Lueders Haus Blog

Took a quick trip to the bay area a few weekends ago. This was my first time to San Francisco as a tourist. We flew into Oakland and took the BART to our hotel in SOMA. We hit a few of the highlights. On Saturday we took the boat to Alcatraz. It was an amazing sight with great views of the city. Afterwards we checked out a bluegrass festival at Golden Gate Park that was a little too crowded for our tastes. On Sunday we rented a Zipcar and headed up to Muir Woods to check out the Redwoods. In the evening we took the BART over to the Missions for dinner. Check out some of the pictures here.

We have been back from Italy for a few weeks now but I have been too busy to write about the trip. This trip was the most exciting of the European vacations we have had yet.

The first day, we flew into Milan and took a train straight to the coast. Or, to be more specific, a train to the subway to another train to a final, fourth train. Right when our final train pulled into Vernazza someone grabbed my wallet. I didn’t notice until after I was off the train. Luckily, Sherry had duplicates of everything and my passport was safely packed away. It was definitely not a great start to the trip, but we learned a few things, like: Italian police are not very friendly or helpful. Avoid crowded trains on only a few hours of sleep.

We were able the enjoy the Cinque Terre after recovering from the shock of the theft. There was a huge thunderstorm on our first night and landslides closed part of the trail between towns, but we had some enjoyable anchovy-filled dinners.

Afterwards, we took a train to Pisa, where we picked up our rental car. Sherry had to drive since my license gone. I did my best at navigation. We brought the GPS which was a lot of help. Italian drivers were about what I expected: They drive fast and tailgate like it is the law. Strangely, they treat the center line more like a suggestion and are way more comfortable being in front of oncoming traffic then anywhere else I have driven.

On our first day in Tuscany we stopped in Lucca before heading to our B&B up in the mountains outside Bagna di Lucca. Lucca was pretty cute. Lots of boutiques. We wanted to bike around the wall but the rain scared us off. We spent the night in a small village north of Lucca. The B&B was run by a friendly British couple who cooked us a great dinner.

The next day we drove to south to Volterra. We stayed in an agriturismo just outside of town for three nights. It was more of a hotel then a B&B, although you could get eggs and espresso drinks made to order for breakfast every morning. The owner cooked a great rustic Tuscan dinner every night. During the day, we toured various Tuscan hill towns. My favorites were the towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino. San Gimignano was, as the travel book described, a tourist trap. Volterra was also great.

We spent our last night in Milan. It was the beginning of fashion week and there were hordes of shoppers everywhere. In fact, the Italians brought in the military to control the hordes. We walked past the biggest D&G store I have ever seen (think it took up the entire block) and then a few blocks later walked past another D&G. We skipped the shopping and instead checked out the huge Domo and loaded up on aperitivo for dinner.

Overall, it was a fun and eventful trip. Checkout all the photos here.

Took the ferry to Orcas Island again last weekend. This time with my family. We had great weather for all our adventures. We repeated the Sucia Island kayak trip with my sister on Sunday and biked from Eastsound to Doe Bay and back on Monday. Plus we hiked around Moran State Park a bunch. We even took a row boat out on Cascade Lake.

We rented a cabin right in Eastsound this time. The cabin would have been great if not for the location. It was on the main route through town, next to a bank, and on the flight path for the Eastsound airport. But it was a good deal, had water views, allowed pets, and was available when we needed it.

Some more pictures up here.

Headed over to Mazama for a quick vacation. This was our first trip with Emily and our new Prius and both did well.

We stayed in the Rolling Huts for the first time. The huts are located along Highway 20 about half way between Mazama and Winthrop. The hut experience is halfway between camping and staying in a motel. Each hut has a basic kitchen and a pad to sleep on. There is no running water in the huts but they have electric. There a port-a-potty at the end of each hut and shared bath in the barn. Emily especially enjoyed hanging out on the deck pretending she was a guard dog.

On Saturday we hiked to Lake Ann near Rainy Pass. We had done this hike a few years ago and enjoyed it. There was scattered thunderstorms in the area all weekend and on the way back to the car we got caught in a downpour. Which was pretty strange given how dry it has been in the northwest this summer.

