HCMC day 3- Mekong Delta

We took Les Rives Mekong Delta tour today. Visiting the country side of the Delta is a must when visiting Vietnam. 

The cruise is a fun way to get there instead of the 3 hour bus ride. 

We saw a Pagoda, food market, a Buddhist orphanage, had lunch of elephant fish and Terry got to wrap a Python around his neck! 

We ended the night at the Barbecue Garden and Starbucks which was a rip off! A meal here w beer cost about $10 for two. Two teas and a cake cost the same at Starbucks. Should have cost about 3$ at a local cafe. 

Ho Chi Minh City 2nd day

Wow! What a great day we had today. We took the XO tour City Tour in the morning and the Back of the bike Foodies tour in the afternoon. We went thru at least 10 districts, and experienced the true essence of HCMC Saigon. Mopeds are the best way to see the city. Our drivers were safe, fun, knowledgeable and very giving. 

Vietnamese food is fresh and delicious. 

We ended the day at the "head spinning" Ben Thang night market. 

Ho Chi Minh City - 1st day

We arrived in the morning after a fantastic flight with Cathay Pacific. The seats and service were truly excellent. I would travel with them regular economy anytime. 

We had soup for lunch, a stroll around the hotel, a beer at the Crazy Buffallo and a yummy diner at Quan An Ngon, the bar and restaurant Dave Newhouse and Hue recommended. We did not feel too jet lagged at all. 

Ho Chi Minh City - the Traffic

We spent the first 3 days of our trip in Ho Chi Minh City. The traffic here is indescribable. It comes at you from every which way. Hundreds of mopeds everywhere going around cars and people. Crossing the street is a true challenge and test of nerves. In the 3 days we were here we did not witness one single accident. The traffic is moving quite efficiently even if it is far from safe!

The drive back from Fort Klamath to Portland to Vancouver

We hit the road early, 9amish. It took us 5 hours to get to Portland because of a big traffic jam just outside of Portland. 

We spent the night in the Hawthorne district across the bridge and loved it! It is like Main st or Commercial drive in Vancouver. It is a quaint, funky, artsy neibourghhood. We had dinner at the Cha Cha Cha Mexican restaurant and dove back from Division street. sLt and straw,the famous ice cream shop was out of the question. Huge huge line up on this 30c + evening!

We stayed at the Travelodge which was not luxurious but adequate.

The next morning we grabed the hotel continental breakfast and hit the road at 8:40am. We got home at 3pm. Bought a fan on the way at Walgren's. It is very hot in Vancovuer as well. A heat wave is currently on. 30c + as well.

We had a fantastic trip! A great mix of city, wine country and scenic beauty! Amy Lou did very well on her first road trip. It was her first but not her last!!

Drive to Fort Klamath

We hit the road at 9:30am, stopped for lunch at the 58 drive in restaurant which was only opened a month. The people were super friendly and the food delicious.

The drive took about 4 1/2 hours. We arrived at the Riverhouse at the end of the afternoon. Another beautiful sunny and very warm day. Heidi greeted us nicely and gave us a tour of the house. Old house with dirty windows but comfortable enough with a large sunny deck on a beautiful acreage by the river. Lovely! Amy Lou loves that she can pee anywhere!

We had sandwiches and salads on the deck and read our novels all night. We are both reading books by Anita Shrieves. I am reading Sea Glass which I am enjoying very much. Terry is reading The Testimony. Terry read it in a couple days! I finished mine in three days. That's what no internet will do!!

Crater Lake

Beautiful sunny hot day for this Crater Lake adventure. We are only 20 minutes away to the lake. We stopped at the beginning of the park to have a small hike with Amy. Only three trails permit dogs.

We parked the car, walked to the look out and Wooooooooaaaaw! Crater Lake is surreal! It is indescribable.  It is the remains of a volcano that blew its top. The lake is pristine, bright blue color, fed only by rain water and melting snow. It is very spectacular and you can drive around the entire rim as we did stopping to all the lookout. Wow! It is really woth seeing. 

The star was Miss Amy Lou again. We had to put her sunglasses and dress on because it was really bright and hot. She always appreciate a cool dress and her shade. So many thought she was too cute for words. She was photographed no stop everywhere! She is a super model!!

