First Full Day in Depoe Bay (It Rhymes!)

June 21, 2014June 21, 2014 ~ admin ~ 2 Comments

It rained during the night, but it was a bright blue sky this morning. First order of business (after a brief stop at Yaquina Head Outstanding Nature Area) was stocking the fridge and pantry. Not excessively, only the essentials. First stop: Walmart for the basics (Sobe water for Joe, Arrowhead for Elaine, salad stuff, paper products, bread, butter, etc). Second stop: Flying Dutchman Winery right on the coast at (six bottles of Devil’s Delight, an Oregon wine blend, and two bottles of the more expensive 2008 Cabernet Franc) – that should hold us through the weekend. Third Stop: the little market right down the street for some cold cuts (picnics), chips, and marionberry pie ice cream from Tillamook Farms (YUM!).

AS ALWAYS, CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR LARGER VIEW IN A NEW WINDOW

Otter Rock in the Distance at Yaquina Head

Then we were done with chores for the day. We lugged all the food into the condo and drove back to Devil’s Punchbowl State Park for a walkabout with the ubiquitous resident squirrels. It’s a beautiful spot as the pictures below will attest.

Then it was lunch time. We picked up sandwiches and chips from Subway and ventured to Boiler Bay Overlook and Picnic Area, right next to our condo. We enjoyed the food at a picnic table overlooking the raging Pacific – surf is up today

Mid afternoon now and worn out from shopping and eating. Back home for a nap. And the first crisis of the trip! No running water in the condo. There was plenty last night and this morning. I called the management company, and they walked me through the fix. “Open the hot water closet door and push the green button.” Pretty simple. It seems the units here have a leak detection system that automatically cuts the water supply. Apparently the system is not perfect and occasional false positives shut off the water. Problem solved for now (unless it keeps shutting off and there really is a leak somewhere).

Then it was the obligatory cocktails on the balcony with bright sunshine warming us up beautifully. Dinner tonight was at Tidal Raves, our go-to Depoe Bay restaurant. We walked there since it was such a beautiful night.

It was a wonderful dinner. Elaine started with a glass of their sangria while I had a Moscow Mule (House-infused ginger vodka, house brewed ginger beer, and fresh lime juice), a great summer drink. We each had glasses of Cherry Hill Pinot Noir with the mains after sharing an order of Seahawk Bread (baguette toasted with smoked salmon, cream cheese, havarti, shrimp and onion). Elaine: cup of smoked salmon chowder followed by seared sea scallops on potato hash studded with sun dried tomato, bacon. and smoked tomato glaze. Joe: cup of clam chowder followed by cioppino, Italian-American fish stew brimming with clams, wild shrimp, crab and fish in a tomato-herb broth. Everything was wonderful. We skipped dessert in favor of ice cream on the balcony at home.

Aside to Fred: please note it was Italian-American stew, not American-Italian

We’re in Depoe Bay

June 20, 2014 ~ admin ~ 2 Comments

The drive to Depoe Bay was uneventful with stopovers in Bakersfield, CA and Redding, CA. Last year it was close to 110 degrees in both places; this year it was a much more tolerable 90 or so. In Bakersfield we revisited Zaika Indian Cuisine for dinner, and it was excellent once again. In Redding we tried a Thai restaurant in a strip mall based on the Trip Advisor reviews. Janya Thai Cuisine was wonderful. We already booked a table for the night of our return stopover.

In Depoe Bay we couldn’t check in until 4:00 PM, so we diverted a bit to arrive at the coast near Tillamook, famous for the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Rather, we visited the Blue Heron French Cheese Store a few miles down the road. We stocked up on Blue Heron Pepper Brie (it’s outstanding!) as well as some sausage and salad for tonight’s dinner. We also got a bottle of Pudding River Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley (which we drove through getting to the coast).

