July 4: Whitewater and Hot Dogs

After a couple of days full of late afternoon thunderstorms, something we had not witnessed in the four years we lived in the Willamette Valley and also something that, perversely, we missed from Virginia, we got a fully sunny forecast for the early part of July 4th. We needed to get out of the house after being cooped up, but last time we were out, Ann messed up her feet pretty badly. I would get in pretty serious trouble if I said "I told you so!" about wearing new shoes on a long walk, so I won't say "I told you so!"

Long and short, we wanted to get out for a little exercise, but walking very far on Ann's bum feet was not in the cards, nor was doing anything with any kind of elevation gain. We decided to head to the Benham Falls East side trail head and make the brief flat walk along the Deschutes River to the falls and back, before heading back home to prepare a July 4th hot dog dinner.

The road to the trailhead/boat launch leaves US 97 at the Lava Lands Visitors Center where I was surprised to see a Forest Service employee manning the entrance gate on a federal holiday. For the four miles from the entrance to the parking area, we played Frogger with the local rodents. Every few hundred yards, another little critter tried to play tag with our tires: Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels, tiny Yellow-pine Chipmunks, and a lone Douglas' Squirrel schlepping a Ponderosa Pine cone across the road.

We arrived early in the morning when there was plenty of parking in the small lot and headed downriver for the short walk to the falls, which we visited about three weeks ago, but from the west side of the river, walking upriver from Dillon Falls. From the parking lot to the falls, we had large amounts of the walk to ourselves, but by the time we reached the falls, people were swarming in from the west side. The walk back was a circus of people, screaming kids, bikes, and general mayhem stemming from the holiday. We were glad to leave the masses behind and head home. As we were leaving, overflow cars from the parking lot lined the entrance road for a good quarter mile.

Yellow Salsify, Tragopogon dubius

Woods Full of Blooming Western Columbine, Aquilegia formosa

American Vetch, Vicia americana

Oxeye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare

Footbridge Crossing from East to West Side

Forget-Me-Nots (Myosotis sp.) Growing on Beaver Dam

Red-Wing Blackbird Protecting His Turf

Raft of Invasive Yellow Iris, Iris pseudacorus
and Blooming Red Osier Dogwood, Cornus sericea

Song Sparrow Serenading Us

More Yellow Iris in Front of
Highly Poisonous Water Hemlock, Cicuta maculata

Sharp-leaved Monkeyflower, Erythranthe decora

River Side Rock Formation

Cliffside Penstemons

Mass of Penstemons

Penstemon Blossom Detail

Riverside Yellow-Pine Chipmunk

Woods' Rose, Rosa woodsii

A St. John's Wort, Hypericum sp.

Diamond Clarkia, Clarkia rhomboidea

One of a Pair of Highly Vocal Ospreys

Sticky Cinquefoil, Drymocallis glandulosa

Mulie Doe on Trail

Beautiful Lupine, Lupinus sp.

Turbulent Water at Head of Benham Falls

Looking Downriver from Top of Benham Falls

Rock Island in Falls

Woodland Pinedrops, Pterospora andromedea

Looking Upriver at Benham Falls

Given the rampant pace of increase in new COVID cases (aren't we done with that sh*t yet?!!?), we decided to stay at home and not brave public spaces with masses of holiday celebrants. In the mid-afternoon, I made us a couple of caipirinhas to set the mood. Later on, I cooked some small potatoes that I made into potato salad (sour cream, bacon, and parsley) and then grilled some hot dogs that we scored earlier in the week just for this little mini-celebration.

Although we don't eat hot dogs very often, when we do, we are questing after a faint memory from our collective childhoods in which a hot dog was a hot dog. It seems that our requirements for hot dogs are modest, yet we cannot find one that really scratches our itches. We want three things: deep flavor, succulence, and above all, that elusive and inimitable snap when you bite in. We got two different kinds from a local farm, a regular dog that was fairly good and one styled a Louisiana Hot that was pretty bad with all manner of fake flavors. Our search for the holy hot dog grail continues.

Caipirinhas 

Hot Dogs and Potato Salad

Bistro 112, Shepherdstown

Wednesday dawned grey, gloomy, and threatening rain, rain that visited us intermittently throughout the day, not a great day for outdoor activities, so we needed to find something to do indoors. Why not lunch at a fun little bistro?

Because we needed to take Charlie Dog to the groomer at noon to help us find the dog under his shaggy winter coat, we decided to have lunch while we were out. And because the groomer is on the north side of town, I thought we might as well keep heading north and try a place in Shepherdstown. Customers have been telling me that since new management took over the old Stone Soup Bistro and renamed it Bistro 112, things have much improved.

We started with cocktails. Ann had a "martini" made of Absolut Citron, grapefruit juice, and ginger syrup, pretty tasty, but they needed to strain the ginger residue from the syrup. I had a caipirinha that was supercharged with cachaça. Woo hoo! Here's Ann with her martini. The cat water bottle was a pretty cool touch.

The lunch menu is fairly limited but decent enough for a bistro. Ann chose a croque-monsieur and I opted for a burger, because when do I ever get a burger? We both got fries and they were outstanding. I've got to say that while a croque-monsieur is a pretty free form sandwich, Ann's was not so attractive, an open-faced pile of goo. I'm sure it tasted fine, but it looked unappealing.

My burger was OK, if overcooked. I ordered it from our French waiter in French just to make sure there wouldn't be any translation issues. What I ordered was "bleu à saignant" (really rare to rare, literally, blue to bloody). What I got was medium well. A pity, but then I have come to expect that. All the more the pity because it was local beef from nearby Roxley Farms in Charles Town. Despite being overcooked, the beef was tasty and the bun and garnishes were high quality.

With our lunch, I ordered a bottle of Cline Mourvèdre just to see what this Contra Costa producer does with this typically Southern French varietal. I've had lots of Cline wines over the years, but not the Mourvèdre. The nose was spot on, but on the palate the grapes are a tad overripe and jammy without much acidity. Sounds like Châteauneuf-du-Pape in a lot of vintages, doesn't it? It proved to be a pleasant enough burger wine.

The wine list at Bistro 112 is pretty decent and is perhaps the only wine list outside of a seafood restaurant that I've ever read that features way more white than red wines. No problem there for me, but Ann is a devoted red wine girl. Our wine glasses were a problem though, cheap, thick, and heavy. Note to fellow restaurateurs: buy a few good glasses at least and bring them out when people order a good bottle.

Summary: pleasant service, nice experience, decent wine list, good and not the same old mixed drinks, clumsy stemware, outstanding fries, reasonable food. Worth visiting again.

After chatting with chef Kelly Fitzgerald for a few minutes, we went to the little park overlooking the Potomac with the monument to James Rumsey, who demonstrated the first working steamboat at this location in 1787. It's always peaceful looking at the river from this spot.

Roses, albeit silk, brightened our day and table

Real roses along the street where we parked

I love this rose

Ann was taken with this Lutheran church

Upriver at Rumsey Park

Downriver at Rumsey Park

I figured out how to use the timer on the camera!