It doesn't take much to motivate me to hop on the train and head south to Portland. Though some motivations are more pronounced than others. As was the case last week when rock-star butcher Dario Cecchini was in town. Soon as I'd heard word of his pending visit a few months [...]
“So, do you want to maybe go to Germany today?” Anne-Marie asked us. Not your usual breakfast time cconversation but it's one of the benefits of spending time in the Alsace region of France. Taking a brief drive to have lunch in Germany is a fully realistic option. And we [...]
Sometimes the impromptu things end being the best, right? The last-minute let's-go-out-for-dinner plans with friends who also happen to be available? That's the spirit behind next weekend's Gourmet Game Night gathering on Orcas Island at Allium restaurant in Eastsound. Sunday night October 16 during happy hour (5:30 to 6:30), I'll [...]
After a particularly hectic, demanding, tiring summer, we were in need of a quick and relaxing get-away late last month. Though the Seattle-area has loads of regional escape plans that radiate out from the city--Whidbey Island, Walla Walla, the ocean coast, Port Townsend, Hood Canal--I wanted to be unwinding sooner than [...]
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 [...]
I wrote last summer about the sometimes-conundrum of how much luggage space you can--or should--devote to games when you're traveling. It's similar to what happens in the "what to pack?" question for clothes, too, never know what the weather's going to be like, what mood I'll be in any given evening [...]
It's a rather odd phenomenon that occurs when involved in a conference as intensive and engaging as that of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, which just wrapped up this weekend in Austin. The days are long, from that first sip of coffee each morning, chatting with tablemates before heading to the day's [...]
I sit here at my desk, typing away while looking at the now-sunny Seattle sky, seagulls passing, Olympics peaks just beyond view in the distance. A few days ago, I was working on this same laptop from my desk in the 45th floor hotel room I was staying in, midtown Manhattan, a view of countless [...]
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 [...]
Home again, home again jiggity jog...... What a trip that was, three weeks so full and enriching and reviving that it felt like we were gone for two months. So I suppose we got our money's worth. And our time's worth. But it's great to be home. Another sign of [...]