We checked into the condo at about 4:30 after filling up with gas. It was good to see our Oregon home again. The sun had been out all day but it was clouding up at cocktail hour. I had brought the fixings for my gimlet with us and we opened a different bottle of wine that we had, thus saving the Pudding River for dinner. The weather is refreshingly cool on the Oregon coast – in the very low 60’s. Still, it was very comfortable having cocktails on the balcony overlooking the Pacific. We also ate dinner on the balcony.

The highlight of the day was spotting some resident grey whales feeding just 50-100 feet off the cliff in front of our balcony. There was a mother and baby as well as some others, swimming around, spouting, and presumably having dinner. Then it was time for bed.

Here are some pictures of the condo:

CLICK ON PICS FOR ENLARGED VIEW IN A NEW WINDOW

Mini Trip to Albuquerque and Trip Plan Update

June 14, 2014June 24, 2017 ~ admin ~ Leave a comment

Visiting Mom

So this week we drove over to Albuquerque for a few days to visit Elaine’s mother (Lena) before we head off on the other big trips described below (plus one new trip described later in this post). We arrived in Albuquerque on Monday night and had a nice home cooked meal (lamb shank) that Elaine had semi-prepared at home and finished up in Albuquerque after the trip over in the cooler.

Tuesday was a quiet day. Elaine’s sister and brother-in-law were passing through town on their way home to Las Cruces, NM after an Alaskan cruise and a stopover to visit their son in Colorado Springs. We all met up for lunch at the Owl Bar – awesome green chile cheeseburgers and yummy milk shakes. A good lunch was had by all.

After the big (and late) lunch, we decided on just a salad and some good bread (from Trader Joe’s) for dinner. Another old family friend (Doctor Denise) came over to join us. Cocktails, wine, dinner, and conversation were all good.

On Wednesday Lena, Elaine, and I did a road trip to an old favorite spot of the Weiler family – Jemez Springs. Neither Elaine nor Lena had been there for over 30 years. It’s only just over an hour from Albuquerque. We headed out after 10:00 and had a very pleasant day. It’s all described in the pictures below.

Alb15 — Red Rock Country – Jemez Springs, NM

Alb03 — Elaine and Lena at Battleship Rock

Alb04 — Battleship Rock – Jemez Springs, NM

Alb09 — Fenton Lake (Where Elaine & Her Brothers Fished)

Alb10 — Rifles, Shot Guns and Kalishnakovs OK?

Trip Plan Update

Our trips to UK/Ireland, Cruising from Barcelona to Miami, and cruising from Montreal to London are all described in older posts below. Now we have added another trip – a return visit to Depoe Bay, Oregon. We were there last year and described the wonderful time we had on our old travel blog (link above). Here is the last entry from Depoe Bay from that blog. There won’t be a lot of new stuff to see, but cocktails on the condo deck overlooking the magnificent Pacific will make the trip enjoyable no matter what. We will be heading out next Tuesday with overnights in Bakersfield (CA) and Redding (CA) before arriving at our home, The Beacon, in Depoe Bay. Our Scottsdale friends , Barb & Kris, will be in Oregon while we are there and will spend two nights with us. Stay tuned for blog posts from the cool (and hopefully sunny) Oregon coast.

Derby Day

May 4, 2014 ~ admin ~ 1 Comment

Weather: perfect – 70’s, sunny, low humidity

Camaraderie: Wonderful with lots of friends

Gambling: The Oaks/Derby Futility Saga continues. I am now 0 for 52 races on Oaks and Derby Day for 2013 and 2014. We were close several times, losing photos in the last step. Time to quit?

Here are some pictures:

OAKS DAY PICTURES

Derby winner Mind That Bird at the Derby Museum Barn

Statue of Orb (last year’s winner) in the Museum

DERBY DAY PICTURES

The Garland of Roses for the Winner Arrives at the Track

Oaks Day

May 3, 2014 ~ admin ~ 2 Comments

Weather beautiful in the morning, but cloudy and very cool in the afternoon. No rain. Our new Oaks/Derby parking spot was excellent.

A great time was had in the box (which was Derby Central). Coors Light was flowing liberally.

Gambling-wise? Another disaster.

Last year: 0 for 12 on Oaks Day.

