Weverton Cliffs, MD

I was sick as a dog.

And we had been planning to hike to Weverton Cliffs all week. Little, restless sleep. Racking cough. Runny nose. Sore throat. General lethargy and malaise.

In short, my morning sucked. But as I told Ann the day before, she would have to handcuff me to something big enough to hold me in place, because I was going hiking on Sunday, come hell or high water. Well, hell didn't come, but the water sure was high, as high as I have seen the rivers in a long, long time, after nearly two straight weeks of rain.

Weverton Cliffs, MD

I downed some Ibuprofen, cough syrup, and some breakfast all while making turkey and hummus wraps for our lunch. Ann joined me downstairs and tried her best to talk me out of going. I've hiked thousands and thousands of miles in my life and I know that sometimes when you're sick, especially with a dumbass head cold like I had, the best medicine is often some sunshine and a trail through the woods.

I finally broke down and bought myself a new daypack. At 33 liters, it's plenty big enough to carry anything I might need, even for a weekend in the woods, though it might be a bit overkill for a civilized day hike. My old Mountainsmith lumbar pack at maybe 7 liters was OK for a quick solo hike, but now that there are two of us, 7 liters just doesn't cut it. I spent a few minutes familiarizing myself with the new pack and getting the gear transferred from the lumbar pack while Ann got her stuff together. We were out the door at 9:30 and arrived at Harper's Ferry National Historical Park about 10.

Fringe Tree in Harpers Ferry NHP Parking Lot

In the parking lot, we pulled up right next to a Fringe Tree in full bloom. I never noticed them before I ran across them at Chimney Rock, NC a couple of weeks ago and now to see another one so close to home. Go figure. We took the NPS shuttle bus into town and set to walking to the point and crossing the river on the AT.

Walking into Harper's Ferry, St. Peter's

Although the true halfway point of the Appalachian Trail is 76 miles further north in southern PA, most hikers think of Harper's Ferry, home of ATC Headquarters, and crossing the Potomac River as the psychological midpoint. We continued across the Potomac River on foot and turned right (due east) on the C&O Canal towpath as it follows the merged Potomac and Shenandoah rivers down to Washington DC. The AT follows the towpath for about three miles before climbing and heading north through the Maryland hills.

Harper's Ferry, Almost Halfway

High Water, Looking at Loudoun Heights, VA

About this point, across from the eastern end of Loudoun Heights VA, we'd been walking for 30-45 minutes and though I hadn't noticed until Ann said something, I was feeling so much better just being outside and doing something.

Taking in the Potomac

Great Blue Heron, Potomac River

Lots of Indigo Buntings along the C&O Canal

Eastern Painted Turtle, C&O Canal

How Many Turtles? I See Eleven

Canada Geese Feeding on Duckweed

Goose in a Sea of Green

Dame's Rocket Everywhere

Four-Petaled Dame's Rocket Detail

I ran across this yellow salsify on the side of the tow path. I really like the triangular nature of the bloom and I especially love the elaborate seedheads in the fall. Speaking of tall yellow flowers, I saw lots of rattlesnake weed, but it was so windy that I couldn't get a decent picture of the small single yellow flowers swinging high above the rosette of deeply purple-veined green leaves.

A Yellow Salsify/Goatsbeard

Wild Sage, Salvia lyrata

All along the towpath and anywhere there was a little sunlight, we saw big trellises and cascades of wild roses. I don't know enough to about them to know if they are escaped Rosa multiflora or native Rosa virginiana, but they were beautiful in their five-petaled simplicity.

Wild Rose

Another, Yellower Rose

Beautiful Blush Pink Rose

Annie Smells a Bunch of Dame's Rocket

We saw this honeysuckle which is very different from our bush honeysuckles. Ours bloom before the leaves bud out. This one clearly is blooming after leafing out.

