Usalola’s Weblog

Camden, Maine

Making our way out of the Niagara wine region, we jumped right into the Finger Lakes wine region of New York. This region is characterized by rolling hills and beautiful valleys, and from Glenn’s recollection, some pretty “foxy” wines- wines better suited for juice and jelly than drinking. Although the region is composed of  5 lakes – hence the “fingers”, it is centered around 4, and we visited 2.

We started at Keuka lake and visited Dr. Frank’s winery. He was a Ukrainian immigrant(go Ukies!) who began experimenting with Vinifera grapes in the 1950’s and 60’s. His rieslings have recieved rave reviews, and it is the most widely planted varietal in the region, but we really enjoyed – now get this – the Rkatsitelli (the what??? as I said – called R-kat). It is a light, refreshing white that tastes somewhat like riesling, but with hints of gewurtz spice. Although the “winery” ( a 1950’s brick house with big crystal chandeliers and throw-back watercolor pictures on the walls) was kind of funky, the vineyard view overlooking the Keuka lake was beautiful.

view from Dr. Frank

The next day we made our way around Seneca lake, and stopped at Anthony Road winery, where we really enjoyed, and bought, the Reserve Cabernet Franc. Although I haven’t personally been a fan of that wine in the past, it was really lush and is showing itself as one of the region’s signature grapes. After a few more quick wine stops (nothing worth mentioning) we headed to the Seneca beach cottage of an old friend of Glenn’s – Joe Daly. He and his girlfriend, Kate, were such great sports letting up camp out on their driveway and making us a wonderful dinner that we enjoyed down by the lake- very relaxing. Thanks you guys!

Glenn (flavah flav), Joe and Kate

 It was hard leaving the lakes area, but we’re heading towards the area that I am most looking forward to this whole trip – the quaint Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine states. We did a quick stop in Cooperstown(literally rode our bikes through) and as we headed out of New York, we stopped at Glenn’s old college stomping grounds – Union College. Now this is classic, as we got closer to the campus I asked Glenn what he really remembered about his time at Union, and he said……. “Mrs. Moffetts”.  I asked, ‘what was that?” –   response: a liquor store. End of story.

the man himself

Now I know the word quaint has been used ad nauseum to describe many New England villages, but seriously, I can’t find a word more fitting. As we have seen so much, I will summarize some of the highlights:

- Roller-coaster like roads weaving through the small towns and luscious green farmland of Vermont.

-12yr old aged Vermont cheddar cheese. Rocks!

-York and Rye beaches with the large mansions lining the coast.

-Road-side Lobster stands- lobster rolls are a specialty.

-Maine blueberry ice cream, blueberry pie, blueberries,blueberries,blueberries!!!

-Truly historic, classic homes everywhere you look.

-25 mile bike ride on the backroads of Booth bay, Maine

-Port towns with their window-framing flower boxes and cobblestone streets.

-Portland, Maine to see Glenn’s old friend Gary and his family

-Blueberry wine at a winery in Maine – ok, not a great highlight, but I just HAD to try it.

-Chowder (chowdah) taste off in Camden, Maine. People here are serious about their chowder!

mansions along the coast

Gary and Glenn

Camden, Maine

chat more as we head up the road to Bah Hahbah (that’s Bar Harbor to you and me )…..

Oak street beach - love those palmtrees!

I’m a city girl.     Let me say that right out. I was born near a big city(Chicago) and have lived in only big cities (Los Angeles, San Diego). But there was something about all the small towns that we drove through and took a walk around in  that pulled me in. Maybe it was the pace of everything – seeing people take time to sit and chat or kids just riding their bikes freely that made me think that a bit smaller town is the way to go.

Or maybe I’ve seen so many small towns that I’m really just aching for a CITY – a place that is big, with bright lights and noise, great restaurants and too-cool people. Yeah, that’s it- I need a my city-fix . So off we went to Chicago and family catch-up. We spent an afternoon at the lakefront with my sister and her husband riding our bikes along the shore (well, we spent the morning in traffic getting there, 1 hour riding our bikes and the rest of the afternoon fighting traffic back to the ‘burbs!). Oh well, the weather was great and it was quite the scene at Oak Street beach.  After a good home-cooked meal from Mom (thanks, Mom!) and enough city-stress, we made our way up to Toronto.

Chicago Lakeshore

 Now Toronto’s a big city too – 2.6 million last count, and there’s lots to see. We were given some tips on areas (thanks, Jana!) and found ourselves in the Distillery district. As it was a Monday, alot of the galleries were closed, but there were some cool little shops open and we HAD to stop into the chocolate store for a spicy hot chocolate. As it is a true working artists community, they tend to open their shops when they feel like it. Neat vibe.

