I came to the conclusion this week that I'm deeply tired of that pause from the pleasure of eating out that's inescapable when the let-me-get-a-shot-of-that-before-you-take-a-bite routine kicks in. So I plan to give it a bit of a break. While at the same time giving a break to family and friends who [...]
Hops. Where would beer be without them? They add not only that distinctive floral-citrus-resiny flavor to the hop-heavy ales many of us in the Northwest love, but as a backbone of the beer-making process they contribute to the characteristic aroma of beer and act as a sort of preservative to help [...]
It's funny, much as I usually abhor ruts and routine, I can be quite the creature of habit sometimes. Which, in the case of visiting the San Juan Islands in the Northwest corner of Washington state, comes in the form of me heading 99.9% of the time to Orcas, dating back to trips [...]
A couple of months ago I had been at a late afternoon gathering on the 100-foot level of the Space Needle (celebrating the launch of Check Please!, to be exact) and had a short walk from there to a dinner date downtown. Somewhere around 4th and Denny I saw a few tourists [...]
The view from my balcony at Cannery Pier Hotel, the Hwy 101 bridge crossing the Columbia It had been a good 15 to 20 years or so since my last trip to Astoria. So I was especially happy when an invitation came through from the Oregon Albacore Commission and the [...]
OK, so yes, it is just about 9:00 in the morning as I start writing this. And yes, it's true, I do have an icy, well-shaken martini on my mind. But not because I'm blurring the lines between "breakfast hour" and "cocktail hour." But because I'm thinking about [...]
Much as I like to think I'm an organized person, inevitably there are trips when I realize too late something that I failed to pack. Usually remedying the problem just takes a trip to the drug store for some toothpaste, or relying on the room's alarm clock rather than my favorite [...]
I can tell by my watch that it's salmon season! Well, okay. Not exactly by my watch. But by the fact that the harbinger of the seasonal openings--Copper River--has launched and that means that commercial openings begin peppering the region, bringing in freshly-caught wild salmon from throughout the Northwest. What [...]
Welcome back, Mr. Smith! I was wondering what had come of you..... About this time last year I was working on a feature article for Horizon Airlines Magazine recounting the lives and times of Northwest tea companies. It's a story impossible to tell without the name of Steven Smith coming up. [...]
I always loved summer camp as a kid. For many summers my folks dropped me off at Camp Killoquah north of Everett for a week of canoeing, swimming, archery, making sand candles, singing camp songs. I can't remember much about what I did last month, or the name of someone [...]