Willamette Valley & Seattle
 

In mid-October DH and I took a mixed business and pleasure trip to the Willamette Valley of Oregon and to Seattle/Tacoma. This is one of the few major tourist areas of the US I'd never been to and had wanted to see for a long time. It did not disappoint.

We spent 8 days, half in Willamette and half in Seattle. We got a bad start when NWA canceled our original flight and rebooked us to arrive about 8 hours later than planned. A flight delay made us later yet so we spent our first night just outside the Portland airport rather than in the valley. But it meant we didn't need to backtrack to get to our first destination--Beaverton Oregon to see my husband's relative living there in a delightful assisted living place with a creek running through the property. She's either approaching or just beyond 90 and loves her place. I can see why. She has a deck overlooking the creek and there were ducks swimming among the lovely yellow weeping willows. Actually one of the nicest places we were on the whole trip. We also had a lovely lunch with her at Hall St. Grill in Beaverton. Nice ambiance, a nice bottle of bubbly, fine food, and a wonderful time with a wonderful lady. It's great to start a trip with a visit to a favorite relative who renews your faith in the merits of a long and healthy life. Gives you perspective for what's to come.

What was to come was pretty nice too. We stayed at Youngberg Hill near McMinneville, recommended on this site. Thanks to all who have done so. It was perfect. Great views, great breakfasts, nice rooms, very good wines. We were joined by folks from a company my husband consults with some of whom also stayed at Youngberg Hill while others stayed at Mattie House and at the new Relais and Chateau place--something like Walnut Hill. The group of worked mornings in a lovely get together room at Youngberg Hill and then we had picnic lunches, once from deli stuff I gathered in a trip to McMinneville and environs, and once catered by Fresh Palate Cafe. Latter was terrific including fresh homemade tomato, dill soup and fantastic macaroons covered with chocolate almost like a mounds bar. MMMMM. For a small group Youngberg Hill offers a terrific place to hold an off-site business meeting.

After work, the group managed to tour several wineries and tasting rooms. Best among them were Anne Ami, Cuneo, Carlton Winemakers Studio, Rex Hill, Argyle, Torii Mor, and Domaine Drouhin. Since we were there during the workweek, we had to limit our visits to places open then. Weekends afford more options and Thanksgiving weekend the most of all. Happy to answer questions about any of these places.

The group reserved ahead for dinners and enjoyed all of our picks--Tina's in Dundee (excellent food and nice, nearly private room for a large group like ours), Nick's in McMinneville--the diner type place on the main street that serves 5 course prix fixe $42 Italian dinners, recognized in an article in Saveur magazine. Everything was good but the best was their signature lasagne of mile Italian sausage and caramelized onions. Rich beyond belief and worth it, so worth it. Last dinner was at Bistro Maison, also in downtown McMinneville, ok but next time I think I'd opt for Cuvee in Carlton instead.

Wines were fantastic. Tastes usually required a small tasting fee, around $5 per person per place, though they don't care if people share. All in all this was a wonderfully relaxing part of the trip.

While the rest of our group returned to their respective homes for the weekend, my husband and I moved on to Seattle. We stayed at Inn at the Market where I'd gotten a great $155 per room rate on Orbitz. The hotel couldn't have been nicer--nice furnishings both in the largish rooms and in the lobby, outdoor roofgarden with views over the water and the harbor, great location a half block from Pike's Place Market and right in the heart of downtown. The hotel has two excellent restaurants associated--Campagne, one of the best high end places in town and Cafe Campagne, a very authentic French bistro where I scored a cassoulet before we'd been in town more than a half hour. I love that stuff and had it a second time for brunch on Sunday. Now that's a brunch.

We walked all over and took the street car to the International (Chinatown area) since we had near perfect weather with only a drizzle on our last day. Saw Pike's Market--in fact walked through it at least once and sometimes multiple times each day. Walked along the harbor to Edgewater Hotel with National Park like decor. Took an interesting harbor cruise. Took in Pioneer square, International Market area, Union station, King station, Seattle center area with the space needle and even better the exterior of the Frank Gehry designed Experience Music project with its colored metal skin in green/gold and pink/purple. Took the monorail and explored the downtown area. We wanted to take the Sounder train to Tacoma but learned to late that it doesn't run during the weekend so wound up taking a bus to my favorite thing--the new Tacoma Glass museum with the bridge of glass by native son Dale Chihuly. Love it. Very worth seeing. In fact, I expect you could easily spend a day there since there are several other museums nearby in the university area by the industrial area.

Glad you enjoyed your trip out here! Nice to hear that the delayed start did not interfere much.

While in Seattle, we ate well:
Shanghai Garden was ok but not as good as our Access Guide suggested it would be.
Cafe Compagne by the hotel as already mentioned was terrific. Very authentic French bistro food.
Anthony's 66 directly on the harbor was cool looking and provided pacific razor clams, something you don't see on every menu. Good place.
Cutters, also on the water, is hard to get into so be sure to book ahead. Apparently they're a bit uneven but they were very on when we went. I had excellent mahi-mahi with crab stuffing and basmati rice.
Sea Garden restaurant in Chinatown/International Market area was really good. Much better than Shanghai Garden. We tried fish maw and duck soup which I followed with some of the sweetest shrimp and scallops I've ever had served with veggies. Place is prettier than most Chinese restaurants and actually had some selections on its wine list.
Compagne, now they have an excellent wine list. We had a Chateau Pibernon Rose, a favorite that we usually just can't find outside Bandol area of France. Food hit spectacular highs but also some mediocre notes which you'd hope wouldn't happen when you pay as much as this place costs. Nonetheless the highs did provide ample basis for understanding why the place has such a good reputation.
Il Bistro was about as a romantic as a place gets. It's right below Pike's Market and feels kind of cave like with dark rooms and candlelight. Food is nominally Italian based. We had a great gogonzola salad with romaine and arugula and an ok NW salmon (my fault for not telling them I wanted it rare? or theirs for not asking?) Wlso had a good antipasto platter and cioppino with lots of crab. Overall, a good place.

We were scheduled to leave Seattle on October 24, bound for Ft. Lauderdale via Memphis. We wound up getting rerouted to Minneapolis-St. Paul and riding out Wilma there before finally returning to FLL November 3 after electricity had come back to our condo.

Willamette and Seattle. Great destinations. Great trip. We enjoyed ourselves a lot. Happy to answer any questions.

Sounds wonderful, thanks for the report! We were in the wine country this summer (just for an afternoon and lunch at Dundee Bistro.) We really enjoyed the Pinot Noir that Domaine Drouhin and Arhcery Summit are producing. Cheers! ***kim*** ((#))