Postcards from San Diego - Parks & Photography

So this wraps up my Postcards from San Diego Series...at least for now.

And I'll let the photos speak for themselves - photos taken at Balboa Park and Presidio Park. 

"Postcards from San Diego - Parks & Photography"

"Postcards from San Diego" - Pass me the wine, please

"Postcards from San Diego - Pass Me the Wine Please"

San Diego may be known for beer, but if you go about an hour and a half north towards Ramona, there is a great little winery by the name of Hellanback Ranch. Not easy to find, so be sure to get directions. To learn more about the Winery and its owners check out this fun video:

Earning our keep...
So, we actually had the opportunity to help in bottling 40 cases of wine while visiting.
This was truly a great experience, and I'm really hopeful that we'll get to make it back for the harvest this year!

On bottling....
Even though bottling is just one part of the process of wine-making, I have a whole new appreciation for every bottle opened. Because when it's a small-boutique style winery, believe me, there's a lot of love and care that goes into that bottle. My arm can attest...I sealed roughly 480 bottles by hand!

So after earning our keep and bottling, I got to snag a few shots around the ranch, dogs, pigs and all.

 

Postcards from San Diego - Food & Drink Recommendations

"Postcards from San Diego - Food & Drink Recommendations"

Recently I traveled to San Diego for a little fun in the sun, beer tasting and wine bottling.

 And before I get to the posts highlighting my photography excursions, I thought I would share a snapshot of all the great food and drinks we got to check out while there.

Mission #1: Find Pliny the Elder. And the results....

Well, I finally got to try this famous Double IPA (Pliny the Elder) by Russian River Brewing Company...and I have to admit, I understand what all the hype is about. It was one of the best IPA's I've ever had. Hoppy, but super floral, and so smooth that it goes down way too easy. It's worth the trip out to the west coast and searching for the bar that has it on tap.

Mission # 2: Eat, drink and be merry. And so we did, at the following:

Alpine Beer Co. - A short drive outside of San Diego. Recommended Brews (besides all of them): Pure Hoppiness and the Mandarin Nectar.

Tiger Tiger - Great beer selection and phenomenal food like pork belly sandwiches slathered with pâté and fries covered in gravy (otherwise known as poutin).

Polite Provisions - Crazy good cocktails are served up at this trendy little spot. Just check out their phone number - 691.677.DRUG, and you'll have no doubts that as manufacturers of local tonics, elixirs and cures that you will find a remedy for whatever ails you.

Green Flash Brewing Co. - What can I say. It's really great beer, and they have a lot to sample. Opt for the samples sizes, so you can taste a variety, and definitely try the Palette Wrecker, but please save it for last. It is named this for a reason.

Alesmith Brewing Company - They have a really fantastic nut brown ale, among other things. Definitely worth a visit, since they're only available right now in California.

Hamilton's Tavern - Amazing beer selection. No frills bar scene.

Toronado - Amazing beer selection, and pork belly skewers are a must try appetizer.

Small Bar - Amazing beer selection. I'm beginning to see a pattern here. 

So as you can see from the sampling of local fare, I left San Diego, not hungry or parched by any means.

-Mo

"Postcards from Portland" - Cannon Beach & Coastal Concoctions

"Postcards from Portland" - Cannon Beach & Coastal Concoctions

I know it's been sometime since my last blog on Portland (or in general), but I didn't quite anticipate my intense travel schedule last Fall, or, the rest I would need following. But, it's a new year. I'm feeling refreshed after the holidays, and I am looking forward to writing more this year. So here's to Day 3 of the "Postcards from Portland" series, and a big Happy New Year for all those who continue to stop by The June bug Theory Blog! 

Day 3 of our adventures in Portland led us out of the city again, this time, to the Pacific Coast towards Cannon Beach, where we took in some local organic coffee, saw a rather large protruding rock in the sea, tested our tootsies in the frigid waters of the Northwest, and drove to a seaside town straight out of the Goonies, where we picked up some more local brews and tried some oyster shots. 

