UMTravels

Out of the house with breakfast in our bellies by 10:30 for our 1pm Tour and Tasting appointment at the Castle.

Considering it’s a holiday, I (as were we all) was surprised by the lack of traffic. Less traffic than even a normal weekday. The end result was that we had time to stop at Clos du Val.

Here is an interesting trick to really aerate your wine…

This was done by Jim, Clos du Val’s Hospitality and Wine Education Associate. He pretty much took over the presentation when he heard that I run a wine shop in Seattle along with comping ALL FIVE of our $15 tasting fees, pulling a bottle off the premium tasting for us to try and giving everyone 20% off at the cash register. WOW. Thankfully the boys between them bought five bottles.

Next stop is the Castle (www.castellodiamorosa.com) and a great shot of all of us in front:

Of course, the castle should really look like this with its Disney®-like quality:

Here is the link to all the pictures of the castles inside: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4wdl7rezxyd4mh7/fkrqvJB8Lb

I would have included some more shots on the blog, but there were just too many good ones, so, check out that link.

Nice lunch at the Calistoga Inn:

Wedge salad (Lunetta), mussels and clams (me), steak and salad (Onyx), burger and fries (Bliss), pasta avocado (Eagle)

Stopped for a bit in the town of Napa which was having a 4^th of July Street Party, then back to Berkeley.

Dinner tonight was a chicken Caesar salad since our lunch was a late one at 3:30. Add much more wine, and a fun evening for all.

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Day One in Berkeley, sitting around the house chilling out after our 8:30am arrival – which was on-time, which meant for a bit of a rush to get through breakfast. Apparently we made up over two hours between Eugene and Emeryville (the Amtrak stop for Berkeley). The boys are crazy busy with work and as much as they’d like to hang out and talk, just not possible, and just not easy with a new roommate and two visiting guests.

At least there is time for a nap to make up for the incomplete sleep from last night.

Mid-day we hatched a plan for tomorrow, the 4^th, and a day off for the boys. The plan is to head to Napa Valley and visit one of the boys favorite winery for a tour and a tasting paired with chocolates.

The place: Castello di Amorosa which is apparently some remanufactured Castle set on a hillside in Napa.

Just the four of us for dinner tonight; roommate has other plans.

And that dinner? Scallops wrapped in bacon served with a lemon berre blanc sauce and a side salad. Brought six bottles of wine down from the shop. The selections for tonight are a Willamette Valley pinot noir-based Rosè and an Argentine Malbec.

Much talking late into the night.

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Up at 7am, out of the house at 8am, Bliss’s place at 8:30, train station by 9am – and oh what a mess it was. During the height of the summer season the closed down the main waiting room and split ticketing and check-in to two ends of the newly renovated but not done space. It was a joy to board the train and get settled into our tiny roomette.

Speaking of roomette, how about a couple of shots in the roomette:

Bliss called this shot of him “The Madman of Amtrak”.

These are shots from his iPhone using some “old-timey” picture app. Ah, technology.

Interesting people to share the lunch table with, interesting person to share the wine and cheese tasting in the afternoon with, odd people to spend dinner with, thank goodness Chatty Bliss was around to take up the slack.

Two more shots for the day and then I’m done. First, the Flask Belt in action:

It sort of makes me look like a UniBomber with a SuicideBelt.

And the final shot of the day, a little scenery from the train:

Tomorrow we wake up in California – at the time of going to bed, train was over an hour behind schedule. Maybe we will be able to sleep in.

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Slow day for customers at the shop but still plenty to do like run all the credit cards for the July Madrona Wines Monthly. One declined card, one expired card –both fixed by the end of the day. And then there was stickering our new paper bags – the city instituted a plastic bag ban starting today (luckily we can still use the ones that we have in stock).

Cute huh?

