Lake County Wine Tasting

Day 3


Moth on Lavender, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

Okay here's the post you've all been waiting for. Maybe not... but if you like wine, this is where it's at. Lake County is in northern California north of Napa County and east of Mendocino County. The lake itself and the volcanic soil in the area conspire to create a very nice wine growing region for a variety of grapes.

The first stop was at Brassfield Estate Winery. The wines were okay, but the grounds were impressive. They had olive trees and lavender bushes everywhere. We went through a tasting and then moved along to our next destination, Ceàgo Vinegardens.



Ceàgo was absolutely amazing and in my opinion the jewel of the bunch. They were showing off their biodynamic methods of growing things, including pumpkins, peppers, lavender, walnuts, olives, and even chickens and sheep. Inside they sold olive paste, honey, lavender oil, and of course wine. P-Ju and I teamed up to taste some of their wines and I think this is where things started to get slightly fuzzy for me. Fortunately I have pictures to help me remember the rest of the day.



After Ceàgo I *think* we went to Tulip Hill Winery where we continued to taste wines. They had nice grounds, but really it's going to be difficult to beat Ceàgo, which had prime real estate on the lakeshore and the greatest variety of agriculture.

We decided to head into town for lunch. After lunch, we visited Steele, where the guy was extremely informative. I tasted a carbonated red wine there that I liked. I also got a free wine glass with my tasting. After this last tasting, I was a bit buzzed, to say the least. Some of us wanted to head back to the resort and others wanted to continue touring.



I was among the group heading back. There was a large wildfire on one of the mountains that prevented us from taking a straightforward route back. We had my dad's GPS, but we couldn't really figure out how to tell it that we needed to detour. We could figure out how to change it to an Australian female accent and Meryl and I giggled a lot about the hilarity and hijinks that ensued.

That night I really don't remember what I ate for dinner... or if there was a dinner. I woke up feeling a little dried out and shakey the next morning... but certainly hadn't learned my lesson yet.

- Andy

Welcome to Clear Lake / Clear Lake State Park

Day 2

While I was in Clear Lake I decided not to waste too much time on the computer posting to my blog, so I maintained a "pre-blog" of notes to remind me what happened each day.

Clearlake Sunset, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

After the sun set on Saturday night, the entire family packed into vehicles and drove a few miles to the nearest ice cream parlor, Foster's Freeze. The people working there were a bit surprised to see such a large group, but were ultimately able to serve us well. I had a small vanilla ice-cream cone since I was still suffering from jet-anorexia.



After getting back from ice cream, I was exhausted from my day of travel. I went back to my cabin and hit the sack. I woke up at 6am the next morning and tried to make some coffee, but realized I had left the coffee in my parents' cabin the day before. Not only that, but I didn't have any coffee filters or cups! I waited until about 7:30 to go knock on their door. My mom offered me some instant coffee and a substantial breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast.

After getting acclimated to my surroundings at the resort, we drove around the south end of the lake to Clear Lake State Park. We had heard there was a beach at the park and most of the Bartons love to swim. In reality, the beach was gravelly and the lake had been named by somebody with a sense of humor -- it was anything but clear. There is a slight algae problem in Clear Lake, and today was a prime example. Near the edge of the water, there was a green film on top. Out by the ropes that marked the edge of the swimming area was a thick mat of seaweed / algae. Despite this, several people did end up wading out into the water to play catch.

A small family of mule deer stopped by to drink from the lake. Dad said they were the skinniest mule deer he'd ever seen and I daresay I concur with that assessment. I photographed the doe and two fawns before they wandered back into the brush.



After leaving the park, we stopped by Kelseyville for lunch. I had a great turkey sandwich before we all headed back to the resort. My aunt PT had been marinating some flank steaks and Rob the Elder bought some corn on the cob that was boiled. The steaks were grilled to perfection and sliced with surgical precision.

That evening we chatted by the picnic area and then played some Wii in Michael's palace. The weather provided another spectacular sunset before I retired for the night.



- Andy

I must be in California!

Clearlake Sunset, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

I arrived in San Francisco at ~12:30pm on Saturday. My parents had spent Friday night there, so they picked me up at the airport and we began our 4 hour journey to Clear Lake. The drive through San Francisco took us right through the heart of the city and over the Golden Gate Bridge.

After battling the GPS and making a couple wrong turns, the 101 took us most of the way there. We stopped in the city of Clearlake for some supplies and then found the resort at around 5:00.

Lots of Bartons were already there! The Bartons are my family from my mother's side. They are from all over the country. from Philadelphia to Seattle, San Diego to St. Louis. The family really goes all out for these reuinions. The kids were splashing in the pool because it was very hot on Saturday. I said my hellos to everyone and it was good to see those who had arrived.

Uncle John got some coals going on the grills and we made some burgers for dinner. After that, some light clouds blew in and the sunset was absolutely amazing! This week is going to be fun.