A Tall Honeysuckle

I saw this beefy plant with a seven-inch diameter umbel of white flowers and several others more or less like it. They seem to be parsnips, perhaps escaped common garden parsnips, but the jury is still out. Many have commented that it is cow parsnip, but I'm not sure. In any case, I gave it a wide berth and didn't touch it. I didn't want to find out the hard way.

Unidentified Parsnip

Teasel From Last Year

Sweet Pea

I found real Solomon's Seal blooming right alongside False Solomon's seal and without seeing them in bloom, they're really hard to tell apart. Unfortunately, it was too windy to get the Solomon's Seal to hold still long enough to stay in focus in the gloomy light of the forest floor.

False Solomon's Seal

Spiderwort

I was really confused to come across this beautiful white flowering shrub in the woods. It looked so hauntingly familiar and yet it was so out of context that it took me a minute to recognize it as a Philadelphus, a Mock Orange. Had I been in a garden, it would have been in perfect context for me. There are so many species of this shrub that I am not even going to try to hazard a guess.

Mock Orange

White Phlox

I should have bought a garbage bag and some gloves for the stinging nettles are just out now and still tender enough to harvest. The trail was so wet and muddy in places that we had to move over to the margins and at one point, I brushed up against a nettle. No fun!

Stinging Nettle

And in the wild edible category, here is one of two giant pheasant back mushrooms that we saw. This mushroom has a very tough skin (and is still chewy even after skinning) and has a light watermelon rind/cucumber smell when it is freshly cut. It's not a highly desirable culinary mushroom, but it is edible enough.

Pheasant Back Mushroom

About four miles into our hike, we got to our goal, Weverton Cliffs, which besides being a good place to take a lunch break, also offers stunning views looking west up the Potomac towards Harper's Ferry. Our sunny 55- to 60-degree day turned chilly out on the rocks where the trees offered absolutely no protection from the constant 20-knot winds. Needless to say, we admired the view, played with a couple of pitbulls belonging to another group of hikers, shot our obligatory photos, gobbled our lunch (with help from said pitbulls), and headed back to the relative warmth of the trees for the return trip to Harper's Ferry.

We Left the AT Here

Spectacular View from Weverton Cliffs

After our return hike, we were about 8.5 miles in and Ann was beat. I didn't realize how beat until I saw her trying to climb the steep stairs to St. Peters Catholic Church. I left her there to rest on the grass by the church while I walked the AT up to Jefferson Rock and into Harper Cemetery for the view back down the valley where the Potomac and the Shenandoah merge and head southeast into DC.

Downtown Harper's Ferry

Rooftops in Harpers Ferry

Odd Sight in a Trail Town, Not!

Jefferson Rock is an interesting formation just feet off the AT in Harper's Ferry above the Shenandoah River and is where Thomas Jefferson in 1783 saw the view of the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers that caused him to write subsequently in his book Notes on the State of Virginia that "this scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic." And indeed, he was very right though the view is better at the top of Harper's Cemetery a little bit further upstream along the Shenandoah.

Jefferson Rock

You can't tell right now for all the leaves on the trees, but this spot in Harper's Cemetery may be my favorite view in all North America.

Best Viewed in the Winter, Best View in Harpers Ferry

Another good, long hike in the books. And not a bad day at all for one that started off being so crappy.

Honeymoon: The Painted Lady, Newberg OR

Thursday May 2, Newberg OR

After a morning tasting wine and a killer lunch at Nick's Italian Café in McMinnville, we spent the afternoon at the B&B where I got in a nice long and much needed nap before we headed down the hill once again into downtown Newberg where we ate at the restaurant that is by most accounts the top-rated one in the Willamette Valley, The Painted Lady. Chef Paul Bachand from Recipe had booked our table for us the night before and The Painted Lady texted me to confirm early in the day on Thursday and I let them know that I was a visiting fine dining chef and I just wanted them to cook for us.


