Beer for Christmas with the Elephant Seals...

While we weren't too keen on having to be away from the family back East, our California Christmas turned out to be quite the experience. Two nights before Christmas Eve, we went out to see a burlesque show, which was mildly entertaining for me, yet seemingly life-altering for Jess. She now says she wants to be a burlesque performer. Being the good husband I am, I feel obligated to be fully supportive of her creative endeavors, even if they involve pasties.

On Christmas Eve Eve we headed across the bridge to see Steve, Jill, and Robbie in the City. It was good to catch up. We talked about possibly going to Tahoe some time this winter for some skiing. Over a nice dinner, I had a few beers (probably a few too many), and took some photos of a little pinata figurine I'd stolen from my friend Sam's desk at work. The pinata had a rough night. Here are the "before" and "after" photos...

I spent most of Christmas Eve working on a new project- an indoor greenhouse. The idea came to me after finding flower-filled cat puke all over the house the previous morning. The flowers were from a bouquet I'd had delivered to the house for the wifey. As much as I liked my original idea, I decided that a cat-free plant cage would be better than a plant-free cat cage. It's quite large, and I didn't actually finish it until tonight. Of course, the cats still puke regardless of the plants being off limits. Doc demonstrated this to me as soon as I was finished installing the last hinged door. It was an incredible triple-pile of barf!

Back to Christmas Eve... towards the end of the afternoon a package came from UPS. It was from Justin. We decided to open our gifts before heading to dinner with Caitlin at her studio. We got salsa lessons and yoga classes from the fam. Jess got us a membership to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which is great for when we have visitors since it gets us and two guests in for free any time we want to go), goats for Heiffer International, and the word game Apples to Apples. I got her a Nelson Mandela Car Air Freshener (it says "DAMN Nelson Mandela, you smell so GOOD!" and claims that his aroma is that of cookies), and a Bolliwood Booty workout DVD. I also got us copies of the Zonk the Tortise books by David Hoobler (Dave is the local artist who we got out Christmas cards from this year...check out http://www.zonktheturtle.com). We also got a sushi set from our awesome neighbors Jason and Tanya, and then came the best part... the UPS box from Justin. It included a CD with some Christmas music by the lead singer from Judas Priest (the 80's metal band)... Listening to him wail on We Three Kings, we laughed and cried watching the montage Jutin had made of the photos from the trip he and Bridget took to visit us back in November. I had to remove the music. It was aptly set to Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares to You."

Digging further into the box I found the best gift of all, a six-pack of Natty Boh! With the Boh Angel smiling down upon me from atop our tree, I was wild with excitement as I extracted the final touch of the gift, a lime (for transforming each luscious can into a delicious "Bohrona"). Christmas was off to a great start...

We had dinner with Caitlin (she made us to some tasty fondue). I was tired from a long day of playing with my tools to build the plant shelf. I passed out after a few glasses of wine, and they had to wake me up for dessert (more fondue!).

The next day we were headed to Susan and Gary's up in Healdsburg. We got to enjoy opening gifts with their granddaughter, Daisy, and a fantastic prime rib dinner. Susan is quite the chef. I must have put on ten pounds over the course of the day!

And then came the weekend... Jess had made plans for us to head down the coast to check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium and then spend the night a little further along at an inn overlooking the ocean. I hadn't been to the aquarium since my first visit out here back in 2001 when Susan and Gary took me there, and I really can't believe how much of it I didn't see that time! On that occasion though I was able to snag myself a one-on-one tour with an aquarist, and I managed to see a lot of the behind the scenes stuff I'm really into. In fact, I can't remember the last time I was at an aquarium or zoo when I wasn't on business. This was purely for pleasure, and it was really nice. Of course I still managed to critique some aspects of the place (they don't use scientific names on any of the ID panels, but they do translate everything into Spanish, so I guess that's worth something)... After a scary drive through the rain in the dark on the Coastal Highway, we had a really nice dinner at the inn, and then tucked in for the night next to a warm fireplace.

The next morning, we continued on our way exploring the coast. There were tide pools with starfish and anemones, and golden eagles, and cows, and...

Yep. It was an awesome weekend.

