The Shitkicker Incident

[Joey officially touching ocean number 2 for the month]

It's been a few days since my last post - things move a little slower here at the beach.  Joey and I arrived in Savannah at noon on Saturday after a tough (boring drive and we were really tired) overnight drive from New Orleans.  Apparently there was a conference of GA Municpal workers going on in Savannah so hotels were hard to come by.  I booked a room for 4 at the Eliza Thompson house on a referral from the booked up Marshall House where i typically stay when I'm in town.

After we parked Joe and I walked to Molly McPherson's to grab a spot at the bar to watch the US world cup match which would start at 2 PM.  Right around 2, Mom and Dad arrived from Charlotte where they had spent the night to break up their drive from Cincinnati.  I met them at the curb, and directed them to the hotel which had just opened up for check in.  We put a few things in the room and walked back to meet Joe at the bar to watch the US get eliminated from the tournament.

After the game we popped into a bar when we heard a Hank Williams tune emanating from within.  We stayed to watch Damon and the Shitkickers - a group of younger guys playing old country standards.  They were really good - mom and i wanted to give them a good tip since we were pretty much the only people in the bar and they were playing our requests, but we had a communication breakdown and ended up accidentally giving them a REALLY good ($60) tip when i put in money for both my mom and I and she did the same.

After the shitkicker incident we went back to the hotel, cleaned up and headed to the Marshall house for a few drinks with the bartenders James and Rex who know me from previous visits - as soon as I walked in James placed my typical order (Hendricks and Tonic with a cucumber garnish ) in front of me without me asking.  We finished our drinks and headed to the Pink House for a delicious dinner.  After dinner we walked around town for a bit before heading back to the hotel for the night.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast in the hotel courtyard before heading out of town to drop the Camry - our home for much of the past month - at the Savannah airport.  The drop of went fairly smooth (i left my glasses in the car and had to have them shipped home) and two hours later we arrived at Edisto Island for the vacation at the end of our vacation.

And that's pretty much it - i'll add one more post in a day or two to wrap things up and close the book on another "civitellobrothers" adventure.

One more for the road

Not too much to report on our last day in New Orleans.  Yesterday we took it pretty easy - went into the French Quarter in the morning, hung out, played chess, and walked around until around 4:30.  We took the Street car back home and then grabbed dinner (Pizza) at Rocky's on magazine st. where we got one of our best compliments of the trip from the bartender:  He was asking where all we had been while in New Orleans and when we told him (Bullet's, Parasol's, BJ's, Candlelight Lounge, Half Moon...) he said that we were better locals than he was.

Today we met Caroline for lunch at the Cake Cafe (pictured) where she works.  We were joined at the table by Maitre d' the semi-stray black cat who has taken up residence in/near the bakery.  After lunch we took care of some logistics for the end of the travel portion of our trip - Hotel, car return, shipping of excess gear, and arranging for Mom and Dad to swing down to Savannah and spend the evening with us before we head to Edisto early Sunday morning.

Tonight we'll be catching one more show before we get on the road to Savannah - right before.  We're going to the circle bar to watch Gal Holiday (click here to see a vid of her performing at the same place we'll see her tonight) at 11:00 pm and plan to be on the road by 12:30 or 1:00 AM.

Life Is a Cabaret

Another night of great music in New Orleans.  After an extended nap to counteract the morning world cup festivities we went to the candlelight lounge in Treme to watch the Treme Brass Band.  We arrived around 9:30, ate some complimentary red beans and rice and waited for the band to come on.  It took a while for all 13 members to show up and get situated, but it was well worth the wait when they started playing around 10:15.  Once again, there was no stage, the band and the crowd slowly intermingled and by the 2nd song, the entire bar was in motion. Dancing, singing, and shouting call and response with the band. I included a little video clip of the show here: [click here]  The sound isn't great and you can't see a lot but it will at least give you a feel for the space. We left after the first set, mainly because we were exhausted from the day, and headed back home for a relatively early night.

