This weekend, we stayed somewhat close to home. We ate lunch at the Ancestry Brewing Company in Tualatin, a place owned by a Navy veteran of the Vietnam era. Beer was good, food only okay. Then we drove up Parrett Mountain (raised methinks by the action of the Cascadia tectonic plate) to Avidity Winery. Nice wines, but we couldn’t sit outside due to marauding yellow jackets. You could see the smoke from Canadian fires, somewhat obscuring the nice view.
Today (Sunday), we drove to McMinnville, about a 40 minute drive. It’s a pretty neat town, with lots of small wineries north on Oregon 99W, and some with tasting rooms in town.
The town had blocked streets in the historic old town, with a theme of Dine Out(side). Restaurants had seating areas in the street. Lots of nifty shops, restaurants and a couple of good hotels. They have a summer festival it might be fun to attend.
We had lunch at Los Molcajetes Mexicans restaurant, then tasted whites and reds at the Terra Vina Winery tasting room. Found a good use for pinot noir grapes: make a white wine! Take off the skins, crush, and make Pinot Noir Blanc! I’m still not sure red pinot noir is wine … seems you have to pay an awful lot of money for a bottle to get the same quality and taste as from sangiovese or tempranillo. Oh, well, I guess I’m just an oeno snob.
We took the back roads over to Carlton, passing through Lafayette on the way. We stopped briefly at the Crowing Hen beer farm, which is pictured below. The name comes from the owners’ experience with their chickens: when one of the newly hatched chickens eventually began to crow, they thought they had a unique hen, without realizing they had hatched a rooster!
In these pictures, you can really see how bad is the smoke from Canada. Pray for the folks in Yellowknife!
