Mid-Trip Update – Pacific Northwest Roadtrip
<p>We are at the mid point of our Pacific Northwest Roadtrip and are spending the night at a very nice motel….yes, I said motl (perish the thought). It is ocean front with a very large and clean room. We are just back from Crater Lake where we stayed at a nice little lodge for two nights. We started out at an amazing wine “festival” called the International Pinot Noir Festival. An absolute delight.</p>
We continue north tomorrow to explore Seaside, Cannon Beach, Portland and Seattle.
This has been a really great trip so far and we are looking forward to seeing friends in both Portland and Seattle in the coming days. If any of you have suggestions on restaurants or sights we must see in any of these locales, please let me know.
Travel Inspiration Photo #1: Sinta, Portugal
The first in what I intend to be a series of Travel Inspiration posts is from Sintra, Portugal. The picture itself is of Pena National Palace (Palácio Nacional da Pena, in Portuguese). This beautiful city is a short 30 km from Lisbon and on a clear day you can see this amazing palace from Lisbon proper.
To get from Lisbon to Sintra you can either drive or take a local train. Once in Sintra you can walk to explore the City on foot (as we did) or you can take the local bus to all the sites. The views from Pena National Palace are breathtaking – you see amazing farmland and even the ocean.
If you are visiting Lisbon you must (without question) take a day and visit Sintra, you will not regret spending time in this hilltop town.
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Excuse me, where is the fish sauce?
I made Pork Larb Lettuce Wraps earlier this week. Most of the ingredients were in my pantry including Fish Sauce. I live just a few blocks from Argyle Street – which is full of great little Vietnamese restaurants and shops.
A few months ago, I was making some Asian recipe that called for fish sauce. The recipe also said that you can find fish sauce at major grocery store. Ok, so let’s give that a try.
I head over to Jewel-Osco across the street from my apartment. I check the “ethnic food” aisle (which has everything from hard taco shells (ethnic??), rice, rice noodles and coconut milk. I couldn’t find it. I head over to the condiment section, again, no luck. I wander around aisle by aisle and found nothing.
I find a young gentlemen who works at Jewel and I ask him if they carry fish sauce. He says of course, it’s on aisle 4 (or whatever). I clarify, explaining what fish sauce is and how I intend to use it. He again says “yeah, we’ve got it!”.
I obediently follow him over to the condiment aisle. I am a bit surprised that I missed it moments earlier. This young man then grabs a bottle, hands it to me and says “See, fish sauce”. What did I have in my hand?
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IPNC Excitement
This will be the first year we are attending the full weekend, which starts tomorrow morning and goes through mid-day on Sunday. Last year we just attended the main Saturday night dinner, the Salmon Bake and the Sunday afternoon tasting. We had a really great time even with this limited program. This year we are doing the full weekend which includes seminars, winery tours and multi-course meals by world renowned chefs. You can see the full itinerary here.
We’ll be staying on campus, which is a bit of a blast from the past. This of course will not require us to drive at all during the wine festival, which is a high priority for me.
Since this is my very first full-weekend IPNC, I am a bit concerned that two full days of celebrating my favorite wine might be a bit much — by the end of the weekend, will I be tired of Pinot Noir? Perish the thought!
What are you doing this weekend? Attending a great food and wine festival or are you staying at home and making your own personal food and wine festival?
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Travel Inspiration Photo #1
I’m going to try a new weekly travel series. I often see a photo that a friend took on one of their recent trips and I just get inspired to learn more about that destination. It also encourages me to plan my next trip — where ever that may be.
As I said, I’m going to try something new — I’ll start by posting a photo, without any details then a couple days later will provide an update – including where this picture was taken, what is in the photo and list a couple of resources in planning a trip to this destination. Let me know how this works for you all.
Now time for the first Travel Inspiration Photo:
Where was this photo taken?
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