Vancouver weather

Ahhhh, the blessing of Conrad!

There's a quirk to our frequent travel back west that manifests itself in unusually fine weather in this rainy, grey, wet west coast city. Conrad is responsible, we have decided. Oh, he's seen rain and snow here - heavy frost here the past few days as well. Generally speaking, though, his experience of Vancouver is sunshine and little else. The people here should be pleased that he visits so often!

Dinner is on, though it's a little while until Marie gets home from work. Conrad and I have had a busy day of personal business, shopping, swimming, lunch, more shopping, a nap, and now sorting through everything that will need to come back to Canada with us. Good luck to us! Christmas shopping, you know! Anyway, we've got a nice bit of cheese from the market and a loaf of fig and anise bread to go with it. Chicken is braising on the stove with dried morels, and I have Brussels sprouts on standby. I hope that tonight I do not burn myself as I did the other night (though the halibut on cauliflower-saffron puree was tasty). While cooking is on the go without me, some photographic proof of the Conrad factor at work on Vancouver:

We drove into the city on a sunny (of course) Wednesday. Not as much snow on the mountains as there was a few days earlier, or so it seemed.




Yesterday (and again today) we awoke to dense fog in the downtown. Our "view" was rather constrained, though the last foggy shot hints of the sun about to burn off the fog before too long.

But cool out, definitely. Rather a wonderful day to get outside, stop for the excellent coffee at Safari,and then enjoy a lunch on Granville Island later on.Coconut squash soup = yummy!!

And another sunny day in the city, though looking east in the photo, one can see the remnants of today's fog.

Let's go to the mall(s)! Today.

Ah Jeph, introducing me (and, by extension, Conrad) to Robin Sparkles. There were a number of points on Tuesday when he and I burst into singing that line and more. We hid it from my parents as best we could.

Tuesday, before our return to Salmon Arm, we did, indeed, go to the mall. Mum and Roy don't get as far afield as Kelowna, at least not often, and I thought they might enjoy the wider selection of stores. Once the mall opened at 10, we began shopping - all of us. Conrad and I picked up a few things to keep at the condo in Vancouver, and we did a wee bit of Christmas shopping. We spent almost 4 hours there. Wow. Lunch was at Milestone's, a reliable chain.
My Thai chicken tacos were not anything close to dinner the night before, but the chicken and slaw were both tasty and light.In any case, both Mum and Roy quite liked it.

I wish I had photos of the drive back. Specifically, after we stopped for some produce at Swan Lake in Vernon,we took the back road through Silver Creek. The late afternoon sun lent the valley a warm glow, and if we weren't trying to get to Gort's Gouda in Salmon Arm before it closed for the day, we might have dawdled on the way home.

Once back in Salmon Arm, we dropped in at the... mall. Yep. Needed to get those Coffee Crisp to bring back to Chicago, you know. Anyway, we'd already been there the morning before for a browse (scoring some knives, of all things - my favourite make!) and Mum and Roy's regular coffee time at Chester's. We behaved and did not have cinnamon buns!


On schedule for today in Vancouver? Oh, likely a visit to Pacific Centre. Yep, a downtown mall. I really am very smalltown BC, aren't I?

Old Vines Restaurant

Friday morning already? I'm getting behind on this blogging thing. Ack!

Hopping in the wayback machine, taking a ride all the way back to... Monday night. Dinner in Westbank at the Old Vines Restaurant, Quail's Gate winery. Four years ago we had dinner there with Megan and Paul at the end of a summer day of wine tasting,and as Quail's Gate is a winery we particularly like, we were (of course) glad to go back. Did I mention that it's an Opentable.com establishment?

;-)

Mum and Roy in tow, we settled in to a quiet dining room.

On to the food, and Mum and Roy each started with a bowl of the soup of the day, a roasted tomato puree with creme fraiche. Yes, I'm too lazy to add in the diacritics.

Conrad's bitter greens: Little Creek arugula, frisee, radicchio, roasted local pumpkin, Carmelis Farm goatgonzola, spiced pecans, pear and star anise dressing

My pan seared wild diver scallops with white beans and bacon, Stoney Paradise Farm cipolini marmalade, warm bacon vinaigrette

Roy's free run chicken “Coq a u Vin”: Pinot Noir braised north Okanagan chicken leg, lardons, pearl onions, button mushrooms, Yukon potato purée, and some Brussels sprouts that were so lightly cooked that Roy would not stop going on about how raw they were. To hear it once, fair enough. To hear it all through the main course and on into dessert? A little much, sorry to say.