Last customer of the day was Jen from Green Fire Products who swung by to buy wine and drop off a dozen individually customized flasks:

They are part of an art piece/performance piece I’m planning for Breitenbush Hot Springs the summer. The twelve flasks are:

1. Bourbon
2. Dry Gin
3. Vodka
4. Flavored Vodka
5. Dry Vermouth
6. Sweet Vermouth
7. Pirate Dark Rum
8. Pirate Light Rum
9. Grappa
10. Tequila
11. Scotch
12. Brandy

Here is a shot of the belt the flasks will be held in, though it only has six spaces (it’s a dive weight belt) so I may have to make a bandoleer to hold the other six – and maybe some underarm holsters for mixers or glassware:

The flasks engraved with:

Bliss and I are going to give the belt a training run on the train trip to California tomorrow.

After work it was the Turkey Release Party – the latest bottling of Tres Dindons wines by Jim and crew – served with lots of roasted pig and a bunch of our wine distributor reps making appearances. I couldn’t stay long (shopping and packing still needed) but it was fun and filling while it lasted.

On a lark I stopped at Bartell’s to look for Alli® since everyone has been out of stock for months and I noticed that the price on Amazon had actually come down to expensive rather than astronomical. Nope, not at Bartell’s but across the street at Walgreens – YES. Perfect for the trip on the train with all the fat in the dining car. Whilst shopping I stumbled across this lovely children’s table and car set for The Colonels at Frog Hallow farm:

So very tempting.

And even got to bed at a decent hour.

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My turn to open the shop so I was a little surprised to find Jim open and behind the counter when I showed up at 10:45 (for the 11AM opening). GlassyBaby was having their twice yearly 2nds sale so he came up to hand out flyers and open the shop early.

Not a bad day at the shop. Can’t wait to see the numbers for the month. The last two months were good (though we can always use more).

Overcast but not raining… guess that means it’s time to mow the lawn since I work tomorrow, then it’s the Tres Dindons release party at Jim, then home to finish packing.

After the lawn it was time to start packing. I did get the wine headed south packed up. On the return trip it will be replaced with whiskey. Got to do something about the Washington State prices. I wonder how long before they start catching people organizing “buying pools” to take a box truck to California and stock up.

Had a ridiculously long (for me) chat with Dad about his prostate cancer (PSA numbers doubled but no symptoms) and the boxing up of the house for their move to El Castillo. They are making some progress, but there is a ton of junk to get out of the house – everything from a baby grand piano (going to the Desert Academy where my nieces go/went) to tools to furniture that won’t fit. I’ll wait until they are settled before I go back down.

A seafood salad over a bed of greens was the evening meal – mussels, clams, squid, surimi (fake crab).

Some clothes set aside, just need to figure out which case I’m taking.

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Which is the original and which is the counterfeit?

The one on the left, but it will be good enough to be able to go back to leaving my car in the basement parking garage.

Speaking of cars, saw this interesting variation on the dad, mom, kids, dogs stickers – seems like a family of storm troopers:

Just a quiet night at home with a little visit from SurfBetty.

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Out of bed at 9 (long after Bro and Sis-In-Law) were off to work. Got out of the house at 10 with a little cheese in hand to tide me over until lunch called at 5 Guys Burgers & Fries in Salem, Oregon. Yes, I ate the bun, but declined the fries or the second patty – it was sloppy enough with one patty and the bacon.

I actually managed to fill the tank with Premium for $3.65 a gallon (Safeway on Commercial in Salem).

No stop in Portland for the finished (minus the aluminum) kickplate — seems it’s a little harder than it looks. Mayve it will get delivered this weekend (or not if Tony’s sniffles continue).

Got home a little after 5 and got most of the car unpacked. Thinking I might leave the two boxes (one cookbooks, one records and a phone) packed for a while until I get the garage organized.

I should mow the lawn, but after two days of driving I’m already suffering from allergies.

Instead I have a dinner of sausages and kraut – with one of the sausages left over for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Needless to say, my ears, nose a face are a bit pink and tingly.

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No boy this morning. Oh well.