Clean, Spare Dining Room

So when we arrived at the lovingly restored but very tiny Victorian wood-frame house situated on a corner lot behind a white picket fence and were seated in the very nicely appointed, but not over the top, dining room, it was no surprise that food just started coming out of the kitchen. Other tables seated near us were just getting going as well and they were getting the menus and the spiel from the service staff and I could see some of them wondering why we were getting different treatment. All it takes is a phone call.

Before we get into the food, a few comments about the restaurant and the staff. Once the sun set, the dining room was too dark for me to see most of what I was eating and the older I get the more light I seem to need. I don't mind dim lights, but when I have to use my cellphone to illuminate a plate to see the fantastic artwork on it, I call that too dark. I'm not faulting the restaurant on this choice, because that's how they have chosen to do things. I choose differently in my own restaurant. And you will see from the limited number and poor quality of photos how dark it was. I didn't bother to take any photos knowing they wouldn't be any good anyway.

The service was impeccable. I can remember exactly once in the whole 3-1/2 hours we dined at The Painted Lady that an empty wine glass stayed on the table for a minute longer than it should have (according to their service model; me, I could not care less if that glass stays there all night as long as it doesn't get in my way) and that's when every server on the floor was putting plates down at an 8-top nearby. Impeccable. New glassware and a totally new set of silverware with each course and everything about the service was silky smooth and polished.

The service was impersonal. We tried to crack through the starched reserve of some of the servers and we did elicit a smile or two from time to time, but they work from the model that they are servers, they do what you need, and they don't interact any more than necessary with the guests. This is a very old school European model that many of the very high end restaurants in the US aspire to and at The Painted Lady, they succeed very well.

But that's not what I want! I want personality and character from the staff and something that tells me that they are having fun at what they do. I want a server that comes to the table and exclaims, "This dish is freaking awesome; you are so going to love it!" I want to see pride without arrogance on the faces of the service staff, pride that comes from knowing that they are serving an amazing product and providing a unique experience. The service at The Painted Lady was not robotic, but it wasn't charismatic either.

The wines selected for our food were impeccable as well. I really appreciated the selection and variety of local wines that were paired with our dinner. As a chef who pairs wines with each dish on his menu, I can say to The Painted Lady, "Job very well done!" Thank you for introducing me to Walter Scott wines from Eola-Amity Hills, a tiny producer of exceptional wines.

And finally about the food. I sit here at the keyboard and I can tick off several dishes that got my chef juices flowing during the course of our stay in Oregon: the nettle gnocchi and the radishes at Thistle, the potato-nettle pizza at Nick's, and the laap at Pok Pok (to be discussed later in this series). But there was no one memorable dish for me at The Painted Lady. To be sure, I remember the scallop in the scallop crudo for being so sweet and fresh and I remember Ann's chocolate dessert for being so over the top, but the food didn't leave any lasting impression other than it was very high quality and very well presented.

This probably says more about me than it says about the restaurant and Chef Allen Routt, who spent a few minutes with us after dinner, when I learned that he is no stranger to this part of the world, having cooked a stint on the line at the Inn at Little Washington and also having worked for the late Jean-Louis Palladin. This says that I like more direct dishes that are mainly ingredient-driven and perhaps more rustic as a result than I like impeccably executed dishes that are more chef- and technique-driven.

Amuses: Fava Hummus on Papadum, Gougères, and ???

Chef's Trio: Salmon Tartare, Breaded Quail Egg; Goat Mousse on Cheese Straw

Oysters and Lardons

Crabmeat, Caviar, Delicious Curried Soup

Nettle Ravioli, Parsnip Puree, Summer Truffles

I'm a chef and I use truffles all the time. They rarely excite me.

Scallop Crudo, Avocado, Crispy Salmon Skin, Dashi Sphere

This dish got Ann to asking about the dashi sphere but spherification and reverse spherification techniques are not dinnertime conversation for anyone save super nerdy chefs. I played with all this some years ago, but it's just not me or my thing; however, this was probably the dish that I liked best.