This year: 0 for 12 Oaks Day.

BLAH!

We had dinner at Carrabba’s and hit the sack early.

Another Rain Free Day

May 2, 2014May 2, 2014 ~ admin ~ Leave a comment

Thursday

Thursday was a nice day. Mostly sunny but very cool and windy. Looks kike Oaks Day will be rain free but chilly. Derby Day looks perfect.

One winner Thursday in seven bets, but it paid $18.00, so a winning day.

Dinner was at DelFriscos, a Louisville institution that now seems well past its prime. steak was good. Service was atrocious. Good to spend time with Lee and John Lutes.

Had a good night’s sleep and now ready for Oaks Day!

We’re in Louisville!

May 1, 2014 ~ admin ~ 1 Comment

Tuesday and Wednesday

The flight from Phoenix to Indianapolis was uneventful and on-time. We picked up our rental car and headed for Louisville in the RAIN! Does it always rain here? But it was mostly drizzle and had stopped by nightfall. Actually the forecast for the next four days is amazingly good with just a 10% chance of rain. That’ll work!

We got to Louisville and headed straight for Shenanigan’s Irish Grille for some food. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast at Zinc Bistro at the airport in Phoenix. What a nice addition that is to the airport culinary scene! At Shenanigan’s we met up with good friend Eddie, the owner. He sat and ate with us as we enjoyed delicious burgers. Then, well fed and very tired, we proceeded to the Springhill Suites for a good night’s rest.

Wednesday morning we had to head to Eddie’s house so I could pick up my cell phone that I had left on the table at dinner. (Yes, brain dead!) We spent a few minutes with Eddie and Dee and then headed for Churchill Downs. We sat outside, mostly in the sun, and enjoyed the weather and three winners to make the first day at the track a winning one.

Back to the hotel for a shower and clean up, and then we walked to the nearby Limestone Restaurant where we were meeting Eddie and Dee as well as Brooke and Judy for dinner. Brooke is a former WHAS-TV reporter, now a drug rep for Glaxo, while Judy is someone I worked with at New England Life was back in the mid seventies. She has been in Louisville for a long time. Dinner was magnificent. The drinks and wine flowed, and a good time was had by all.

Kentucky Derby 2014 (Preview)

April 13, 2014April 13, 2014 ~ admin ~ 1 Comment

Two weeks from Tuesday on April 29th we will leave for our annual Kentucky Derby adventure. We will fly from Phoenix to Indianapolis on Southwest Airlines. “Why Indianapolis?”, you ask. Well, 1) Louisville Airport is a madhouse during Derby week; 2) Southwest’s non-stops to Louisville are at inconvenient times (e.g., leaving Louisville at 7 AM Sunday morning is tough after a long Derby Saturday); 3) It costs way less to fly to either Nashville or Indianapolis. We have used Nashville in the past, but the non-stops to Indianapolis are at very convenient times and Indianapolis is even closer (an hour and forty-five minute drive) to Louisville than Nashville (three hour drive).

We will once again be staying at the Marriott Springhill Suites on Hurstbourne Parkway. It’s very nice. We’ll drive in Tuesday late afternoon after landing at Indianapolis. Tuesday night is free (Carrabba’s?). Wednesday night we are having dinner with our friends Eddie and Dee (who own Shenanigan’s Irish Grille), Brooke (originally from Winthrop, MA, now a drug rep for Glaxo Smith Klein, and formerly a reporter at WHAS-TV who interviewed me four or five years running on live TV at the Derby), and Judy (an old friend who I worked with at New England Life in Boston in the early 1970’s before she moved to Louisville). By tradition dinner will be at Limestone, conveniently located just a few steps from the hotel – no drinking and driving!

Thursday night we will have dinner with John and Lee, dear friends met many many years ago at Churchill Downs. Last year we had dinner with them at Ruth Chris at a table between Wayne Lukas and his party on one side and Todd Pletcher and his party on the other. (Racing fans will know who they are.) This year we will be meeting them at Del Frisco’s Steak House, a Louisville institution to which I have never been. (It’s NOT part of the well known Del Frisco’s Grille and Double Eagle Steak House chain.) I doubt that Wayne and Todd will be bracketing us this year.

