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.

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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.

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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.