We had lunch at Annie's creek restaurant for some really large onion rings. I was sick the whole night. Never again I decided!

We returned to the house and enjoyed some fresh and healthy salad! We read the whole night again and loved every minute of the peace and quiet.

McMinville

Se finally made it to historic downtown McMinnville, navigating 3rd street. We can see why it is called one of the prettiest small town USA. Many historic buildings made of stone and bricks. We enjoyed walking up and down the street and we enjoyed finding the small park where Amy could pee to her hearts content. 

We could not eat at the Spanish Tapas, La Rambla. They did not have alcohol on the patio yet. Maybe next time!

We had a tasting at the Willamette Valley winery tasting room. More nice wines.

We ended up driving back to Dundee at the Dundee Bistro. We liked it very much there on the terrace where Amy can sit on a chair beside us and the food and wines are fine and delicious.

We did not go the the aviation museum. We wanted to take advantage of our last night at our beautiful cabin. We a panini sandwich on the BBQ with a nice bottle of Pinot Noir Rosé!

Willamette Valley, Dayton, Dundee, Carlton Wine Tasting July 7

Fantastic day wine tasting in the valley. The Pinot Noir & Chardonnay are impressive. I am very surprised at the quality of the wines. 

We started at Archery Summit which is a beautiful medium size winery. Their Pinot Noir are very high quality, their price reflect that but they compare to some of the finest Burgundy wines so they may be worth it. We bought a 2011 Pinot Noir and a Rosé which I am drinking now writing this post. It has beautiful notes of fresh strawberries and light cranberry. Very nice in hot weather like this 32 Celsius.

We proceeded to Du Ponte wines where Suzanne, our hosts Don and Jean's daughter in law works. The wines are lighter and not quite as remarkable as Archery Summit.

We continued our journey at Drouhin wines which ended up being my very favorite. The winemaker is from the Drouhin family. Her wines are true Bungundy style, beautiful fine elegant perfectly balanced Pinot noir and Chardonnays. We bought 3.5 bottles. I will be ordering from this winery in the future I am certain.

We ended our journey in Carlton at the Horse Radish bistro for a mean pastrami sandwich and goat cheese quiche. Oh my! Very nice food indeed.

Upon our return, Jean and Don invited us to do a vertical tasting of their Oliver Cellar wines with another couple winemaker from Seattle. We enjoyed the people and the wines. My favorite was the 2011 which was not as warm a year and therefore had more acidity in the wine than the 2012 which was more fruit forward with jammy cherry notes compared to more cranberry, pomegrate notes of the 2011 wine. 2010 was also good but not as fine in my humble opinion.

We had another supper of cheese and charcuterie at the cabin looking out at the vines and the valley.

Willamette Valley, Oliver Cellars cabin July 6

We left Portland after shopping for a suit for Terry at Banana Republic where the deals were incredible without sales tax too! We sure did well for shopping in Portland!

We stopped for a lunch of fine food and fine wine and beer at the Dundee Bistro. Very good pizza and pasta bien arosé de Pinot Gris and artisan beer.

We arrived at our beautiful cabin at Oliver cellars winery in McMinnville. Wow! This place is gorgeous!! The vines are on a slopping hill facing the sun with a beautiful view of a treed valley. The cabin is small, very comfortable and quaint. We could not have picked better. This place feels like paradise. 

Our hosts Don and Jean Oliver offered us a bottle of their 2012 Pinot Noir and shiowed us the cellar under the cabin. We enjoyed the rest of the day and evening looking at the view and enjoying our vacation. 

Portland Oregon July 4&5.

We spent 2 nights in Portland. The people are extremely friendly. We had our first lunch at the food trucks at the corner of 9th and Alder. For $5 you can have a tasty satisfying lunch. We ate it at the park next block up but it was a concrete park without any grass like too many of the park in Portland. This is indeed a very sad situation.

Our hotel The Nines is very well located, nicely decorated with friendly staff. They charged $100 a day for dogs to stay. So we decided that this was way too much. We had to sneak Amy Lou in and out of the purse carrier. She did not mind too much except that she had problems doing her business in the concrete only city. No greenery for poor Amy Lou. 