But, before we could pack that all in, we had to get some goodness stuck to our ribs, and what better way than with a second helping of Pine State Biscuits. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, those biscuits are that good, so much so that we sought out the location on SE Belmont Street in Portland. And the second time around with the Money Ball Double Down, Biscuit with homemade Pimento Cheese and coffee, was just as good as the first time. 

My mouth is watering now just thinking about these and seeing the pictures again... 

The Money Ball Double Down (translation - two eggs on top of a biscuit smothered in gravy)

Homemade Pimento Cheese (yummy)

Bellies full and caffeine kickin', we headed for the coast. And did I mention our ride (aka rental car)? None other than a Subaru Outback, which felt kind of like we were living the Subaru ads, as we drove through the West Coast forests just twisting and turning on the roadways with the low lying clouds just above our heads. 

Alas, we emerged from the fog like state, arriving at Cannon Beach, which was about an hour and half outside of Portland. First stop, a local coffee shop, called Sleepy Monk Coffee Roasters where the coffee is roasted locally. Then a short walk over to the beach and there it is...Haystack Rock.

Haystack rock

If you're a child of the 80's, I would expect the photo above and those below, might strik a sense of nostalgia and familiarity as the backdrop to the infamous GOONIES movie, which was filmed in Astoria, Cannon Beach (Haystack Rock) and Ecola State Park.

We took a nice stroll on the beach, took way more photos than you probably would care to see, and remember earlier that I said we tested our tootsies in the frigid waters...well, I think this says it all...

The water was only in the 50 degree range, but to this southern girl, it felt icy cold.

After drying off, we headed up to Ecola State Park for some scenic views of the area and a peek at the Tillamook Rock Light (a deactivated lighthouse on a rock less than an acre, which now acts as a columbarium...for cremated remains).

Ecola State Park View

Tillamook Rock Light


Ecola State Park View



Ecola State Park View

By now, it was getting well into the afternoon, and we needed some fuel...so we drove up the coast towards Astoria to Fort George Brewery + Public House. 

For more details about this historic brew house, the original settlement site of Astoria, click here.

Upon our entrance into Fort George, this beautiful menu of coastal concoctions was on the wall to greet us....

If my memory serves me correctly, we chose the Sunrise Oatmeal Pale Ale, and the Vortex IPA, and purchased the 22 oz. Roses on Roses in a bottle to take back to Portland.

In addition to our brews, we opted for some unbelievably fresh oysters from Willapa Bay, shot-style with lemon and spicy cocktail sauce. This might have ignited our love for Oysters...if only they could be so fresh all the time. 

Willapa Bay Oyster Shots

Fort George Brews

After all the fresh fare (Albacore Tuna Fish & Chips, Sausage) and brews, and some discussions with our bartender, we contemplated driving to Eugene, OR, which apparently is home to some other really great breweries....but, reality set-in, and we decided that this would have to wait for another trip to the Pacific North West. 

So, we headed back to Portland. All in all day 3, and a well-spent birthday for Vladi, was complete with a visit to Cannon Beach and bellies full of Coastal Concoctions.

Stay tuned...I promise, day 4 will be posted much sooner.

Thanks for Reading and Happy New Year,

Mo

PS - I will leave you with this one more tidbit...for those of you wishing to re-live the 80's for a few minutes.

 

"Postcards from Portland" - Sights, Sails & Sauces

Postcards from Portland - Sights, Sails & Sauces

I know it's been a couple of weeks since the last post, but it takes me a while to go through all the photos and decide which ones best depict the day, and we've done a little more traveling in the meantime... Boston and Charleston. I think more postcards are in the future because there were just too many yummy spots not to share.

But for now...day 2 of our adventures in and around Portland, OR.

Portland Day 2 consisted of a lot of nature and sightseeing outside of the city, which led to a quaint little town that is known for several different types of sails.

But to get this long day started we began with breakfast at our hotel (The Nines) at Urban Farmer Restaurant, which was probably t-h-e best hotel breakfast I can recall devouring, which included avocado eggs benedict (could that be any more sinful or rich), bacon-cheddar biscuits and chicken-cherry sausage.

