Usalola’s Weblog

chatting with the Greeks...(catch our rig in silver)

Osoyoos overview-check out those vineyards!

Seven Stones winery - Okanagan wine country

Ok, so we made it through the US-Canada border – whew! always a little hairy,what with Glenn’s history and those crazy cats….

We stayed in a funky campground in Hope, BC, but beautiful views- Canada is gorgeous. The saving grace was that I woke up to sunny skies and a wonderful Greek couple next door who fed us greek coffee and cherries from the Okanagan valley ( the wine area). After a lingering chat with them, we headed off for Osoyoos ( a bottle of wine to the first person who can say it correctly!) and the wine country.

We stopped at a wonderful little winery,Seven Stones, and bought one of the most fabulous Pinot Rose’s we have ever had – wow! Who knew! Canada!  We’re definitely stopping by there tomorrow to pick up another bottle. We’re also heading to the only indigenous-owned winery in Canada tomorrow… Nk’MIP winery (said neek-a-meep).

So that you don;t think all is champagne and cavier, I’m handing the microphone over to Glenn for a different perspective on this trip…. Glenn….

One of the most fascinating aspects of this trip has been the learning curve of the RV lifestyle. Coming from a semi-advertising background, it intrigues me how the different rigs..(recreational vehicle units), are named by the manufacturers.I’ve done a scientific study and have identified at least 6 distinct categories. The most basic is the WHAT THE HECK category. 

Here are the sub-categories for this group:

Day dreamer

Weekender

Hitch Hiker 2…(the sequel)

Easy rider

Storm…(what?)

….and the K series….Kountry Aire, (always with an e)…and Komfort.

Next comes the animal category, and this is quite predictable for the most part, but can turn surprising in an instant.

Dolphin

Eagle

cougar

Mallard

prowler….slightly evil

these next 2 are quite refereshing….Grey Dog…..and my favorite,,,Arctic Fox.

Category 3 is pretty basic also…I call it western movie motif.

Montana

Flagstaff

Outback

Durango

Tahoe

laredo

Cimarron

Teton….bla …bla ….bla…you get the idea

Now we get into the most creative categories…this next one i call exploratory. Some of these really tweak my yearnings…..

Safari

Everest

Zeppelin

Spinnaker

Pioneer…totally original

Wilderness

Sun Chaser

Surveyor

These next 2 categories have that professional spin to them…some ad geek really pushed the boundaries….

This is the Elitist group….I hope someday you will belong….

Imperial

Senator

Diplomat

Savoy

Citation…(supreme)

Excel

Escalade

Last but not least is the Futurist category. These really rock…

Titanium

Infinity

Endeavor

Quantum

Starcraft

Fuzion…my fave….

Good night winnebagos! and Good night Canada, eh?

Hope, BC - what a view from our campground

and more lavender!!!!

riding the Olympic Discovery trail

We loved our time in Oregon – such diverse scenery and climate, now on to Washington. And they don’t call it the Evergreen state for nothing! It’s quite beautiful, and despite all the State Park camp warnings we were given, the sites have been great… so far.   I had read about a lavender festival on the Olympic peninsula in  Sequim (ok, Glenn is interjecting here – “come for the lavender, stay for the quim”- I swear that’s what he said)…. anyhoo… so we went and it was just what we thought – way too many purple-dressed people selling way to much c–p. But the lavender farms were very cool.  After about, oh, 15 minutes of that, we headed out on our bikes on the Olympic discovery trail – awesome. It wound through farmland and forest, and crossed some cool old bridges. All that fresh air wore us out, and we headed back to camp for a cozy fire and a glass of Patricia Green Pinot Noir……

Lavender

Lavender

After time spent at the RV Service center – who, by the way I would highly recommend as they pushed us ahead of some other good folk and got us on the road in no time – we landed at our good friends Rob & Mark’s “treehouse” – their totally pampering, luxe guest pad among the olive groves,peach and apple trees and blackberry bushes. We put the “King” (crybaby cat Simon) and Sasha in the wonderful airconditioning and they felt so much at home that we left them there.

Just kidding! but we did think about it….  Anyways, we felt totally spoiled and loved every minute.   Keep an eye out for these two guys – they’re creating their own olive oil which is fabulous (served at the restaurant we went to, Scopa) and their own olive oil company – Olive Queen, which we KNOW will be a huge hit! Love and miss you guys already!

We worked our way up the Oregon coast on Highway 1 – I think we were all a little woozy after that beautiful, but zig-zag ride. The coast is gorgeous and dramatic but cold (middle of the day 52-55degrees). Newport is a cool town along the coast, kind of hippie-meets-biker-meets-seaman. Lots of organic food served with the local brew (Rogue) and oysters and clam chowder(or as Glenn says “chawdr) are the big thing. After a couple of days we headed inland to wine country – Wilamette Valley. It amazingly became warmer (about 20 degrees) as soon we made that turn. We hit some great wineries- Archery Summit is a must, fab Pinot Noirs, but expensive, but the coolest place to try some tiny, nobody knows wineries is a place called The Tasting Room in Carlton. They’re open every day in the summer, closed January- March, and all they carry and taste you on are obscure winery wines. Love that! We bought a couple of reds and a white. We were the only ones in there so we got alot of attention and information. We’re heading up to Portland tomorrow to hang with a friend of Glenn’s…. happy trails…

Rob, Mark and Glenn - I love hangin' with good looking men!

