Weekends in Dundee

Join us as we explore Willamette Valley Wine Country one weekend at a time!

Archives for July 2014

Wine Tasting with Julie, Sharing the Dundee Hills

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As I mentioned in my last post, my good friend and college teammate Julie was in town last weekend vising from Atlanta. Julie is a huge fan of Oregon Pinot Noir (she finds her Oregon Pinot Noir at Total Wine in Atlanta), and on Sunday we decided to do a quintessential day in wine country. We kicked off Sunday with the highly recommend brunch from the Babica Hen Café. Our neighbors have been raving about their brunch, and ever since we had dinner at Babica Hen over Memorial Day weekend, I’ve been looking for a reason to go back!

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Order Number 28 at Red Hills Market

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My good friend and teammate from college (we played golf together at Vanderbilt) was in town this past weekend visiting from Atlanta. I just love when she’s working on projects in the northwest and she swings on by for a visit. The best part about having a visitor in town is that you get to show them all of your favorite places. Friday night we grabbed drinks and dinner at Red Hills Market!

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Honey, Honey

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Our honeybees have been hard at work for the last few weeks, and the honey is coming on strong! The weather has been warm and dry (except for the last two days), and even our volunteer sunflower has started to bloom. I’ve fallen so in love with this sunflower, that I plan to plant a whole row of them in the yard next summer.

But before I get too distracted talking about flowers, let’s get back to the bees.

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Succulent Sea Shell

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Our home is filled with house plants and I think they make our space feel comfortable and inviting. However, before we move into our new home and were still living in the apartment, The Renaissance Man had put a moratorium on any new house plants. Our apartment was becoming a bit of a jungle. But with a new house, we suddenly had so much space and not enough plants! Or at least that’s how I felt about it.

Lately, I’ve been looking for some fun containers to add to our collection and I was ecstatic when I found this bronze conch shell at Goodwill. It reminds me of a container that my Grandma Martha had in her house when I was a kid. I promptly headed to the nursery and picked up some succulents.

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At Home in the Vineyard–Tales from Susan Sokol Blosser

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When we stopped by Sokol Blosser to pick up our Cellar Club shipment this spring, I was perusing the tasting room and found a happy little book called At Home in the Vineyard – Cultivating A Winery, An Industry, and A Life. I don’t know if I hadn’t seen it before, or perhaps, I just wasn’t ready to discover it.

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Fueled By Fine Wine: Tales from a Water Station

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Our Sunday morning sure was an early one! Although the rewards of being awake early were well worth the effort, we even caught the full moon still lingering in the sky.

Early in the week I saw a few tweets about the Fueled By Fine Wine Half Marathon put on by Energy Events. I did some online investigation and realized it was taking place right in our backyard. So I shot off an email, and the next thing you know both The Renaissance Man and I were volunteering at Water Station #5.

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Willamette Valley Cheese Company

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On our way back from Sunriver on Sunday, The Renaissance Man drove and I happily drifted in and out of my dreams. The combination of warm sun streaming in the window, music on the radio, and exhaustion from a weekend of playing hard made for the perfect nap-time trifecta!

I had really conked out in the car when suddenly, I realized we were bumping down a gravel road toward the Willamette Valley Cheese Company tasting room. I thought I might have been dreaming, but The Renaissance Man had made an executive decision to stop and try out some cheese!

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4th of July in Sunriver

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It sure has been a busy few days, I guess that’s what happens when you take a vacation. The vacation was much needed, and well worth the extra effort it’s taken to get caught back up at work. As I’m sure you have probably guessed, we don’t spend every weekend in Dundee, and this year we spent the holiday weekend in Central Oregon at the Sunriver Resort.

The Renaissance Man and I took off for Sunriver on Thursday morning and made good time over the mountain. I love how the landscape changes the further you drive. You travel from lush valley land, through the mountains along Detroit Lake, and eventually into the high desert. Family, friends, and a concert were waiting at the other end of our long journey.

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Drinks at Deception

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The great part about small town living is that when a new business opens, it becomes all the buzz around town. Since moving to Dundee we’ve seen a handful of new businesses open and it’s pretty clear that this town is growing!

The latest talk has been all about the Deception Brewing Company! It’s only been open a few weeks, and we’ve already been twice. The first time we went to try out the beer, and we had to go back when we learned they’d be serving food by Red Hills Market.

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