Healdsburg, California, Sunday, June 30, 2019--We took off from Washington National Airport early yesterday morning for our annual visit to Northern California's Sonoma County and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. It's an 11-day trip this year with eight plays in Ashland, as varied as "Hairspray" and "Macbeth."
The trip out on Alaska Airlines from National to Los Angeles was painless, arriving about 50 minutes early. Lunch at an Italian airport restaurant, Fabio Vivandi's Osteria, was a good meal--a bleu cheese pancetta hamburger for John and a chicken panini for Ben. At the next-door Peet's coffee, the barista experimented and produced a volcano of cappuccino. The flight from LAX for Santa Rosa in Sonoma County left early and arrived about half an hour before schedule at the country airport.
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| Flowering before death |
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| A new garage |
A quick ride by car and here we are in friend David's construction site. He's having a new garage built and is turning a wild next-door lot into a garden. We enjoyed a fine dinner of chicken last night with corn on the cob and a caprese tomato salad. Since David was one our traveling companions during our recent French canal trip, we delved into his cellar for an Acorn Winery Sonoma County Rosato and another local Davis Winery 2017 Chardonnay. An excellent meal to finish off a fine day.
Up early this morning to look around the construction and the agave plant which is in full flower, then a good fruit and granola breakfast, good conversation and fine coffee. We headed out to a barbecue at a local winery-farm in Alexander Valley where David's St Paul's Church Vestry friends were throwing their annual picnic. The food was fine at a lovely country farm with its own vineyards and a water slide and pond. Very good talk of politics and lots of discussion about national politics with people who have lived and worked all over the world.
On the way home we bought the bits and pieces necessary for tonight's meal of fresh yellow tomato soup with lemon and lime scents and tomatillos. The main course will be varied pastas with salami and chicken sauced with chopped spices. The wine is 2016 Davis Russian River Valley Soul Patch pinot noir. Tomorrow will be serious wine discussion and tasting when Dixon and JR drive up for two days from San Francisco.
The trip out on Alaska Airlines from National to Los Angeles was painless, arriving about 50 minutes early. Lunch at an Italian airport restaurant, Fabio Vivandi's Osteria, was a good meal--a bleu cheese pancetta hamburger for John and a chicken panini for Ben. At the next-door Peet's coffee, the barista experimented and produced a volcano of cappuccino. The flight from LAX for Santa Rosa in Sonoma County left early and arrived about half an hour before schedule at the country airport.
Up early this morning to look around the construction and the agave plant which is in full flower, then a good fruit and granola breakfast, good conversation and fine coffee. We headed out to a barbecue at a local winery-farm in Alexander Valley where David's St Paul's Church Vestry friends were throwing their annual picnic. The food was fine at a lovely country farm with its own vineyards and a water slide and pond. Very good talk of politics and lots of discussion about national politics with people who have lived and worked all over the world.
On the way home we bought the bits and pieces necessary for tonight's meal of fresh yellow tomato soup with lemon and lime scents and tomatillos. The main course will be varied pastas with salami and chicken sauced with chopped spices. The wine is 2016 Davis Russian River Valley Soul Patch pinot noir. Tomorrow will be serious wine discussion and tasting when Dixon and JR drive up for two days from San Francisco.