West Coast Tour - part 5

We woke up early on Day 8 to start our self-guided wineries tour. We wanted to hit all three major Oregon AVAs along I-5 within 2 days: Rogue, Umpqua, and Willamette Valley. Our first planned stop was to the perfect trio of shops in the Rogue Valley. All next door to each other was a winery, cheese shop, and a chocolate shop. Our plan was spoiled when we arrived at the wine tasting room, Daisy Creek, at 11am and it wasn't open yet. I guess some Oregonians don't drink before noon. At the chocolate shop, Lille Belle Farms Chocolate, we purchased an assortment of chocolate truffles with our favorite being the Smokey Blue Cheese. We were a bit skeptical about the blue cheese and chocolate combination, but WOW! It was really good. We liked it so much we're already planning a return trip.

I don't know why we ended up skipping the cheese shop, Rogue Creamery. I think it had something to do with the warm weather, the long road trip, and no refrigeration. Now that we have more time and can research a bit more, we're disappointed we skipped a place that gets such glowing reviews in so many food blogs. Plus, I think every Oregon winery we stopped at afterward said something like "if you haven't been, you need to go to Rogue Creamery". Our only consolation is that we were able to try their blue cheese in the Lille Belle truffles.

Driving further north, we stopped at two wineries: Del Rio winery, in the Rogue Valley AVA and Henry Estate winery in the Umpqua Valley AVA, before finding a hotel in the Willamette Valley (~20 miles south of Portland)....

Day 9 was a Monday and it turns out that Mondays, as a winery host put it, are the "winemakers holiday". Fortunately, we found that not all the wineries were closed. The first winery we went to was Archery Summit. The tasting fee was a whopping $15 for only four pours (and no souvenir wine glass), but it was worth every penny. The wines are amazing. However, at around $100 per bottle, they were a bit pricey for our budget.

Views from Archery Summit....

The next stop was Winderlea (also in the Willamette Valley). The wine was good, but the ultra-modern tasting room and views were even better. The place looked like a Mac store....

We couldn't pass up visiting Argyle Winery. It's not everyday that you get to do a "champagne" tasting. There was a room at the winery filled with framed letters from the White House showing that the wines had been served to every president since the first Bush to Obama.



There's been a lot of buzz lately about the Portland food cart scene. Check out this map to see how many there are. We were so excited to try some of the more popular ones only to find out that like the wineries, a lot of the food carts are closed on Mondays. We ended up getting some very good spicy green papaya salad with grilled chicken and a crêpe....



Multnomah Falls (~30 miles east of Portland)....

The Vista House in Crown Point State Park. It offered great views of the Columbia River Gorge, especially with the cool clouds. Oh, and on the other side of the river, that's Washington State!




For dinner, we drove back to Portland for McMenamins Kennedy School. This place is an old elementary school converted into a hotel, restaurants, bars, movie theater, and live music venue. If you've been following the blog, you may remember my post titled "Table for One". What I didn't mention in that post was that I had driven to the Kennedy School two nights in a row, I walked inside, and both times I was too embarrassed to eat there alone. Instead, I drove back to the crappy hotel diner. Needless to say, I felt like I had some unfinished business. With Brooke and Ryan with me, I finally had my chance to eat at the Kennedy School....



Crossing into Washington! After dinner, we made the 175 mile drive back to Seattle!