More than the Goonies: Visiting Astoria, Oregon

Every year, Dan and I try to take a week-long vacation as a couple.  For our 2017 trip, we decided to take a road trip through parts of Oregon and Washington!

When we were planning our trip, we knew we wanted to visit Newport, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.  So we had to figure out what to do in the middle, a stopping point for a night of our road trip up the coastal 101... and I happened upon a cute bed & breakfast in Astoria, Oregon.  So after Newport, that was our next destination!

Astoria is the oldest U.S. settlement west of the Rockies, named for John Jacob Astor whose fur company founded the first settlement there.  As a results of its early founding, this small city is filled with incredible historic buildings and architecture.

Fortunes in Astoria have risen and fallen over time, but we can tell the city is on the up and up.  While some houses needed attention, many have beautifully been restored.  New businesses and restaurants are popping up too.  I would love to have one of the old Victorian homes in the area!  Quite a few have become bed and breakfasts, and ours was within walking distance of so many things.

One of the things that put Astoria on the map in modern times?  The Goonies.  Yup, that movie was filmed here, and the Oregon Film Museum is now located in the old county jail.  You'll recognize quite a few buildings and areas from the movie.  The "Goonie house" however is not so visible these days; legions of movie fans have harassed its poor owner over the years, so she has obscured most of the house from view.  But we were content to just take in the town!

We were only in Astoria for one night, but we'd already picked out where we were going to grab dinner: Fort George Brewery.  Craft beers for the win.  And I absolutely love the building it inhabits!

The beers were good, and the food was delicious.  It was a modern, fun atmosphere, definitely with a modern vibe.  It's nice to see the old and new combine in Astoria.  We didn't get to eat at the cafe/bakery under the brewery, because our lodging included breakfast, but I read it's good!

One iconic sight to see is the Astoria Column, built in 1926.  It was one of a series of planned historical markers constructed between St. Paul, Minnesota and Astoria by the president of the Great Northern Railroad at the time.

It's $5 to access the column, which is good for a year if you leave nearby.  You can even climb the column, and toss a little wooden glider plane if you'd like.  But I think it's worth it for the view.  We didn't even climb the column, and we really enjoyed it!

We really loved the architecture and old charm of Astoria.  I don't know if we'll ever return, but perhaps we'll drive past this way again someday!  I really think that a full day or two in this town is enough to really appreciate it.

Worth mentioning, Astoria is just 40 minutes away from the photographically famed Cannon Beach, known for its iconic Haystock Rock.  We actually stopped at this beach on our way up from Newport to Astoria, but opted not to stay there because it was a bit pricier.

In hindsight, I would have enjoyed more time exploring Cannon Beach, and our resort in Newport has a sister resort there.  It was definitely more packed with tourists and visitors than Astoria, though, and it doesn't have the same historic architecture.

Dan hates taking pictures, LOL

Gosh, I wish I could own one of those old historic homes in Astoria!

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Beer From Ground to Glass: Rogue Ales & Spirits

Every year, Dan and I try to take a week-long vacation as a couple.  For our 2017 trip, we decided to take a road trip through parts of Oregon and Washington!

When you're married to a craft brewer, every vacation includes a taste of beer.  On our Pacific Northwest adventure, after flying into Portland, we started the trip off with a pit stop in Independence, Oregon, to visit Rogue Farms, where they grow hops and other ingredients for Rogue Ales recipes. 

Rogue also has spirits to call its own too, so it's come a long way from its basement beer operations in 1987!  It was listed as #30 in 2016's Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies by size, so you've likely seen it in your local bottle shop.

As most farms are, this one is out in the country!  There's ample parking, but no air conditioning.  But there's cold beer on tap, and you can bring a picnic if you want.  Tons of outdoor seatings and clean portajohns for your convenience.

If you come at the right time, there's a free tour.  You can see the lay of the farm as well as the hops harvesting and processing facilities.  We've toured a zillion breweries before, but this was the first hops operation we'd visited!  I was surprised to learn that the U.S. produces much of the hops for the globe, not just our own country, and the Pacific Northwest is where most of it is grown.

I wish we'd been there during the right timing to see the hop cones on the vines, or to see the harvest.  Those would be fantastic things to experience at Rogue Farms!  But I still loved that happy feeling of having a cold beer amongst the hop vines in Oregon.

As we continued our journey, we reached our first overnight stop, in Newport.  This also happens to be the home of Rogue's brewery.  You have FOUR Rogue options in Newport.  The Rogue Ales Public House is on Bay Blvd., and the Bed 'n' Beer is above it.  Yes, you can stay overnight above the bar!  There's also Rogue House of Spirits, if liquor is your preference.

We decided to visit Rogue's Brewers on the Bay, their two-story brewpub by the Marina near the aquarium.  You can take tours of the brewery and distillery, and pick up bottles and merch too.  In fact, to get to the brewpub and sales room, you walk through part of the brewery itself!

There's almost always going to be a wait, as it's a popular destination in town, but we found that having our party be 21+ in age meant we could be seated in the bar and not just the brewpub.  Score!

