After we left Seattle, we drove down to Oregon where we first spent a few days in wine country and then the weekend with Patrick and Donnell.
Hillsboro, OR
On our way to Hillsboro, we stopped in Portland to have lunch with Dave, a former colleague of Keith's from both Aimco and LivCor. We ate at Shalom Y'all - a great middle eastern place. We shared a few dishes for the table -- all very good; the best was the chicken kebab plate.
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| Lunch with Dave at Sharon Y'all |
We arrived at our AirBnB mid-afternoon and got settled in and relaxed for the rest of the day. We stayed here for four nights. The place is amazing and one of the best we have stayed in. It's located on a small farm in Willamette Valley with great views of the valley. It had two bedrooms with a medium sized open kitchen / living room. It was very nicely appointed and super comfortable and the owners left us a dozen of eggs which we had for our breakfast each morning. The only downside is that there is no oven but we did not need it. We would definitely stay here again!
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| Our AirBnB |
While here, we did the following activities:
Chehalem Park Hike - Did a 8 mile, 1K elevation gain hike that took 2.5 hours. Gradual up and down hill through a forest. It's the closest hike to where we were staying so we ended up doing this three times.
Dinner with Becky and her husband, Diego, at Andina, a great Peruvian restaurant in Portland. The food was good but not as flavorful as we had hoped. We shared several dishes for the table.
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| Dinner with Becky and Diego at Andina |
Wine Tasting - We first went to Domaine Roy, a winery we had visited with Mark and Alicia on a prior trip. We really liked their reds so decided to return. They have a really nice tasting room with a back patio that has views of the vineyard. Our tasting included four wines but we ended up tasting a few extras. We really liked their rose, chardonnay and several of their pinots. The host was also very knowledgable and nice. We bought a few bottles - one we drank back at our AirBnB and the others were for us to give away to people we were staying with. We then went to our favorite winery in the area, Penner Ash, where we sat on the Adirondack chairs enjoying a taste of the rose while we waited for our table to be ready. We then sat inside and tasted several of their pinots as well as the riesling. You just can't beat the views at this winery - truly gorgeous. Since we had been here several times, we ended up not getting any of the wine, even though they were all very tasty. We ended the day back at the AirBnB, sitting on the Adirondack chairs in the backyard with views of the valley and we enjoyed one of the bottles of wine along with cheese, pate and crackers that we had picked up at Red Hills Market, a great gourmet grocer and sandwich place in Dundee.
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| Wine tasting at Penner Ash |
Banks Vernonina Trail - Becky had suggested this trail so we went there to do a walk - great trail that used to be a railroad track.
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| Banks Vernonina Trail |
Lunch with Jim and MaryAnn at WildFin American Grill, a great seafood restaurant located in Beaverton. We shared a great salad and a fish dish.
Tualitin Hills Nature Park - This is in Beaverton - we stopped here after lunch to do a walk. Nice trails that are about 4 miles.
Lunch at Mac Market - Located in McMinnville, we stopped here on the way to Harrisburg. It has a few places inside - we had a salad and each a slice of pizza.
Harrisburg, OR
We stayed at Patrick and Donnell's place in Harrisburg for two nights. We arrived Friday mid-afternoon and got a tour of their place which is amazing. We had seen it before the remodel and the difference is just stunning. We also got to see their two adorable girls! That evening, we had dinner at their house - yummy Dungeness crabs.
The next day, we went to meet Donnell's parents and got a tour of the hazelnut farm - it was great to see the trees behind the brand - D's Nutz! Her parents were super nice so it was great to meet them as well. We then went wine tasting at a winery where they are members - Walnut Ridge. We sat outside on the patio and enjoyed a flight each and then got a bottle that we shared.
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| Wine tasting with Donnell, Patrick and the girls |
That evening, they dropped off the girls at Donnell's parents house and we did a progressive dinner/bar crawl through town, hitting all the 'hot' spots. We first went to 99 Grill where we had a beer, wings and tater kegs (large tater tots mixed with cheese and bacon). We then went to 36 Spices (their local Indian place) - concerned with a recent health inspection score, we just got a beer and some naan. We played a few rounds of pool and the surprise of the evening was some really cool shots that Keith made! Our last stop was the bar next to their house, The Voo, where we had another beer, roasted chicken and French fries. While certainly not a healthy evening, it was fun to explore the town and meet some of the locals.
We left early the next morning to drive to Oakland where we had to do a 3 day detour to TX for some doctor's appointments. We stayed at a hotel near the airport and flew out early the following morning.
