Oregon Adventures in Camping, Wine Tasting, Eating and Driving

This past weekend was crazy! After being present for the arrival of my best friend's baby girl very early on Saturday morning, and with only 2 hours of sleep, my husband and I hit the road to Oregon for a slightly delayed weekend camping trip.

We started our morning in Portland at Bijou Cafe which offered seasonal vegetables and a delicious brunch menu. We both went for bright yellow fluffy omelettes - mine stuffed with fresh vegetables including broccoli, asparagus, peppers and mushrooms - with a side of whole wheat toast.

We then made it to our camp at Champoeg Heritage State Park by 10:30 a.m. and setup the tent and our gear. And then we were off again - so much for really camping :).

We headed into McMinnville to check out the historic downtown area and to get directions to a winery I wanted to visit. Downtown on 3rd Ave there are many cute shops and wine tasting rooms plus a delicious ice cream shop called Serendipity. I enjoyed scoops of praline caramel and orange vanilla while Reilly had fried ice cream over lemon meringue pie, in waffle cones.

After hunting down a map, we drove out to Amity Vineyards. While not impressed with their reds (though I was able to taste quite a few flavors notes like cherry or lemon), I really enjoyed their rieslings. They also offer eco-wine where they don't add any sulfites and it is quite a different flavor that I would describe as juice like. From what I understand they don't have as long as a shelf life as a regular wine though since it doesn't have the added preservatives.

Next stop, the Spruce Goose (which is huge!), at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum where my brother and sister-in-law were attending an event. The gentleman who started the museum also owns some local vineyards and produces wines so I enjoyed another round of wine tasting at the museum and bought a bottle of pinot gris.

For dinner, we went back to McMinnville's historic downtown to McMennamins. They have a wonderful roof top bar where we split a plate of sun dried tomato hummus and a vegetable pizza. All delicious, especially while savoring a glass of chilled  iognier while basking in the 80 degree summer weather.

We didn't return to our camp site until after 8 p.m. on Saturday night where we only had the energy to make a few smores and crash out on our air mattresses. I even bought Reilly a new board game (The Farming Game) but we were too exhausted to play.

Sunday morning started off with a very filling steak and eggs breakfast that we grilled ourselves. I had picked up some 100% grass fed beef at PCC from Thundering Hooves and had it marinating since Thursday. The tenderloin was full of flavor though it still had a toughness/stringiness that I attribute to it being grass fed that I haven't gotten used to after being brought up on grain raised beef. Overall delicious though. We also grilled toast out of a french baguette, hashed potatoes (using the leftover pea and potato cakes)and mushrooms. My plate was overflowing with food and ended up being Reilly's dinner later that night.

After breakfast and a couple of more smores we packed up and headed into Portland for VooDoo Doughnuts and lunch. I've been looking forward to their Mango Tango jelly filled doughnut since we'd gone last year and it didn't disappoint. A secret about VooDoo, by the way, is don't go to the downtown location if you don't want to wait in the block long line. Instead, head across the river to the convention side of Portland and visit their pink building on Sandy. The building and decor are awful but the doughnuts are just as good and only a minutes wait at the most!

We then drove into the downtown Pearl District where we settled on lunch at the Deschutes Brewery. After spending way to long trying to decide between a salad or falafel, I ordered the elk meatballs off the appetizer menu when I saw that it came with sweet potato gnocchi. It ended up being stupendous!! The elk meatballs were sweet and savory and the gnocchi was tender and filling. Best of all was the sauce it was served in that is apparently "Mirror Pond Pale Ale Wort Sauce" but I would describe it as a sweet cider with brown sugar and spice. I was literally licking the bowl with my finger afterwards.

Satisfied and very full from a busy weekend of eating, we drove home to Seattle to get groceries and get back to routine and a plan to work off all the damage I did from overeating. I still need to focus on having a better plan for when I travel so that I don't eat until I'm physically uncomfortable. Not good in so many ways!