Or, to use a less generic way of describing my favorite trip of the year: should I ever freak out, or lose my grip on reality, or have a nervous breakdown and need to escape from life and the Big City... you get the idea.... Corvallis, OR is where you will find me.
The annual family vacation over a long summer weekend is my favorite of the year primarily because of the fabulous family I have there-- my cousins Jeff and Patty and my Great Aunt-- but also because Oregon is the epitome of everything Au Naturale. Basically, everything you've heard about the Pacific Northwest is true: the scenery is gorgeous, the people are friendly, and the pace there... well, that's hard to describe. It's slow, but it's not Midwestern slow, the kind of slow that makes you want to scream "Hurry up!". It's not annoying-tourists-on Michigan-Avenue-blocking-my-path-home-from-work-slow. It's good, I'm-going-to-enjoy-whatever-it-is-I'm-doing-right-now slow. See? Hard to describe. Just trust me on this one.
As I've been doing this annual trip for 11 years now, I've developed an appreciation for and understanding of it's Au Naturale-ness long before I committed to the lifestyle myself. Beyond everything else I've mentioned above, the food and wine there is spectacular. Corvallis is a college town, home to Oregon State University (go Beavers!), but also home to some amazing restaurants and options for local, natural, and organic food at every turn.
Take Saturday Market, for example, as one of the highlights of the trip. It's the greatest farmer's market ever, so much so that when my cousin Patty suggested we skip it this year in favor of other activities because hey, "it's just the market", we almost skinned her alive. It's a huge market, the biggest I've ever seen, with all local and organic farms and where even the most basic of vegetables looks like they're on steroids. None of the booths were lacking for anything. In fact, just check out this assortment of fruit we grabbed for the dessert portion of the homemade meal we were making later in the day, including my favorite, the succulent marionberries I've mentioned in an earlier post:
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| L to R: Marionberries; strawberries; raspberries; blueberries |
Saturday dinner, as has become tradition, is cooked at home with only what we've grabbed from the Market and what we pick up from the local fishmonger, who gets his catch fresh from the coast just a few hours drive away. Even I, who generally does not like cooked fish, can appreciate a fresh Pacific salmon.
Beyond the homecooked meal, however, Corvallis and the Willamette Valley in general can be counted on for great food and wine. On Friday night, we drove to nearby Philomath to dine at Gathering Together Farm, which may be the most Au Naturale restaurant I have ever visited. The name is strange, but that's the actual name of the farm where the restaurant is located. On the front porch they have only about 10 tables and are only open for dinner two nights a week-- so make your reservations now, folks! The head chef came from Chez Panisse in San Francisco and makes incredible dishes from the bounty they grow right on the farm. Whatever they don't have there comes from other farms just down the road. Add a great wine list from the excellent vineyards surrounding the area and we've never been disappointed. As a bonus, they keep the inside market open during dinner so once you're done stuffing yourself, you can also pick up some market-fresh items to take home with you. One stop shop!
I could go on and on... and writing this makes me feel that I should dedicate a post on our vineyard visits and the virtues/pitfalls of organic wine vs. non-organic wine vs. wine made with organic grapes... but I don't want to keep you reading about the details of my trip forever. I've done that a lot recently. That being said, if you happen to catch yourself on a flight west and need some vineyards or restaurants or camping/biking/boating gear (here is where I shamelessly plug my cousin's store, Peak Sports), I will be more than happy to profer suggestions. Suffice it to say I'm already counting down the days until next year's trip.
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