Winery Weekend

Wine Grapes at Cooper Mountain Vineyards

Sunday was a rainy day and we decided to go wine tasting at some of the area wineries. (This picture is an old one, there are no grapes on the vines at this time of year and we didn't visit Cooper Mountain on this particular trip).

There are a lot of Oregon Wineries (map) and most of them are open for tasting on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

First, we went to Willakenzie Estate where the wine was good but expensive and the tastings were free.

Then we went to another vineyard right across the street from Willakenzie. Unfortunately I can't remember the name and it's not on any of the maps. I think it must be pretty new. The wines there were expensive and not very good, and they charged 5$ to taste 4 wines. We did end up with a funny story from there though. A plate of cheese and fruit and other goodies was on the bar. Sami picked up a bite to eat, and then I got a cracker. Then Sami went back and found out that the cheese plate was only for people on a wine tour. Oops! We couldn't have known. A lot of the wineries provide a bit of food with the tastings.

After that we did a couple geocaches and then stopped by a place called Cana's Feast Winery. Their tasting list was full of italian style wines which I often don't like. The first one was called Rosato and was a deep pink color. Normally we wouldn't drink a rosé, but this one was not sweet and very tasty. They also had some very good Sangiovese - another wine I often dislike. All things considered, the 5$ tasting fee was very reasonable. Plus they refunded it with the purchase of a bottle of wine.

Just next door to Cana's Feast, there's a place called the Carlton Winemaker's Studio. There they sell and offer wine tastings for several different vineyards. When we walked in the door, we heard live music coming from upstairs. Sami made a beeline straight towards the music and we found ourselves in a special tasting for Ribbon Ridge. They had incredible appetizers and 7 or 8 different kinds of wine to taste. With the dessert wine they were serving lavender teacakes (that's actually a cookie) yum! Also, we got to take home a couple of those nice little plastic clips that you can hang the wine glass from your plate while you walk around. Not that I imagine we'll really use them at home.

Finally, we stopped by Kramer, Sami's favorite vineyard. The first time we went to a tasting (three years ago) it was late in the day and we were the last customers. The wine was great and they gave us a whole loaf of bread left over from the event and Sami has been a loyal customer ever since. They're very friendly and not wine snobs at all. Unfortunately, it seems that everyone else has realized how good the wine is and it's doubled in price in the last 3 years.

Tillamook Forest Center and Bayocean Spit

The weather forecast had predicted that Sunday and Monday would be nice. Since Sami and I had Monday off for Veterans Day we made tentative plans with Aaron to go to the beach. (His parents have a house in Tillamook.)

Saturday morning was beautiful so Sami and I decided we better take advantage of it. We headed down Hwy 6 towards the coast and stopped at the impressive new Tillamook Forest Center.

This replica lookout tower is not very tall or on a hill so the view wasn't as nice as I'd hoped, but it's set up with a bed and stove and all the other things the real towers had back in the 50's and there are very informative signs explaining everything.

One of the most interesting things in the tower was this insulated stool made by putting glass insulators on the feet of a regular wooden stool. The people who lived in these towers had to stand on the stool during electrical storms so they wouldn't be electrocuted. (Fortunately there aren't too many of those in this part of the country.)

View of the Forest Center from the Tower.

This doesn't look like much from the outside, but the center is actually very pretty on the inside with vaulted ceilings and large windows and beautiful views of the forest.

The pool in front of the center is reclaimed rainwater to be used in case of fire.

The Wilson River runs right past the Forest Center. Salmon are common in this river. There was a free lecture shortly after we arrived, so we learned a little about the life cycle of Salmon and how to identify the 5 types that we have in Oregon.

After the lecture we went to the large suspension bridge behind the building to see if we could see some Salmon in the river. Our guide had a couple of dead ones that had washed ashore after mating that morning, but we didn't manage to see any live ones.

While on the bridge, we saw the very cute American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) diving in the water to eat bugs. He's very small and fast though, so I didn't get a photo.

This picture is a boat ramp on the Wilson River. We found a geocache there and couldn't believe how steep the ramp was. I think you'd need a winch on your truck to get a boat up (or down) this thing and it still would be a bit scary. Another view here.

Orange Peel Fungus - Aleuria aurantia

Just outside the Forest center we saw this interesting orange fungus, and another wrinkly brain-like brown one.

After visiting the Forest center, we did a couple more geocaches in the area, where we saw more mushrooms including some that looked like little umbrellas, and others shaped like seashells.