This morning Joey and I headed down to the Quarter to explore (what we intended to do on Tuesday before being rained out).  We walked around for a bit and then stopped for lunch at the Royal St oyster house.  Sadly, due to the BP spill, the oysters are now being imported from Oregon.  Based on that, we originally ordered non oyster dishes - i had an Alligator Po Boy and Joey had blackened chicken (both very good) - but then we decided that it wasn't the fault of the guy whose sole job it is to shuck oysters that they're coming from Oregon, so we ordered 6 raw and 3 charbroiled to compliment our meal.  Not being oyster connoisseurs we really couldn't tell the difference, they were still good.

After lunch we wound our way through the quarter to a coffee shop, Cafe EnVie, where we plan to hang out for a while, read, play, chess, etc... before heading back to Caroline's.

Bullets and BJ's

It's not a rap song, Just a Tuesday night in NOLA. We saw some amazing music and a great slice of New Orleans last night.  We started the evening at Bullets, an unassuming bar on the first floor of a house in the 7th Ward.  We arrived in between Kermit Ruffins sets and the mixed crowd (about 85% black ranging in age from 21 year old college kids to 80 year old black ladies) was having a great time dancing to the hip hop playing over the speakers.  Kermit came on a few minutes later and we worked our way up towards the front of the room (there was no stage he was just playing from the floor of the bar) to experience some awesome New Orleans jazz made even better by the crowds revelry.  At one point, Kermit handed the mic to a server who delivered a 5 minute long rap as an interlude to one of his songs before handing it back, picking up her tray and continuing with her duties.  After the show we filtered outside and shared a plate of ribs and baked beans (best i've ever had - sorry mom)  from the BBQ truck outside.  As we ate around the cable spindle turned table, the wife of the guy who ran the truck noticed that I didn't have a drink and brought me over a glass of freshly brewed iced green tea.

After bullets we headed to the Bywater for a few drinks at BJ's.  A little gem of a bar that you had to access by ringing a doorbell before being granted admittance by the tough as nails but very nice female bartender.  We listened to country music and aquired a healthy sheen courtesy of the un-airconditioned space which actually added to the ambiance.

This morning, Joey and I got up at 8 and walked to Parasol's in the Irish Channel to watch the US/Algeria soccer game.  When we arrived there were exactly two empty seats and a pile of McDonald's breakfast sandwhiches (courtesy of Sarah, the barkeep) waiting for us.  Michael joined us a little later, and we watched the game punctuated by frequent yelling at the TVs as the US failed to capitalize on several goal attempts.  We were rewarded in the 2nd minute of additional time, however, when the US scored a goal which won them their group for the first time since 1930 and sent them to the 2nd round of the tournament.

After Parasol's we ate Po' Boys at Mahoney's and went to the "tree of life"  (above) in Audubon park, tossed the frisbee, and had a few beers.  We got back to the house around 4:30 and have been resting ever since .  Tonight: Treme Brass band at the Candlelight.

Here are some pics from the day - i'll add captions later.

If you're in trouble, If no one else can help, and If you can find them...

Joey and I hopped the St Charles streetcar into the Quarter this morning, where we planned to get some breakfast, explore the streets, and settle into a bar for the afternoon.  A few minutes into our first chess game at Cafe Beignet, however, the skies opened up.  We tried to wait out the downpour with a couple more games of chess (i'm making a comeback with 4 consecutive wins but I'm still down an embarrassing 16 games to 6) before we decided to ditch the Quarter for the movie theater.

We saw the A-Team which, but for the fact that i can't get the theme song out of my head, was exactly what it was intended to be: Good fun and lots of things blowing up.  After the movie we grabbed a quick bite and headed back to the house for some downtime before the evening festivities.

Those festivities are still forming up but we're thinking of  either checking to see if Mother In Laws is open (apparently it's only open sporadically) or heading to Bullets to see Kermit Ruffins. Tomorrow we'll  get up early and walk to Parasols to watch the US/Algeria and England/Slovenia world cup matches.  Tomorrow night (assuming we recuperate from the morning) we'll most likely go to the Candlelight lounge in Treme to catch the Treme Brass Band.

Yesterday, we explored the lower garden district, had some awesome po' boys at Zara's grocery, and then bellied up to the bar at Half Moon and watched the Spain/Honduras soccer game.  Last night we ate a quick dinner at the Avenue Pub after an early evening nap before heading back to the house for a few games of chess.