Dining with the parents proved challenging with Mum's dinner choice as well, for she opted to have the duck Napoleon appetizer as her meal. Before she ordered, she said to Roy she wasn't sure about ordering it because she feared the duck would be rare since that's how it's done nowadays. Still, she ordered it, and rare it was. Cold, smoked, rare. She gave it all to me, ate the greenery, and refused any offer of my fish. I love my parents, but the main course was a little trying for all of us, i think. The duck was delicious, by the way.

Conrad's grilled wild Pacific spring salmon with roasted Second Wind Farm beets with fennel, Pinot Noir reduction. I should mention that Mum drank no wine, while I had only one glass because I was driving. Roy's taste veers to off-dry whites (which I can totally appreciate), and that left Conrad to have his beloved Pinot Noir. The wine list mentioned the Family Reserve, but not by the glass. Still, no harm asking, right? Happily, the waiter had noted an opened bottle, so he brought us the remains. It made for a generous glass for Conrad - more than a full pour) and enough for me as well. Better still, he charged us for one glass only. By the time of Conrad's meal, he had downgraded to the "regular" Pinot Noir that was more readily available, and as the wine pairs so well with salmon, which he loves, his dinner choice was simple.

My BC sablefish: roasted fillet, smoked black cod potato brandade, cauliflower fondue. I'm really into cauliflower lately, it seems, and add in salt cod, and I was quite delighted.

None of us took dessert wines, though I had a latte (and Conrad was fascinated by the spoon design).

Mum, Conrad, and I shared a plate of five local cheeses. No, I can't name them all save to recall that the blue was from Poplar Grove, a winery/cheesery (fromagerie?) on the Naramata Bench.

Roy forgot the Brussels sprouts as we mowed through three creme brulees: pistachio, honey vanilla, and chocolate espresso. The middle of the three was his favourite.

And that was our "gourmet" meal for the trip. We've dined more simply since, though well enough, definitely. Anyway, it's only Friday at breakfast time - we'll see what more we dine on before we leave for home tomorrow.

3 Kelowna wineries

Still much to blog, and we're only at breakfast on our second day in the Okanagan. The mall (yes, the mall - let's go to the mall, everybody!) opens in an hour and a half, so we've got a bit of time to get more photos up. And heck, isn't it better to read about our latest jaunt west in nice, digestible bits? (And as it turns out, I'm adding the photos to this on Thursday morning in Vancouver)

Part of the point of this expedition to Kelowna was to visit some wineries, and we managed to get to three on the east side of Okanagan Lake yesterday. It was a pleasant afternoon for a drive, though we might have liked it a bit sunnier. Ah well.

Up first: Cedar Creek. We'd had their wines before in restaurants, and thought they were nice. That's faint praise, I know, and to be honest, I don't know that we had ever had their better wines, truly. Still, the name is an appealing one, and we wanted to visit it, so at about 2:30 we pulled up to the winery shop on its hillside perch.



Once inside, Conrad, Roy, and I opted to pay to taste the higher end wines. The result? A few purchases. The 2005 Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir, the 2005 Estate Select Chardonnay, and the 2005 Estate Select Syrah. Roy found them a bit dry, so he opted out of the pricier tastings and went for the more basic ones before settling on a bottle of a Dry Riesling to purchase. We also bought an inexpensive red blend in case we wanted something to sip back at the hotel after dinner (we didn't, though). A successful first stop.

Since it was nearby, we thought we'd pop in at St Hubertus next. We really didn't know their wines well, but heck, why not? One of the co-owners (as it turned out) greeted us in the driveway - he was on duty at meeting visitors and opening the shop for them. A November Monday is not a busy time for visitors at Okanagan wineries, though it is a busy time for the winery workers otherwise. We were delighted to get to come in and see the rebuilt facility - the fires of a few years ago hit some of these wineries hard, and we could see the skeletons of trees up above.



