SF to Seattle Trip Report (installment plan)

[Clarkmeister]

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WOW that hot air balloon ride looks incredible and until the last few years I'd been living in forests like that my entire life. Once I make real money and move home I will definitely be taking people who are visiting and haven't been to Oregon on a ride. I think my wife would have a heart attack though. She got nervous looking over the rim into Crater Lake because she's scared of heights.

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Clarkmistress absolutely loathes heights and I had to strong-arm her into taking the balloon ride. She dubbed it the best part of the trip.

[JaredL]

This might be the best drunk photo I've ever seen. Excellent picture.

I've said it before but [censored] I gotta get back home.

[El Diablo]

m,

"when the best time of the year was to go visit napa for wine tasting. "

Anytime, really. Maybe avoid October, November, December, as it rains more often then. If you can go on a weekday, that's way better than a weekend, though.

Search this forum (see resource thread links) for a bunch of posts on Napa/Sonoma wine tasting.

[Go_Blue88]

Did you guys all meet on 2p2 (eg- J.A Sucker, Boris, Diablo, Clark and Ray Zee)?

[ThaSaltCracka]

Clark, whats next?

[Clarkmeister]

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Clark, whats next?

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See the cliff notes in the first post. Day 8 is more wine, driving, dinner in seattle, and drive through the fog to Anacortes.

[ReDeYES88]

I am really enjoying reading this trip report, maybe more so because I live in Portland and it's fun to see the opinion of "outsiders".

Thanks for the huge effort Clarkmeister, and I wait patiently for the subsequent reports.

[Clarkmeister]

Day 8

It was with great sadness that our stay in the Willamette Valley was coming to an end, but at least it started with no hangover and a delicious breakfast downstairs. It can’t be overstated how cool it is to get up, change, walk downstairs from your room and have a kickass sorta free breakfast waiting for you.

Our goal was to hit Ponzi on the way out and pick up a half case, then to hit Owen Roe and Sineann. Both are reservation only, however, and we were only able to book Sineann (pronounced shi-nay-in). From there we were to meet my buddy Irish for dinner in downtown Seattle.

Jonas meets us as Ponzi opens their doors at 11. We chat some more and make some selections for him to ship to us. One that stood out was the Penner-Ash. Purchases made, we pushed onward to Sineann.

Sineann was pretty freaking cool. We meet the winemaker/owner Peter as he’s taking some garbage out of the house. He takes us to his kitchen/lab with all sorts of barrel tubes, mixers and other paraphernalia sitting around. He does about 20 small releases each year and he had about 15 of them for us to sample. Literally a row of 15 bottles starting with Guwertztrannier to Pinot, Cab and even an ice wine. We have a great time chatting with him and sampling his wares. As informal and low key as you could want. I really like his Zin and his Cabs. We get an assortment and reluctantly head on our way out of Willamette and up north to Seattle.







The drive in was pretty uneventful, but four major things stood out:

1. Portland, at least on the quick drive-by on I-5 was much bigger than I had envisioned. I figured it would be about the size of the smaller Midwest cities like Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Memphis, etc but it seemed much larger. I wish I had gotten a good photo because the view crossing the river looking down the length of the city was really cool.







2. Traffic. WTF with the traffic, especially around freaking Olympia and then Tacoma.

3. The scenery was pretty cool. I hadn’t imagined that there would be so much industry/logging, etc along I-5. I was pretty fascinated when I wasn’t stuck in traffic.

4. Bad news came and my buddy Irish, got stuck at work that night and couldn’t meet us for dinner. That’s military life for you.

Finally, through rain, traffic and our first really cloudy day, we arrive in Seattle where I take a slew of one-handed photos while driving. The goal is to eat at a restaurant called Anthony's down on the pier that was recommended to us by a couple at the Walnut. Sounded like an upscale Red Lobster, but they assured us we could get in without any major hassle. The hassle wasn’t at the restaurant, it was a combination of Neverlost getting us off one exit too early, and that exit being the one that people were taking to go to that night’s Mariners game. Joy.









Eventually we weave through traffic and get to Anthony’s. The expectation was pretty accurate, not a legit high-end fish place, but certainly better than the Red Lobsters of the world. At any rate, we got a window seat and were pretty happy with the experience and thrilled with the view. Clarkmistress was especially happy with a fresh salmon dish that was really good.






Done with dinner, we are too tired to knock around the pier area, so we just decide to drive up to Irish’s place, which we estimate to be another 90 minutes north. I’m totally exhausted from driving and the previous day and am looking forward to a nappity nap nap.

As we get closer, I start wondering what Neverlost has done to me. The arrow clearly shows that Irish’s address is behind me to the left. WTF. Turns out that his small town next to Anacortes is on an island that requires one to drive north, then west, then back south down a peninsula in order to get there. Bummer. Passing several Indian casinos along the way, I see none named Muckleshoot, so I keep driving.

The fog starts to roll in as we pass some refineries. I am crawling down the road and it sucks going this slow like 20 mins from Irish’s place. I see 45mph signs and am going like 30. We enjoy chatting about what event caused the State Park ahead to be called Deception Pass . It’s clearly pretty scenic but we really can’t grasp just how scenic through the night and fog. Finally, we pass a major 4-way light , the fog breaks and I’m able to get up to about 45mph and as I get past the intersection and the road goes down to one lane each way a car rides up on my bumper, almost touching. I consider moving out of the way but decide to speed up to get a safer distance. As I climb past 50 the cop lights come one. Sweet.

He comes up and we do the standard stuff. I note that I only accelerated because he was so close and seemed in a hurry. He noted that the limit was 35mph. Wonderful.

I try one last bail out when he asks if the car is rented. I give him an affirmative and note that I rented it to come out and visit my friend in the Navy before he gets restationed and leaves the area for good. The cop is like, yeah yeah yeah and says he’ll be back.

He’s comes back. I get a warning. Ship it.

10 minutes later, I pull into Irish’s driveway. We chat for a while, but I’m pretty tired and soon I’m hitting the sack early on this Friday night, amazed that it was only Wednesday morning that I was arguing with an Oregon gas station attendant as I left Ashland.

[SomethingClever]

I love Owen Roe (Sinister Hand and Abbot's Table are the ones I've tried) but I've yet to try Sineann. Hopefully soon.

[ThaSaltCracka]

cool pics man, but as you said, you really missed the size of Portland. I really like the pic entering Seattle. Looked great. Surprised you went to Anthony's. There are probably several better places to go, but it sounds like you enjoyed it well enough.