It's OSF Opening Weekend Time Again

Every year at this time we make a pilgrimage to southern Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Opening Weekend. I feel so fortunate to be able to attend all of the plays, usually during three of four visits throughout the season and visit my family simultaneously. Unbelievably it’s been a year since my 50 States in ’08 post about the previous season opening.

The 2009 offerings at OSF did not disappoint. The four plays presented are drawn from opposite corners of the theatrical spectrum. Our first and my favorite was a full scale musical: The Music Man. This is not usual fare for OSF and I had concerns about the staging which were unfounded. It was a terrifically wild ride with superb dancing and singing from a company known more for its acting chops. Next up was Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl: a contemporary play with dark humor. Nobel prize winning Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman was a vivid epic offering insights into another culture. We ended the weekend with the Bard. OSF described their current production of Macbeth as a thriller. It’s fast paced and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

While my husband & I were entranced in the theater the rest of our group was enjoying other area opportunities.

Crater Lake National Park is 80 miles from Medford and is a spectacular destination year-round.

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Closer to home there are so many gourmet food options:
Rogue Creamery
Madrone Mountain Winery tasting room.
Lillie Belle Chocolates
Roxy Ann Winery
Schmidt Family Vineyards
Harry & David Country Store

And the not so gourmet, Jacksonville Tavern.

We enjoyed terrific meals at the house but ventured out to Omar’s Restaurant a local favorite and Carriage House at Nunan Estate.

It was a busy weekend and a good time for all of us. Even the dog and alpacas.

Goodbye 'til next time, Oregon!

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Thanks, Clare, for use of the terrific pictures.

Colusa County, California

My fifth California County visit was to Colusa County. Colusa was established in 1850 as one of the original 27 counties. The name comes from two Mexican land grants: Coluses (1844) and Colus (1854). Population is currently 18,804 in an area of 1,151 square miles.










I visited the county’s second largest city: Williams, despite the county seat being Colusa. Williams is located along Interstate 5, 70 miles north of Sacramento, and is known to many travelers as the site of Granzella’s restaurant. On October 11, 2007, Granzella's restaurant burnt down to the ground. It was Colusa County's second largest employer. Open since 1976, the restaurant, deli, sports bar and bakery has been a popular stop for travelers for 30 years. Granzella’s is family owned and also includes a 43-room motel. On July 21, 2008, Granzella's reopened. Read about it: http://www.sacbee.com/102/story/1097632.html. We enjoyed our lunch but had some concerns about the other patrons salvaged from the fire (see below…)

Another landmark restaurant in Williams is Louis Cairo’s. Around the corner from Granzella’s, Louis Cairo’s is THE place to go for prime rib and Italian food and is still operated by Louis’ family, now the third generation has the helm.

I was thrilled to read that the Williams Public Library has recently expanded their hours. They boast more than 7,000 titles and provide services to more than 4,000 visitors a year. So many libraries in rural communities are cutting back but this information hub seems to be hopping.

The first settler, William Bryant, came to Colusa County in 1846. I can’t find any proof that the city of Williams was named for him but I chose to believe so. The first hanging (presumably not of Mr. Bryant) was in 1856. The first newspaper, the Weekly Colusa Sun, was published in 1862 and the first telephone in the county was introduced in 1878.

Tehama County, California

Named for a local Native American tribe, Tehama County was established in 1856. A population of 56,039 resides in the 2,951 square miles. Tehama County lays approximately midway between Sacramento and the Oregon border. As a frequent traveler up and down the Interstate 5 corridor, I’ve transited through Tehama County dozens of times. Corning was a truck stop in the 1940’s. Today three travel centers bring in more than $500,000 in sales tax a year giving the city the highest sales tax revenue per capita in California. I rarely stop at the truck stop travel centers but enjoy the touristier Olive Pit with its olive tasting bar. Corning is known as “The Olive Capital of the World”. In 1897 mission olive trees were planted in the area, primarily for oil. As years passed more and different olives trees thrived and olive packing plants and mills opened. Home to the Corning Olive Festival in August and Bell Carter Olive Company (canner of Lindsay brand olives), Tehama County’s olives normally contribute about $12 million to the county’s fruit and nut industry, according to the county’s annual crop report. I’ve done my fair share of olive purchasing!

This visit to Corning I drove the additional one mile into the older downtown and visited the Corning Museum located at the Chamber of Commerce office. I enjoyed browsing through their treasure trove of artifacts and left weighted down with a bundle of brochures on area attractions.