Theo and theTaqueria

We left Austin on Sunday morning after a Saturday evening spent in at Doug and Celina's:  made pizza and played Texas Hold 'em with spare change (I won).  We got on the road about 9am and made Houston a little before noon.  We got a hold of Theo (cousin) when we were about 60 miles outside, and made arrangements to meet him for lunch at Goods Taqueria on our way through Houston.  It was packed with the Sunday/Fathers day crowd, but the lunch counter style setup proved very efficient (and the enchiladas were delicious).

We spent about an hour catching up with Theo before we got back on the road towards New Orleans.  The trip was split between highway (I-10) and back road (182) which slowed us down a bit but was well worth the ability to drive with the windows down and enjoy the steamy hot breeze. we arrived at Caroline's (below) house around 8 pm, got settled, and headed to Juan's Flying Burrito in her lower garden district neighborhood for dinner (I had the pork and slaw tacos - very good).

This stop is our first stop longer than 3 days (we'll be here six) and we're excited to settle and and really get a feel for the city before we head out for Savannah on Saturday.

Soul Track Mind

Yesterday morning, Doug, Joey, and I set out around 10:00 am in an effort to catch the last bit of the USA/Slovenia World Cup match, but by the time we found an open bar with TVs (a bar called Bikini's. Yeah. It's what you'd think - and cowboy boots) the match had ended with USA being robbed of a win on a bad call.  We had a couple drinks before heading to the Gallery where Celina works to meet her for lunch.  After lunch we went to a pub near the gallery to watch the considerably less exciting England/Algeria game (0-0 tie) before heading home for some rest before heading to the bar for the Soul Track Mind (Doug's band) show.

Celina, Joey, and I went out for a quick bite with merchandise suitcase in tow before heading to Hole In The Wall around 10:00 pm.  Soul Track Mind was the headliner so we enjoyed two openers before they came on around midnight.  They were really good - an 8 piece band singing original soul music. Click here to see their website.

This morning, Celina made us an egg, potato, chorizo, and onion skillet served with warm tortillas.  We've been sitting around the house relaxing since then.  We may venture out a bit later to the Yard Dog gallery (Celina also works there) before coming back to the house to make dinner.  Tomorrow we'll be headed to New Orleans (via Houston) for a full week.

[standard disclaimer for the slide shows: Click on the bottom of the image and use the nav bar that pops up to start the show. Don't click on the big play button in the middle, it will redirect you]

We've got to make Palo Duro Canyon by Sundown

We've covered a lot of ground in the last few days.  To get it all in, I will present a story in three parts:

• PART1: Taos is tacos without the "c"
• PART2: We've got to make Palo Duro Canyon by Sundown
• PART3: Highway 87

[standard disclaimer for the slide shows: Click on the bottom of the image and use the nav bar that pops up to start the show. Don't click on the big play button in the middle, it will redirect you]

Part 1: Taos is tacos without the "c".

We said goodbye to Jim and Frona on Tuesday morning and started our three day trip towards Austin.  Our first leg would take us down hwy 285  to Taos where we planned to check out the Pueblo and spend the night before moving on towards Roswell around lunch time.

The drive to Taos was spectacular.  The majority of it was spent on an elevated plane with snow covered peaks on all sides.  We made good time through the mountains - our only stop was in Fairplay, CO (which i learned includes the town that was the inspiration for the tv show South Park) for lunch at the "Beary Beary Tasty" cafe which was as advertised.

We arrived in Taos a little before 5 and found that it was pretty much already closed up for the night so we decided to grab a quick bite to eat and head to Santa Fe instead.  While we were looking for an open eatery Joey observed in frustration that "I keep thinking I see Taco places but they all just say Taos".

We did eventually find a spot to grab some so/so tex-mex before heading on to Santa Fe.  We arrived in Santa Fe around 8 pm, and stopped by the public library (which we randomly parked in front of) to find lodging.  We ended up staying at the Old Santa Fe in which was only a few blocks away (across from the Verterans memorial).  We walked around the old Adobe downtown Santa Fe a bit before calling it an early night.

Part 2: We've got to make Palo Duro Canyon by Sundown

On Wednesday morning we had a delicious complimentary breakfast at the Inn (breakfast burrito bar and waffle batter for do it yourself fresh waffles) and headed out to explore Santa Fe on our 2nd consecutive beautiful day (tying a record for our trip).  Unfortunately we only had a few hours in town as we had to make it to Palo Duro Canyon, our newly conceived next destination before the campground closed to new arrivals at 8:00 pm.  We made the most of our time by exploring the downtown, and checking out the work of the Native American artisans who display their work along the Square.