Olive grove - view from the "treehouse"

gorgeous Oregon coast

view from Archery Summit winery

Carlton - home of The Tasting Room

Mexico? or Highway 1?!!!!

A great dinner after a trying day...

We stayed in wonderful State parks in Morro Bay and Santa Cruz – although in the Santa Cruz park we had to drink on the sly, as no alcohol was allowed in the park (what?!!!) You should have seen Glenn and I trying to be all “James-Bond-covert” about pouring a glass of white burgundy – yes, we had a half-bottle of Puligny-Montrachet, 1re cru “la garenne”….. life is good.

Heading into Half Moon bay, we stopped for lunch right off Highway 1  – Riace Wine tasting & Deli – REMEMBER THAT NAME! Oh, my, god – amazing Italian food. You must stop there if you find yourself in that neck of the woods. It’s in a strip mall, nondescript, but crazy good food – we had the following: spinach stuffed ravioli and rolled eggplant all complimented with amazing homemade sauce and garlic bread for dipping in the extra sauce. I’m getting hungry just writing about it! They also sell italian wine by the glass and bottle and lots of other italian goodies (dried pasta,olive oil, gelato..). A little gem.

We continued up the coast, and no, we did not make a seriously bad turn or drive back south to Mexico, we did have cows in the road on Highway 1(see photo)- who doesn’t love that scenery????? Finally arriving near our friends house in San Rafael, Glenn and I decided to take a leisurely bike ride to Belvedere Island(as they say, if you have to ask, you can’t afford it). What a gorgeous, european-feeling area- small,windy( the “i” is long) roads, no traffic…loved it. We headed back to the RV, opened the doors – and BOOM! – bells and whistles going off all over – propane -problem detector, carbon monoxide detector, fans off that were keeping the cats cool in 100-plus degrees.. you get the picture. We immediately started driving and started to hear a thud sound coming from the front of the rig. Needless to say, I was starting to overheat.. we made it to our friends house (michael & iris- pic) and while we were really looking forward to hangin’ in their totally mod house, we had to get the cats into air conditioning.   Ok, long story short- we cooled down and the rig now has spankin’ band new batteries.

July 4 at Yankee farm

Sanford & Benedict Pinot

What a view!!!

We  headed out of LA and up the coast to Santa Barbara and parked our rig at friends Margaret, Michael and Morgan’s property – Yankee Farm.  It’s a beautifully situated 7acre property with a clear view of the ocean. We had a fabulous meal (thanks to Margaret and her sister Eileen) of fresh oysters, mussels, artichokes and a locally made goat cheese- and that was just for starters. We then had fritters with gorgeous tomatoes and complimented it all with interesting aged wines from Michael’s life as part owner of the Sanford & Benedict vineyard.(He’s the Benedict half). What a joy for me – 1975 & 1978 Pinot Noir. Thank you Michael for such a treat!        Although it would have been wonderful to see some fireworks, I’m actually glad they didn’t have them with all the fires that are happening right now around the area…

The next morning Glenn & I rode our bikes to the Farmer’s market. We took the coast road to savor the ocean views and cool breeze.    Later in the day we visited with Aidan(Glenn’s best man at our wedding) and his family, and then our friends Peter & Teri for dinner.  Again great conversation,food & wine was on the menu for the evening.  Always great fun with P & T – just remember, Teri, no wine glass washing when you’ve had a wee bit more than one glass of bubbly!!! You’re great, girl!

We’re continuing up the coast to Morro bay and then Santa Cruz……

So we were up at the crack of dawn packing up last minute things(cramming items would be more like it)into the RV- man, we are packed in tight. After our last good-byes to the house we drove off at 11:30am.

Immediately Simon started crying while Sasha hid anywhere she could find a space to hold her. Luckily everything was tied down enough so that it wasn’t hitting the cats in the head!  

Our first destination was Tom(good friend of Glenn’s from waaaaaaay back) and Judy’s house on the outskirts of Los Angeles. We said our hello’s and quickly opened a bottle of Taittinger Rose champagne to celebrate. The cats lounged around the grass in the backyard and actually seemed to relax a little- which helped us relax a little too!       We had a wonderful dinner of homemade Enchiladas(thank you Judy!) and hit the bed in the Rv with the cats- all of us zonked out immediately. A potentially very stressful day ended up being actually quite calm – whew!  A big sigh of relief could be heard……

Here’s a link to the start of our journey… enjoy!!!!!

If you want to see the name of all the places we’re going (up until August 1) – click to enlarge the map screen.

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