We tasted a number of their beers, which had some really great flavors!  They usually have 40 beers on tap.  We each got a full beer, which we ate with our tasty burgers, as well as some tasters to sample together.  That's the nice thing about traveling with my husband: we get to share samplers!  I think the only one that wasn't my speed was the chipotle ale.  Smoky flavors in a beer aren't my thing; but they had hazelnut and chocolate flavors in others that I loved!

There are even collaborative beers with my favorite Iron Chef, Morimoto.  I think that's pretty cool!  And you can even peek into the brewery from many of the tables within the brewpub.

We definitely enjoyed visiting both sides of Rogue Ales, from ground to glass!

Pie Society

I really love The Loving Pie Company (mentioned here on the blog in 2014 and also this year), so when my friend told me about their twice-annual Pie Society event with Jackalope Brewing Company, I felt like it was perfect for a date night.  Held after-hours with candlelight at the brewery, it featured six courses pairing pie and beer.

We dressed up a bit for the occasion, though ties were optional.  The price was super reasonable too, just $35 per person plus tax.  Not bad for a night out including alcohol!  We were served a pint upon arrival, then we settled into seats to be served our first course.

Check out the photo above of the menu for descriptions of the courses and beers.  I'll be focusing more on the food angle, as that's my element, while beer is my husband's!

The first course was kind of a Christmas cookie out of pie dough, with drizzled chocolate and blackberry.  I think I need to make cookies out of all of my leftover pie dough, when I have it!  The second course was a tasty meat pie.  I don't usually like peas in anything, but I ate the whole thing because it was a great hand pie!

The third course was Dan's favorite, a maple pie with BACON.  I think one of my favorites was the fourth course, the cutest apple pie I've ever eaten.  It also had a hint of cheddar.  I love apples plus cheese.  It's one of those strange combos that works!

The fifth and sixth courses were holiday-style desserts of cranberry pecan pie bites and a dessert that was designed almost like Dan commissioned it: chocolate, pretzel, coffee, and Oreo!  I was starting to slow down.  The pies were the perfect small bites for a multi-course meal.

If you like beer and you like pie (and let's face it, if you read my blog you likely like one or the other), these Pie Society events are a great night out in Nashville!  Whether it's a girls' night out or a date night, I really enjoyed it.  I definitely would consider attending another one, if only to get my husband out of the house and into a sport coat.

Austin Weekend: Rainey Street & 6th Street

During our vacation, we spent time on two of what I'd call the most boozy streets in Austin: Rainey Street and Sixth Street.

Rainey Street came highly recommended to us by a bunch of folks, and we loved it.  It's kind of hipster alley, with tons of good food and drinks along a pedestrian-family stretch.  We hit up Craft Pride for some great beers, and ate a tasty Detroit-style pizza from the Via 313 outpost in its patio area.  Via 313 pizzas popped up all over Austin, and we definitely liked their pie.

We split one of their pizzas, though we each could have probably finished one.  We got their Detroiter pizza, which has two types of pepperoni (one under the cheese, one on top) and I added pineapple to the top of mine.  It was greasy, but delicious pizza.  Great sauce and cheese ratio, great toppings.  I had to look up what a "Detroit style" pizza entailed, and it's all about that deep dish with crispy edges.  Via 313 hit the spot and I wish I could have some right now!

We then walked up the street to one of the bars that we liked most architecturally, Container Bar.  Constructed out of metal shipping containers, it had a cool vibe.  There were plenty of people there, playing cornhole and hanging out.

There were a lot of dogs out and about with their owners too, which I liked seeing!  As long as there are leashes, Austin seems to be a pretty dog-friendly city.

There was also a little taco stand/food truck that you could access from Container Bar, which we took advantage of for a snack of chips and salsa.  The salsa packed some heat!

Later in our exploring, we ended up on 6th.  To me, 6th Street seemed the equivalent of Nashville's Broadway, a strip of touristy bars that locals prefer to avoid for the most part, but fun stuff nonetheless.  Of course, I was immediately distracted by Voodoo Doughnuts.  While the original is in Portland, that didn't stop me from grabbing a couple of doughnuts for us.

Dan wasn't overly excited about doughnuts (he didn't want to have to carry a big pink box around) but he ended up eating 2/3 of what we bought.  Ha!

One of the nights we spent in Austin was a Sunday, and our Airbnb did not have cable.  So Dan was worried about how we were going to watch The Walking Dead, of course!  We found out that a bar on 6th Street, The Jackalope, plays the show on Sunday nights when it airs.  It was kind of awesome to show up, order a drink and dinner, and have the music stop and all of the TVs go to the same show with full sound.  It was also kind of cool to see how other people reacted to the show's twists and turns.

Rainey Street was probably one of our favorite little enclaves of Austin during our trip, but 6th Street had some fun to offer too.

Do you have a favorite spot in Austin?

Austin Weekend: Jester King Brewery and Salt Lick BBQ

As those of you who read my blog may know, I travel quite a bit for work.  One of the perks is being able to leverage things like airline miles... so Dan and I decided in January to book a 4-day weekend in Austin, Texas!