After breakfast, we headed out for our first sight of the day, Mt. Hood.

The trek out to Mount Hood is about an hour east of Portland. Once you're there, you have so many options to see the mountain...aka dormant Volcano. You can visit timberline lodge, drive around and stop on the side of the road to take pics, or checkout one of the many nature trails in the park. Just be sure to pick up your recreation park pass (which costs $5 for the day), so you're not worried about getting a ticket. 

up close at the timberline 

from the other side headed towards Hood River

 

a little hiking...so many trails forgot the name

 And then there was this mountain...St. Helens, Adams?

After sightseeing, we headed north towards Hood River to checkout some breweries (Full Sail and Double Mountain). Hood River, Oregon is a great little place to visit. Nestled just off the Columbia River Gorge, it's very windy, so in addition to being the home of some great brews, it's also a great place to catch some wind surfing.

After you've tried your hand at some kite sailing/wind surfing (I won't lie, we didn't event attempt), you can check out the local brews. 

Right as we started planning our trip to Portland I discovered a new Pale Ale by Full Sail. When I went to look it up one day, I was so delighted to find out that another one of my fav brews - Sessions - was also made by the same brew masters and it was located outside of Portland. This ultimately fueled me to do more research on getting us out to PDX and Hood River. So of course this was our first brew stop in Hood River. During the tour at Full Sail, we discovered that the brewery was founded and started by a woman in the 1980's, and today, is owned by the employees, who work 4 days a week (10 hours each). I knew I liked this beer...work hard, play hard...just check out their Mantra.

Our awesome tour guide!

Beer, beer and more beer

So of course not only did we do the tour, but we did some tasting as well. On tap: The Full Sail Ltd. 3 and the IPA. Quite tasty I must say, and so much better on site. We also purchased some souvenirs, which included a water bowl for the Junebug.

After our treks around Mt. Hood and Full Sail, we needed some food. So we headed over to Double Mountain Brewery, which was a great tip from that Portland Resident. On the menu was pizza (the kind that gets charred in a 700 degree oven) and a dry hopped pale ale called the Vaporizor. In three words...it was awesome.

I have to admit, I didn't really want to leave Hood River. There was something about it there that just kind of drew me in. Maybe the wind and beer got to me.

As we headed back to Portland, we stopped in at Multnomah Falls for some great photo ops and a nice little hike. I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but if you get the chance, you really must go to appreciate the sight from the bottom and the top.

View from the top of the falls...it's quite a trek

Sun setting, meant we had to quickly get back to the bottom of the falls, which was much easier than going up. 

Back in Portland, and to end our day, we decided to check out another one of the city's late night happy hours at Saucebox. This place had a great vibe and some tasty bites from Sweet Potato Spring Rolls and Pad Thai to yummy concoctions...such as the Thai Basil Gimlet.

And that folks was Day 2 of Portland....

complete with sights, sails and sauces.

Stay tuned for more!

-Mo Vid

"Postcards from Portland" - Biscuits, Beer & Books

Postcards from Portland - Biscuits, Beer & Books

Thanks for tuning in to my "Postcards from Portland" series documenting the delights this pacific northwest city has to offer. 

Portland Day 1 consisted of, as the title lends itself to, a day full of culinary and literary delights...plus new friends made along the away.

We (the hubby and I) arrived in Portland late on a friday night. We checked into The Nines, and decided to head upstairs for a drink and bite to eat at Departure, which is ironic, since we had just arrived. Departure is a posh little spot perched on the top of The Nines Hotel, boasting modern Asian cuisine, and a late-night happy hour menu - specials on drinks and small plates, which can be found in a variety of locations throughout the entire city (the late night happy hour that is). 

With full bellies, and a night of good sleep, we were set to embark on day 1 of our Portland adventure.

We started the day off in search of coffee, Portland style. Feeling a little jet-lagged and trying to get our bearings, we ended up at a Starbucks to our own regret, but we needed the jolt to get things going. Portland coffee would have to come later. 

