Digital Nomad Summer - Part 11

Need to read Part 10?

In the last blog, we'd wrapped up our time on the Olympic Peninsula, and we were getting ready to move along from Salt Creek Recreation Area, near Port Angeles, Washington.

Standing outside our home for Saturday night,

Social Goods Market, in downtown Newberg, OR.

Staring directly into the sun.

When we planned this trip way back at the beginning of 2023, we knew our travel plans wouldn't really allow us to stop in the Willamette Valley of Oregon as we moved from Tugman State Park in Lakeside to Salt Creek, way further north.  That bummed us out; Willamette is an incredible wine region, and we'd had a great time drinking Pinot Noir there when we visited more than a decade ago.  Chris suggested we take a few days off work on the way back from Salt Creek and use those to meander through the Valley, and that proved to be a great idea.  While we could have booked a spot at a nearby RV park, we figured this would be a great opportunity to use our Harvest Hosts membership and stay on site while we enjoyed some excellent wines.

Our first host, Social Goods Market in downtown Newberg, was only about 6 hours away, but we still left Port Angeles on the earlier side; it always helps to get on the road before most of the weekend traffic, and we had a previously scheduled tasting appointment at 3pm we needed to make.  It was smooth sailing back down the eastern side of the Peninsula, and we once again used the parking lot at the Hood Canal Ranger Station in Quilcene for a quick break/coffee and pastries run (it was open this time, but the rangers inside gave us the all clear).

The coffee and chai were better at this stand than on the way up,

but nothing could top that artichoke dip bagel

(I had the pesto filled bagel here, but it wasn't quite as good).

Also, as we were loading back up, we ran into a family from Phoenix 

who were getting some info from the ranger station.

We all commiserated about the horrible weather back home, and how this was much nicer.

Back on the road and before too long, we were returning to Oregon and saying adieu to Washington.

Back in the Beaver State!

We pulled into Newberg and the back parking lot at Social Goods at 2:45, so I had just enough time to run inside and say hello to the staff there (ensuring that we weren't blocking in anyone that needed to move their cars and so on) before we sprinted the last few blocks to make our 3pm appointment at Et Fille Winery's tasting room, conveniently located just .2 miles away.  Back in February, we had a chance to meet Jessica, the founder and owner of Et Fille, at a tasting/educational session organized by our outstanding local wine store, Hidden Track Bottle Shop.  Since it was on the smaller side, we had a chance to chat with Jessica, and she mentioned that if we were ever in the area, we should let her know and stop by.  When we secured our stay in town, I emailed her and she set up a tasting appointment for us with her extremely knowledgeable and accommodating sommelier, Josh.  Since Et Fille allowed (well mannered) dogs in its tasting room, we were able to bring the girls, and we all enjoyed the delicious sips and cool AC (it was around 95 in Newberg at this point).

Cheers!

We really do appreciate Josh and the folks at Et Fille for allowing us

to moderately rearrange their tasting room to make space for these monsters.

Overall, they were pretty good, but we're still working on their inside skills.

After securing some amazing wines to go (and joining the wine club!), we headed back to the trailer to properly set up for the night, including getting our AC cranking (since Harvest Hosts generally don't offer power and some of our campsites on this trip would also be dry camping, we brought our generator with us).  With everyone inside Zelda and cooling down rapidly, I headed into Social Goods to grab some snacks and beer; they have a full service kitchen, a good 20 beers on tap, racks and racks of local wines, and 7-8 coolers full of incredible local beer options.  We spent the rest of our evening running this route a few times - watching tv in the camper, wandering out to Social Goods every now and then, getting more food and drinks as needed.

We were wedged in here pretty darn tight.

That's the owner's trailer to the right, and the shed on the left is a cat rescue.

There's also a taco shop past the cat shed, 

and you can kind of see their food truck behind Aubie (our red truck).

The food truck pulled in around 8pm on Saturday night, and Chris and I both

had an "oh sh*t" moment when the driver looked like he would collide with the

back of our trailer coming into the lot.  However, he clearly did this all the time,

as he then proceeded to put the gigantic food truck into the smallest spot I've ever seen.

This man was a PROFESSIONAL.

Watching F1 Qualifying from Hungary.

Zoe and I are stoked that Danny Ricc is back!

Sitting like a little dude

Later that afternoon, it cooled down enough to stroll the monkeys around town,

including to nearby Memorial Park.

Downtown Newberg is a cute place!

We slept pretty well Saturday night, despite being awoken once to the sounds of the fire department across the street roaring out of the station to go save a house or something (it was loud, but I guess that's the point).  There was no rush for us to leave Social Goods on Sunday; our next stop, Laurel Ridge Winery, didn't start check in until 11am, and the two locations were a whopping 15 minutes apart.  We did laundry, had coffee and breakfast (at local spot Coffee Cat) gassed up the truck, got it washed, and took the girls back to the park for some frisbee/fetch time.

Doing laundry, reading sci fi.

I acquired this from the "Take a Book / Leave a Book"

shelf at the Cal Expo RV park in Sacramento, inside their laundromat.

Full circle!

Downtown Newberg

Even though it was toasty, the flowers were lovely in bloom

Eventually, we got our rears in gear and relocated from Social Goods to Laurel Ridge.  The short drive was uneventful, and we easily checked in at the tasting room and found a good spot in the designated field.

Parked near the tasting room to check in -

those are young hazelnut trees in the left of the shot

Parked out in the field

The tasting room

Itty bitty hazelnuts!

When you make a Harvest Hosts reservation at Laurel Ridge, they go ahead and schedule a tasting for you at 4pm the same day you check in, but they make it clear you can move it as needed.  Since we arrived around 11:30,  I asked for the tasting to be moved to 1; I figured we'd eat lunch, then I'd do a tasting while Chris hung out with the girls, and then we'd switch (the winery was extremely dog friendly, so we could have taken the kiddos, but we'd been together constantly for several weeks, so a little solo time was welcomed by each of us).  Although I took my book to read, I ended up relaxing more than anything and chatting with the sommelier when he came by my table.  It was lovely!

On their delightful patio - that's a plum tree in the back of the shot.

When Laurel Ridge was purchased 30-ish years ago, it was a plum orchard.

Chris and the girls hanging out while I was tasting

My turn to chill with the girls while Chris tasted

He's back!  With wine!

(We picked a bottle of their pinot noir rose and a red blend)

The rest of the day was spent relaxing; it was in the high 80s on the farm, but in the shade of our awning, it was extremely pleasant, particularly since a light breeze was blowing.

Blackberry bushes next to our campsite -

Chris tasted one and said they were great!

Looking toward the tasting room and the hazelnut orchard

Bea splooting and Zoe snoozing

Our check in host told us we were welcome to climb the hill behind our campsite, and you could even see Mount Hood from the top.  While we didn't make it all the way (too warm, too sunny, too much rose waiting for us back in the camper), we did stroll a bit.

More hazelnuts!  I promise they were growing grapes here, too.

As afternoon turned into evening, we fed the girls and heated up leftover pizza for ourselves (from Social Goods the night before).  We could tell that Bea wanted to chill out in her kennel, but since we were still sitting outside, she didn't want to be in the rig by herself (it was also still a bit warmer in the rig than outside it).  We found an acceptable solution:

She just wants to keep an eye on things -

we could keep her in the pen or have her near our feet,

but she eats EVERYTHING on the ground, which isn't great for her.

Truly, she was happy as a clam with this setup.

"Yeah!  Put my little sister in a cage!!!"

On the next blog, we finish our time in the Willamette Valley and head eastern, all the way to the other side of Oregon!

Later!

Amy