Travels with George and Marta – Page 67 – Journeys in the Botanical World

Back home

Posted on July 20, 2008 by MartaJuly 20, 2008

We’re back from the road trip. We had a great time. The drive down went very smoothly. We stayed at The Palm Cottages in Ashland. It is a great funky mid-century motel. We loved the gardens and the funky decor. The next day we drove through Lassen National Park and down through Reno to Mammoth. We didn’t notice any smoke until we got to Reno. We couldn’t even see the mountains surrounding Reno – it was terrible. The second day was pretty long – 10 hours driving almost non-stop.

Mammoth was wonderful as usual. I liked our condo much better than the condo we had last time at Mammoth Inn. Snowcreek Condo was wonderfully equipped and the owner was great to work with. He had a lot of small extras which made a nice stay. We did two hikes. The mosquitoes were terrible but the flowers were great.

Next we met up with our family at Annett’s Mono Lodge outside of Bridgeport. There were 20 of us and 4 generations. We had a great time talking and enjoying the outdoors. We even got the local hot springs but we were scared off by the thunder. It hailed and rained back at the camp which put a bit of a damper on the night be we all pitched in and cleaned up.

We spent a few more days in the Valley and then we headed for the Mendocino coast. We stayed at a very interesting Zen cottage just north of Fort Bragg. Very private. We never saw the owner and it was so peaceful and serene.

We finished up the vacation with a drive through the redwoods, a night in Grants Pass and another long drive home. Our cat was so glad to see us. She has been quite vocal about how upset she was that we went away and hasn’t left my side.

Road Trip

Posted on July 7, 2008 by MartaNovember 13, 2014

It is almost time for our road trip to California. We’re driving down for a family get together that I mentioned earlier. We’re going to spend a few days ahead in Mammoth. I found a nice rental – Snowcreek in Mammoth. The owner has been great to work with and it should be nice. We stayed in Mammoth in 2004 when we climbed Mt. Whitney.

After our get together, we’ll head back up the California coast and spend some time in Fort Bragg. We found a nice cottage to rent in Fort Bragg. It will give us a day or two to explore the area before heading back up through the Redwoods and home. If anyone is interested in exploring the Redwoods, I highly recommend the website Redwood Hikes.

Coit Tower San Francisco

Posted on July 5, 2008 by MartaJuly 5, 2008

I realized that I had never been to Coit Tower so I decided to climb the Filbert Stairs to top. Yelp had some great comments on the climb. Unfortunately, I was not going to be able to make the tour of the murals. But I want to keep San Francisco City Guides in mind for next trip. You can get a good view of most of the murals from within the lobby.

I took the F Trolley line along the Embarcadero and got off at the base of Telegraph Hill. It was a short walk over to Filbert Street. There are actually two sets of stairs. The other set goes up Greenwich but I had heard that Filbert was more scenic.

They start steep and sterile looking but soon pass through beautiful gardens along the hillside of Telegraph Hill. The gardens are filled with tropical wonderland of plants.

At the top, there are good views off towards the financial district, North Beach, and into the bay.

Trolley

Stairs on Telegraph Hill

Napier Lane

Ferry Building San Francisco

Posted on June 30, 2008 by MartaJune 30, 2008

I decided to play tourist in San Francisco. It has been years since I have actually spent some time walking around the City. I hadn’t seen the Ferry Building and I love food markets so that was top on my list. I also realized that I had never been to Coit Tower so that went on the list. I also meet up with Colleen to view the Chihuly installation at de Young and go to dinner at SPQR.

The reason for the quick trip to the Bay Area was the 3rd annual Slow Travel Bay Area Picnic in the Redwoods. I’ve missed the previous two and so I made a point this year to attend. G didn’t want to go as usual.

I flew to Oakland and picked up a car. I had checked on line for parking places since that can always be a pain. I found several good resources for parking:

Parking Quest
Parkopedia

I ended up parking at 75 Howard that I found on the Ferry Building website. I arrived just in time for lunch. Boy were there too many choices. I ended up having a tamale. I can never resist a good tamale.

The stone fruit was just coming in. Frog Hollow had outstanding apricots, nectarines and early peaches. Lots of great strawberries. In the main building there were also some very neat stores such as the store selling just mushrooms, chocolate, gelato, seafood, meat, wine. I also realized that we have some fine farmers markets here in Seattle. We just can’t grow as much produce.

