Oregon- Wednesday July 31st

After a very active day yesterday we had a slower start and headed off to do our first wine tasting of this trip in Oregon. We started in st innocent winery about an hour north of Corvallis. This is apparently the area where pinot noir was first grown in the Willamette valley. The winery was very pretty. We were tasting 2011 and 2010 vintages which were wet and cool years here so not the rich fruit forward pinots that I prefer but Dick was happy. We just went to one other winery- Cristom, and decided that even sharing a tasting that was enough that early in the day.

We then came across the Willamette cheese company and so stopped in for a cheese tasting which was very nice after the wine. Ironically we ended up buying Oregon Gouda !

On our way back south I checked email only to discover that our planned visit to the Ashland Shakespeare festival to see A Midsummer's Night Dream for our anniversary treat (August 1st) was in jeopardy due to forest fires in southern Oregon that we knew nothing about having not kept up with news whilst traveling. The theater is open air and they had already canceled several performances for the health of both actors and audience. That forced us to change our plans. So we went back to Corvallis for lunch and called to cancel the hotel in Ashland. Instead we decided to do a scenic route and visit Crater lake.

We finished the day visiting one more small winery called Brigadoon and then drove down I5 to Roseberg.

Interstate 5 is horrible in central California but this was fine. Not horribly busy and the drivers generally polite. So far we've found that driving in Oregon is much nicer than in California. Everyone seems to follow the rules of the road, sticks to the speed limit or only just over and is easy. Lots of passing places on narrow roads too. Even the RV drivers consider other motorists. The only odd thing thing is not being able to pump you own petrol/gas! Weird but a state law

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Shrimp Artichoke Pizza With Cilantro Pesto

We are die hard home made pizza fans, and make one once a week- usually Friday or Sunday nights. They normally consist of a pizza base made in the bread machine, with toppings such us onions, peppers, mushrooms, and some kind of sausage with a good layer of fresh mozzarella. For a long time, Dick has tried to convince me that shrimp is good on a pizza, but I just didn't even like the sound of any kind of fish on pizza. If I've ever had shrimp on pizza it was a long time ago and they were small and hard after being baked. Yuk. However, last weekend we both ended up listening to a story on NPR about a winning pizza recipe in New York. It actually sounded good even to me, and tonight we made it, and it was lovely!

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Thank-full for health insurance

Having spent 4 hours in the emergency room last night with Dick, I am grateful that we have health insurance. It all started with a phone call from Dick saying he had fallen off his bicycle on his way home from work, and would I come and collect him as he was a 'bit banged up'? I rushed there and the first thing I saw was that I could hardly see his eyes- he was having a severe allergic reaction to something that was manifesting itself in his sinuses. All he could remember was having a huge sneezing fit after he 'woke up' having fell off his bike. 'Woke up'?? He couldn't remember hitting his head, although the scrape on the right side of his forehead showed he'd definitely banged his head. His first concern, naturally, was that the bike and his laptop were ok. However, we did not hang around to check them over, we just loaded them into the car- after he taken an anti-histamine that I always keep in my bag. For Dick to say he is hurting is unusual enough,

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