On the road again

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I feel like I’m in a revolving door. You know the kind in NYC. You go in one side and pop out somewhere else. I’m leaving again. This time for California.

We are going to CA partially as a Mother’s Day visit but also for plant shopping. The annual plant sale at Cabrillo College is going on and we need to go down and buy more salvias for the business. The winter was a bit rough on them and we lost quite a few so it is time to go buy some more. We’ll also make a stop at Sierra Azul nursery in Watsonville and maybe a trip up to the arboretum at UC Santa Cruz.

We took it for granted that G’s mom would be home. We were kinda shocked when we phoned a couple of weeks ago and found out that they were going to Philly and wouldn’t be back until the evening we arrive. So much for an extra day to visit with mom. But we’ll put it to good use. We’ll spend the day in Berkeley doing more plant shopping. I get my share in also and I’m planning on a little bit of food and wine shopping. We’ll probably go up to Solano Avenue for some yummy Mexican Food at Cactus. While we are in the neighborhood, I plan to drop in to A.G Ferrari and pick up some Italian goodies to take to Stockton. Then we will check out a wine store near by. Probably Solano Cellars although Vino! is right next door. And maybe a stop at Kermit Lynch.

On the way over, we’ll pick up some breakfast in Sacramento. 33rd Street Bistro looked interesting as did Cafe Bernardo. I love the web. Just a few googles and I have ideas on where to eat. No more Denny’s or Lyons at the interchange. After that we’ll head on over to Berkeley. There’s a couple of other gardens we might check out if we have time.

We have to get our hard luggage. We have an interesting way of bringing back the plants. We will take them out of their pots, remove most of the soil, wrap them in plastic and pack them like sardines in an old Samsonite suitcase. We can bring back around 25 plants which is just about right. G will have to spend most of a day preparing the plants but we’re coming back late so that will be fine.

It will be good to see our grand niece also. She’ll be around 2 years old.

Back from NYC

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What a wonderful time. I’ll post-date some posts on what we did but I wanted to get some thoughts down now.

E and I got along great. She really knows her way around NYC since she has two brothers who have lived there for 20 years or so and she has been visiting them. It was great to be able to let her show me the ropes. We also traveled very well together. Of course, it was pretty easy this time since so much was familiar to her and we had events planned for most of the nights. It may have been much harder if we would have had to decide where to eat all the nights. We are also both pretty easy going and we able to go with the flow.

I also got to see a very different side of NYC than the average tourist because we stayed with family and friends. It was great to be able to stay at the different areas of NYC, the upper West side, Soho and East Village. So much less personal than a hotel room. It also helped me to get a good feeling for the energy of Manahattan. So much is happening all the time.

G did very well. He really appreciated having the prepared meals. Now I have to make enchiladas again because he loved them so much. That is what is on tap for dinner tonight. I might make a few up in advance and put them in the freezer so he can have them and I can have something else. They are too much fat for me to eat that often.

Solo Travel

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I’m going to NYC on Friday with E. We had talked about taking a trip for a while. I really wanted to go to Paris but got cold feet when the Euro went up to 1.30. We hemmed and hawwed about going to somewhere like the Zion and the Southwest. But I really didn’t want to.

So at last month’s wine tasting I said: “You wouldn’t want to go New York instead?”

“I love to go to New York!” was her reply. Plus she has two brothers living there. Sounded perfect.

We haven’t made a lot of plans. I’m trying to get together with a couple of the other moderators who happen to be in NYC at the same time. That would be so much fun and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

G is pretty good about it. He is actually very excited for me. But he is so busy. He works all year for the spring plant sales. He was at the Master Gardener sale last week and it went really well. This week is the biggie, the Aboretum Spring Sale. It is his biggest. He has been working 7 days a week getting ready for these sales. And I’m leaving town.

I don’t travel by myself very often. There is an occasional business trip but those have become less and less frequent. I did have to travel a lot to California when my mother was ill. I was making trip after trip to Sacramento over those 5 years. But I did get to do one big solo trip to France. It wasn’t totally on my own since I met up with a group after two days but it was my first big international adventure. It was a good thing because shortly after that I did get a great opportunity at work to travel solo to Asia. I would have been terrified if I hadn’t have done the trip by myself to France. Geesh… I sound so much like a coward.