Out of the unit a little before 10:45 so I could make my now earlier Owner Re-Education. I opted for the group re-education, less one-on-one time with them trying to sell me more points. The promised 45 minutes turned into closer to twice that so my departure was delayed.

Delayed even more because my car had a flat on the passenger side rear. Time to get out the tire inflator (Mazda put an inflator and a can of Fix-A-Flat) as a replacement for a spare tire).

Headed down the road at 12:30 in search of a gas station with a garage, instead found a Les Schwab tire store with no customers in line – was out of there in 15-20 minutes and when I asked how much I owed them, the guy said, “It’s on us, have a good day”. Makes me want to buy tires from them the next time I need them.

Drive time today is about 5 hours (Seaside to Coos Bay). The delays didn’t help. It was almost 6 by the time I rolled into my brother’s driveway.

Driving down I got this great shot of a roadster on a trailer – any help identifying would be helpful:

Sorry for the windshield glare – I was doing 60mph.

While they (brother and wife) worked on dinner, I worked on loading the Miata with all the goods my brother brought back from Santa Fe.

Things in the trunk, with room to spare. Things on the trunk, no room to spare:

Before dinner we took a little walk to see the recent improvements…

Some of the sheep, and the view from the upper meadow towards the house (sorry, you can’t see the slough from here):

Fresh (from yesterday) Rock Fish and salad for dinner, bought a couple of bottles of wine, 1.5 are now gone.

Bedtime for bondzo in Cat Central – had to take a pill.

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By the time I was done fiddling around with blog stuff, uploading a video and breakfast it was 1pm before I left for Seaside.

On and off weather (sun punctuated by showers) all the way to the coast.

I was amazed that the room was ready at a little before three – usually the Seaside WorldMark is 4pm straight up since they have so many rooms to turn over and clean. I got the room all set up and then headed out to pick up SeasideBoy. Won’t have much time to spend with him as he has a BBQ to go to tonight. Hopefully he will come back in the morning before I have to leave for Coos Bay.

The weather has stabilized here in Seaside. The view from my deck:

After I dropped him home it was time for a Safeway run to get stuff for dinner. Cruising the bargain meat bin I found a filet mignon wrapped in bacon for 50% off, and other scores were the BBQ sauce (also 50% off) and a bunch of other goodies. The only thing that wasn’t 50% off was the salad. It made a damn tasty dinner.

Since the condos don’t have ice buckets – the blender body will have to do.

Owner reeducation in the morning. If it didn’t include breakfast and $100 I wouldn’t put myself through the shark tank (I mean sales presentation).

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Actually got out of the house at a little before ten this morning, even fed.

First stop is north of Portland (while still in the city limits) to see Tony Morgan of Gunbaby Graphics. Today we are going to plasma cut the kickplate for my Wolf range.

Here is the CAD setup he is running:

And the beast that cuts:

And a 5-6 minute video of you are interested:

And the finished product:

Then it was off to Julian’s place for dinner and a place to crash.

Errands of liquor store and grocery store and a decision about dinner. Duck.

A quick defrost and then it goes in the clay cooker for an hour in the oven:

After an hour in the oven, it’s onto the grill for smoking and basting:

And some interesting side dishes, pickled onions for the salad and mushrooms that got covered in a thickened sauce made from the duck drippings.

Damn fine dinner.

As usual when I visit – up WAY too late.

[213.8] Whew.

It was a slow day at the shop so I spent some of the spare time scanning in some of the stuff mom had saved – like report cards:

Of all the report cards from grade school, this is the only one I saw my father’s signature on. Odd. Didn’t scan the insides, just liked this one for the comment.

Here is another piece of ephemera:

Funny that it was provided “courtesy of the carnation company”.

Unexpected dinner at Swanda’s with Fluffernutter and TinTin. Steaks, asparagus, cole slaw, deviled eggs – one of Swanda’s favorite meals.

[216.6] Ouch. Must be more vigilant about keeping those nasty carbs out of my diet.