Photos:

The 7:56 to San Francisco

Welcome to Clear Lake

- Andy

Chili

Chili, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

Cooking night (Sunday) arrived with no plans in mind, so Isabelle suggested one of my old standbys, turkey and hot Italian sausage chili! This is pretty simple, we just take some hot Italian sausage and peel off the casing, mix with ground turkey (let's say 2 lbs of each) and then cook that in a splash of olive oil until it's not pink anymore with some cajun seasoning. Add some green pepper, chili pepper, and onions and cook it until the onions are translucent. Then add garlic and cook it for a couple minutes. Then you need to add some tomatoes, I use 2 28oz cans of chopped tomatoes with all the juice... Are you with me?



Tomatoes, garlic, onions, peppers, that's all good... but it's not chili. So we need to add about 4 tablespoons of chili powder and another tablespoon of cumin. Now it's chili. But it's still not what I'm after... so let's go ahead and pour in 2 bottles of Harp Lager. Oh baby.



Just bring that up to a boil, then down to a simmer and stir it a lot for an hour or more... until it thickens up and you get some chili. Chop up some cilantro and shred some Monterrey Jack cheese. Put that on top of the bowl when you serve it and you've got a tasty snack! I like to eat it with those "hint of lime" chips.

- Andy

Chillin' like a Villain

San Francisco and Clearlake are just a week away! I'll be posting every day during my travels, hopefully. For now I've got something else to write about. I finally got my jeep fixed, there was a problem with the engine idle air control motor that was causing the thing to stall out and drive poorly for the last year at least. Other, lesser mechanics were unable to figure it out. Finally I took it to Ashland and Lawrence in Chicago and they sorted it out. They also replaced the ball joints, a tie rod end, did the breaks, replaced rotors in front, an exhaust gasket, an O2 sensor, crank sensor, and some other stuff... well fine... it works now, that's all I care about.

Jeep


Jeep, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

On Monday night I drove my newly functioning jeep home under cover of ominous clouds and decided to make some shrimp etouffee. Isabelle had thoughtfully (or hungrily?) chopped all the vegetables and peeled the shrimp, setting aside the shells for stock. All I had to do was cook it up. I started with the shrimp stock by putting a dash of olive oil in a pan and heating it up, then adding the shrimp shells and toasting them until they had all turned red. To that, I added the typical stock aromatic veggies and spices (celery, onions, bay leaves, black pepper corns, li'l salt, li'l thyme, oregano, parsley, tarragon) brought it to a boil, took it down to a simmer for 30 minutes and there we go.



While that's going on, I put a stick of butter in another pan and heated it up to just before it starts turning brown. Then I added some flour and stirred for 15 minutes or so until I had a light roux. Then I added celery, onions, and bell peppers to the roux and cooked that a little before adding a ton of garlic and then cooked until everything wilted a little, after that I added some chopped tomatoes.



Cook that for a little bit and add some cajun seasoning, salt, pepper, cayenne, and a couple bay leaves before adding in the shrimp stock and then Bring that cauldron to a boil and then down to a simmer for a couple hours and it will turn into etouffee!



Serve that over white rice and everyone's happy! While I was cooking in the kitchen with the window open, those ominous clouds exploded into a serious storm. Apparently there were more lightning strikes in that storm than we normally get in 6 months. The city activated its tornado sirens which was amazing and scary... Through it all, I cooked on!

On Tuesday I drove around the park to survey the damage.



- Andy

Lincoln Park & Magnificent Mile

This week I had no plans and wasn't on call, so I decided to spend a day exploring some of the parts of Lincoln Park that I haven't really seen before.

Lincoln Park is Chicago's main urban park, similar to New York's Central Park or San Diego's Balboa Park. At 1200 acres, it matches Balboa Park in size and dwarfs New York's 800 acre Central Park. Needless to say, there's a lot to cover and it's difficult to see everything. Driving on Lake Shore Drive toward the Loop, I have always noticed a totem pole near Addison Street. Fortunately for me, there are a couple of buses that go from my apartment along Marine Drive (the frontage road along the park) so I took one of them to Irving Park and began my tour.



The first order of business when I got off the bus was to find something to eat. There was a hot dog stand over by the Waveland Clock Tower, so I got a Chicago dog and a Coke and sat under a tree between the lake and the tower and ate my snack. The Waveland Clock tower was built in 1931 and restored in 1990. I really like the ivy climbing up the 7 story tower. The clocks were all wrong and reading different times.

After wandering around the tower a few times, I walked to Belmont Harbor and then back to the totem pole. The totem pole is a replica of the original which was placed in 1928 and stood until 1985. On top is a thunderbird, in the middle is a whale with a man riding on its back, and on the bottom is a sea monster. This replica was made by Tony Hunt of Fort Rupert, British Columbia. After looking at the totem pole, I got back on the bus and rode to Fullerton



At Fullerton Avenue, Lincoln Park has the Nature Museum, the Lincoln Park Conservatory, and the Lincoln Park Zoo. I wandered through the *hot* and *humid* conservatory for a bit before entering the zoo. Both of these attractions are free all year round! After walking around the zoo for an hour or so, I walked out the south entrance and through the southern end of Lincoln Park. Finally I ended up on Michigan Avenue, AKA The Magnificent Mile. I walked all the way to Randolph Street and then hopped on a bus home to Argyle.



- Andy