Mini Margarita Slushie Intermezzo

You can see from the light of the votive in the intermezzo photo that it is just too dark in the dining room to take pictures. This votive was all the light we had! It's a pity because there are a lot more beautifully presented dishes that you can't see.

Missing are a ling cod dish, a salmon dish (that salmon was super well cooked), a foie gras course (foie doesn't impress me unless you bring out a terrine of it, a loaf of crusty bread, some great wine, and we all sit around getting fat, dumb, and happy!), a beef tenderloin (excellent flavor) dish, a venison dish, a small cheese course, and Ann's chocolate fantasy that was too big for four people. I wish you could have seen the amount of labor that went into that one dish. Chocolate is not my thing, but my hat is off to the person that conceived of and plated that dish.

Honeymoon: Nick's Italian Cafe, McMinnville OR

Thursday May 2, McMinnville OR

After tasting at Eyrie we drove a very few blocks to the very nearby Nick's Italian Café where I haven't visited since the mid-1980s. We wanted to order everything on the menu. Seriously. Look at it. We also got a look at the dinner menu, which is almost identical, with the addition of a few secondi. Seriously, look at this menu and drool. I changed my mind: try not to drool. I bet you can't.


Droolfest!

So the place isn't a whole lot to look at. If you're expecting something other than a café, you'd be disappointed, but we really don't give a crap what the inside of a restaurant looks like. We're there for the food. The décor is gravy. At Nick's we really like the one long wall of barrel staves: that's a pretty cool statement of where the restaurant is located.


Not Much to Look at

Cool Wall of Barrel Staves

Nick's has a hell of a wine list for a small café and the list of Pinots is a veritable who's who of the Willamette Valley. Ann's favorite wine of our Wednesday tasting was the 2011 Ayres "Perspective" and so I ordered a bottle for her. Not that I minded in the least. This is one great wine!

Yes, Please!

We started with panzanella which turned out to be more of a green salad than a bread salad, but who cares. This mixture of Arugula, grilled bread, tapenade, and mozzarella in a lemony dressing was a great, honest salad. I would have been happy with just that for lunch. This is Ed food: direct, clean, honest, and flavorful. I don't think I have words for how pleasing this salad was to me.

Simple, Bold, Direct, and Awesome!

Ann was hell bent on pizza and I don't blame her. The potato pizza with sautéed stinging nettles and red chile flakes was as good a pizza as I have had in years. You could have put dog poop on a crust that good and it still would have been a great pie! Pretty cool to be serving the pizzas on barrel lids. Our health inspector would have a cow!

For those of you reading along who wonder about stinging nettles, their nasty stinging habit aside, they could be spinach or any mild green. At the restaurant, we use them every spring when they are in season.


Potato and Stinging Nettle Pizza

And we ordered a pork panino of slow-roasted pork belly, fennel seed, chili flakes, sage, rosemary, and braised rapini. The bread was awesome and the sandwich was tasty, but we are spoiled by my off-the-hook pork belly and this wasn't even close. On the plate also were homemade potato chips (a tad over-fried) and homemade giardiniera that was outstanding. [Psst. Nick's: I'll come out and show you how to make really phenomenal pork belly. You show me how to work a wood-fired oven that makes crust that freaking awesome! Deal? Call me.]


The Giardiniera was the Highlight of This Plate

Because One Photo is not Enough

After lunch, despite our plans to hit the Dundee Hills and visit White Rose and Durant, I guess it all caught up with me and we headed back to the B&B where I took a long nap before cleaning up for dinner. I was at the point where I just couldn't and didn't want to visit another winery or taste another wine. It happens.

This would prove to be the second best meal we ate in Oregon and I would love to go back and eat my way through the entire menu.

[Note, August 2023: McMinnville icon Nick's inevitably closed in July 2023 after struggling for at least a decade. Because of the unpredictable quality of the food after Nick retired, we rarely visited this landmark during the five years that we lived in McMinnville.]