Morning shot – debated short sleeves or long sleeves:

Within two hours is was pouring down rain like nobody’s business – and yes, that is the Wall Street Journal still arriving almost four weeks after my subscription ended.

When bad weather happens, the shop takes a hit, business wise — $30 shy of cracking the 4 digit number. Damn. At least I picked the long sleeves for today, but neglected bringing a coat.

By the time I left work for a BBQ at Jim’s, the sun was back out. Not warm enough to eat outside though.

Two more engagements after Jim’s – drop two cases of white wine off for one of our Metro Bus Driver clients, and meet up with SurfBetty to hand off Ukulele for him to play with. In my dreams he will be able to teach me the Hawaii 5-0 theme on the uke but it’s starting to look like it isn’t a simple piece.

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Up and out early today:

Yep, I’m off on a bus tour of the Port of Tacoma. Here is the link to their tour page: http://portoftacoma.com/tours

No good photos of the Port as it was grey and rainy, but it was an OK tour if you are a transportation geek like me.

Got home around noon and settled in for a quick nap – it was that getting up early.

The rest of the afternoon was hitting QFC and Safeway comparing liquor prices (Evan Williams cheaper at QFC) and gassing up the car for Monday’s road trip.

Had salmon thawing but ended up getting a marked down steak so back in the freezer the salmon goes. Reminds me that I need to cook up those crab legs as they are taking up a ton of room in the freezer.

Yum.

A quick visit from Surf Betty needing to borrow a thick screw driver bit and that was the evening.

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What a wonderful top down day…

First up, Home Depot to price 8000BTU air conditioner for the shop. $229 (too much)

Then off to the shop to meet with Randall Grahm , owner and winemaker for Bonny Doon Vineyards in Santa Cruz, California dropped in to show us his latest offerings.

We currently carry two of his fine wines: Le Cigare Volant and Cloy de Gilroy, but we sampled six of the wines from his line (including the ones we carry which was nice). I didn’t spit the Le Cigare Volant, not at $37 retail.

Safeway was up next (eggs, bargain bins, booze). I couldn’t believe that in an entire row of booze that there wasn’t one bottle of bourbon. Wow.

Next up was a swing through the liquor store at 23^rd and Union to see how there pricing was (terrible – will be bringing back booze from Portland and the Bay Area trips).

Cash and Carry to exchange paper bags (bought a size too small the other day) then to Sears to check out their AC units – marked at $219 but mentioned to the sales clerk that I’d seen it last week on-line at $199 so she rang it up for that – pretty much covered the tax.

Back to the shop to drop off bags and AC unit, then to the apartment for three packages (two of which I knew about), then rushing home as I’ve dinner company tonight in the form of Graf – and good thing I rushed home, he showed up at 4:10 for dinner. He comes straight from work so it’s whenever he can free himself.

Had a couple of cocktails and then went for a walk to the river to see the progress – yeah, he’s as geeky about construction sites as I am.

Dinner tonight was BBQ’d pork on the grill. I was going to have asparagus as well, but when I opened the package it was a bit past prime, so a green salad it is.

Lovely bottle of Syncline which we used to carry at the shop rounded out the meal.

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So nice to run around with the top down. Popped over to the South Park bridge project. It’s coming along:

A fairly lackluster day, but the evening found me making more travel plans when I snagged a week in one of the three bedroom presidential units in Indio at the same time as Palm Springs Pride. I figure by November I’ll need some sun. Let’s see that makes early October Mexico, early November Palm Springs, early December Hawaii. Check. We’ll see if I actually get to make the last two.

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The sun is out which puts me in the yard weed whacking. The grass is still too damp to mow, but at least I can get the edging done.

3pm finds me off on an errand run…

• Cash and Carry for paper sacks in advance of the July 1 plastic bag ban
• Jim’s to drop off USB mouse, coupon and pick up capsules (that plastic heat shrink wrapper at the top of wine bottles – use for finishing wine bottles that have been refilled with bourbon)
• Shop to install external speakers on computer so we can get a better feed on KPLU HD-2, their all-music channel

Then off to dinner with Swanda. As I said, the sun is coming out:

Too bad the sliver view of Mount Rainier is behind the clouds.