Friday is Kentucky Oaks day, in Louisville as big an event (almost) as the Derby. Schools are closed in the county on Oaks Day. And Saturday is Derby Day. Both days we will be at the track at 9 AM – first post at 10 AM. We will not get out of the track until after 6 PM, well worn out. Dinner will be just the two of us somewhere quiet.

Handicapping the Derby is the most daunting task in horse racing. Picking the winner from twenty horses running a mile and a quarter for the first time in their young lives is incredibly difficult. Overall I’ve done very well at it. Last year, not so much. I didn’t have the Derby winner. In fact I didn’t have a single winner in three days of racing at Churchill Downs. 0 for 34. This year can’t help but be better. Over the years I have done remarkably well on the Derby although it seems I was better before the new millennium started in 2000.. My winners include:

1979: Spectacular Bids beats nine others and pays $3.20
1981: Pleasant Colony wins after capturing Wood Memorial, pays $9.00. 21 horses ran (before the field was limited to 20)
1984: Swale prevails over 19 others, pays $8.80. He won the Belmont too and then passed away while still a three year old
1986: Ferdinand beats 15 others, coming from last to first, and pays a nifty $37.40. Had the exacta too ($385). Best win ever (for awhile)
1989: Sunday Silence beats 15 others, pays $8.20. Freezing cold weather!
1996: Grindstone wins it for Wayne Lukas and Jerry Bailey, pays $13.80 – he was coupled with Editor’s Note who ended up winning the Belmont
1997: Silver Charm wins for Bob Baffert, beating just 12 others, and pays $10.00
1998: Three in a row for me as Baffert’s Real Quiet wins paying $18.80. Had the exacta ($291.80) and trifecta ($1,221). New best day ever!
2000: Fusaichi Pegasus beats 16 others and pays $6.60. First favorite to win since Spectacular Bid did it in 1979. Start of a long slump for me.
2011: Break ten year slump with Animal Kingdom who paid a nice $43.80. Had the exacta as well ($329.80)

So who will win in 2014? I’m strongly leaning toward a repeat of 1981 when Wood Memorial winner Pleasant Colony won for me. This year Wicked Strong won the Wood. He’s a good story for Boston fans. Read about it here. He’s a solid closer in a field that will be loaded with speed. And he should be a decent price. He’s my early pick.

After the big day we may meet Judy again for brunch on Sunday before driving back to Indianapolis for a late afternoon flight back to PHX.

Trip Planning (Three)

March 15, 2014 ~ admin ~ 2 Comments

In two posts below we describe two 2014 vacations. This is a trip planned for 2015.

It’s not often we plan more than a year ahead. But there was an incentive to do so right now. In Trip Planning (Two) we describe our transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Miami. We are always loathe to use the airline tickets that the cruise line provide. (As a little aside, Oceania advertises “free airfare” as part of the cruise fare. That is a little disingenuous since you can get a serious reduction in the cruise fare if you opt out of their air arrangements.) Anyway, cruise line air connections are often inconvenient and may involve long stopovers. For European connections Oceania normally uses charter flights to or from a US gateway city to Europe with connections to the gateway on schedules flights. Charter flights can be just awful with even less room than on normal scheduled flights. (Yes, it is possible to be even more crowded!) Oceania offers business class upgrades at an exorbitant price. (Sometimes they will offer reasonable business class upgrades on some cruises when they are trying to boost sales for those particular cruises). OK, so we don’t like cruise line air arrangements.

So why not just book our own flights? Well, you need a one-way ticket to Europe since you will be cruising in the other direction. It’s easy to book one-way flights within the US nowadays at half the round trip fare. Not so to Europe. International regulations still make one-way fares prohibitively expensive.

