Hello friends and wine lovers!

Welcome to the First Post in a Long Time! And the first in 2008. I think we’re finally settled after closing down the shop and slowly moving on to the Next Big Thing! What is that thing? Weeeeeee’re working on it. There are a few irons in the fire, as they say. But now that I think about it, what does that mean? Where does the phrase come from? Does that have something to do with cattle ranching and branding? Because in that instance then we don’t have irons in the fire. In that case I could say we’ve got a few things coming down the pike, but that doesn’t make much sense either. Isn’t a pike a fish? The long and the short of it is, (whatever THAT means), we’ve got plans. But nothing solid enough to write about. Except, of course, for the writing. One of my passions, and one of the long or short pikes in the fire, you might say. And as that, here’s this. Some writing.

Newport, Part I:

So just this last weekend, while all others were watching some sporting event interspersed with advertisements . . . or some advertisements interspersed with some sporting event, Laura and I went to Newport on the Oregon coast for our 4th anniversary. Okay, the actual anniversary happened in the beginning of January, but the last time we tried to spend the anniversary at the coast, we found that everyone in Newport (except for the Panini place) goes on vacation for all of January. Sure, that makes for all kinds of interesting sitting-around-and-reading-all-day adventures, but this time we figured if we waited a month, then maybe we could actually see the sights . . . and eat something other than Paninis.

We stayed at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Nye Beach. Just to be clear, Sylvia was a person, not a beach. And Nye, who could quite possibly have been the person for whom the beach is named, is the name of the beach on which the hotel is situated. Clear? Good. I forget the whole history of the building, but in its present incarnation it has been around for 20 years. One of the best things about the hotel is the overall theme of the place. All the rooms in this old bilding have been themed after some author, or another. Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe, Alice Walker, J.R.R. Tolkien, Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss for the kids, and so on.

All the decorations in these rooms have something to do with either the authors or their works. The Poe room is our favorite, with a pendulum above the bed and a raven on the dresser and somebody apparently bricked into the wall. This time we had Hemingway, which had all kinds of hunting and fishing photos and a dead animal head above the bed. With our collective morbid sense of humor we thought of a few authors who weren’t represented and what would be in their rooms. Like the Bukowski room that comes with a beer fridge. Or the Sylvia Plath room that is the only unit to come with a full kitchen. Or the H.P. Lovecraft room, the only one where you instantly go insane upon entering . . . although that would be a hard thing to arrange.

When it comes to dining in Newport, especially early in the year, we’ve found no better place than the Sylvia Beach Hotel’s dining room, found on the lowest level of the hotel. I’ve been to many restaurants where I’ve paid a lot more and received a lot less when it comes to food quality and quantity. The courses come in “Chapters” considering it still has to be a literary theme, and all the meals are served “family style”, meaning you share a table with other guests, and are “encouraged” to converse with them. And by “encouraged” I mean “are forced”.

Now, now. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It’s a great opportunity to meet other people and it actually is a lot of fun, and a small price to pay for such delicious food and not having to leave the hotel to get said food. But it might not be something you’d be looking for if you were expecting a romantic, candle-lit meal for two. Unless, of course, you were the only two people to show up for dinner. During the slower winter season, that could be a possibility, but don’t count on it.

The wine list? Well, I suppose it’s enough to satisfy most folks. But if it says anything of the three nights we dined down there, we brought our own wine for the second two nights. More about that tomorrow . . .

M