Another less historical stop just south of Corning worth mentioning is the Rolling Hills Casino. I’m not a gambler and avoided the place for the first few years it was open until it was suggested as a good central place to meet. The noise and flashing of the slot machines are an irritation that you must pass through to a surprisingly good restaurant. Clean restrooms and free soda’s & coffee have helped to win me over. There are two hotels, truck & RV parking, and a traveler’s lounge. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t miss it, but should you find yourself there I suspect you’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

The Sacramento River cuts through the central portion of the county and is one of the largest salmon spawning rivers in the world. We visited the Red Bluff Diversion Dam and would have loved to have counted salmon in the fish ladder and through the TV monitors at the Viewing Plaza. The dam was wide open letting the water and all fish travel unimpeded and sheltered from view downriver. Red Bluff is the county seat and has a charming downtown. I missed making a favorite stop at Heartfelt Designs Gallery. This store features alpaca products and classes in fiber arts and has some terrific unique items. Hmmm…maybe I need to swing by on my trip home?

Time dictated that we skip the Coleman National Fish Hatchery just north of Red Bluff. Thirteen - fifteen million Chinook salmon and about one million steelhead are reared here annually.

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With more than 300 miles of trails (including 17 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail) and Lassen Volcanic National Park only forty-five miles to the east, Tehama County offers multiple recreational opportunities. There were appealing looking campsites and 5 miles of trails near the Diversion Dam. One of my favorite camping trips in recent years was at Lassen NP and I loved the hike to the peak!

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The largest private employer in Tehama County is Wal-Mart. In addition to a retail store, a distribution center is located in Red Bluff. Tehama County’s unemployment rate is 11.5%, higher than the state of California at 9.3%. Perhaps they need more olives and truck stops!

A Valentine's Day Drive in San Mateo County

In celebration of the Valentine’s holiday my husband & I went gunk holing in San Mateo County. He pointed out that we could easily walk to the county line, as it just over a mile from our doorstep but considering the weather, I opted for the shelter of a car. Today is one of those days when you’re in the pouring rain, blinding sunshine, dense fog, and misty clouds simultaneously. We’re loving every raindrop!


San Mateo’s County seat is Redwood City. It was established in 1856 and is formerly part of San Francisco County. In case you were wondering, Palo Alto is not in San Mateo County. The name is Spanish for Saint Matthew and the county has a population of 246,681 and is 3,304 square miles.

We drove south from San Francisco on Highway 101, turned west on Highway 92 and south on Highway 35 a.k.a. Skyline. The road is dubbed Skyline because it snakes along the ridge atop the hills dividing the rugged unpopulated coast and the more densely populated cities along the San Francisco Bay. As we wound along under a canopy of Redwoods we caught glimpses of snow dusted peaks in the East Bay. This is a rare occurrence in this area and I felt great sympathy for the couple ahead of us on a motorcycle as my dashboard temperature read a shivery 38 degrees. We finally dipped down from the hills into Pescadero. I had suggested that we stop by Duarte’s Tavern, a local institution since 1894 to pick up an olallieberry (a cross between a loganberry and young berry) pie for dinner. John thought that was a great idea but lobbied for their renowned artichoke soup and oysters for lunch. That sounded great to me and apparently hoards of others. I shouldered my way through the door and eventually was able to order a pie. We didn’t have the stamina to wait for lunch, at 1:30pm they were quoting a wait of 1 ½ hours for a table.

Back in the car we carefully stowed our still-warm pie and headed to San Gregorio. The general store was on our agenda because I needed to buy a new broom. Some women get diamonds or roses on Valentine’s Day. I got a broom. This wasn’t just any broom, mind you: it’s a fair trade, hand tied, hand dyed broom from the mountains of Thailand. I think it very cool and sincerely hope it will sweep the floor. The San Gregorio General Store was a perfect place to make this rather mundane purchase. There was a band setting up in the corner and the cashier/bar tender completely got it when I requested that he take our “American Gothic Broom” picture. I could become a regular here.

Hungry, we cut down to the coast to Highway One and went directly to Ketch Joanne at Pillar Point Harbor. Yum, fried oysters!!! We walked the docks to see if any of our friends were around but found no-one we knew, truthfully we found no-one at all. All the boats were securely moored at their docks and the red “gale warning” flags flapped in the wind.

So ends a fun day and a great visit to San Mateo County, my third visit to the 58 California counties chronicled to date.

A Wintery Chicago Weekend

Last month I flew to Chicago to celebrate my birthday with my sister and brother-in-law. I’ll say this right off the bat: I had a terrific time but…there are better places to go to celebrate a birthday than Chicago in January! I’m contemplating a much more tropical destination for 2010.

The CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) is my favorite method of getting into town from O’Hare or Midway airports. For a mere $2.25 a train will whisk me to within 2 blocks of my sister’s Gold Coast Apartment. This time around, she met me at the airport and we opted to get off at an earlier stop and walk the mile along ice coated sidewalks. Fresh air? Yes, that was good. Exercise? Always good. Dragging a roll-aboard suitcase through ruts of ice? Not so good. I do confess, I’ll probably do the same on my next visit (a scant 10 days from now) so I’m not complaining too much. We stayed in that first night and enjoyed a falafel dinner.

The next day was Sunday. We bundled up and headed to one of my favorite breakfast spots, The Tempo Café. I first discovered this Chicago icon in the Jane & Michael Stern’s Roadfood book and was happy to introduce Crissa & Brendan to this coffee shop that’s literally right down the street from them. They’re open 24 - 7 and in addition to breakfast, at whatever hour you choose, they have a full menu. My only gripe is that they’re cash only, but they do have an ATM. Next on our agenda was a ride up the CTA’s brown line to the Logan Square to the see The Wrestler at the Logan Theater. We were early enough to walk to near-by Wrigley Field and took a few pix to prove it. The Logan Theater opened in 1915 as The Paramount and retains much of the architectural character today. The seats are tortuously uncomfortable but probably do not date to 1915. I really enjoyed the movie but a light comedy it wasn’t.

We had a reservation for tea at the Drake Hotel and gladly made the leap from wrestler ring to gracious dining room with a lilting harpist performing. Oh, so civilized! We went directly to the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Court Theater to see a performance of Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck . Again, it was fabulous, but very dark. That’s two for two!

Shopping on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile took up a good part of Monday. Eight blocks of Northern Michigan Avenue was dubbed “the Magnificent Mile” by a real estate developer in the 1940’s and the name stuck. It was even trademarked in 2001. The stretch between the Drake Hotel to the north and the Wrigley Building to the south is home to the cities most upscale shopping. I escaped with only a new pair of gloves, exhibiting great restraint.


That evening it was up the brown line again to Lincoln Square. I had the opportunity to check out the very cool Old Town School of Folk Music where my sister is taking autoharp lessons. What is an autoharp you ask? Why, it’s a chorded zither, of course. I suspect she decided to study such an obscure instrument because it’s so quirky. I’m not sure if I’ve got an autoharp virtuoso in the family or not but it is a fun thing to do. The street is lined with tantalizing restaurants. We were pleased with our selection: Jack Rabbit, a southwestern restaurant with an intriguing wine list. Fed and happy, we returned home, I fetched my suitcase and boarded a CTA train bound for O’Hare. I overnighted at a Hampton Inn near the airport and caught an early morning flight away from the single digit temperatures.

50 States Redux: ARIZONA

My 50th state visited in 2008 was Arizona. That’s rather ironic because it’s simple to visit Arizona from San Francisco but I left the warm, easily accessible destination for December. Read about it at 50 States in '08: #50 ARIZONA. This year it doesn’t look like I’ll be in the Grand Canyon State – but who knows it’s only February and opportunities present themselves.

Arizona’s state flower is the saguaro cactus. Says it all about the climate, doesn’t it? As we are growing more fearful by the day about the serious drought in Northern California the arid climate of Arizona may inspire future landscape decisions. I’m not sure I can coax a saguaro to bloom in the fog of western San Francisco but I may be tempted to give it a try. Arizona boasts the highest monthly temperature at a scorching 105.0 degrees.* Yes, that’s just an average. Arizona’s population increased 584.5% from 1950 to 2000.* Sadly, they rate 49th in public education expenditure per pupil.* They rate last in ranking of classic movie theaters and drive-ins with only 10.1 per capita.*

Arizona has much to offer: Artsy Sedona has red mountains with spectacular hiking and more artists per capita than any palce else in the country. (I’m not certain what the criteria to be counted as an “artist” is but galleries fill the town.)

The majestic Grand Canyon beckons people worldwide. The Grand Canyon Railway sounds like a terrific way to visit.The new Grand Canyon Skywalk is not for those with a fear of heights. The 10-foot-wide, glass floored cantilevered walkway hovers three-quarters of a mile above the canyon bottom. I think I’d like to check it out. Maybe.

A less visited natural wonder is Antelope Canyon. Guided tours of the otherworldly slot canyon give you the opportunity to see it for your self: www.discoverynavajo.com

Baseballs spring training in Arizona’s Cactus League brings masses to Phoenix and Tucson.

