Weekend in Review - Nov. 25-28

On Thanksgiving morning, three bold Knights of Knee braved the rainstorm to meet up. When they did, the showers stopped, the winds becalmed, and the sun even came peaking out to make them regret forgetting their sunglasses.

Well met were Sir William, Sir David, and Lady Wendy. We traipsed through the Summer Lake YRE in Tigard - a very pleasant autumn morning walk. Both Dave and Will found a dime each, while Wendy was poked by a wet dog nose to count as "petting a critter." We finished happily and went off to our various celebrations.

We Want a....Shrubbery!!!!
Saturday morning a similar crew convened in Tualatin, but as we arrived in Woodburn we met up with Lady Carolyn and Lady Rachel. As both were still moderately indisposed from various vapors, they walked with us the first 5 kilometers. The Woodburn start point had been moved considerably closer to I-5, and thereby included a few more busy road stretches that made conversation less achievable. But the checkpoint at the garden center remained the same, and Will and Wendy and Dave browsed a bit to soak up holiday cheer. I am certain we debated bringing back a shrubbery. But I was most impressed that the men's room was a single stall, whereas the women's room had 5 stalls. The day stayed pleasant - foggy but calm and no rain on us.

Oh, Gee, I LIVE in a Wine Region!
Rich and I finally woke up to the fact that we don't really need to fly someplace to go wine tasting, as we live just 10 miles from Dundee, Oregon and the heart of the Oregon wine country. People actually fly here for wine-tasting vacations. So, we endeavored to take advantage of the fruits of the valley. Our first stop on Saturday was the Ponzi Vineyards Dundee Tasting Room, located on Hwy 99 in the middle of Dundee. For $10 each and a souvenir wine glass, we tasted a flight of Abacela wines from Roseburg, then a flight of Ponzi wines. Rich liked a couple of the whites, including the Abacela Viognier, and we got a mixed case. I was disappointed that this tasting room didn't even have crackers to clear your palate between tastings. But they have a great gift shop.

On Sunday, after I had walked and Rich and biked and we waved at each other as we passed in Ibach Park, we headed down to Willamette Valley Vineyards, home of Dave's favorite walk, the Wine and Groan. Dave - we need to just go and walk this ourselves sometime! Their weekend special was a barrell tasting with a Reidel wine glass for just $5 a person - a real deal. We were shocked that the parking lot was fairly empty at 1 pm. Our first swill from the vat (actually the large stainless steel tank) was a Frizzante, a fizzy sweet white that was so good that Rich and I another gal who was tasting said we just wanted to fill our huge glasses with it and forget the rest of the tour. We bought a case of it, but we aren't sharing... We sampled some other casks and then ended in the tasting room. We went through another six wines and by the end I was kind of tipsy. I bought a case of the Oregon Nog (a multi-fruit wine great for the holidays) to give as gifts to my siblings and to serve at my holiday parties.
From the freeway, we called in an order to It's A Beautiful Pizza on Belmont - they make darn good pizza for a bunch of hippies, although we should have checked the box before we got home, as they gave us Canadian Bacon and Pineapple instead of Canadian Bacon and Olives. But it was still very good.