One of the things Dan was looking most forward to was visiting Jester King Brewery and his friend Jeff, who started the brewery.  So we didn't waste any time, hopping into a Car2Go (more on that in another post) and driving straight there from the airport!

It couldn't have been a more perfect day to visit the brewery.

The place has grown a ton since Dan's first visit there, and it was packed!  Lines to get beer were long, but everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time.  Being in the Texas Hill Country was definitely beautiful, and the whole place reminded me more of a country winery than any other brewery I've been to... and I mean that in a complimentary way!  I loved it out there.

We were able to join one of Jeff's tours to see the inside of the brewery space; Dan loves seeing how different and unique breweries are doing things!

(left) Jeff and (right) Happy Dan

Another perk?  Fresh off seeing them in February on my San Antonio trip, my friend JC and her daughter M made the drive to see us for the day too!  M loved the ice in our beer bucket.  We sampled a bunch of beers, including some of the many offered at Jester King that are from other breweries, wineries, and cideries.

But drinking beer makes me hungry!  So we headed about twenty minutes south to another crowded venue: Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood.  Dan joked that I jammed his two must-haves for Austin into one day, but it made sense since we were already out in Hill Country.  The parking lot was packed, and the line just to check in was long...  we were given a 90-120 minute wait time, but we were seated more around 60 minutes after we arrived.  You can also order food "to go", which was a 45 minute wait, which I noticed a lot of families did.  (Everything is cash only, FYI.)  There's a children's play area with tons of tables, so people brought their food out there.

The long wait didn't deter us (although JC and Dan will tell you I did devolve into a hangry state for a bit).  We took M to the playground (she loved doing the slide over and over!) and I got to see if the Doctor was in his TARDIS... he must have been eating ribs.

Once we were seated, we ordered right away to chow down!  All of us adults indulged in Thurman's Choice plates with brisket, pork ribs, and sausage.  I had a double helping of the potato salad (one scoop substituted for slaw, which isn't my thing) and they bring you pickles and bread if you ask.  I'd eaten at the Salt Lick in Round Rock on a visit back in 2011, so I was excited to eat at the original.  The brisket was outstanding as I remembered, and the potato salad doesn't have mayonnaise from what I can tell; it's more of their yellow BBQ sauce than anything.  But I think this trip my favorite was the sausage!  I couldn't get enough of it.

Dan watched M while JC and I went to check out their big open pit.  LOOK AT THE MEAT.  I mean, hello.  Amazing.  Welcome to Texas.  Thank you, ma'am.

Me and JC

What better way to start our Austin vacation?

Bell's Brewery (and more)

Bell's Brewery is pretty much one of the original kings of the rise of craft brewing.  That's how I'd describe it.  They've been selling their own beer since 1985, and with the expansion of their facilities in Comstock, they're staged to be the #5 producer of craft beer in the country pretty soon!  (I think they're #7 now.)

We rented a car and headed about an hour south from Grand Rapids to visit Bell's.  It had snowed a lot, so the crowds were light. Our tour of their original brewing space was a private one as we were the only two there for it!  But we really enjoyed the Eccentric Cafe.

Eccentric Cafe

There are so. many. beers. on tap at the brewery that you'll never see for sale anywhere else.  The HUGE beer menu was two pages, and we focused on the ones we could only get there.  You could seriously sample beers all day and not get through them without getting wasted.  It's a true destination, well worth the trip.

Oh, and I also ordered a bunch of food for us to share.  Bacon lollipops, served with BBQ sauce.  Crab cakes.  Soft pretzel bites.  And my favorite, the Ploughman's Board with charcuterie, cheeses, and more.  I'm not the beer aficionado in the family, but I can appreciate how it complements good food.

The tour at Bell's is FREE of charge!  Just sign up on the clipboard before you head into the taproom or restaurant.  There's also still a home brewing shop combined with a gift shop where you can purchase t-shirts and other merch.

Bell's Brewery Tour (Kalamazoo)

Dan's friend LC moved from Nashville to Kalamazoo to work for Bell's, and she and her boyfriend met up with us to head over to Bell's facility at Comstock, where the majority of the beer is now brewed.  (Note: The tours of that facility are free too, so beer lovers make sure you plan the extra stop!)

Comstock

I was absolutely in awe of the facility at Comstock.  I've never seen a brewery at that size and scale!  It was incredibly clean and high-tech and efficient.  The pallets of cans waiting for beer alone were impressive to me!  It was a really great tour, and such a contrast with the small breweries I'm used to touring now that I'm married to beer Dan.

I need to go to Traverse City

Beer Cans

Bottling and Boxing

Our gang!

After leaving Kalamazoo, we headed back to Grand Rapids for dinner.  We grabbed a delicious bite at The Green Well, then grabbed our last beer of the trip at Brewery Vivant.  (Check out my past post about visiting these two places here.)

Our trip to Michigan was awesome.  One long weekend just wasn't enough!  We've talked about taking a week's vacation to Traverse City and western Michigan when the weather gets better.  It's just such a unique area, and it's awesome.  Now to plan our next trip there someday soon...