As for the wines, well, we didn't enjoy them as much as we did the ones at Cedar Creek, to be honest. They seemed lighter, thinner, less complex. Still, Roy again liked the Dry Riesling enough to buy it, and I bought one as well. Conrad and I also purchased a Pinot Meunier in part because it's unusual to find such a wine.

We didn't think we would go to any other wineries for the rest of the afternoon, but on the way back into the city we caught sight of the Summerhill pyramid and detoured slightly to drop in there.


The winery has a terrific view of the lake, and a restaurant taking advantage of that. I think Roy and even Conrad were already a bit tired of tasting, and I have to concede that neither the Pinot Noir Conrad tasted nor the Merlot Roy appealed to any of us. Conrad's Pinot was funky, and not in the desirable way. Roy's Merlot tasted cooked - like it had been kept warm too long. I liked the Cipes Pinot Noir Brut (a rose sparkling wine) enough to buy it, decided against the Ehrenfelser (too cloying), and bought a bottle of the 2005 Enchanted Vines Solus Foch. Interesting smokiness to the wine, so I thought it would be fun to crack open one night down the road.

And with that, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for dinner. I don't think we'll get to any wineries today, but with the haul from yesterday afternoon plus a few bottles from the winery we dined at last night, we're nicely set for at least a few days here!

See Jeph?

We do eat junk food on rare occasion.

You can pick your jaw up off the floor now.

No, I'm not in the photos, so there's no "blackmail" material floating around out there. Rest assured, though, Conrad was not the only one enjoying the A&W (are there even any A&W restaurants in the US anymore????) onions rings. Breaded. They rock, seriously. And they rock even more for being served in a bilingually labeled bag.Rondelles, indeed! This was in Merritt, I should say, en route to Salmon Arm. A town of 7088 in the 2001 census, and of that number, 175 spoke French as a first language, and 20 others were bilingual. Happily, they, too, could order and enjoy the rings!

some people never change...

...and thank goodness for it!

Blogging a bit out of chronological order here, but I'm sure you'll all cut me some slack. I have a few photos still from yesterday, but I did want to get Ray's photos up before too long.

Ray is someone I've known for about 15 years from back home. Way back in about 1993 he took a fat young guy (me - and yes, I was fat, about 90 pounds heavier than I am right now) and somehow instilled in him an appreciation and enjoyment of activity. As if that were all he did, though. Ray is simply a very rare person, someone who takes each person on their merits and makes his judgment based on that. No generalizations based on the person's background or self-identification. It's a remarkable quality in a person, and I am glad to know him for it.

It's been too many years since last we saw each other. A few near misses when I've been in Salmon Arm and the area, but otherwise, it's been several years since last I saw him. I think it may have been 5 years since we managed a coffee in Kamloops on a snowy late December morning. 1 hour in the last ten years. Not enough.

Before Conrad, Mum, Roy, and I set out for Kelowna this morning, we stopped by Ray's new running gear store, Cool Running, in Salmon Arm. From the sounds of it, it's been a welcome business in the community, and I hope his success there endures. Meanwhile, he and I had a lot of running and swimming chit chat to catch up on as well as the Terrace gossip. Plus, he'd never met Conrad before, though others in his family and extended family had.

Dinner with Ray tomorrow night in Salmon Arm and more catching up on tap. How nice to do so on this all-too-short visit back west.

snowy Lions

So here I sit on a bed at the Holiday Inn Express in Kelowna, contented with a good dinner at the Old Vines Restaurant - to be blogged later - and keen to post some photos from our trip so far. Ready? Shall we?

I've veiled the truth slightly on the blog for a little while now. Every time I talk about staying with my sister, well, we have, indeed, stayed with her. What was not said but many know is that my sister lives in the second home we purchased earlier this year in Vancouver. So, yes, all the views are ours, and she just kind of takes care of them for us while we're at home in Chicago.

One of the key things to sell us on the home were the views. Much of what lies between us and the views of the North Shore mountains are the low buildings of Chinatown, many of them protected heritage buildings. Better still for us, we are in the middle of a city-designated view cone: no new construction will be permitted above a certain height, and our views will be preserved because of that. We are truly glad when we wake up to sights like this - fresh snow on the mountains. Wow. Winter dusts the North Shore peaks, and the Lions, the two prominent humps, are two snowy sentinels over the city.