Coffee in-hand, we headed off in search of the famed Portland Farmers Market. And boy, did it deliver. This farmers market alone, had me won-over and ready to pack my things and move across country.

Here's a few snapshots....

 

After seeing all this...our mouths were watering, but with multiple vendors, how to choose what to eat for breakfast. Well thankfully, I had the opportunity to sit next to a Portland resident on the flight out, who graciously provided a lot of great tips and must-see spots to check-out, and Pine State Biscuits was one of these. (Which happened to have a cart at the market!)

I must say, I've never been crazy over biscuits and gravy (yes, I admit this, even being a full-blooded southerner). However, the Pine Street Biscuits made me a convert. I'm still craving these biscuits and more so, the gravy, weeks after we've arrived home.

On the menu:

I opted for The Reggie - biscuit complete with fried chicken, bacon, cheese and gravy. The hubby opted for The Moneyball - a biscuit (I think there was one on the plate) topped with gravy and an over-easy egg.

Fat & Greasiness...y-u-m-m-y is all I have to say. 

The Moneyball

The Reggie

And before we left the market...a little music to go on the side...

With some food in our bellies and a few extra calories sticking to the ribs, we could set off to explore the beer capital of the world. And when I say that, this is why...Portland has 40+ craft breweries within its city limits. In my books, that makes it the beer capital of the world.

So, we hopped on to the MAX Light Rail, and headed over to Widmer Brothers Brewery. 

Remember the Portland resident I mentioned earlier. Well, this person also happened to be an employee of Widmer, which I'm very grateful to for not only providing us some great tips, but also, for getting us in on a brewery tour Saturday...apparently, these tours fill up fast. 

Widmer was a great way to start out some beer tasting, as well as, beef up our beer making knowledge. 

These 4 massive tanks produce some absolutely delicious beer...

Hops in a bucket

At the end of the tour was a tasting consisting of the Hefeweizen, Citra Blonde Summer Brew, Drifter Pale Ale (my favorite), and the Rotator IPA: Shaddock IPA.

Happy Tasters

After the tour and tasting, we decided to head on over to the Widmer Gasthaus Pub for a couple of more samplings and some grub.

The tasting menu (of our choice) included the Marionberry Hibiscus Gose, Oatmeal Porter, Nelson IPA, Rotator IPA: X-114, and unfortunately, I can't remember the last two. I suppose the the beer already drank might have had an impact, but I do remember that one tasted like pineapple.

Let's just say out of the tastings...the Marionberry Hibiscus Gose was the clear winner. So good, and super refreshing for a beer!

After Widmer, we were off to Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland for the largest Craft Brew Festival in the country. Why, I ever thought this would be a great idea to do on a Saturday has failed to escape me. It sounded good...over a 100 beers at your fingertips, $6 dollars for a mug and $1 per token for samples.

What we realized is that after an hour in line for one beer, we decided that sampling was out of the question, and we would have to fork over 4 tokens for a full glass of Terminal Gravity's IPA.

However in the process, we made some new friends - Kim & Matt - a really nice couple from Wisconsin. 

After all the beer, crowds and heat (75 degrees...what I'm talking about), we decided to check out Henry's for dinner with our new friends. Henry's is located in the Pearl District, in a historic brick building...and of course, they serve beer and good food. This is Portland after all.


After dinner, we set off to explore Powell's City of Books...a book store that literally takes up an entire city block and houses more than 1 million new, used and out of print books. Let's just say the first trip there was a little overwhelming. I didn't even know where to start, so I took photos instead.

After soaking up some literary culture, we, and new friends headed over and up to the Portland City Grill at 111 SW 5th Ave. on the 30th floor, for a nightcap and an amazing view of downtown Portland and the Cascade mountains. 

And that ladies and gentleman was Day 1 of Portland...
complete with Biscuits, Beer & Books.

Stay tuned for "Postcards from Portland" - day 2. 

-Mo Vid