The Ocean and the Volcanoes

Crater Lake, Oregon

July 8, 2014

We’re in a little village about 40 miles south of Crater Lake at a lovely inn/motel, the Prospect Inn.  John is expecting prime rib for dinner, the specialty of the house.  Ben had not yet indicated a preference.  John is sitting outside beneath the pines, in quite muggy, almost Washingtonian weather enjoying a local white, which appears to be a facsimile of a riesling.   It’s a nice facsimile, but he’s not a riesling drinker.

It’s been a long day and it was a lovely evening last night, all very enjoyable.   (The mosquitoes in this Oregon mountain village are very aggressive…John just swatted one to its netherland.

We had dinner last night at the Requa with a couple from Massachusetts who are looking for a place to build a winery.   Jim is a winemaker when he is not researching medical cures for GSK, and his wife is a 5th grade teacher.  They live north of Boston where Jim spends his free time making wine in their basement with purchased grapes.   They make about 400 cases a year and sell them at festivals and farmers’ markets.  Ashland and the Rogue Valley appeal to them so they are out looking around.  We may hear if they make a decision!  

Dinner at the Requa was very nice.   We had a fixed menu that began with warm beets, served with a beet whole wheat drop biscuit.  It was followed by a lovely piece of poached halibut with dill, fennel and steamed radish.   The meat course was sliced pork loin with a puree of vegetables.  Finished off with dessert of panna cotta, dried strawberries and honey coated roasted hazelnuts.   We had a Willamette Valley Four Graces 2012 Pinot Noir that was very good to go with the dishes.   One can always depend on Pinot Noirs to go with…

Klamath River meets the sea

Then this morning, after a breakfast of local fruits and a smoothie for Ben, with local eggs and sausage for John, we headed off in search of a) coffee, b) a gift for grandson, c) some good shots of redwoods by the side of the road d) Crater Lake.  We succeeded in all endeavors. 

We got the requisite XXX-dry skim cap at a coffee bar-cum-hair cuttery run by an Asian family with very strong California accents just south of central Crescent City that met every expectation, including art in the foam.   We got an appropriate gift for grandson at the Redwoods National Park admin building gift shop.  We stopped in a the Jedediah Smith Redwood Grove for good roadside shots of the trees as we climbed the Coast Range, and we crossed into the Cascades to Crater Lake, where we spent a couple of hours in its spell.

I didn't throw it!

We drove through many little towns and long straight stretches of road with such high pines and redwoods lining it that wondered where the altar was at the end of the nave of trees.  Crater Lake National Park is awesome. (And we don’t mean that like a 20-something. Perhaps awe-inspiring is more the right phrase.)  It’s a crashed in volcano filled with water that is blue, blue, blue…most days. Today without direct sunlight it wasn’t blue, blue, blue…just a nice blue.  The drops from the rim to the lake, the outcroppings, the slowly melting snow (in July) and the flora make it a wonderful time.   It was lovely.

More to come.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

We did have a lovely piece of prime rib for John last night and Ben had local Oregon salmon, that John, not a salmon lover, enjoyed with just one bite.   The service was excellent.   The Del Rio Pinot Noir was adequate, though we didn’t think it outstanding.   We talked with an Italo-Swedish couple who had spent the last two years at Stanford and are now returning to Stockholm.  We also met a pleasant family from New Jersey.   The vacationlands around here attract folk from all over the world.   The winemaker on Tuesday was Scottish but had spent much of his younger life in the Middle East.  

We spent a good half an hour talking about Washington with a young woman a rising senior from near Seattle, who is thinking about applying to Howard.   She and her father were spending a good part of the summer biking from the Canadian to the Mexican border.  They have already biked 10000 miles. They will have an easier day today going from here to Ashland…mostly downhill.

We are packing the car for Portland and will be there mid-afternoon.   It’s a 5 hour 30 minute drive, without stops.   We expect to be there around 4 pm.