No snow in Vancouver itself, or in Salmon Arm or Kelowna. We did encounter some on the ground and the road as we hit the two summits on the Coquihalla, though. Otherwise, it was just mountaintops gleaming with fresh new snow. This one, near Chilliwack, reminded us of a horse's head.

Life isn't back to normal yet

So, in the past week

• Conrad has returned from Honolulu;
• Conrad has gone to Fort Collins, CO;
• Conrad has returned from Fort Collins;
• Dion visited from New Zealand;
• I have dined out at Frontera Grill and Yoshi's and otherwise tried to use up things in the fridge before we go away;
• I have been in the pool 6 times - wow!

Nope, nothing is normal. Conrad and I strolled down to Whole Foods after swim practice this morning, and as we walked, holding hands, making our usually googly-eyes at each other, we both confessed that we very badly want some time in our home to be together. It will take two things:

1. effort - readjustment time and the like
2. no travel

The second one is easier for me than for him - he heads off to the Bay Area early in December for more work. I can't begrudge him that, of course. Look at the perks:

• Sweden (2002)
  
  
• Hawaii (2005)
  
  
  
• New Zealand (2007)
• lots of upgrades elsewhere.

Just the same, I am excited for the approach of December when we can get time at home together. And we can get the tree put up!

Meanwhile, it's packing this afternoon. Vancouver tonight with my sister, and by dinnertime tomorrow, we'll be in Salmon Arm to visit Mum and Roy, and Monday will find us wine tasting again in the Okanagan. Quail's Gate, here we come!

forgetful me

In among all the fun of catching up with Dion this week and getting to see (and sort of sleep in with this morning) Conrad after his several days of work in Hawaii, I utterly forgot about Rachel's birthday. In excusable, and I've been on the phone with her tonight, begging her pardon and promising a nice dinner here at our place in an effort to win my way back into her good graces. Consider this a belated happy birthday to her, and when Conrad and I are back from our trip to BC this coming week, we'll be sure to have her over and feed her well!

Frontera Grill, Dion's photos

Dion didn't take too many photos, but before he took off on his return trip to New Zealand, he left me these few.

Once again, then, his steak.

My goat. A bit salty and spicy, and a good match with the wine.

The apple and berry tartlet. Dion preferred this one.

The persimmon pudding. I preferred this one.

We're just back from catching up with friends at Yoshi's. Alas, we'll miss the 25th anniversary celebration next week while we're in BC. On the other hand, we're altogether excited about our 6th trip up there this year!

Frontera, before the camera battery died

Dion was back in town yesterday, arriving at our place earlier than expected - before I got home from work even. He tried ringing up to the apartment a second time a little while after I got home, and once I got round the front desk of the building telling me that "Theo" was here for me, I welcomed him into our home.

And almost immediately turned around to try snagging a dinner downtown at Frontera Grill. Not a bad wait for a spot - we arrived between 5:30 and 5:45, and were seated at the back counter by the kitchen at about 6:15. A bit of a different spot, but fun.

Things I learned last night: Dion does not care for tequila, and the Topolo margarita was too much for him. A little presumptuous of me to order one for him. Ooops.

Never mind, we got him back on track with a different cocktail, and then each of us had a glass of Pinot Noir to go with the quesadillas capitalinas and the flautas filled with pork picadillo. Jill recommended a half bottle of a Qupe Syrah to go with our meals, and it was a nice choice as well. Dion was sold on the carne asada - a big steak with an appealing amount of heat in the seasoning.

At that point, the camera battery died. Merde!

Dion took some shots with his camera, and I hope he will send them along so I can post the remains of dinner. The evening ended late - Conrad got in the door from Honolulu just before 11, and he wanted a light bite and some time to catch up with Dion as well.

Dion heads back to New Zealand later today. I'll head in to work before too long, after he's done getting ready to go. Come Friday (New Zealand time), he'll be back home with Minna and happy to be so, and then the two of them can begin their end of scheming for a return visit from us in 2009.

dinner and wine with Dion (and Korapat)

I am utterly wiped out. No, I lie. If I were wiped out, I wouldn't be blogging. Just the same, though, it's now two hours later than I've been up any other night this week. Worse (or better, in many ways), Dion and I shared too much wine this evening. Will I make it to swim practice in the AM?