But you can see all of dinner in this shot:

Salad on the left, on the right is a one-dish meal. Large asparagus on the bottom, smothered in Alfredo Sauce with two large chicken breast (with lemon pepper seasoning) placed on top. 45 minutes at 350 degrees and the chicken comes out totally moist from all the steam rising from the Alfredo Sauce – next time I would do the last 10 minutes under the broiler to brown the chicken more (Swanda’s suggestion).

Two boys from Portland came by before dinner (while it was in the oven) for a bit but no cocktails since they were driving.

Me, I was home around 8.

[215.1] Ouch.

Why did I cancel my reservations to Palm Springs. Sometimes 110 degrees sounds better than rain. Remember – it’s a DRY heat, unlike NO HEAT.

Today’s two pictures. Look what was on my porch this morning.

Hit the grocery store and ended up with new booze selections that I hadn’t seen before:

Both cheap brown liquors. Canadian Hunter, too much fake caramel color consistent with Canadian Whiskeys – must mix. The Samuel Grant better – drinkable on the rocks.

Meanwhile, I’m mapping out next week’s trip down the coast.

I passed on Eagle Crest for Thursday night.

Pan-fried rockfish in a cornmeal spice crust. Yum.

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When I got to the shop this morning, looked at the totals for Saturday, we definitely broke four figures with another $400 in sales coming after I left. Phew.

Here is the sign I put out for Father’s Day:

And I don’t think I’ve ever seen the streets this empty – about 4:30 on Sunday afternoon – guessing everyone was home cooking for Dad.

Finished up work on The Colonels Timeshare Sales website – but have a few final questions, but it’s 95% done. Today’s featured condo is in Parksville, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia:

Click on the photo for more details, but the basics are $1500 for every other year week in a spacious 2-bedroom with full amenities. Buyer pays transfer fees (disclosed on site).

A so-so pork loin roast for dinner, but I bet it will make great leftovers.

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Opened the shop this morning… slow day until the tasting, but by the time I left we still hadn’t broken into the four figures we usually see on a Saturday. Could have been the competition with the Fremont Solstice Parade complete with the annual naked bike riders.

Fremont Summer Solstice Parade | Photo by Teresa C.

And for those following my saga of the Wall Street Journal delivery… two weeks later and they are still delivering the paper. Odd, but nice.

After work headed to dinner with DancingBear, Possum & BreticusMaximus of wonderful leftovers, eaten mostly in the drizzle of a true June evening. Seems like we had summer in May, and now, nothing.

The weirdness began when I tried to get home – on the way to DancingBear’s place noticed that I-5 Southbound was totally backed up, so headed on via Highway 99 only to find it closed from the Battery Street Tunnel to the West Seattle Freeway. Ouch. Add Solstice traffic half way between DB’s and my place and you have a mess of a traffic snarl even on the side streets.

End result? Almost an hour to get home for what should be a 25-30 minute trip.

Productive evening with finishing up The Colonels Timeshare Sales website – complete with the form for expressing interest in one, two, three or all the properties (discounts for multiple purchases). Check it out at http:timeshare.studio403.com.

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After a trip to visit the Fremont Troll the kids are moving along – next stop in Olympia. Just in case you are wondering what they look like, here is the goodbye picture:

They left me a thoughtful thank you gift of some nice whole bean coffee as a thank you for the place to crash and the food. They even decorated the bag.

While they were out and about I finished about half of the website to sell The Colonels unwanted timeshares. Check it out here:

http://timeshare.studio403.com

I still need to get the purchase form completed, and there is one more Cabo San Lucas condo to list. Hopefully this weekend I can finish up.

Quiet steak dinner after picking up the cleaning and having cocktails with Swanda, Rob and Jodie.

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