We left Santa Fe around 12:30 headed for Texas.  We were briefly chased outside of town by a desert storm, which caught us, dumped rain and hail on us, and then went on its way.  Other than that, the weather was perfect for the 6 hour drive along I-40 to Amarillo.  

If time had not been a factor we would have rather taken old route 66 which runs roughly parallel to I-40, but we were in a race against the night.  We did, however, take a brief interlude along the old route as we passed through the town of Tucumcari and stopped at Dell's restaurant for lunch (I had the J special - two enchiladas and a chili Relleno, with both red and Green Chili.  Joey had the Chicken fried steak.  He said it was good, but i'm pretty sure I had a mild heart attack by proximity).  Tucumcari itself was interesting - a good example of what happens when a town is bypassed by the interstate (see pics of the old main drag in the slide show).

After lunch we headed on our way and despite a minor setback when we forgot to factor in the change from mountain to central time, arrived at out campsite with 30 min to spare.  We set up camp, played a few games of chess, ate a light dinner (1/2 cucumber, 1 potato, 1/2 onion between the two of us) and went to bed.  This was our first night camping without rain which was nice except that we could now hear the wildlife around us (i'm pretty sure there was a raccoon jamboree happening right outside our tent).

We woke up this morning, did a quick hike on the trail behind our campsite and got on the road toward Austin.

Part 3: Highway 87

We got on highway 87 around 8:30 this morning and headed southeast towards Austin for the next 9 hours.   We stopped for "breakfast" (i had a BBQ beef sandwhich) at the nu-griddle diner in Plainview which sported a special non-smoking section tucked away in the corner of the restaurant.  We opted for smoking so as not to be sequestered from the general population.

Highway 87 pretty much passes through a whole lot of nothing, but we did get to drive through Happy, TX (the town without a frown) and sample our first taste of TX BBQ in Brady.  The BBQ setup was pretty neat: 1 - walk up to the pit outside and select what you want and how much (everything was by the pound).  2 - the guy working the pit tosses your meat on a cafeteria tray with a paper liner (no plate). 3- pick up additional sides (everything comes with beans) inside, grab a beer (domestic only) and pay. 4 - sit down at the communal tables stocked with paper towels, supersized bottles of BBQ sauce, and loaves of wonder bread. 5 - watch dear hunting program on TV and enjoy.

We arrived at Doug and Celina's house around 7, got cleaned up and headed to 6th street to take in the Thursday night scene.  Doug and his friend went to see a pre-planned show, while joey and I took in the sites.  It was a lot of fun, literally every bar had good or at worst passable music and every girl was wearing cowboy boots - what more could you ask for?

This is our first of three nights in Austin. Tomorrow, we'll be headed into town to see Doug's band fulfilling their weekly residence at a local bar. 

Family Ties

We are so lucky! Moab Utah only gets ''9 of precipitation per year. Very few travelers get to experience archways natl park shrouded in fog and rain.  But we were one of the lucky ones. The rain cloud that met us in Moab followed us through the foothills and across the continental divide, and hung out with us through Steamboat Springs (where we watched the USA tie England and I bought my first pair of cowboy boots) into Ft Collins for two days before (kind of) clearing up today.

Fortunately this was not a nature oriented leg of our trip.  We got to meet for the first time, my great Aunt Gloria and Uncle Bill, our second cousins Jim and Betsy and their families (their kids are our 2nd cousins once removed). We arrived in Ft Collins on Sat evening and met Aunt Glor and Uncle Bill at Mulligans - the pub they visit each week in hopes of winning the trip to Ireland that is raffled off each year.  On Sunday Jim, his wife Frona and their family stopped by.  Jim and Frona took us into town for lunch and beers and Cooper Smith and a quick tour of Ft Collins.  When we arrived back home, Betsy, her husband Steve and her kids we at the house.  We made introductions over the penne, meatballs, and sauce that Aunt Glor had been working on since early in the AM.

