Category: travel

It all started with a phone call from Sarah, “I read in Friday’s Chronicle…”

“It’s the best time of the year to come out, right now,” says Brett Wilson, who oversees the Warm Springs Fish Hatchery, officially known as the Congressman Don Clausen Fish Hatchery, 8 miles west of Healdsburg.

A hatchery steelhead is hardwired like its wild brethren to return from the ocean to its native spawning ground. This provides two advantages over wild steelhead, if you’re looking to see fish in action fighting their way home. The first is you know exactly where to find them. The second is that there are some fish there to see.

They arrive in spurts and the average yield is two or three fish every half hour, Wilson estimates.

Even when holding on the steps or resting after flopping over the top, they are something to see. The anadromous rainbow trout can be 3 feet long. The males are in spawning colors, red stripes up the sides. The females are chrome, or turning dark with the freshwater.

Warm Springs Fish Hatchery: 3333 Skaggs Springs Road, Geyserville. The Visitor Center is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wed.-Sun. (707) 431-4533.

We needed to go to Simi Winery in Healdsburg to pick up our Wine Club shipment, so we could combine that with a visit to the hatchery. Sounded like a plan.

Nestled in the Sonoma hills near the shore of Lake Sonoma, the fish hatchery is a beautiful spot.

We followed the signs through the welcome center, over a bridge, through the hatchery and along a path to the fish ladder. Continue reading “Fishy Wednesday” →

Another City Life Adventure

Yesterday afternoon I took my scooter to Safeway for a clove of garlic, some thin spaghetti and V8 Juice. The 46 ounce bottles of V8 were on sale – lucky me – 3 for $3 each, or 5 for $2 each… regular price $4.49 each. I drink a lot of V8, so I sprung for 5. Such a deal.

The cloth bag was heavy, too heavy to hang on my handlebar, so I strapped it on the back of the scooter with a bungee cord and started home.

Coming up the Union Street hill, I just made the light. Across Polk and hitting the upslope of the big hill I was going pretty fast. Suddenly I felt the absence of the bag against my backside and heard a thwap! Uh oh… think I lost my load. I stopped quickly, backed against the curb and dismounted.
Continue reading “The V8 Incident” →

,and Adventures in Chicago

In mid-June, Eric, cheesemaker at Monroe Cheese Studio, and number one son, emailed to say he was driving the Maine Cheese Guild‘s entries to the American Cheese Festival in Chicago at the end of July. I”m a sucker for a road trip and had nothing pressing on my plate, so I said, “Why not?” The fact that Carol hates road trips and I hadn”t been on one since ought-four made the decision easy.

The cheese was due in Chicago on a Friday, but the conference didn”t begin until the next Thursday, leaving time to drive the great Midwest to Amy and Gary in West Virginia and pop in to see Carol’s family in Lancaster, Ohio.

The flight and drive to Chicago are chronicled in Eats on the Cheese Road. The Festival of Cheese itself — and what a time it was — is described in Cheese Road.

This piece is about family. I hadn”t seen Amy and Gary since our great Georgia to Maine trip in June, 2001. Since then, they moved from Fairmont to Mannington, bought a house and moved in. I was last in Lancaster in ought-six for my high school reunion and then a month later for the Fairfield County Fair and Carol’s reunion. Since then, Carol’s folks moved from their condo to the Primrose Retirement Community. I looked forward to seeing them in their new habitat.

After, we had four days in Chicago where Eric attended the American Cheese Society conference and I had a chance to unpack, chill out and enjoy the great city as a tourist. Continue reading “Family on the Cheese Road” →

,and Adventures in Chicago

Having traversed Québec, Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Ohio again; and visited sister, aunt, in-laws, grandparents, we embarked on our final driving leg back to Chicago.

We had four days in Chicago where Eric attended the American Cheese Society conference and I had a chance to unpack, chill out and enjoy the great city as a tourist.

Indiana

Wednesday was perfect for driving, temps in the seventies and partly cloudy. We retraced our miles back through Columbus and on into Indiana. Eric had the cruise control set on 70, as usual, and we were purring along with the light traffic. The traffic slowed, as often happens on Interstate highways for no apparent reason. We passed a sign that said, “Up to $1000 fine for speeding. Speed Limit 65.” Then traffic speeded up again, as did we. We were at the back of the pack. Continue reading “Family on the Cheese Road (continued)” →

Vancouver wasn”t all about food. Other interesting things, unique to that city presented themselves.

A Cool Bicycle Rack in Victoria

A Tank and Cannon guard the Armory

Let the walkin” man walk.

The walking man is ubiquitous; we don”t even notice him. But in Vancouver, the walking man took new forms. Continue reading “Vancouver Objects” →

the garage with the house behind… the gate is behind Eric

the gate on the left… you can just see the peak of the roof in the trees

Friday 19 October
Our mission: Collect Eric and Alison at the airport at 9:00am. I slept well in Brian’s fine guest bed and woke up at 7:15. No coffee — no nothin” — in the house, so we left for the airport a little before 8:00 to coffee up there. Brian left detailed instructions on getting to the airport, but they bore no reference to the city map, so if we got lost,
Never mind, just go for it.
Continue reading “Brian’s Place” →

Thursday 18 October, 2007
We left a call at our Barcelona hotel for 6:30 to have breakfast and get to the station for our 8:45 train to Montpellier. I was really looking forward to that train — Haven”t been on a train since, who knows? — Carol said we”ll have a story for Paula. A train story.

As it turned out, our train story was very short. We got to the station and carried our bags to the gate. “Montpellier,”

A large woman was standing in the archway leading to the platforms. “There is no train to Montpellier today,” is all the woman said, except, “Go to Information.” She pointed left.

Information said there was a strike in France. He would stamp our ticket not used, and we could get a refund at the Montpellier station. [That turned out not to be true. We eventually got our refund by mail from White Plains NY.] Continue reading “Getting to Montpellier” →