So, we decided on a unique solution. We are beginning our November 2014 cruise vacation by flying to London. So we are buying round-trip tickets on Virgin Atlantic from Las Vegas to London. The first leg will be used in November to get to Europe. The return flight will be used in June 2015 to return from London to Las Vegas after the next cruise we have booked. And that’s why we have booked a cruise for May 2015!

The vacation begins when we fly from Phoenix to Montreal where we will spend two nights at our favorite Montreal hotel, the Marriott Springhill Suites in Old Montreal, just a short walk from the port. The we will board the Marina, the sister ship of the Riviera on which we sailed from Barcelona to Miami in November 2014. Again we will have a Penthouse Suite, this time located on the starboard side so as to be south facing (to get full advantage of the sun).

Here’s the cruise map:

Days 1 & 2: In Montreal at the Marriott Springhill Suites
Day 3: Depart Montreal on Marina at midnight
Day 4: Arrive in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec at 8 am; depart at midnight
Day 5: Arrive in Quebec City at 8 am; depart at 7 pm
Day 6: Arrive in Saguenay, Quebec at 8 am; depart at 7 pm
Day 7: Cruising the St. Lawrence River
Day 8: Arrive Corner Brook, Newfoundland at 9 am; depart 5 pm
Day 9: Arrive Sydney, Nova Scotia at 8 am; depart 6 pm
Day 10: Arrive Saint-Pierre at 8 am; depart 5 pm
Day 11: Arrive St. John’s, Newfoundland at 8 am; depart 2 pm
Days 12, 13 & 14: Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Day 15: Arrive Belfast, Northern Ireland at 1 pm; depart 11 pm
Day 16: Arrive Dublin, Ireland at 8 am; depart 9 pm
Day 17: Arrive Holyhead, Wales at 8 am; depart 4 pm
Day 18: Arrive St Peter Port, Guernsey at noon; depart 8 pm
Day 19: Arrive Southampton, UK at 8 am; disembark by 10 am
Days 19, 20, 21 & 22: London at the Nadler Kensington Hotel
Day 23: Overnight at Gatwick Airport Courtyard Marriott
Day 24: Fly to Las Vegas; Overnight in Henderson, NV
Day 25: Drive home from Las Vegas

Travel Planning (Two)

March 1, 2014March 16, 2014 ~ admin ~ Leave a comment

The first trip planned is featured below in Travel Planning (One)

Trip number two centers around a trans-Atlantic cruise from Barcelona to Miami. But first getting to Europe and then to Barcelona:

We’ll overnight in Las Vegas before flying Virgin Atlantic to London Gatwick Airport.
Then the Gatwick Express Train into central London. Overnights marked by letters.

A. Overnight in London at Great Northern Hotel
B. Eurostar Train to Paris for Two Nights at the Mercure Gare de Lyon
C. TGV Train to Barcelona; overnight in Barcelona at the Marriott AC Sants

Then it’s time to board our ship, Oceania’s Riviera, for the cruise back to the USA.

We’ll be in a beautiful Penthouse Suite.
Here’s the cruise map:

Day One: Depart from Barcelona’s Port at 5 pm
Day Two: Arrive in Cartagena at 9 am for an all day port stop, departing at 6 pm
Day Three: Arrive in Malaga at 8 am for the day; depart at 6 pm
Day Four: Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Day Five: Arrive at Santa Cruz de Tenerife at 9 am; depart at 6 pm
Days Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten: Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Day Eleven: Arrive at King’s Wharf, Bermuda at 9 am for overnight stop
Day Twelve: Day at King’s Wharf, departing at 4 pm
Day Thirteen: Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Day Fourteen: Arrive in Nassau, Bahamas at 9 am; set sail at 6 pm
Day Fifteen: Arrive at Port of Miami at 6 am; disembark by 9 am

Days Sixteen, Seventeen, and Eighteen:
Pick up rental car
Overnights at Beachside Village Resort

Day Nineteen: Fly home from Fort Lauderdale to Phoenix

Remember: see below post for the trip planned before this one.

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Visiting Mom

Trip Plan Update

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OAKS DAY PICTURES

DERBY DAY PICTURES

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Thursday

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Tuesday and Wednesday

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