On Monday we emptied out the car, cleaned it, Febreezed it, and repacked it so that we'll start out the 2nd half of our trip like the first: everything in its place. We spent the day playing chess (more losses for me) and watching TV with Glor and Torie (Jim and Frona's 17 yr old daughter).  Frona arrived at Aunt Glor's house around 5 and Joe, Joe (her son), and I tossed frisbee while we waited for Aunt Glor and Torie to return from a trip to her cousin Maddy's and the Store.

When Torie arrived back at Aunt Glor's, we got int he car and  followed Frona back to Boulder where we're spending the ngiht tonight. There, we made BBQ chicken pizza (Frona's is a fun kitchen to cook in) and chatted over three bottles of wine before everyone retired for the night.

And that pretty much brings us up to the present.  We'll be taking the next 2-3days to get to Austin via Taos

Here are the pics from our trip from Moab to Ft Collins, and our visit with the family here (click just below the image to bring up the nav bar to view the slide show.

When I pulled into Moab... it was full

I'm pretty sure the only reason we were able to tear ourselves away from Ocean Beach on Thursday morning after lunch with Josh and John and their neighbors Lori and Christina was the light rain that was falling. It wouldn't have taken much to keep us around.  But as it was, we set off for one night in vegas.

We arrived in town around dinner time, checked into our room at New York New York and treated ourselves to a steak dinner at Gallagher's.  After  dinner we walked down to the other end of the strip for a brief stop at the Imperial Palace casino before spending the majority of the evening playing blackjack at the Bellagio.   After our self imposed allowances ran out around 2:30, we called it night (joe walking into the hotel at left).

Reading that makes it sound like the most boring vegas boys weekend ever - and that's probably true, but we did have a good time.

After a pizza breakfast we headed out of the hotel. I laid my single leftover black chip on the baccarat table and lost it in a cool 10 seconds on our way out.

We got on the road to Moab around 11:00 am and arrived at the Archways national park around 8 (with the time change).  We took the 30 minute long, breathtaking drive through park's famous red rock formations to the campground only to find out on arrival that it was full. By the time we got back down to the bottom it was after 9 and dark.  We elected to throw in the towel and check into a motel rather  than go another 20 miles out of our  way to then open campgrounds.  It turns out that most of the rooms in town were full too.  We checked 5 or 6 placed before finally getting a room at the Archway inn.

After checking in we grabbed a quick bite at the Moab diner before heading back to our room to catch some sleep in preparation for our 6:00 am departure for Ft Collins, CO.   The diner claims to have the best green chilies in Utah.  I'm not really sure how Utah's chilies hold up on the national green chili scene but I can say they were the best Utah green chili's I've ever had.

Pictures taken on the road from vegas to Moab are below. Click on the bottom of the image to display the nav bar and start the show.

Like being in my 20's again

We left SLO on tuesday morning and after a smooth drive (except for the three hours we were stuck in LA traffic), we arrived in San Diego on Tuesday evening for the first "Couch Surfing" leg of our trip.  We're staying with Josh, a friend/former co-worker of Joey's (picture of our digs at right) in Ocean Beach.  It's been a fun couple of days.  Josh and most his friends (most of them Cincinnati transplants) work in the service industry which leaves time for "weekends" in the middle of the week.  Late nights, and days spent enjoying the weather.

Once we arrived and got settled we hung out at Josh's place until about 12:30 and then walked around the corner to Cat Lounge for a few games of pool before last call.  On wednesday morning, josh took us to an awesome diner on Newport st, where I had Machaca - kind of a do it yourself breakfast burrito.  A scramble of shredded beef, peppers, onion and jalapeño served with beans and a warm tortilla.  After that we walked out on onto the pier at ocean beach and watched the surfers before heading to point Loma  lighthouse for a 360 view of the city.

Joey and I spent the afternoon hanging out at the house with Josh's roommate John and Rufus - Ryan's very  Huckleberry (my dog) like rot/lab mix playing chess and drinking Pacificos.  We walked down to Newport street around 6 to check out the farmers market and have some fish tacos (by far the best i've had) from South Beach Bar and grill.

Last night we went to Tiny's and then Lucy's - both just a few blocks from Josh's house and then hung out at his place until the sun came up. Today Josh, Ryan, and Lori (the neighbor) are going to take us around town and out to lunch before we head on to Vegas where we'll be checking into the New York, New York hotel tonight. See below for all of our SLO/San Diego Pictures.