Seattle Viewpoints – Kerry and Marshall Park

Posted on June 27, 2008 by MartaNovember 2, 2014

Seattle Vista from Kerry Park

The best view of Seattle in my opinion is from Kerry Park. This viewpoint is located on the west slope of Queen Anne just north of downtown. The Queen Anne neighborhood is one of the most sought after neighborhoods. It is close to downtown and the views the hillsides are stunning. The Seattle Center is located at the foot of Queen Anne in an area also called ‘lower Queen Anne’. Lower Queen Anne is a mix of apartments and businesses. Queen Anne Avenue connects the two areas and is also known as the ‘Counterbalance’. Up until 1940, trolley cars climbed Queen Anne Hill up the Counterbalance. The trolley cars were pulled up the hill by a system called the ‘counterbalance’ similar to what is used in San Francisco. Here is a great story on the counterbalance used from the Seattle PI newspaper.

Just a couple of blocks off Queen Anne Avenue on Highland Drive is the Kerry Park Viewpoint. It was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Kerry in 1927 so that “all who stop here may enjoy this view”. It is popular with tourists and locals. In addition is an interesting sculpture by Doris Chase that helps frame views of the Space Needle.

Below is the Seattle Center, Space Needle, EMP Museum, Downtown. Behind downtown are the stadiums of Sodo (south of downtown) and if you are lucky Mt Rainier. Looking to the west, you have a great view of Harbor Island, West Seattle, Alki Point and out to the Sound. It is place to go on a warm summer evening at sunset as the lights start to twinkle below.

A few blocks further is the Marshall Park also known as Betty Bowen Viewpoint. It is located just a few blocks west of Kerry on Highland Drive at 7th Avenue West. It is a short level walk which will take you by many lovely Queen Anne homes. Betty Bowen was very active in the local art community and helped found the Seattle Art Musuem. The interesting feature of this viewpoint is the artwork in the cement along around the viewpoint. Several are unsigned pieces from Northwest artists such as Morris Graves. The view from this point is of Elliott Avenue, Magnolia, the Puget Sound and if you are lucky, the Olympic Mountains.

Kerry Park

“Changing Form” sculpture by Doris Chase at Kerry Park

Kerry Park – the blue silver red building to the lower left of the Space Needle is the EMP museum

Kerry Park

Along the walk between Kerry and Marshall Park

Marshall Park – Betty Bowen Viewpoint

View from Marshall Park – Puget Sound and Magnolia neighborhood is in the distance on the right

Lovely street lights along 7th Avenue West

Views continue along 7th Avenue

Seattle Neighborhood – Fremont

Posted on June 24, 2008 by MartaJune 24, 2008

I went to lunch with my friend E today. We’ve been going to lunch once a week for the past few months after I found out that I was going to be laid off. I’m trying to continue getting together with friends once a week or so to get me out of the house. Otherwise, I suspect I will become a bit of a recluse.

I am taking the opportunity to explore Seattle after lunch. I feel like I’m rediscovering the city I live in. I never had much energy while I was working to get out and see where I live. I was doing 4 10-hour days and I focused on getting to work and home. With the traffic here in Seattle, that usually ate up another hour or two. There went 12 hours.

Last week after lunch, I went over to West Seattle. I was bummed because I didn’t have my camera. Today, I decided to explore the Fremont area and I had my camera along. This area is just northwest of Lake Union which I showed you pictures of on Saturday. It is separated from Queen Anne by the Ship Canal leading to the Ballard Locks.

It was settled early in the 1900’s when a trolley was run from downtown Seattle up into the works above Lake Union to Green Lake. The area along the trolley built up creating Fremont and made it an early suburb of Seattle. A wood trestle connected lower Queen Anne and Fremont. The neighborhood was hard hit by the depression and the creation of the Aurora Bridge. It became more seedy and run down. Later it attracted the bohemian crowd. In the early ’90s, it had a very irrelevant atmosphere and was nicknamed “The Center of the Universe”. During this time the Fremont Solstice Festival came to be. It is a crazy fair and parade known for its painted nude bicyclist which streak through before the parade begins.

Also in the ’90s, the art community brought several unusual items into the neighborhood; a status of Lenin, a huge rocket from a Army Navy store, the “Waiting for the Interurban” statue and the Troll. G used to sell plants at the Sunday Market which at that time was part flea market, part farmers market. The farmers section has now moved on to Ballard.

But things change. The dot-com boom built several large office buildings along the canal bringing large companies such as Adobe, Getty Images and Google to the neighborhood. Today you can see the old bohemians rubbing shoulders with the young geeks. There are also many small shops selling boutique clothes, gifts, shoes and art to make for an interesting stroll. Here are a few pictures of the neighborhood.