Dion is in town for business, and it's a real treat being able to sit down and catch up with him over food and wine. Second opportunity this year, and he'll be back to spend the night at our place on Tuesday. Excellent! Conrad and I rank the New Zealand trip as, well, pretty much our best vacation ever, and we're keen to sow the seeds for a 2009 return.

Dion was accompanied by Korapat, who holds the same position Dion does in the Thailand/Indochina region of the company. I was dining with high level people tonight! But no, both Dion and Korapat were terrific dining companions. They've just spent the past few days in Kohler, and while that village is rather pretty, the dining is a bit, um, heavy/stodgy/hugely-portioned/well-intentioned/Wisconsonian. Sorry. It had to be said.

We had dinner at the Park Grill.
I thought it would offer a reasonable menu amidst some good Chicago surroundings. Too early in the year for the skating rink to be operational, but no matter. We had a good meal just the same. I was quite pleased with my scallops appetizer, with cauliflower (funny how I love that vegetable so much now but didn't care for it as a child) and truffles.The thyme-roasted halibut with lentils and oxtailwas not as good but still quite decent. We shared a bottle of a Pinot Noir and chatted amicably.

After that, the evening was ours. They were up for more wine or something, so I piled us into a cab and got us away from downtown. Both of them have seen the downtown before, so I got them up to Boystown and more wine and dessert at Yoshi's.
It's always a special thing to bring people to our regular place, and though we only had one dessert between us (while Korapat ate some edamame), Dion and I had a bottle of a New Zealand Pinot Noir that outshone the bottle at Park Grill.

I have a restaurant booked for Tuesday night, so stay tuned for that blog entry. Poor Conrad, due in at 10:30 that night. He'll barely get to visit with Dion on this trip, and he'll miss out on a nice meal. Ah well. He IS in Honolulu, remember!

grown up chocolate chip cookies

Conrad is in Hawaii for another week yet, and I'm, well, a little bored without him. So I rooted around in the baking staples cupboard and then searched online for some recipes and found these cookies. Essentially, they're a grown up chocolate chip cookie. Spiced, studded with candied ginger pieces. The dough tasted good.

Honestly? Hmmm. They may need some tinkering with. I read a comment on the recipe from someone who was put off by the butteriness. They are buttery. I tasted one fresh the oven in an early batch, and the butter was the first thing I noted. It's not a bad thing, but...

(and oh gosh, I'm eating carbs! the gym for me in the AM!)

I think that the cookies are better for being rolled and flattened so that they spread evenly and attractively. The early ones were more or less dropped, true to the recipe, and they're smaller clumps rather than broader discs. Live and learn.

They might make the cut for Christmas. They weren't at all difficult to make, so I'll taste-test them on co-workers tomorrow and go from there.

strolling, sailing

Goodness, what a remarkably beautiful day out yesterday. Conrad and I decided to play hooky, so to speak, and skip swim practice in favour of strolling out along the lakefront, coffees in hand. So sunny, cool temperatures but not too much breeze. As we rounded a bend into Belmont Harbor, we caught sight of a lessons in sailing being taught in the Harbor. No, I don't know what class of boat these are, but we enjoyed watching them for several minutes before continuing our gentle stroll off into the direction of Whole Foods.

Hill Country 2: hills and country

The wine tasting I mentioned really was just happy coincidence. Conrad and I did want to get out to see the Hill Country countryside itself, in fact. Given some gorgeous, pleasantly warm weather, we set out on the Saturday morning to the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Popular place. The parking lot had almost reached its limit an hour after we got there, and there were streams of people hiking up the rock. Still, we found space to ourselves and a nice sense of being alone.

Enchanted Rock is a pink granite dome. Well, there are better, geologically-correct explanations, but that's pretty much it: a bald dome of rock and some smaller granite formations.


We set out hiking.





In fact, we weren't well prepared for a hike. No sunscreen (that's why I'm all zipped up and capped), no proper footwear. We probably could have reached the summit, but we thought it wiser to take a different direction.

As it turns out, there were plenty of interesting rock formations to admire, especially against the stunning blue sky; our path was partly guided by a desire to get closer to some of them.







Also noteworthy was the flora: fairy ferns, prickly pears, and more.