One of the hardest thing about solo travel is G can not cook. Nope. Nada. Well, he does do frozen pizza and boca burgers. He also does not like to go out to dinner by himself and he doesn’t eat junk food being vegetarian. He learned a bit for a while but has gotten out of practice. He is also so busy this week, it is not a good time to experiment.

It was so funny on Saturday. I took the grocery list to the store and he had on the list hamburger buns. This was strange. I just bought some the day before so I didn’t get any. I asked him about it and he said: “I wanted to stock up before you go. I don’t know what I’m going to eat while your are gone? “ in a panicky little voice. He then said, ” It would be so nice if you could make me up some frozen dinners.” Hmmm. “But you wouldn’t like what I could make and freeze.” “What would they be? Risotto?” Risotto is not his favorite dish and I make it all the time for myself. He said, “Now I would eat any type of Mexican dish. Can you do that?” Actually, I could. So yesterday, I made up some cheese enchiladas and frozen them for him. I also made some cheese lasagna for dinner and froze some of the left overs. That should do it for him.

But I am feeling a strong sense of deja-vu. My dad couldn’t cook either. My mother would always rush home to make him lunch or dinner. My God!!! We are turning into my parents.

On the dinner plate: King salmon steak, roasted asparagus and parsleyed potatoes
In the wine glass: Quincy 2002 “Haute Victoire” Henri Bourgeois
On the turntable: Dave Mathews Band – Crash

Glorious Spring

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It has definitely been a wonderful spring so far this year in Seattle. Last weekend we got up to 80 degrees and here it is sunny again. The lilacs are in bloom.

I went out for a run. The first run in a couple of weeks and I did fine. I think I’ve built up some good conditioning from doing the stairs. They are the best. I love running on sunny cool days. I used my Rio digital music player and just cruised along. The smells were so interesting. First off someone in my neighborhood was cooking a great smelling dish of beef. It reminded me of weekends when I was a kid and Mom would cook a pot roast. It has been ages since I’ve cooked anything like that. G is vegetarian so our meals are mostly fish or veggie based. But I still love good meat. I got so hungry.

Being sunny, everyone was out mowing their lawns. The scent of fresh cut grass waffed in and out as I made my way through the blocks. Occasionally there was a wiff of smoke from a fireplace or the perfumey aroma of a spring flower. I can smell the lilacs now from our deck.

Thursday we had the Amarone tasting. It was great. We had a large turnout at 16 and I was worried at first that the bottles wouldn’t be able to serve everyone. I sent out a note before that these were big wines and to drink small. A few people didn’t show up also until an hour after we started but everyone was very cool and paced themselves.

Everything was great. There were one or two that did stand out and I’ll write more about it later. One member’s brother who is a wine maker also came and he brought out several of his wines at the end. The old vines Zinfindel was yummy.

The only bad thing of the night was I locked my keys in the trunk of the car. I threw my purse in thinking it would be one less item to remember at the end of the night, shut the trunk and immediately realized what the heck I had done. I called G to come open it. He was working late in the greenhouse so when we talked, I suggested that he come get me towards the end. It worked out fine. There was even a little bit of wine left for him to taste.

Amarone Tasting

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Our wine tasting group also known as ‘winers’ is having a wine tasting this week. It is almost always the third Thursday of the month. Our group has been meeting since 1996 and originally started as a group of co-workers who wanted to know what to serve at Thanksgiving. Our group has expanded and the co-workers have dispersed due to layoffs but wine has kept us together. It has been a great group and we publish our tastings.

This month we are tasting Amarone and Ripasso. It is a group purchase and I’m responsible for the selections. I have been studying Dean’s Amarone notes from Slow Traveler and SlowTalk messages on Valpolicella . I’ve been cruising the wine stores in downtown Seattle. I picked up an Allegrini Amorone at Pike and Western Wines and looking for others for the group to taste. I’ve gotten some help from J but it is still a daunting task. Well see what I end up with on Thurs.