We went to Departure Lounge for dinner with Amy Lou in the purse, totally incognito. She does not mind at all and just rest looking out the mesh window. We had a nice dinner with great views of Mount St.Helen's and the city.

We had Starbucks take out breakfast in the room to make it easier for Amy Lou and went to the Rose Garden in the morning. Amy Lou was a star!! She wore her sunglasses because it was exceptionally bright and sunny and 20+ people took picture of her! 

The Japanese garden did not allow dogs so we were not able to visit unfortunately.

We went shopping in the afternoon on 23rd street, had a fantastic lunch where Amy Lou was welcome to sit outdoors and more shopping in Pionnere Square before a great Greek dinner in the Pearl District where again Amy Lou could sit on a chair with us. Oregon truly is great for dogs...they love them and welcome them in most places even the shops and malls!

Oregon Interior road trip: Portland, Willamette Valley, McMinnville and Crater Lake

We left Canada on July 3, 2014 with our little Amy Lou, for a road trip in Oregon Interior. We saw the coast in the early 90s but this our first time in the wine country and southern part of the state. 

We first spent one night in Bellevue Washington to break the trip and make it easy for our little girl's first  real road trip. We thought that the border line would be long but we crossed 23 minutes. We were really surprised. 

Bellevue Washington is shoppers paradise. Plenty of big outlets and malls are there to please the shopaholic. We did not shop at all. We were there to have dinner a rest and move on the next day to Oregon. We had a nice dinner at Joey's next to the very good Hyatt hotel where we stayed in an extra large room of this brand new hotel. We booked thru Hotwire and it was a good experience again.

Review of our trip to Isla Mujeres

We loved Isla Mujeres. It was a great introduction to Mexico. The Mexican people are genuinely friendly and eager to please. Our resort was 1st class, good food and our suite was unreal! Read our trip advisor review here.

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowUserReviews-g150810-d1175973-r197096821-Privilege_Aluxes-Isla_Mujeres_Yucatan_Peninsula.html

The island is beautiful, quiet, the Centro is fun and everywhere you feel safe and welcome. We spent 8 full days and did not get bored one second. A week is certainly not too much although you could get the flavor in 3-4 days. One day visit is clearly not enough. 

We highly recommend the island! Thanks to Terry and Lucie Fay for recommending it to us.

Here are our pictures!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/odettemorin/sets/72157642228846695/

3/10/2014 Homeward Bound but still last morning!

The final morning began with breakfast outside at Sabor at our usual table.  We have enjoyed the breakfast buffett each day and there is plenty to eat in great variety.  We did not have to get the ferry until 1pm so we had lots of time to lounge on our pool terrace, order lunch and even have Margaritas.

Odie has declared herself Queen of the Margaritas specializing frozen Margaritas on this trip.  I think we both give Isla 2 thumbs up. We will miss this apartment but will always have the amazing memories of our great 25th anniversary trip!

3/9/2014 Sunday Our Last Full Day

Isla Mujeres is an amazing place. We certainly loved our visit. We spent our last full day after our traditional breakfast at our regular table at the the Sabor terrace. It is a most pleasurable experience to sit in the warm sunshine talking and listening to to the birds. After our traditional breakfast we had our now traditional walk through the colors sights and sounds of the Centro. 

We went through the centre to City Hall and stopped on the way back for a beer and margarita by the beach. We wanted to maximize the beach time for this our last full day and proceeded there after we refreshed in the room. We did not have a bed today but our location at number 6 chairs were great.  There is no bad location on the beach for sure.  We continued to enjoy frozen Margaritas and Victoria beer for the duration of the afternoon. It truly is a relaxing paradise.  

For supper we went to the Sabor outdoor restaurant for our last supper where we slipped a little food to the hungry cat by our table. 

We had a special waiter every night at Sabor. We will remember Ponce, his special attention and end of meal shots!

After supper we strolled through the night time Centro and enjoyed some last night drinks at the corner of the Argentina Restaurant. What a wonderful vacation it has been.