can find it on Oahu, but it’s not in Honolulu. Not that it was unbearable. It was fine and we enjoyed our time, but you need to go to the windward or north shore if you’re looking for quiet.

Favorite Oahu Restaurants

Generally we had some pretty good food on the island. More than a few people told us we had to go to Duke’s - even our waitress at the Sheraton, and Duke’s is not in the Sheraton. The food here was excellent. Like many of the places in Waikiki, they did the ‘really big salad bar’, but this was really a much better than average salad bar. The entree was made to order though and they had some great fresh fish. Kem tried the swordfish and I had the Ono. Both were excellent.

We also loved a place called Plumeria’s at the Kahala resort hotel. Had it not been recommended by Jeff (local) we would very likely have never found this place. It was a nice drive out past Diamond Head. One of the nice things about this place was the grounds. They had dolphins(!) in big ponds on the grounds that were facinating to watch. They also had big sea turtles and exotic fish swimming around. The restaurant was open air and we sat outside a stone’s throw from the ocean. It didn’t hurt that there was a full moon (or close to it) that night rising over the ocean. Quite impressive. I had the mahi mahi. Kem had the Ahi tuna. Again, both excellent.

Another place we really liked was up on the north shore, called Ted’s Bakery. It doesn’t look like much, but the crowds were a signal that it must be pretty good so we walked over from Sunset beach. (It’s just a short walk.) We were not disappointed. I had the mahi mahi sandwich. Mmm, very good. Kem had the garlic shrimp and she loved it.

One final place worth mentioning was over in Kailua (on the windward side of the island). We drove over to Kailua beach one day and when we got hungry we found our way to a little market along the road called the Kalapawai Market. Turns out they had a great little deli in the back. They made some fantastic sandwiches.

Renting a car on Oahu

Would I rent a car again on Oahu? Yeah, probably. You can’t really get to the windward side or north shore without one. I suppose there are buses that would take you, but if you’re short on time, the logistics of that aren’t great. But if you’re spending most of your time in Waikiki, you don’t need a car. You can walk to pretty much everything you’re going to want to. And if you’ve got a car, you’ve got to find a place to park the darned thing. Our hotel was charging $18 a day to park. I’d probably look into renting on a daily basis as opposed to the entire duration of the trip. Daily rates are probably higher than the weekly rate and in the end I’m not sure it would save any money. Whatever is the least hassle.

Overall

I’d definitely return to Oahu. We really enjoyed our time – other than the traffic, which is really no worse than any other major city – and I think we saw only a small fraction of the things we could have. We’ll just have to go back… oh, but then there are all those other islands there we haven’t seen!

We headed over to the windward side of the island and Kailua Bay. There we found a fantastic beach to while away the time on yet another beautiful day here on Oahu. Later we headed to a place multiple people had recommended for dinner and music, Duke’s. Duke’s is named after a famous Hawaiian that was a champion swimmer in the early 1900′s and was generally considered the person who popularized modern surfing. I’m not usually much for buffet style but this was really good food, and the fish was fresh and made to order. I took the picture of Kem at Duke’s.

Yesterday was all about having some fun in the sun. Kem had made some reservations to do some sailing/snorkeling mid morning. We got a leisurely start and eventually made our way down to Waikiki beach. There are a bunch of catamaran sail boats that leave directly from the beach. No docks, they just come to a stop on the beach and tie down to a stake in the sand. We got down to the beach and thought we had found the right boat. We even got on and were headed out and only then realized we were on the wrong boat! We could see the one we were supposed to be on coming in for a landing. So they turned around and unloaded us and we got on the ‘right’ boat. The funny thing was though the boats were very similar and ours ended up going out and anchoring (for snorkeling) right next to the one we’d just gotten off. Basically they offered the same service. You can see the Maitai before we headed off in the picture here. The sailing off the coast was a blast.

Later we just parked it on the beach for awhile. We hadn’t really seen much of Waikiki beach so we wandered down the coast a bit. Waikiki beach is sort of like Rodeo Drive and Las Vegas rolled together next to the beach. It’s jammed wall to wall with high rise hotels and high end retail. Not surpisingly we took in the sights but didn’t really do much in the way of ‘shopping’. We just unrolled the beach towels and joined the folks on the beach. Warm, but lovely breezes so not too hot. Water was a great temp so easy to cool off when you wanted.

Later we wandered down the beach to a shady resort hotel and ordered some lunch and as you can see in the picture, a couple of drinks. In the picture here I’m holding up the Mimosa that Kem had ordered. My smirk here is just part of the laughing at the too-cuteness of the umbrella and flower in the drink.

Later we decided we hadn’t had enough sailing yet and hooked up with an impromptu ride with another hourly boat tour operator. They too were sailing a big catamaran. This time though we got out on the netting up front and really enjoyed the waves. Some splashing but we actually thought we’d get a lot wetter. Quite the roller coaster ride.

Today, probably another visit to the beach…

We’ve arrived in Honolulu! It was a long flight from Houston and we were definitely happy to be off the plane. Kem’s mom had prearranged for us to have a greating and receive the beautiful leis you see us wearing in the photo.

The flight was more than a little disconcerting. About 4 hours out – over nothing but water and hours left to go – everyone began to smell some sickening burning electical fumes. Something electrical was definitely burning and the smell was getting worse. The flight attendants started coming up the aisles shouting to check all laptops and anything electrical. Needless to say it was a little tense there for a bit high above the ocean. Eventually the air cleared and after what seemed like a long time the captain came on and announced a recirculating fan had burned out. They had “contained” it. Um, yeah. We white-knuckled it for the rest of the trip and hence the big smiles in the picture. Glad to be on the ground.

The hotel’s nothing special but we figured we wouldn’t really be around there much anyway.

We spent the rest of what was left of the day down wandering the beach and hanging out at a resort lounge by the ocean. Just enjoying some tasty snacks and a nice glass of wine. The time change had us exhausted early so we crashed by 9. More later…