Shrooms

The dry season lasts a good part of the year here, so the mycologists get head-over-heels excited when the first rains arrive in Northern California. A few weeks ago James started noticing the proliferation of fungus on his hikes in the parks, so we headed up the road one afternoon to get a closer look.

Mushrooms are easy to find along game paths, anywhere there is a good amount of leaf-litter that insulates the ground. On one game path we came across this cool skull, which we're pretty sure was from a bobcat. The super cool part was that there was an uprooted tree nearby that likely had made a perfect place for the kitty's den. We also had to do some crawling through some thick brush.

I became a fantastic mushroom finder and photographer. I have no idea if any of these are edible, poisonous, or rare, but it was a nice and different way of hiking around.

I really enjoyed it all and we had a nice 4 hour hike and some Yogurtland for a special treat before picking up 88 pounds of litter for our kitties at the Pet Club and heading home for some down-time.

November Visitors Part DEUX: The Bacchanalia

A usual, we're catching up on the Blog... This one's been waiting to be published for a while now... Enjoy! -J-y-J

Justin and Bridget arrived on Wednesday/Thursday while I was away on business in San Diego, but I arrived back on Friday just in time for some revelry at our favorite Friday Night hangout in Lafayette- Diamond Dave at Petar’s Restaurant. To understand the cool factor of this- you really have to read this article and watch this:

I was exhausted, but James and Caitlin and I got everybody pumped, we got our dancin’ shoes on and headed out.

We pretty much partied the night away, but I lost steam around 1:00 am and asked if we could all head home.

We slept in most of the morning on Saturday but we went over to show Bridget and Justin the Farmer’s Market and buy food for dinner while Bryan finished his packing. We bought some cool cheese called “Quark” and some tasty veggies to go with our rotisserie chicken! Yum! The thing on my head is a LEMON!

Bridget and Justin cooked a feast while James and I took Bryan to the BART and sent him on his way to start his backpacking adventure in New Zealand. SO Jealous!!!

We had an early night on Saturday in preparation for the Bacchanalia that was to ensue on Sunday.

Now- we’ve learned a few things about marathon wine-tasting in our 6 months of living in close proximity to the wine country:
1- It is an Olympic Sport that requires preparation, training, stamina and dedication
2- The wine map is essential, but it doesn’t show ALL the wineries on it.
3- You can only go to between 4 and 6 wineries in one day if you really want to enjoy the wine.
4- Start in the late morning and plan to stop at a vineyard for lunch that has picnic facilities.
5- James and Jess have to “flip for it” to see who will be the Designated Driver. The DD gets to taste at the first place and then enjoy watching everyone slowly devolve the rest of the day- which is also enjoyable, just in a different way.
6- Drunken flirting with the wine-baristas usually gets you extra pours…
7- The winery owners don’t care how much you drink as long as you don’t break the glassware or act like an idiopt.
8- Bring your own cheese and crackers and other snacks.
9- You can share a tasting flight- this allows you to a) pay less and b) try more wine
10-While everyone else is tasting- the DD should be schmoozing with the vineyard/winery owner.

Justin and Bridget were very impressed with my skills doing this last one. Whilst they were inside tasting with James, I in my role of “friendly Designated Driver” struck up a conversation with an older man sitting outside the Tasting Room drinking a Pepsi. He and I started talking, about what I don’t remember, but he asked me if I had ever been there before and I said no and he said “Well, you should let me give you a tour of the place!” It turns out he owned the vineyard and his kids ran the place- so we walked all over the grounds to the Pond where he had hired stonemason’s to lay flagstones with different images symbolizing the stages of life, the pergola where his daughter will be married later next year, the olive grove and pressing facility, the chicken coop, the raised garden, the courtyard with outdoor pizza oven, and my personal favorite- the outdoor kitchen and pool area where he later invited us to join him while we ate our snacks (see Tip #8) and told us of his early life, his purchase of the land and house for $75,000 back in 1970 and his current travel and charitable pursuits.

We sat for a good hour with him and listened and shared. It was wonderful- THANKS BOB!! The winery is called Harvest Moon, and we quite literally “stumbled” on it. We'll be back.

We used the wine map to start out a tour of Olivet Road wineries- we began at the European company-owned Deloach Vineyard where the nice barista offered us probably 9 different wines to taste- he just kept pouring! It was a good place to start.