Shore Pine - Pinus contorta var. contorta

In its regular upright form, pinus contorta is called Lodgepole pine.

When we arrived in the Town of Tillamook, home of the famous cheese factory, we decided to drive south around the bay and ended up on the Oceanbay Spit.

We'd never been there before, but the GPSr showed 3 caches on the spit, and we decided to hike down the path towards them.

Young Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus

The first part of the hike was flat and level, with views of the bay on one side and the ocean on the other. (Map)

We learned from the description on one of the geocaches that during the early 1900s there was a resort town on the spit called Bayocean (story here), but it fell into the ocean and was never rebuilt.

As the path headed north, we hiked though a heavily forested area where Sami found mushrooms that looked like a kind he used to pick in Finland.

We happened to have plastic bag with us, and he picked a gallon to take home. After we got home, he started to worry that they were not the kind he knew and so they're just sitting in our fridge while he tries to identify them.

When we came out of the forest we saw the eagle pictured above. At the time, we thought he was a different sort of eagle since the feathers on his head are not very white. After trying to ID the bird, I learned that the young Bald Eagles are brownish all over.

Elk - Cervus canadensis

On the beach we somehow took the wrong trail and couldn't get to the cache. Thick forests of shorepine and salal kept prevented us from getting any closer than 500ft.

We turned a corner and were surprised by a herd of elk. Since it was getting dark and the sun was setting, we decided we better head back to the car. Even though we didn't get close to any of the caches, it was a nice hike and we saw some cool animals.

Taking Pictures in the Dark

Western Bracken Fern - Pteridium aquilinum

I managed to convince Aaron to come walk with me in the powerline park after work today. It got dark on us pretty quick, but we still saw some beautiful colors in the twilight.

Unfortunately I didn't have my tripod with me and I had to use the flash for this one.

Himalayan blackberry - Rubus armeniacus

These blackberries are incredibly tasty and grow literally everywhere in the summer. Unfortunately, they are non-native and very invasive.

Red Osier Dogwood - Cornus sericea

These dogwoods were just amazing. I wish I had a better picture.

I also took a photo of Aaron admiring the dogwoods.

He says his camera phone never takes good pictures, but it seemed to be working better than he expected tonight for some reason.

BookCrossing and Project Gutenberg

Today's post is actually about cool book websites, it really has nothing to do with the photo.

Clark's Nutcracker - Nucifraga columbiana

This is an old photo from our trip to Crater Lake (22 Jun 06), but I don't think I've ever posted it.

I've added Birds of Oregon to my Christmas Wish List at Powells.

There's a new book club in town that I was thinking of attending. The first book on their list is My Antonia by Willa Cather. I read the book several years ago when Athena left a copy at our place in Illinois. I vaguely remembered not liking it very much, but I figured it's a classic so maybe I should give it another chance. I looked around on our bookshelves with the other novels and realized it wasn't there.

Then I remembered that Sami and I had left it in a geocache more than a year ago. This particular geocache was a BookCrossing cache. It's a cool idea. You take the books you no longer want, put a BookCrossing sticker with a registration number on it, and release it into the "wild" so someone else can enjoy it. People who find and read the books can go online to review the books or to report that they've picked up or released them in a new location.

As I work in a library, getting my hands on a copy of My Antonia would be very easy. But I was curious if there might be an online version. I googled it and dicovered that yes, there is a copyright free version on Project Gutenberg. I can't say for sure that I'll use the ebook for the PDA (in fact I've never read an ebook), but it's nice to know such things are available. There are even quite a few books in Finnish if Sami suddenly got the urge to read a novel in his native language.

Cute & Endangered

Brush Rabbit - Sylvilagus bachmani

Melissa and I went for a quick bike ride though the powerline park this afternoon after work.

Near the end of the trail Melissa spotted this very cute brush rabbit. Luckily he sat very still so I could take this picture in the fading light.

When I came home and started looking online to identify the rabbit, I discovered that it is actually endangered in California and on the US Endangered Species List. Unfortunately for this rabbit, his predators (coyotes and hawks) also live in the park.

Our bikepath

We rode 5.2 miles today, mostly uphill going east and then back to the shopping center where our bikes were parked.

Moving the clocks back really cut our ride short. We had only an hour or so after I got off work at 4 pm.

Sunset

This picture was taken just minutes after we saw the rabbit.

We also saw some sort of bird of prey, but it flew away before we could get a good look at it or a picture. Melissa saw some deer, but they were gone by the time I caught up.