Olympia

We are home and back to work today in Olympia. 

All journeys have a beginning and an end but it’s the experience in between that defines it.  Our expedition left no regrets, only empty wallets.  We enjoyed generous hospitality by some great friends at breweries scattered between Olympia and San Francisco.  The geography of Cascadia is awe inspiring and we feel blessed to live in this part of the world.

For my part, travelling with these three friends, Mike, Heath and Mac was an honor and privilege.  We spent most of our time laughing until our sides hurt and tears streamed from our eye.  We squabbled like brothers over trivial topics like how to drive a minivan.  We never truly solved the world’s problems (according to us), but we talked through them and gained perspective on our work, public service, the environment, what qualifies as good beer and matters of the human heart.


Like a quote from a film featuring a different odyssey, Oh Brother Where Art Thou,“You seek a great fortune... You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek. But first... first you must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. Mm-hmm. You shall see thangs, wonderful to tell. You shall see a... a cow... on the roof of a cotton house, ha. And, oh, so many startlements. I cannot tell you how long this road shall be, but fear not the obstacles in your path, for fate has vouchsafed your reward. Though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye follow them, even unto your salvation.”

We did not see a cow on the roof of a cotton house, but we saw thangs, wonderful to tell.  And we even found a little salvation.  http://russianriverbrewing.com/brews/salvation/

Mac's spelling was a bit off on this afternoon

One night in Portland

Winding down this trip took us on an 8 hour car ride from Arcata to Portland.  We broke down the drive into 3 shifts.    I had first shift and took us up the California coast and into Oregon.  Cascadia, again beautiful on all its frontiers didn’t disappoint today as we traversed the Redwood Highway (US 199) along the Patrick Creek canyon.  Hwy 199 met I-5 in Grants Pass where we stopped for ice cream.  We arrived in Portland around 7:00 and went straight to my favorite place, the Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB). 

Quickly we learned however, that Mike’s Portland priority closed at 8pm. Because Heath and I had settled in with a beer and snack, GASP, the team broke up for a couple hours. Mac took one for the team and escorted Mike to the Hair of the Dog brewery.   We knew it was the right thing to do because we received a single text from Mike “Soooo happy.”  YAY FOR MIKE!  They also went to the Cascade Barrel House for sour beer, another of my favorite PDX stops.

Meanwhile back at the HUB Heath and I had dinner from their delicious menu and we were joined by good friend and owner, Christian Ettinger.  It’s always great to see Christian who was also coming off vacation himself at the north end of Cascadia in the San Juan Islands.  He treated us to a tour of his facility on Powell and some sampling from the conditioning tanks.  Also present for dinner were Heath’s good friends Kathy, Eric and son Arlo.  We were joined a little later by Heath's pals Mandi and Brian who went on the tour with us.

We reunited with Mike and Mac at the Green Dragon and went to a non G-Rated non-Blog appropriate establishment in Portland before turning in.

Next stop, Pine State Biscuits for breakfast then home.  I will reflect on the journey tomorrow.

Christian

Brian and Heath

Pals

Mandi and Brian

Bike ride through the brewery. It has a growler holder!

Mac and Mike at Hair of the Dog

Mac found this sign next to the MAX rails. 

Mac and Mike made friends because the missed Heath and I

Now canning and available soon in a store near you.

Humboldt County

I think it’s important to clarify that this trip hasn’t been entirely centered on breweries and beer.  We have stopped many places and seen many amazing things.  As “Driver of the Day” (we have been rotating that responsibility wisely) I consulted with my CPD (Co-Pilot of the day), Mac, to navigate us to some walks to see more of the beach and more of Northern California’s natural beauty.  He did not disappoint. 

Mac first took us to a place called Glass beach.  Evidently in the 1940’s and 1950’s when some people didn’t understand the need to be responsible with our natural resources and environment, this beach was a dumping zone.  Through concentrated clean-up efforts the beach has been mostly restored but what remained were particles of glass, worn over time to green and brown and white rock, mixed in with the sand.  It’s now a tourist stop where we found amazing views of the Pacific Ocean.

From Glass Beach we headed up the Pacific Coast Highway (US1). The drive along the coastline was breathtaking.  Eventually we turned away from the beach onto HW 101 where my co-pilot directed us into the Avenue of the Giants, an incredible drive through the giant redwoods.  We took another walk through the giant canopy and felt dwarfed by these 300 foot tall trees.

After getting in touch with our naturalist sides we got back into the brewery tour with a stop at Eel River for lunch.  The beer was great and the food was fantastic.  We were greeted in the parking lot by the smell of a smoker slow cooking chicken, beef and pork.  Heath and Mac split a huge order of Pork Ribs and Beer Brisket while Steeny and I devoured brisket sandwiches.  The house made BBQ sauce was tasty too.

