west coast adventure: wine

My mom and I love wine. The Dionysian deliciousness helped inspire the whole vacation. Yes, like all the other lady tourists, we did wine tours and tastings in Napa, the amusement park for grown-ass women. It's crowded, a bit nauseating, full of over-priced souvenirs, and giddily fun.

We had a lovely start with Sterling Vineyards, which many travel guides refer to as the Disneyland of wineries. As you would expect, the wines weren't much good. Except for the Muscat Canelli dessert wine (13/100) which I could slurp down Capri Sun-Style. The best part of Sterling was the ride in to the tasting room: a gondola through the sky with amazing views of California countryside. It was better than the flying Dumbo rides.

We closed our first day of wine tasting at the Frank Family Vineyards because they serve champagnes (14/100). Coincidentally, Rich Frank, one of the owners of this winery, was a long time Disney executive. There were no rides except the bubble buzz.

On our way out to the coast, we happened upon the Francis Ford Coppola winery in Geyserville. While my mom got to see William Shatner at the airport, drinkin' Frank's Director's Cut Zinfandel (15/100) was as close as I got to any stars while in Cali.

Our final winery visit spun out of serendipity. We drove up from Northern California until we wanted to stop and landed in Eugene, Oregon. A woman at the motel recommended a Thai restaurant nearby. The waiter at the restaurant recommended an Oregon Chardonnay from King Estates (16/100) that's just the style my mom likes - more crisp than buttery with little oak.

We found out that King Estate Winery was right outside of Eugene, focused on sustainable practices, and had a restaurant to boot. Yes, please. We partook of an informative winery tour, unpretentious tasting, and a lunch with veggies grown on site. This was a winery that my mom actually considered buying wine from, but they didn't ship to Nebraska. You can't mail the magic kingdom.

west coast adventures: beer

My mom and I ate, drank, walked, drove, and boated our way from San Francisco to Victoria, British Columbia. The mission was to not have one. Accomplished with joy and relaxation.

Somebody forgot to pack summer so we found fall out west. Within an hour of arriving in San Fran, we found ourselves in jackets sipping Anchor Steams and slurping chowders. It sure was nice to drink this old standby of a beer in it's hometown.

(8/100)

Most of the beer that we drank was consumed, appropriately, in Portland, Oregon. We drank some very nice local beer at the LaurelThirst while listening to some bluegrass with my dear, Cindy. Unfortunately, the good beer escapes my mind because we followed them with tallboys of Hamm's (9/100). Happily predictable, Hamm's.

We toured all over Portland and Sauvie Island with one of my oldest friends, who goes by Caroline but I know as Carrie. To sustain us on our island travels, we got some Beer Chips and Henry Weinhard's Root Beer (10/100). The root beer was amazing - just what I want real-deal root beer to taste like. Carrie cautioned me against the alcohol-containing Weinhard beers. I didn't drink any cuz I trust my friend.

I trust her because she's got good taste. Carrie took us to Pambiche, a Cuban restaurant, for dinner. I washed down my Ajiaco, a delicious stew, with their Michelada Cubana (11/100). As advertised, it was "an ice cold Dos XX Amber beer prepared with special spices, fresh lime and clamato juice served on the rocks with salt." It packed a bit more citrus-y punch than I wanted, but started me on a Michelada kick that's sure to last all summer.

The last beer I had was at the Bard and Banker, a Scottish pub in Victoria. The inside of this place is quite fetching. I'd love to reserve one of their snugs for a session. After a morning of shopping and touristing in the sunshine, the pint of Vancouver Island Brewery's Sea Dog Amber (12/100 ) with a side sit in the cool was a real winner.