In search of the continuous road trip
Update: We’ve been over-charged twice now (they keep putting extra items on our bill), so we’re no longer in love with this place. Lisa’s in love with The Fox. I’m partial to The Spurstowe Arms. We’ve found our local pub. I, honestly, don’t need to …
We had just under three weeks between our last day in the mountains and our flight to London. We spent it all, seemingly, eating. Here’s where we ended up: The Best Lunch Deal in Kansas City at Extra Virgin Happy Hour at Extra Virgin in …
Well, we leave for London this weekend. We can’t wait. We’ll be van-free for the first time in months. Instead of piling stuff in the van and cooking on the Coleman, we’ll be strolling down Piccadilly and searching for chicken tikka. We’ve got to fit everything we …
Crested Butte isn’t the most accessible town. If you want to arrive via dirt road, you have some options (in the summer). If you want to stick to pavement, you’ve only got one choice — Highway 135, up the valley from the south. Maybe it’s …
Drive Highway 50 long enough across Nevada, and you’ll eventually end up near Baker, Nevada (you’ll have to detour south about two miles on Highway 487). Baker is the gateway to Great Basin National Park (more to come on that). But let’s stop first in …
When our friend, Ben, worked at a wine store in Chicago, he was always discovering interesting bottles and generously sharing them with us. This is how I had my first taste of Zinfandel from Ridge. I’ll always remember the bottle of Geyserville 2003 (or 2004?): the …
Fun fact: Wisconsin drinks 1/3 of all the brandy Korbel makes: “Wisconsin is our number one state,” says Margie Healy, director of public relations for the California-based Korbel. “We export 385,000 cases a year, and 139,000 go directly to Wisconsin. That’s one-third of our total …
We visited Kenwood in 2006, way back in the day, when Lisa and I lucked into a trip to Sonoma. We loved it. Lisa was DD that day, and I’m pretty sure I sampled every one of their wines. There are maybe 30 on the …
We needed a snack. We’d decided to head to Willi’s Wine Bar, so I looked at their website to check their happy hour deals. They had none. Digging deeper, I found that their sister restaurant, Stark’s Steakhouse, has the “best happy hour deals in Sonoma.” …
We first visited the Sonoma and Napa Valleys in 2006 — we loved Sonoma, but Napa, not so much. Anytime we leave a wine region, we feel like we’ve missed tons of great stuff, or we find a favorite wine after the fact. Happily, we …
It was Jeff’s tip that aimed us towards Willapa Bay. He mentioned an oyster place he liked, located right on the bay in Bay Center. We found Bay Center, but we never found the restaurant. We drove every road in town, some of them twice, a …
We’re fans of Champagne and potato chips. They’re great together. Champagne and popcorn is good too, but we really like the chips (“crisps” for our British readers). This duo is just as good. Got a bottle of sweet wine but don’t want to wait until …