Distillery area

We spent the next day walking what seemed like the entire city – chinatown,little Italy…and we found some great shops on Queen street west of bathhurst. We had lunch at Sassafrass – a very chic place where all the stars hangout during the Toronto film festival, and the food was great. We later had dinner at a real gem – Starfish, near the Lawrence st. market. They had oysters from all over – east coast, west coast, new zealand, but the real treat was the black cod – melt in your mouth delicious. We almost ordered another for dessert! It’s a small place and it gets busy early (even on a Tuesday) so make a reservation. So, my city girl happy, we made our way to Niagra falls.  They have quite a wine region in Ontario, and we stopped by a couple of wineries: Thirty Bench is great fun. Beautiful setting and all estate small-lot wines. For 10$ they give you a private tasting of four wines( but ask for Janice – she’s a kick, and we ended up tasting about 10 wines). The aromatic white wines are beautiful, they still have a ways to go with the reds.

Niagra falls

Niagra-on-the-Lake is another wine region nearby, and we rode our bikes through the super quaint town and on the Niagra Waterfront trail – we did about 20 miles of what we were told is a 90 mile ride that you can take up past the falls. On our way to the falls we stopped at Stratus winery – super modern and state of the art. All of the wines are beautiful. We bought a bottle of the Stratus Red – a blend of 7 grapes including Gamay and Syrah. We were happy we finally found a good red in the area.

Stratus winery

Now it’s back to the states – the Finger lakes wine region of NY is first, and then lazily making our way towards Maine by the time the leaves change color…. fall is on the way.

A parting summer shot.

Summer Sunflowers in South Dakota

The Wild West – images of wide open plains, blue skies, grazing horses, and of course – cowboys. We drove into Cody and immediately felt that “cowboy vibe”. Maybe it was the cowboy statue and the original settlement we passed

As they say, when in Rome…  so we slapped on our wrangler jeans and cowboy hats and headed out to the rodeo. Now I have seen (briefly) a rodeo on tv, but there is NOTHING  that compares to seeing the real thing. The girls are all dolled up with their shiny tops and lipstick, and the cowboys, well, lets say those chaps and low-hanging cowboy hats look pretty darn good in person. There is a feeling of true “americana” at the rodeo – the american flag is flown high and proud by a young rider as she circles the arena and all the cowboys stop and take off their hats as the crowd listens to Johnny cash sing ” that ‘ole flag”.

rodeo cowboys

It was quite a sight to see the ‘boys try and wrangle with a bull – they were tossed around like ragdolls. Amazing they don’t break their neck.

Heading out of Wyoming, we saw more cowboys and their gorgeous, muscular horses and Glenn enjoyed

riding his bike down some of the winding roads. 

Our destination was Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monument. Both are amazing and not what most people think are just tourist traps. The creators of both dealt with the most primitive of tools at the beginning, but had such vision and commitment that they made these historic monuments their lifes work. Truly beautiful works.

We continued the long roads through South Dakota, stopping at a dive bar or two for a brewski and to catch up with the local bikers coming back from the 400,000 bikers-strong event at Sturgis, to the heartland of America – Iowa and Wisconsin. Big, red farmhouses and thousands and thousands of cornfields surrounded us. We have definitely eaten our share of corn on this trip so far!

We stopped by Frank LLoyd Wright’s Taliesin property in Spring Green, Wi on our journey to our next stop…

Chicago.

PS: a parting pic for those who have been wondering how the cats are faring…. 

sweet dreams Simon...

Beauty

The big guy coming towards us..

Yellowstone —- whenever I would hear of someone going, I always imagined its beauty and now I have seen it, all 928,000 acres (well, I didn’t see ALL that) of absolute splendor.   We came in through the North entrance and the stone arch, the “gateway into Yellowstone” established  by Pres. Theordore Roosevelt at the turn of the century. Making our way to our campground, we were surrounded by pure beauty of the pine trees, herds of Buffalo and alot of geothermal activity. We were riding our bikes around (hiking is much more popular as there are tons of set trails) and we would see steam coming out from the earth all over the place.  We were constantly warned to keep a look out for Grizzlies and wolves, but we never saw any. They sell Bear Spray, but it only works if the bear is 10 feet away from you and the wind is going in the right direction!!! It was a little sketchy with the cats, especially Simon, who wanted to go out all the time. We had him on a leash and even then we were constantly scanning the area.