Click the very bottom of the image (not the big triangle in the middle) to bring up the nav bar and play the show.

Globetrotters

SAN LUIS OBISPO - We've done a lot since our last post. Rather than write you a book, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

I will take a moment to talk about Sunday night: We originally planned to go back to Thermidor for some after dinner cocktails, but they were closed.  Instead, we bought a bottle of wine and took the Chess set to the common room at the hostel.  We eventually struck up a conversation with Pikou [i can't spell his first name] from France who re-established my honor by beating Joey in chess and Carmen and Maike who were in the middle of a three month visit from Germany. Things started off quiet at first but by the time we burned through 2 bottles of wine and a 6-pack of Bud, the conversation was flowing.  Carmen and Maike are also keeping a blog - here's a link -> click here [it's in German but you can click the translate button to get it in English].

Meeting people at the Hostel has been one of the highlights of our trip.  We tried to get into the Hostel in San Luis Obispo, but it was full.  They did, however, recommend a great little motel that is a steal at $60 per night for the both of us [pictures of that tomorrow].

Enjoy the pictures [again, click at the bottom of the image to bring up the nav bar to play the show]

"I will re-establish your honor"

Joey and I are playing chess in the common area.  After three consecutive losses, a French guy at the table asked if he could play a game.  When i ceded my spot he told me that he would try to "how do you say... Re-establish your honor".

The Hook and Ladder Pepper Sauce Incident

We left Santa Rosa yesterday morning and planned to spend the gorgeous (82 and sunny) day driving around the Russian River Valley in Sonoma county.  We mapped out a route that would take us north on the 101 to river road which we would take to Forestville to hook up with Gravenstein road which would in turn leads to the Bodega Hwy and eventually back to the 1.

Our plan went (happily) off track almost immediately.  The cars on River  were moving fast and we were in the mood for sightseeing.  We pulled off on an unnamed road which ran parallel to River Rd and before long came upon the Joseph Shaw winery.  We tasted a few varieties at the very small family run vineyard. I settled on a bottle of Pinot.  We stopped at another, larger winery on the same road before heading to Olivet Rd at the advice of the  2nd winery's owner (I can't remember the name of the vineyard, i'll add it in later).

Our first stop on Olivet rd was the Hook and Ladder winery which was staffed by Devon, a young guy maybe a year or two older than Joey who talked to us about his family's wine business and the Black Keys.  He also forced me to cleanse my palate with a white wine when I sampled their pepper sauce and ruined my taste buds which got a chuckle from a family (two parents and their daughter) who had just arrived . (It was worth it - the sauce was good.  I bought some).

Our next stop was the Sunce winery, just a couple doors down from the Hook and Ladder. We hung out there for quite a bit.  Played bocce ball with a couple, John and Sheila,  who claimed to have never played but beat joey and I 5 to 1.  After our defeat we sat in the shade, got some advice on local San Fran eateries from Sheila, and chatted it up with the Pinto family (At right- daughter Angela,  Esther, and Leo) who we first encountered during the Hook and Ladder Pepper Sauce incident.  Angela had flown in from Atlanta to see her parents who were throwing her a big BBQ in wine country for her birthday.  Angela is a Benefits/HR director at a small company in Atlanta so we were able to talk shop a bit.

We left Sunce after 90 minutes or so and headed up the road to DeLoach winery.  A much more professional operation than the previous 2 but still good.  We hung with the Pinto's at DeLoach for about 30 min before making our way back to the 101 for the 45 min drive to San Francisco.

Our Haul: 6 Bottles of red, 1 bottle of white, pepper sauce, and .75 liters of Hook and Ladder grown and made olive oil.

We arrived in San Francisco around 5, checked into our hostel downtown (the globetrotter inn), and called Sarah whom we had met on a ferry in Croatia 4 years ago.  She gave us a recommendation for dinner and we planned to meet up at Thermidor, a new bar near 5th and Mission that had soft opened on Friday after her dinner plans were over.