Got back from our trip last Sunday afternoon. Finally getting around to updating the blog. Sherry and I had lots of fun. We hit four cities in eight day and seven nights.

In Brussels we hit the big art museum, toured a traditional lambic brewery, sampled some chocolate, stopped by a beer festival, and walked around a lot. Brussels had a pretty international feel to it. Parts of the city center were very nice and others were pretty run down. The north train station, where we arrived, was in the middle of this American style office park, not very European.

Next we visited the Belgian country side in Bouillon. We toured the castle on the first day. At the castle we watched a real falconer give a demonstration (in French) that really freaked out Sherry. The next day we went on a hike. At the abby along the way we bought some delicious chocolate cookies from some nuns. That night we topped it all off with a four course French dinner in this cute little Inn near town.

The next day we headed back to the city. In Antwerp we toured a really cool museum on printing and tried a few Belgian beers at the best beer bar we found during out trip. It was run by a husband and wife and had some seven hundred beers listed in a very disorganized menu. We also met some fellow Americans on a bike tour of Belgium at the bar. Antwerp was nicer than Brussels. It was a big city but still had lots of people biking around they city center.

The next day we head off to Bruges. It was pretty touristy but still very pleasant. We toured another brewery and went to the chocolate museum. Our hotel had free bikes for the guests to use and the city center was very bike friendly. There was a nice bike path around the city center where the wall once stood. The bikes were the perfect way to explore the city and the medieval street layout made for fun biking. (Especially after stopping for a beer.) There were lots of good beer bars in Bruges. ‘t Brugs Beerjte was nice was nice but full of backpackers on a Friday night. Just before we headed back to Brussels we stopped a beer bar that was not in the guide book that actually had Westvleteren for sale. It was definitely priced for tourist but I could not let the opportunity pass by. We bought the “8″. It was a prefect brown Trappist ale, smooth, yet strong, and without tasting like high alcohol beer.

We learned a lot about the Belgians: they like their beer, chocolate, waffles, mussels, and frites. McDonald’s fries taste like frites. Everyone rides on girl bikes. They don’t use a top sheet when they make their beds. Belgian hotel breakfast is: coffee, hard boiled egg, yogurt, croissants, ham, and cheese. The French speaking Belgians smoke more, the Flemish are healthier. And the Belgians make good beer. (I guess I knew that already.)

Most of the pictures are up here. I reached my limit on Flickr this month so more to come.

Spent last weekend in Hood River for my friend John’s wedding. We had only been to Hood River once briefly last year on the way back from Bend. This time we got to spend two days there. We stayed at very nice B&B just outside of Hood River called Sakura Ridge. It is a working cherry and pear orchard with a lodge in the middle. Our room had a great view of Mt. Hood and breakfast included fresh picked strawberries every morning. On Saturday morning we mountain biked along the Deschutues River. Then had a quick pint and bite at the Full Sail Brewery before cleaning up and heading to the wedding. The wedding was at another B&B farther up the Hood River valley. The wedding was lots of fun. We met some fellow Seattleites, Purdue grads, and drank some good homebrew. The night started a bit cloudy up cleared up around sunset which gave us a this great picture of Mt. Hood. On Sunday explored downtown Hood River and watched the Wind/Kite Surfers before heading home.

We have a busy summer ahead of us. In July we have our wedding in Mazama. Then two backpacking trips planned for August, one on Mount Rainier and another to the Enchantments. Then in September we are off for a week of beer (and chocolate) tourism in Belgium.

It’s high time the ‘haus blog had a post about the big Spain trip. We’ve been back for a little over a week already, but it took nearly that long to label all the photos. (You can peruse the full alblum if you like, we’re just posting a few highlights here.) The trip was fabulous, even if it exposed my high-school Spanish skills to be a bit sketchy. Reader discretion is advised: this post is long, and mostly about food.