Of course, I need to go to Tombstone someday. This wild-west outpost does it’s best to revere the legacy of past resident Wyatt Earp and sounds like a kitschy fun stop.

What about Mars-like Monument Valley and nearby Anasazi Canyon de Chelly?
I definitely see a substantial road trip in Arizona in my future. 2010 anybody?

*Statistics from State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey (2008 Trim Tables ISBN: 978-0-06-147090-5)

Solano County, California (2nd Visited of 58 Counties)

Established in 1850, Solano County is one of original twenty-seven California counties. Artifacts dating back to 2000 BCE have been found in Green Valley. Solano County was home to the Patwin Indians at the time of the Spanish arrival. The county was named after a local Native American chief, Sem Yeto, who was given the name of a Franciscan missionary, Father Francisco Solano, in baptism. The county seat is Fairfield. Vallejo, Vacaville and Benicia are other major cities.

The county population in 2003 was just over 410,000. The land area is 829 square miles with an additional 77.5 square miles of water within the county boundary. Solano County sits midway between San Francisco and Sacramento. The county limits residential and commercial development outside of cities, preserving about 80 percent of the land for agriculture or open spaces. The county encompasses Suisun March, a wetland at the northeastern edge of San Francisco Bay

Solano County represents open space and recreation to me. My husband has been an owner of a duck club on Grizzly Island (part of the Suisun Marsh) for almost twenty years and spends a great deal of time there. While there are no grizzlies to be found on the island, there’s plenty of other wildlife including a herd of tule elk. I really like this great video found on Doug McConnell’s OpenRoad.tv. Check it out to see Grizzly Island for yourself.
My visit to Solano County began with a visit to the Suisun Wildlife Center where we met Bob the Kestral and Weshawee the Red-Tailed Hawk along with others. Next was lunch at La Cabana This Mexican restaurant has a terrifically obnoxious website (gotta have your sound on!) and delicious food. This was my second visit and I’d gladly return. They’ve moved down the street from their original location pictured above as Suisun city is being gentrified. Well, I guess so!

Our main event was an afternoon of striped bass fishing on Frost Slough. Steve & John are serious fishermen, while I fished while rowing a small boat all around the slough. It was great fun in truly a magical place. It’s hard to believe we’re only 50 miles form San Francisco! Here's a picture of Steve with his limit.

We spent the night and John put us to work the next day pulling motors off the boats and hauling the boats up on the bank. There’s always a catch!

For more information:

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06095.html
http://www.co.solano.ca.us/

Suisun Marsh History: Hunting and Saving a Wetland by Anthony Arnold (1996, Monterey Pacific Publishing Co., ISBN: 1-880710-04-8) is a terrific look at the early history and preservation of a wildlife habitat.

50 States Redux: ALASKA AGAIN

• I’ve become obsessed with the weather report in Fairbanks. Everyday I check the temperature and gasp. They’re currently experiencing a warming trend with a forecast high today of 31 below (all temperatures listed are Fahrenheit). How does one exist in conditions like that? Last fall at the Sophie Station Hotel I picked up a booklet “Staying Alive in the Arctic; A collection of Anecdotes, Facts & Lies about life in Alaska!” I chuckled at the extremes but now I’m beginning to understand it’s not that far from reality. Some tidbits that I’m glad have no relevance to my life:
• The red liquid within an outdoor thermometer is alcohol, not mercury. Mercury freezes at 38 below.
• 40 below zero is the only point at which the Fahrenheit and Celsius thermometers agree.
• Propane turns from a gas to a liquid at 44 degrees below zero – thus preventing one from being able to heat with it.
• Furnace heating fuel (#1) stops flowing adequately at about 60 below.
  

I also was amused by the admonishment “Never open your window if your room is too warm. Contact the front desk. Even the slightest crack can cause frozen pipes.” Well at 50 below, I guess so.

I’m eager to explore more of Alaska. The Alaska ferries are seriously calling my name. I wrote of my desire to explore via ferry in my 50 States in ’08 post

I would love to participate in the Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon held every June in Anchorage.

And of course, I NEED to go to Adak, at the tip of the Aleutian Islands. Adak, Alaska is westernmost municipality in the United States. Only 316 people reside there according to the 2000 census. The only lodging available is in the former Naval Officers Quarters and it seems there’s little to do in the area aside from hunting and fishing but there is quite a cult of travels who visit just to say they’ve been there. It’s one of those experiences where the journey & the bragging rights are the best part of the adventure. Alaska Airlines operates flights each Wed. & Sun. from Anchorage, so it’s really not as far fetched as one might assume. Hmmm…. Adak, Aleutian Islands… sure sounds like A destinations to me!