Then we moved onto the next family-owned Hook and Ladder winery- the family who owned this had once owned DeLoach and sold it off due to family problems/finances- as we later learned from Bob. Bob told us that most of his grapes went to DeLoach for years but now they make their own wine. After the stimulating conversation and three generous winery barista’s the triplets were feeling the wine, so we stopped at a fourth winery called Martinelli Winery where we had a good tasting followed by a photo op outside the winery door for Justin and Bridget… followed closely by James saying “hold me Justin!”

We decided that it was time to switch to beer after that…

Everyone was in high humor when we headed to Russian River Brewing Company to end the day with a tasting of hoppy brews- sobering us up a little before dinner at our favorite place “Flavor” in Santa Rosa.

Needless to say- everyone was passed out in the car on the ride home and tucked into bed safely by 9pm.

We said our goodnights and I my goodbye’s (I had another flight out to San Diego on Monday morning at 4:30 am)- but it was a fantastic visit and we can’t wait for more people to come visit so that we can perfect the sport of wine tasting with friends!

The Oregon Trail: A Thanksgiving Journey

Like the early settlers, James and I decided it was time for us to leave our densely populated metropolis and head (north) West to seek some peace and quiet in the lush green state of Oregon. James’ Uncle Gerry and Aunt Maureen live up in Corvallis and they graciously allowed us to invite ourselves to their Thanksgiving festivities. Unlike the settlers dealing with typhoid, “Indian attacks” and river crossings, we were faced only with the perils of night-driving through mountainous terrain, the occasional rain shower and a rogue GPS. We set out on Wednesday night around 5pm and fought some T-day traffic through Sacramento to get onto I-5. Interstate 5 stretches from the top to the bottom of California and is the main North/South artery in the state so we thought we were in for a long, New Jersey Turnpike-like drive to our resting place near Mt. Shasta in Weed, CA (yes, we chose to stay there because of the name alone). But other than the triple-tractor-trailers, I-5 is really quite remote in northern California and there was blissfully little traffic on Thanksgiving Eve. We wound up and down through the mountains in the dark, and I kept occasionally glimpsing this white blob in the distance. I asked James- “is that a mountain or a cloud?” because it was white and quite high. We finally realized that it was indeed the very majestic Mt. Shasta and our motel was right at the bottom! Someone told us it is considered a “holy” place by the local Native American people and there weren’t any ski lifts or commercial things that we could see- but we didn’t get very close.

We stayed overnight in Central Weed and took a tour in the morning of the little town proper- see the photo tour at right. My favorite is the Weed Chiropractic Clinic- got back pain? they have a cure for what’s ailing you!….

Strangely, as soon as you cross the border into Oregon- everything turns green. It really is a bucolic state- complete with cows and villages and rainy hillsides. We were a bit mesmerized after coming out of the California dry season. November is really when the California rainy season begins, but we still haven’t seen much- maybe 3 days of rain (not anything like the East Coast in the Fall). Corvallis is in a nice valley and home to Oregon State University’s main campus. We did a little Wikipedia search on the crackberry and found out that Corvallis is our kind of town…for several reasons:
1- A survey by the National Science Foundation found Corvallis ranks second in the nation for the number of scientists as a percentage of total employment (12.7 percent) as of 2006.
2- A 2003 study, released once every 10 years, listed Benton County (of which Corvallis makes up the majority of the population) as the least religious county per capita in the United States. Only 1 in 4 people indicated that they were affiliated with one of the 149 religious groups the study identified. The study indicated that some of the disparity, however, may be attributed to the popularity of less traditional religions (ones not included as an option in the study) in the Pacific Northwest.
3- According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency report on its “green power communities,” Corvallis buys more power from renewable resources than any other city in the nation. Corvallis purchases more than 100 million kilowatt-hours of green power annually, which amounts to 13 percent of the city’s total purchased electricity.
4-Corvallis, Oregon was ranked #48[27] on the 100 best places in the USA to live and launch a business by Fortune Small Business 2008[28]. This places Corvallis as the second best place in Oregon to launch a business (behind Portland#6).
5-In a 2007 report, Farmer's Insurance Group ranked Corvallis as the "most secure" small city in America, based on (as reported by Insurance Journal magazine) crime statistics, extreme weather, risk of natural disasters, environmental hazards, terrorism threats, air quality, life expectancy and job loss numbers.
6-On February 18, 2008, Corvallis was named the fifth smartest city in America by Forbes Online magazine.[54]
7-A September 2008 report revealed that Benton County, of which Corvallis makes up the majority of the population, is ranked 5th for longest life expectancy at birth of all counties in the United States, at 80.93 years.
So in other words, this place rocks. It’s a little rainy and a little chilly, but it is one awesome town. We really liked it there. We got in around 1pm on Thanksgiving and Gerry packed up the yams and we went to have a delicious all-you-can-eat buffet Thanksgiving dinner at Uncle Gerry’s Club. We met some great people and stuffed ourselves silly. On Friday, we did some Christmas shopping at the art galleries and fair trade stores. It has a lot of little shops where people sell home-made or hand-made goods. It makes you feel like how America should be (and used to be)- with no mall or Wal-Mart or chain stores really. We had a great black Friday going through all of the places, starting at the Southwestern-style café for breakfast and the music store where James played drums up in the loft, then heading to all of the art galleries (Maureen and Gerry knew where all these places are- Maureen is an accomplished and successful artist), stopping for coffee at their favorite place;