The Troll statue located underneath the Aurora Bridge. It has been painted up due to the Solstice celebration last weekend. The second picture shows the VW Bug that it is crushing.

Lenin Statue

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Sunday Slow Bakers #11 – Strawberries in Chianti with Black Pepper Ricotta Cream

Posted on June 22, 2008 by MartaOctober 11, 2014

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our eighth bake.

Today’s dessert is Strawberries in Chianti with Black Pepper Ricotta Cream from Dolce Italiano selected by Amy of Destination Anywhere. Perfect choice for June when local strawberries are at their peak. It was also great not to bake and to have a little lighter dessert. I passed on last week’s Ricotta Cheesecake.

Strawberries are late this year due to the unusual cold weather we have been having in June here in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve renamed June to Junuary due to the cold. But fortunately I saw the first batch in my favorite local grocery store. These beauties are locally grown in the rich Skagit Valley just north of Seattle. The grower is the Sakuma Brothers. They have been local farmers for three generations and have been growing strawberries since 1948.

I picked out a nice basket and carefully carried them home. I didn’t want them bruised for the photo shoot.

The recipe is super easy. Wash and quarter the strawberries into a large bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and add a 1/2 cup Chianti wine and macerate for two hours. Meanwhile beat cream and sugar until forms soft peaks. Add ricotta cheese and cracked pepper. Serve as a parfait.

We really enjoyed it. I loved how different it tasted. Not extremely sweet. I did not crack the pepper but instead coarsely ground the pepper which gave it a milder flavor. In fact, G couldn’t tell it was pepper. He thought the spice was cinnamon. I’ll make this again.

Photohunt: Water

Posted on June 21, 2008 by MartaOctober 11, 2014

Lake Union and Seattle skyline from the cockpit of a seaplane about to land on the lake

I missed the last couple of Photohunt. But I couldn’t miss this week’s hunt – Water. Living in the Seattle area, water is all around. To the west is Puget Sound, a large inland body of water. To the east is Lake Washington and right downtown is Lake Union.

Lake Union is very interesting. It is connected to the Sound by a series of locks and a cut of channel connects it to Lake Washington. It is a working lake with several large dry docks. And it is also home to many houseboats. It is also the landing strip for seaplanes between Seattle, San Juan Islands and Canada. For years, I would watch the planes take off from my office and dream of taking one to Victoria. I finally did get a chance. I loved it! We arranged the flight to return at sunset on a sunny summer day. The view from the cockpit was spectacular.

Here is another view from Gas Works Park on the north shore of Lake Union.

Vegetable Garden Update

Posted on June 17, 2008 by MartaJune 17, 2008

Here it is in June so it is time for an update. We have had some very cool – okay unseasonably cold – weather here in the Pacific Northwest. Our garden has been planted but it has been struggling due to the cold.

We have a great crop of lettuce. We planted three types; red leaf, green leaf and oak leaf. I really like both the red leaf and green leaf varieties. I’m not crazy about the oak leaf lettuce variety Mascara. It has grown much larger than I thought it would. It is rather bland also. We had been having some great salads.

The peas are coming along fine. The bush snap peas have a few pods.

The Swiss Chard was attached by leaf miners. G build a cloche out of reemay and chicken wire. I think it is working.

The warmer plants that are outside are struggling. The eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes that were hardened off are doing okay. But the green beans are just barely growing and are rather yellow. We didn’t harden off the patty pan squash and it is really having a hard time. It turned yellow due to the cold. We’ve put a cloche around it and it is starting to green.

Tomatoes are in the greenhouse and they are doing fine. In fact we have our first tomato on the Stupice.

Volunteer Park Conservatory

Posted on June 11, 2008 by MartaJune 11, 2008

Another great place to visit on a cloudy cool day is the Volunteer Park Conservatory. You are transported to a tropical jungle as you walk through the doors. There are 5 green houses varying in temperature and humidity to highlight different plants. The glass house was completed in 1922 and consist of 5 different ‘houses of varying temperature and humidity.

The center house is the Palm House. The highlight of this house are the orchids but if you take time to look around you will see many other interesting tropical plants such as ginger and Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise plant).

We headed to the cactus house, our favorite. We love the desert. The humidity is low and the temperature is kept around 75 degrees. Last Sunday, members of the Seattle Cactus and Succulent Society were available to answer questions. Many of the cacti were in bloom. It was a perfect escape on a gray Seattle day.

Here is a slideshow of the cactus in bloom.