Joey and I ate at a small Sushi place called Ryoko which blended a warm hole in the wall feel, great sushi, and 1990's gangster rap to surprisingly pleasing effect (more pics below). After dinner we made our way to Thermidor where we would meet Sarah in an hour or so. The bar was very cool it had kind of a mod feel to it.  The bartenders were great - Brooke made my first Old Fashion and after her shift ended (about 10 min after we arrived) she sat down at the bar next to us for dinner and intermittent conversation.  I learned that she has acted as a bar consultant on several new openings.  She designs the cocktail menu, hires the bar manager and moves on.  She would be leaving Thermidor soon to help open another bar where she will stay on permanently.  We learned later from Sarah that her skills are well known and highly regarded on the cocktail scene in town.

Before she left, Brooke told us that she was heading to a whiskey bar called Rick House and that we should check it out later.  Around that time Sarah arrived from her dinner.  We chatted about old times and caught each other up on our lives over the past few years.  She had spent the morning and afternoon bike riding and after a few drinks and some great conversation she dropped us off at Rick House and headed home.  Joey and I were getting tired ourselves, but the place was very cool so we stayed for one drink.  The entire interior of the bar was paneled with old whiskey barrels and the bar boasted more varieties of whiskey than i could count.  I'm hoping we can  return there tonight when we're not ready for bed.

Croatia Crew Reunited

This morning we ate breakfast at the Taylor Street Coffee Shop which boasts an incredible California Avocado omelet (if you're ever in town try it out) and headed back to the hostel to do our laundry.  Tonight: most likely Indian food (not sure which one - there are about 50 within walking distance)

More Pictures from Ryoko:

Sonoma Pictures (To view, click just below the image and use the navigation bar that appears)

"...Fight Back Vigorously"

The signs posted at the backwoods trailheads and campsites in the redwood national forest advise: "If you are attacked by a mountain lion, fight back vigorously". Fortunately we didn't have occasion to fend off a mountain lion during our stay in the forest, but we did have to deal with mother nature, and fight we did:   while we did cut out long hikes from our itinerary we refused to concede complete defeat to the unceasing rain which began falling in Portland on Tuesday evening and continued for the next 60 hours.  We purchased rain jackets on the way out of Portland (best money spent so far) and resolved not to sleep in the car or use the countless drive in camp grounds that dot the 101. Instead, we'd stick to our original goal of (slightly) more primitive camping.

Camping in the state and national parks exists in 4 levels:

1. Drive in camping: closely packed paved sites with, hot showers and lots of kids nearby.
2. Environmental Camping: Drive in part of the way and pack a few hundred yards to the more secluded sites. Vault toilets and a bear locker are provided. Trash must be packed out.
3. Backwoods camping: Marked sites off of trails include a fire ring a bear locker and nothing else. Everything must be packed out.  
4. Dispersion camping: On your own.  Camps must be 200 yards from the road and 20 from the trail. No fires are allowed and food/trash must be hung from trees in the absence of bear lockers.

We camped for 2 days (i'll refer to day 1 as 01 Camp and day 2 as 02 Camp).  01 Camp  was more of a stopover on our way to our intended destination of Prairie Creek State Park just over the CA border.  We employed the dispersion method on day 1.  We simply drove until dusk pulled up to a trailhead (cummings creek), hiked in and set up camp.  With no fire, we pretty much just set up camp under the steady rain and went to bed.  The early bedtime allowed us to wake up bright and early and continue south on the 101.

We stopped for breakfast at a little house turned makeshift diner (a curtain fashioned out of PVC pipe pulled double duty as a backdrop to the pay counter and a separator between the restaurant and the house's old linoleum and Formica kitchen turned business office) called Kathleen and Nina's.  The menu consisted of eggs, pancakes, pig, potatoes and gravy combined in different ways. Simple but delicious.  After breakfast we headed south in the rain towards our destination.

We arrived at the park around 4 PM, and obtained an environmental campsite.  The road to 02 camp was treacherous - starting with a puddle turned lake blocking the access road.  After watching a few cars with slightly more clearance than our Camry wade through, we held our breath and went for it.  We made it across with no problem and continued up the 4 mile long windy pot hole riddled road to our campsite.  We reached our turnoff, opened the gate using the combination provided at the ranger station, moved a fallen tree out of the way and worked our way back to the camp.  We set up shop, made a fire and cooked dinner: steamed Squash, cucumber, potatoes, and onion with an appetizer of fire roasted yellow pepper.  After dinner we retreated to the tent, played a couple games of chess and were asleep by 9:30.  Somehow, despite the torrential rain and the ever loudening rush of the creek below our site we stayed relatively dry, and the next morning after some fresh brewed coffee , we packed up camp under a light rain and headed south towards wine country.