From Eel River we moved on to Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka.  There may be a story about how we almost got in a car accident from Steeny, but according to my co-pilot and now attorney (I retained Mac as legal counsel for $10 which was actually paid by Steeny and rightly so) we were never in any danger.  Under advisement of counsel I should write no more about this incident as I may have a case which includes intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The real treat of the day came from brewer and friend Eli LaRue at Redwood Curtain in Arcata.  Eli not only treated us to truly wonderful beer but also a home cooked meal consisting of a Dungeness Crab Louie salad and Salmon both freshly and locally caught.  Eli is making primarily Belgian-Style ales with a couple different yeast strains.  My favorite was the Flaming Sombrero, a smoked ale using the smoke malt from Weyermann in Bamberg. It was very balanced and the flavors went on and on.  For the full Humboldt County experience, Eli took us next door to a glass blowing studio where they were manufacturing glass that is not the kind of art done by Chihuly.  After dinner Eli took us to Mad River Brewery to end our day.  We appreciate his generosity, it was great fun getting to hang out in his brewery and tell stories about our mutual great friend John Maier.

The California part of our adventure has ended.  Next stop, PDX!

p.s. A quick note, my cousin Nels and Sayuri who you met via this blog on the 4th of July became parents TODAY!!!! Congratulations to them and welcome to the world Lyle!!!!

Glass Beach

Heath on the Pacific

The ocean heals

The Pacific

Steeny in all his glory!

It took them the whole trip, but Mac and Heath finally fell this tree

Mac loving the tree before he and Heath cut it down. Sasquatch was watching and not thrilled.

Happiness amongst the giants.

Hike over, time for beer.

Eel River.

Just after the non traffic incident.

My lawyer

Eli giving a tour in Humbolt County

Who's happy now?

Eli makes great beer!

Non Chihuly artwork

Flame heating glass.

Anderson valley to the California Coast

Northern California’s geography is stunning.  Today we drove through Anderson Valley wine country with huge vineyards spanning into the hills, we tunneled through the Redwood Forest and we found ourselves at the end of the day with truly magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean from spectacular coastlines.  Our destinations were relatively close by so we had the most leisurely day of the odyssey and didn’t feel rushed to a destination.

Our first stop of the day was for lunch at the Bear Republic Brewery in Healdsburg.  We had one of the best meals of the week so far with freshly caught battered Pacific Cod and just to show some respect to our bodies we had salads too.  The beer met expectations with our favorites being their Cascadian dark ale, German Hef and Racer 5 of course.  We loved sitting in the beer garden.  While enjoying the California sun we received a message from John Maier reminding us that we were just a half mile away from Seghesio winery. 

It didn’t take much prodding by Heath and I to convince the other two that we should stop at a couple wineries as long as we are in California wine country.  Seghesio is best known for their enormous Zinfandel.  We loved the tasting and the big almost black in color Old Vine Zin was incredible.  Outside the winery on the property Seghesio has a very lush herb garden and outdoor kitchen with wood fired oven.  We of course had to sample some pizza while we were there.

From Seghesio we found our way to Bella wine caves.  Heath had driver of the day duties and knew where Bella was from a trip a couple months ago.  The views were beautiful and the wine was great.  We sat inside the caves for a wonderful tasting of 6 truly magnificent wines. 

From Bella we headed to Anderson Valley where we met friend and Brewmaster Fal Allen.  Fal spent much of his brewing career in our neck of the woods at Pike Brewing Company in Seattle.  This is his second stint at Anderson Valley with a gig at a brewery in Singapore in between.  It was great to see Fal and get a brewery tour and catch up a bit.  It seems he has a fun job in great surroundings.  Before we left Fal gave us a great tip for a bar just south of Elk California off the Pacific Coast Highway.  So we headed west through the redwoods and found ourselves at the Beacon Bar.  The vista from this perch was beyond words.  Bobby is the name of the owner and he has stories to tell.  The bar is in the basement of his house which sits on thousands of acres he owns with views of the ocean.

Our day ended in Fort Bragg at North Coast brewery.

Next stop Arcata.

Mac drinking water!!

Four Amigo's at Bear Republic in Healdsburg

Zin!

Wine cave.

Winemaker moving casks

Don Packard

Don Nicholson

My friend Fal!  THANKS FAL!

VIP tour!

With Bobby at the Beacon

View from the Beacon

Not quite there

Fal telling stories.

I love vacation!

Awesome Breweries

We are a bit miffed to the fact that the weather is beautiful at home.  It’s supposed to be cold and rainy until we return.  Ah well, summer in Washington begins on July 4.  We all know that.

This will be a short post as we are headed to Healdsburg and Booneville soon.

July 5 was about the beer from two of our favorite breweries, Lagunitas in Petaluma and Russian River in Santa Rosa.  We took a brewery tour at Lagunitas long enough to learn that the uninformed tour guide liked to exaggerate.  So we bailed to the beer garden.  It was beautiful. Fantastic samples, sunny weather, live music fun people.  We made some new friends too.  Favorite beer was the pilsner and a freshly tapped cask pale.

Russian River was amazing and we landed on the right day as they were celebrating a collaboration project with Sierra Nevada called Brux, a brett beer with great balance. We of course needed the sample tray pictured below.  It was really too good to be true.  Wonderful beer from a magnificent brewery.

Following Russian River Steeny needed one more brewery under his belt so we walked around the corner to 3^rd street brewery.  Mac bought a new hat.

Note to our mothers, we were not driving, we had a taxi.

Sampler at  Lagunitas

Lineup at Lagunitas

My new friends

Loving the beer garden

The artist

We love the California life

Russian River lineup

The other board

Too good to be true

With a couple more friends including Mac's pal Pat O'Brian