Blogs from McMinnville, Oregon, United States, North America

We awoke to the sun filtering into our lofty abode, with the faint sounds of surf rushing to shore and a crisp breeze rustling the blinds as it refreshed us. We started cleaning up and rearranging things to be sure that we repacked everything later in the morning. It was then that I noticed that Sharon was mostly already packed while I still had much to do. Sharon spotted several deer next door, which seem to have an affinity for the garden flowers to be found there. “There are three, no four, I see three, no there ARE four!” Sharon exclaims. “Shoot them,” Sharon orders me as I’m about to do my morning Sudoku. Sharon claims that “she hasn’t had time” to keep up with our daily challenges, so I’ve racked up a nice little streak ... read more

Exciting day in McMinnville - grocery shopping, hiking boot shopping & lunch at Izzy's. Afternoon spent relaxing watching the rain come down.... read more

Today we celebrated our anniversary with a visit to a local vineyard and fresh produce market. I found a wonderful bottle of Reisling at the winery so we plan to open it in Seattle. At the produce market we found the most awesome strawberries. For those who know me, for me to say the strawberries are great they must be fantastic. With the sun shining brightly for the first time in days, we took full advantage and rode our bikes 3.5 miles. Unfortunately rain is in the forecast for the next 4 days. Tonight Jon and Joyce treated us to dinner at a wonderful place downtown. After dinner we did out typical after dinner trip to Burger King for their $1.00 cup of ice cream. Joyce turned Joe onto the BK ice cream and it is ... read more

After a good nights sleep, we had a nice breakfast at Hotel Oregon. Sweetiepie had baked eggs with ham and sweet cream, really good. I had an omelet with cheddar, sausage, mushroom, and spinach. We checked out of the hotel after a walk around downtown and visit to health food store where Ahole was trying to find cookies or candy bar, with no luck...haha! Our first winery stop was at Coeur de Terre. A lovely, small winery that's only about 14 years old. We were greeted by Jack, a tail wagging, Labrador mix. The friendly staff informed us that they were in three (3) Atlanta restaurants: Restaurant Eugene, Wisteria and also Rathbuns, as well as Whole Foods. We tasted several wines including a Riesling, Pinot Gris and three (3) different Pinot Noirs. We liked all of ... read more

Southwest of Portland is the Yamhill Valley where there are vineyards and wineries that specialise in producing Pinot Noir wines. There are also some nice Rieslings and Chardonnays produced in the region. The town of McMinnville is one of the main centres. We think it is a gem of a little town and will go back if we are ever down this way again. Driving through the countryside on a wine tasting exploration, we were overcome by the similarity between the views there and the countryside in Tuscany, Italy. One could superimpose one upon the other; however, seeing castles on the hilltops and nibbling on gelato in every village was not possible, so it wasn’t a perfect match. In McMinnville is the Hotel Oregon. It is an old hotel that has been restored, but done so ... read more