Also, I should note up-front that although the highlight of the trip was definitely sampling tapas, we have scant photographic evidence of this - in part because tapas bars are too dark for our little Canon PowerShot and in part because they’re too crowded to get a good shot and in part because the tapas eating experience was too involved to really think about taking photos. Many of the tapas were artfully constructed, but we didn’t admire them, we ate them. Quickly. Then moved on to another tapas bar for more.

And, of course, there is the matter of ordering your tapas. In Pamplona and Logrono, you got the attention of someone behind the bar and asked for (or pointed at, if your Spanish is limited) what you wanted, but in San Sebastian (tapa nirvana and pictured below), you asked for a plate, picked out your tapas of choice, and showed it to the bartender. Unless you wanted a raccion or other hot tapa, in which case you had to ask someone behind the bar to order it up from the kitchen. It takes a little more effort, but trust me, you want a raccion de pimientos (little spanish peppers sauteed in olive oil and salted).

Then there was the adventure of ordering off a 3-course menu del dia in rural bars when there is no printed menu and the waiter rattles off all the selections in Spanish and most of main courses are cuts of meat not commonly found in the U.S. That said, I’m a fan of three-course dining - start with a first salad/cold course, then a hot meat/fish course, followed by a little something sweet and accompanied by bread, wine, and water. I’m less a fan of the standard ensalada mixta - a mixed green salad that was topped with tuna, corn, tomato wedges, Navarran canned white asparagus, olives, carrots, and sometimes shredded cucumbers or beets. The mixtas could be kind of sad if you were craving more of a vegetable experience with your salad, but in general, Spanish salads were never the highlight of the meal.

Except, of course, for the salad I had at lunch in Laguardia (pictured at left; it’s in Rioja). After touring an underground bodega in the very picturesque medieval town, we had a Spanish lunch (at 2:30, lasting 2 hours) at a restaurant just outside the old town’s walls, overlooking the vineyards and mountains. This was by far the best meal of the trip. The salad had aged goat cheese, lots of fresh greens (not tired romaine), cherry tomatoes, fruit, and I don’t remember what else but it was the first salad I’d had in more than a week that actually satisfied my salad cravings. John had a baked goat cheese and apple starter that was perfectly respectable, even if not a salad. I followed it up with a main of hake with wild mushrooms, while John had the turbot (which is a very cool-looking fish). We finished it off with a cheese plate, consisting of three different sheep cheeses with quince paste, pine nuts, and walnuts. Yum!

While true cultural immersion would dictate taking a well-earned siesta after such an epic lunch, we hopped (or oozed) into the Audi to drive a few kilometers up the road to Haro - where we stayed in a converted 14-century convent and toured an interesting winemaking exhibit at the Lopez de Heredia bodega but failed to muster up sufficient Spanish to experience the free wine tasting in their mod, pod-like tasting room. Haro was also the site of our last Spanish-style breakfast - crossiant and a cafe con leche, eaten at the counter in a bakery, or if there isn’t one around, a bar.

We spent last weekend going to a law school wedding down near Portland. They had a great local jug band, Sassparilla, play on Saturday night. The real mystery was the portrait they placed on the lawn in front of them while they played. It took me most of the first set before I realized it was a head shot of Mike Ditka. We talked to them between sets and found out they had recently moved to Portland from Chicago. Then it all made sense. Afterward we headed down to our tent by the river and slept in the rain.

Just got back from a week in Yellowstone. I uploaded the photos to my new Flickr account for all to enjoy. We did not end up spending as much time in the backcountry as I would have liked but we did get in some good day hikes. The roads were fairly crowded but just get a mile or so down the road and the crowds disappeared.

As the photos show we spent a good deal of time hiking in the burn. Its been nearly twenty years since the burn and most of the new trees are almost eight feet tall now.

I got to go to a few ranger programs while car camping. A few things I learned: Yellowstone is the worlds first national park and the bison in the park were nearly killed off around the turn of the century and had to be repopulated from a ranch. They now total over a thousand and are the last of the wild bison. The elk population skyrocketed when they killed the wolves and actually had to export elk to other parks. Reintroducing wolves had brought back a more natural balance. A pack of wolves can kill a bull bison but the grizzly bear still rules the day.