On the dinner plate: Shrimp Quesidilla
In the wine glass: Kim Crawford Dry Riesling
On the turntable: Afterglow by Sarah McLachlan
On the nightstand: In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje

Oyster Dome

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It was time again to do a training hike. We hadn’t been on the trail for a while and G finally has a weekend off. This time of the year is so busy for G since he is doing both work and his own business which is selling at plant sales. But this Easter weekend he has off.

So I decided to try the Oyster Dome hike. It had intrigued me for a while. It is north of Mt. Vernon in the Chuckanut mountains. I found out it is actually part of the Pacific Northwest Trail . I did a little research on it and we decided to give it a try.

oysterviewIt starts shortly after milepost 10 on HWY 11 along Chuckanut drive. We found the trailhead and turnaround to park. It was shortly after 10am and off we went. Almost immediately, we found a Calypso bulbosa in bloom. The trail starts steeply and switchbacks up. At the clearing we got a view of the sound. The trail junctioned and then the normal NW style trail began with lots of roots. It was fairly steep at parts. At one part, we had a nice view over Samish Bay.

batcave
I had a write up on the trail from the PI newspaper and we turned off at the bat cave. It was pretty interesting but we lost the trail. We decided to head back for lunch and we stopped to talk with another hiking group. They said we should have continued up to the Rock trail to find the trail to the top. Oh well. Another day.

We made it down pretty quickly and then went on to tulip fields of La Conner. Brilliant patches of scarlet and yellow. We parked near the school and walked into the center of town. The town has really gentified. We used to love going to Tillinghast Seed but the building is now being renovated. It is so interesting that the two oldest sellers of seed, Tillinghast and Seattle Garden Center, closed shortly after 2000.

Our destination was La Conner Brewery for a late lunch of pizza and beer. They were full except for a few seats. We choose one outside even though it was a little cool in the wind. I had a nice Weise and G had the IPA. I had a pesto pizza and G had the Greek. Yumm.

We headed back to Seattle but the traffic was terrible. We had to wait at least 15 minutes in Conway to even get on the freeway. Our luck we made it to Everett by 5pm. It took us just about 1hour to get to Oyster Dome and almost 2 hours to make it home.

But it was sunny and warm so nice for early April.

My Nemesis

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Garden weeds!

I just spent the last three days working on the garden. The weeds and grass have gotten the best of me this year. I am late getting out and working in the yard. I have not been inspired to do any work especially since many of the weekends have been cloudy and rainy. (I know… I live in the NW … what else should I expect?) But this weekend was sunny and warm so I tackled it. I got one of the three beds done and part of the second bed. I just don’t know where some of the grass came from.

We have a perennal garden and some of the plants have been there for several years. The crab grass have over taken some of them. I almost gave up on the Perovskia filigran (Russian Sage). It was choked with grass. Hubby convinced me to dig it up and weed it. That was an effort. It is now potten in a large (20 gallon) tub waiting to be planted back. We are going to see if the grass invades the bed again and see how it does after the shock of getting up rooted. I checked today and it looks good. Fingers are crossed.

I was pretty sore yesterday after all the digging and lifting. I got a backrub which felt so good and a nice hot bath. I feel fine today. Yippeee… Conditioning is working. Now I just need to work on the endurance since I did go to bed pretty early last night.

Today was the anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. I actually remember where I was ten years ago when we heard the news. We were just getting ready to fly out to Tucson on our first vacation to Tucson. I remember following the news from there and missing a bit of the action back in Seattle. Nirvana’s music has been on the radio all day, there was an article from the author of his biography and I suspect there will be some type of vigil at either the park near his house or Seattle Center. We had gotten into grunge quite a bit at that time since hubby worked with someone who was in a band. We used to go to the Crocodile Cafe to hear them play. It was great time. We got out of it after they broke up and grunge was pretty dead by then. Too bad. At least we got acknowledged on their album.

On the dinner plate: Goat cheese and carmelized onion ravioli
In the wine glass: Albert Mann Riesling Cuvee Albert 2001

Stairs

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Stairs. A necessary evil in any mountaineers training schedule.

