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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 2011)
O REG O N'S LGBTO N EW S M A G A ZIN E travel OCTOBER 21. 2011 ► S I N C E 1 9 ypXC«* ? 6 Mobile West takes I 5 ÿ ^ / r ¡n your car stereo. Above: Korbel Winery Right: Mendocino at sunset mal— the tasting room experiences are more comparable to what you’d find in the W il lamette Valley. This is especially true in the AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) that emanate from the town o f Healdsburg, 15 miles northeast of Guerneville: the Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Alexan der Valley. You’ll likely have the most fun if you focus on three or four good vineyards each day— my favorites include Porter Creek, Michel-Schlumberger, M erry E d wards, Seghesio and Passalacqua. In the upscale Healdsburg, superb restaurants abound (Cyrus, Bovolo, Barndiva), and you’ll also find some outstanding luxury ac commodations, among them H onor M an sion (honormansion.com) and— overlooking the leafy town square— Hotel Healdsburg (hotelhealdsburg.com). The small city of Santa Rosa lies 15 miles south of Healdsburg and makes a handy base for exploring the entire region. M ost o f the county’s chain hotels are here— I like the Hyatt Vineyard Creek (vineyardcreek.hyatt. com) downtown, partly because concierge Ramon Meraz knows so much about Sono- ma’s wineries, restaurants and gay scene. It’s also an easy walk to several very good restau rants. O n my trip with Pennie, we enjoyed a particularly stellar meal o f contemporary California-Mediterranean fare at the brand new Petit Syrah Bistro. Nearby, Stark’s Steak- house has a great food-oriented happy hour, and A’roma Roasters coffeehouse is a favorite hangout of the city’s LG BT community. On this most recent trip, we stayed east of down town at Flamingo Resort (flamingoresort. com), a reasonably priced, retro-hip hotel that’s been handsomely renovated and has rooms set around a fabulous pool. From Santa Rosa you’re close to several other appealing towns. You can drive south east along Highway 12 through the Sonoma Valley, a swath of vineyards that includes some o f the most storied wineries in the country, among them St. Francis, Kunde and Benziger. Be sure to spend time stroll ing around the historic square in the actual town o f Sonoma as well as the village of Portland Glen Ellen, both of which abound with tony boutiques and fine restaurants. And up in Kenwood, the Vineyards Inn is one o f the county’s most dedicated practitioners o f farm -to-table cooking, with a menu focused on Spanish recipes. And then there’s Mendocino (visitmendo- cino.com), the stunning coastal village that stood in for the fictitious Maine town of Cabot Cove in Murder, She Wrote and still feels like the sort of folksy, enchanting hamlet you might see Jessica Fletcher snooping around (albeit without frequent murders). Pennie and I spent a night here on our way driving back up the coast— it’s just a 90- minute, beautiful drive from northern Sono ma County. O ur room at the handsome Little River Inn (littleriverinn.com) looked clear across a rolling lawn and Van Damme Beach to the Pacific. For dinner that night, we noshed on burgers and an artisanal cheese plate at the dapper MacCallum House Inn. If you’re still unconvinced of the wisdom in driving 600 miles from Portland to Sono ma and home again, consider the conve nience o f hauling several cases of wine with you back to Oregon, which Pennie and I did on this trek. I’m already running low, and plotting my next adventure. *101 Read more about the A ndrew C oiuns 503 . 227.1212 vancouver exercise free will October 15 ■ May 2012 November 12 Finders Keepers Glass Floats on the Beach Chowder Cook-Off tmwfa (At tk m m h ik tM ttK tv m japAwNfata* wm. •%/ S 4 i 9% 1274 <* 800 4S2 2isi www oregoncoast.org