 Of course no trip is complete without seeing Old Faithful, so we made our trek over there and waited like everyone else for the “big event”.. and waited… and waited… they’ve clocked it as going off about every 90 minutes, and they were about right.  Ever the professional photog, Glenn had camera ready, and truly, what a sight it is.  You might think, ok, what’s the big deal?  Tons of people waiting around to see a big shot of steam – I was simply in awe of the height it went to and the force it had. It is so beautiful with the mountains framing it and the smiles it elicited from everyone around us. I loved every second of it ( it lasts about 90 seconds).

Waiting for the big event... so serious

Midway Geyser Basin

As our time in Yellowstone was coming to an end, I really wanted to get in a bike ride – the roads are good (though not much of a shoulder) and the scenery is amazing. So on our exit out the east side towards Cody, Glenn let me out around the Sylvan Pass and I rode all the way out of the park and another 15 miles or so. I would TOTALLY recommend this ride if you love a smooth, slightly curvy, downhill road with barely anybody on it. There were waterfalls and lush greenery and once I was out of the park majestic stone cliffs. All with a tailwind – a great way to finish our visit…

On the way to Cody

So on the way to Spokane to drop Glenn off at the airport,(we’re taking route 97) he yells “BEAR!” – I look up just in time to see an adolescent black bear run up into the trees away from the road. Now I’m sure many of you have seen a bear in the wild, but not me, and not one as coal black as that. Yoo-hoo!! We’re headin’ towards Big Sky bear country. 

We stopped in Grand Coulee – site of the Coulee dam – the largest dam in North America(I’m not going to go completely brain dead on this trip…)and then stopped and had a hearty-welcome-to-big-boy-country breakfast of eggs over easy, sausage patty, lots of buttered rye toast and an endless cup of mediocre joe(that was Glenn’s breakfast, thank you) all enjoyed while under the watchful eyes of giant moose, deer and elk heads.

The cats and I are making our way across Montana and my (bad) singing of Martina Mcbride or old Lionel Ritchie songs isn’t going to help us get through the blue-skied open road any quicker, so I stopped singing long enough to see some sights:

Missoula – the older part of town is charming- big old trees and homes. I loved Bernice’s Bakery-the coffee is excellent. Also on 3rd avenue, The Good Food store is awesome – better than Whole foods, and just as expensive.  I also heard they make wine in Montana, and they do.  it’s just that the grapes happen to come from Oregon and Washington. Hmmmm…..  Ok, to be fair, they do PRODUCE their own wine in Montana, it just comes from raspberries, rhubarb, blueberries.. etc. I did taste a raspberry riesling from Missoula cellars and it was nice (don’t you hate that word?!).

WHAT THE HECK ALERT!!: on those long roads, the billboards actually become something you read, and I hit a doozy – the 5th annual Testicle Festival- a picture of a big ole’ smilin’, flashin’ cow and lots of smiling, hungry-looking people. As somewhat-intrigued as I was, I kept on driving.

After a while on the main road (90),  I took the Montana 1 – Pintler scenic route. It was wonderful to just meander on the two-lane road and take in the scenery. I was going through Granite Ntl. Forest, and the granite walls were stunning. I would have loved to have been on my bike, but that would have left one of the cats to drive….

Butte is an old mining town and  I found a gem of a store when you want something to eat but aren’t sure exactly what. They have EVERYTHING crammed into lots of different rooms –  italian meats & cheeses at the deli, homemade lasagna and pies, olive oils and vinegars galore, jars & jars of crazy ethnic items, plus a really decent

granite wall on Montana 1

Big sky

just think raspberry riesling…

 ”wine cellar” in the back. Front Street Market and wine shop is the name.

I had heard Bozeman was cool, and it definitely has a vibe. The historic district has blocks and blocks of old brick buildings that have been given new life with great boutiques (serious), galleries and restaurants. I stopped into Plonk for a glass of wine (Torrontes btg?! – love that) and saw plenty of people out doing the same.  After such a busy day, I needed to relax a little and found my way to the Bozeman Hot Springs. Oh,before you get this image of sitting in the brilliant sun with the mountains all around, STOP!  The water has been pumped into a warehouse-like building with a kiddie-pool adjacent. So much for relaxation, but the water did feel good on my weary bones…..ha.

I passd the sign for the town of Opportunity going in the opposite direction, but I believe I’m really living it..

what direction will it take you?......

Yellowstone here we come…..