I went and worked out on the stairs today. There is a great flight of stairs near work going from near I-5 up partially up Capitol Hill. There are actually two flights. One is longer than the other and is a great workout. It is probably two to three blocks long – straight up. Today was the first time this year that I worked out on these stairs. I noticed that they had cleared out a lot of the brush and there are even better views. It helps makes the workout easier.

Along the second flight there is the coolest garden. Right now daffodil and tulips are in bloom. Once at the top, there is an awesome view across Lake Union. A great place to catch your breath.

I ended up doing four circuits. My calfs were quivering working the clutch on the way home in the traffic.

On the dinner plate: Pasta Frutti di Mare
In the wine glass: Tommasi Valpolicella Vigneto Rafael
On the turntable: David Gray – a new day at midnight
On the nightstand: “Heat and Dust” by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Whitney Travel Plans

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Traffic in Seattle sucks. It took me over an hour to get home. My normal commute is maybe 30 minutes. There wasn’t anything special just heavy volume. I was so tense when I got home. I had been hoping to get some web reservations done but it had to wait until after dinner.

So here are our plans. We will fly down the Saturday before the climb to Ontario, CA. That is the closest major airport to Eastern California. We will rent a car and then drive up Hwy395 to Mammoth Lakes. This is about 300 miles. We are taking the early flight so we should have time to make a leisurely drive. We are staying 4 nights at Village at Mammoth in a 1 bedroom condominium. The Village at Mammoth just opened last year so this is a new condo resort just at the foot of the ski resort. Important to us is it is at 8800ft. This will help us acclimate.

While at Mammoth, we plan to do some day hikes and drives. Little Lakes Valley and Mono Pass sounds great. The trailhead is the highest in region at over 10,000ft. Little Lakes Valley trail is pretty easy going to 11,000ft but Mono Pass is more strenuous going to 12,000ft. Perfect to get used to the high altitude. We may also go out of Bishop to Sabrina Lake and there are a couple of hikes in this area such as Chocolate Mountain. Another option will be to drive over to Mono Lake and up to Tioga Pass.

On Wednesday, we will move to Lone Pine and stay at the Best Western. We will need to get there in the early afternoon so we can get to bed early.

On Thursday, we’ll get up early (3am!!) so we can get an early start on the trail. It is 15 miles from Lone Pine to the trailhead at Whitney Portal. We will start at dark so we can make it to the top sometime between noon and 2pm. It will probably take about 6 hours to come down so we need to get there by 2pm. We’ll be back in Lone Pine with a long hot bath.

Friday, we’ll drive back to Ontario and stop at Rancho Santa Ana. Nope… we can’t go on a trip without seeing some type of botanical garden. Our flight is out in the evening and we’ll have Saturday and Sunday to recover.

I wasn’t certain if we needed permits for days hikes. I was so confused by the trailhead quotas. I called Inyo FS and we do not. Yes! This makes it much easier to decide what we are going to do depending upon our energy. We were so wiped out on our trip to Phoenix with the flight, heat and drive. It may be the same here so we may need to not do much on Sunday and plan to hike on Mon/Tues.

I’m getting excited. I also probably need to step up the training a notch.

Spring Fever

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It is an absolutely gorgeous day today. It is 78 degrees!!! That must definitely be a record for March. I went out at lunch to get dinner and I could feel the warmth even as I left the building. I am definitely going to go for a run today although I bet Green Lake will be a zoo.

It is time to start to make some travel plans for the Whitney climb. I think I have all the places choosen and some of the day hikes. I may do that tonight.

This weekend was the pits. I hate being sick. I finally caught George’s cold on Thursday and I spent the whole time sniffling and sneezing. Thursday night was winers and we had a French Burgundy tasting that was really great. Fortunately, I never lost my taste so everything was yummy. But I felt lousy on Friday and slept a lot Friday and Saturday while taking mega doses of C. Did the trick, because I’m much better. But I did get my trip report done for Tucson.

On the dinner plate: Sockeye Salmon with mixed green salad
In the wine glass: 9th Island Pinot Noir
On the turntable: Anne Lennox Bare
On the nightstand: 100 Hike in Central Sierra