About half way through our drive, around the time the 101 gave way to the 1, the sun peeked out and we were treated to some spectacular views of Mendocino county wine country as we cut our way down the coast and over to Santa Rosa (for our Cincinnati readers, imagine 100 miles of Mineola Pike with sheer cliffs on one side) where beds and showers awaited.  We arrived in Santa Rosa around dinner time, showered, and headed into the very cool downtown for a delicious dinner and 5 dollar glasses of house wine (that I would have gladly paid double for) at Cafe Rendezvous on the square.

Today we're going to tool around Sonoma county for a bit and make our way to San Francisco in time for dinner.

We've accumulated quite a few pics over the past couple days.  Here's a selection in slide show form [don't click on the big play button - it redirects you.  To start the show click on the very bottom of the image and use the menu bar that appears.]

Rain: 100%

   

Portland, Day 2. Unfortunately our 1 day streak of good weather has not held out.  Yesterday was cool and cloudy. The rain started yesterday evening around 7 and hasn't let up yet.  But despite that we had a good last day in Portland.

We spent a good part of the morning hanging out in the hotel lobby which doubles as a Stumptown coffee house, reading, playing chess, and enjoying the vibe of the hotel.  At lunchtime we ventured out to the food
trailers that line the street (picture at right) and had a quick Korean BBQ lunch.   After Lunch we found an outdoor store and bought the final provisions for the Pacific Coast camping portion of our trip (which we'll commence in few hours.)

Pictures of the Ace Hotel                                                                          


We got back to the hotel around 4, got ready for the evening and took the MAX to Mississippi St to meet Roger (Debbie's brother).  We started out at Mississippi Station which was pretty good until the drunk patron next to us, upon being asked to leave by the bartender, stood up and vomited all over Roger's food (they offered to make him more food but surprisingly they didn't even comp us a beer).  After the incident, we headed to Amnesia Brewing, a cool local brewery, and hung out outside under the canopy until it was time for our show. (pics below are from amnesia, including the dog whose owner called her a whore for nuzzling up to anyone who would scratch her head)  We parted ways with Roger after getting some great information about camping and scenic spots along our route to the coast and headed to Mississippi studios for our Sera Cahoone Show.

The venu was really cool - very similar to Schuba's in Chicago but with a smaller bar upfront that was separated from the music space by a garage door that was opened in between sets.  After a very sparsely attended (it was a rainy Tuesday after all)  but great show, we caught a cab back to the hotel and ended the day.

We're currently sitting in the coffee shop planning our exit from portland: We plan to stop by the grocery for some provisions, the hardware store for plastic, and then head out I-26 bound for the coast.  We'll be camping for the next 4 or 5 days and will likely be incommunicado.  Unless we happen upon some random internet you'll hear from us again in San Francisco.

Why Is It Dark Outside?

We arrived in Portland yesterday morning after what we hear had been a depressingly long stretch of rainy days, but the clouds broke for us and our first day on the road was warm and sunny.  Our room wouldn't be available until 4:00 pm so we dropped off our bags and wandered around downtown in search of a watering hole.  We started off with lunch at a bar and grill type place that boasted a huge array of draft beers (we stuck with oatmeal and espresso stouts).  After lunch we made our way to the hotel bar where we enjoyed some expertly made Old Fashions* and chatted it up with Gabby who had just moved to Portland from Puerto Vallarta, MX on Friday and was scouting her new city.

We checked into our room around 6:30 with plans for a quick 20 min nap before dinner.  We woke up at 1:00 AM.

Today, with hangovers and jet lag behind us we plan to get an early start exploring the city.  Tonight we'll be heading to Mississippi Studios to catch a Sera Cahoone show.

*Interestingly, I learned from our Bartender that the term old fashion refers not the familiar whiskey drink but to a class of drinks made with spirit, sugar, bitters, and citrus. (I tried a gin old fahion - i'll be sticking with the whiskey variety from here on out.)

The Ace Hotel, where we're staying. Very cool place.  More on that in a later post.




















Around Town



From Our Room