A moment or two to rest and stretch out some,and then it was the hike back down to the shelter of the car and a drive to Llano for lunch.

Llano

I'll get to the Enchanted Rock photos tomorrow or Saturday. Sorry. A long day today, and I have to get ready to head down to Champaign very early (and not yet bright) in the morning.

I just posted about tasting the wines in Texas, but before we went to the festival, we spent a few hours on the road and on foot in the Hill Country. Lunchtime was in Llano, a smaller town than Fredericksburg, not too far a drive from it. We hunkered down at the Acme Cafe on the Square
and had a satisfying and inexpensive lunch of crab cake (Conrad) and burger (me). There weren't many shops to poke in, though Conrad found an interesting old technical book in a used book shop. We picked up a couple of coffees at a place called Fuel, roamed around the town square to admire the city hall, and then headed back to our home base. A brief visit, but pleasant just the same.

Hill Country 1: we're here for the wine, of course

Ah yes, a weekend spent in the Hill Country west of Austin, TX, getting to taste many great wines.

Just kidding. We drank no beer while there (and we kind of wish we hadn't tried the mead either). That shot is from our unfortunate dinner the first night there. It was food. That's all.

Back to happy thoughts! Conrad and I spent two restful nights in the Hill Country, and the visit did coincide with a wine festival in Fredericksburg, the town where we stayed. It's located in an area of the state noted for its wineries, and we were intrigued to try some while there. I flew in to Austin on the Friday afternoon, and by sunset we were in Fredericksburg, checking in to our B&B.
Das College Haus was a good choice for accommodation, and we were very comfortable in the Bunkhouse Suite, in a separate building out back of the main house. As you can tell, the room was large, and the weather agreeable.

Anyway, after a not-great dinner we made our way over to Lincoln St., a wine bar just off Main Street.We rather liked the place, the people working there, and the selection of wines. While there, we didn't confine ourselves to Texas wines, avoiding them outright, in fact. Among the cheeses on the cheese and olive plate was a mighty goodTexas chevre, though, in our defense.

We went home altogether content.

It was late the next morning - 8:15!!! - when we got up.

In the middle of Saturday afternoon, after some exploration of the area, we strolled the short distance to the wine festival in the town center.None of the wineries were familiar to us, save one or two names we'd already encountered the night before. It was so unknown, and kind of fun to just wing it and figure things out as we went along.

The truth? Most of it was OK or worse. I won't name names, and surely many people enjoyed the ones we didn't. The mead was an incredibly poor thing to start with (we didn't know it was only mead at that booth until we'd started talking to them), with the apple mead being so puckeringly sour. Ugh. There was a white blend the winery folk were pleased with. So sweet. Syrupy, in fact. We made sure to get the wine after chatting a bit, thank them, and wander off to taste and make way for others lining up to taste. Amen for that tactic because some of the wines were dumped almost immediately. The worst? A tempranillo that was so skunky to smell that I had to hold the glass as far from me as possible until I could reach the garbage can. Revolting.

But there were ones we found to be nice if unremarkable, and there were two we liked enough to buy a bottle each of. Sister Creek's Merlot was entirely drinkable, and we were glad to buy it. Better still was the Tre Colore from McPherson Wines. Conrad and I agreed that it was the best of all we tasted, and we look forward to sipping it one night, perhaps with a nice roast chicken dinner. We got a bit more of that one to sip, and wandered around the festival grounds from there.
Once done seeing the non-wine booths, we strolled in town a bit, admiring the lovely library building.

Dinner that night was on the recommendation of the B&B owner, bless her. It wasn't bad, but we have a feeling we just didn't get to the good restaurants - if any - in town. Never mind, it was a nice enough setting in the basement of what was the old hospital, and we had a table in one corner, affording us views of the other diners.We each had the salmon. It was fine, in fact, though the veggies were a bit too much. I'm quibbling. We both enjoyed it.

And then it was back to Lincoln St. with us. It was while we were on our first round - a non-Texas Pinot Noir - that the costumed folk started pouring in. It really was quite a funny sight, and not every customer there knew what to make of it or saw the humour, alas.



The night ended well with a handsome California Petit Sirah, and again, we were content.Another night of 9 hours of sleep! Unheard of two nights in a row!