I got some gloves made out of alpaca wool and a cool hat made out of recycled cotton and PET at the fair trade store, and wandering in and out of all of their non-Barnes and Noble used and new bookstores.

We finished off the day with the annual Christmas parade, complete with Santa on top of the fire truck. It was like taking a step back in time. My favorite parts of the parade were the “Sheriff’s Posse” on horseback and the Corgi dog club. The SPCA walked all the dogs around and people threw candy at the kids. It was great! PS- there is no sales tax in Oregon and they pay you for your recycled bottles and cans- this is me getting my first .05 cents back!


On Saturday we ventured out on Highway 101 South- the Pacific Coast highway route home to Oakland. Gerry took us as far as the Oregon Coast at Newport with the pups (Seti and Sky-their two rescued greyhounds- real cuties!) and we took a great walk on the beach there- what a magnificent view! We ran into a Rhodesian ridgeback puppy (HUGE!) and two Great Danes and I totally want one or the other!! Although the greyhounds aren’t nearly as oily and smelly (in fact they smelled quite lovely) and they don’t jump like the Rhodesians or drool like the Danes do. In any case- I think we are getting into the yard, babies, dogs portion of our lives.




We had an absolutely fabulous drive down the coast- stopping and taking pictures of the rocks and dunes and TREES!!! And then we got to the Redwoods…….. There is just absolutely nothing like it in the world.

The smell, the temperature, the sounds, the light-- the awe-inspiring feeling of an ancient forest is just amazing. I tried to video-tape driving through the Avenue of Giants, but it is really hard to reproduce even on video.



We learned that a number of parts of Jurassic Park were filmed here and it is easy to believe- it is positively primeval. We can’t wait to take people here. The Pacific Coast Highway inspired us also- we are thinking of riding bikes there in the summer. All of the seaside towns are perfectly spaced for biking- about 20-25 miles apart, with motels hanging over the water and ice cream stores, little general/tourist stores, and restaurants that would break up the trip really well. The road has wide emergency lanes and signs for biking, the road keeps a level grade along the side of the mountains/hills and is only gently rolling in some places. Oddly enough, we were thinking that the only real issue on the roads is the moss! It would slow you down/be a little slippery for a road bike! We stayed at a nice bed and breakfast in Klamath, CA and explored the redwoods all day on Sunday and then made a beeline for home. We will definitely be venturing there again soon!!!

Christmas Time in California...

Justin texted me this morning... it's snowing in Maryland. He and Bridget are making cookies and decorating their tree today.They invited us over, but even though we're 3000 miles away we can still be there through the miracle of modern technology...

We're spending the day getting our typical Saturday chores done.

Cleaning up after the cats...

(Yes, it's a hairball the length of my size 15 foot. I think it's a record)

Laundry...

(Cats EVERYWHERE! It's too much some times...)

And Jess is setting up the tree skirt she's been crocheting...

(Which will no doubt be covered in fur and kitty barf just in time for next weekend's cleaning...)

We're heading out to run some errands, and later we're going to do some hiking, mostly just to get away from the cats.

We miss you all back East!