Bye Bye to the Bay

Driving back to The Bay area, we found a well-positioned brewery at which to enjoy a spot of lunch. The folk at Cedar Crest Brewing in Red Bluff were lovely, really helpful and enjoyed chatting about beer and football - what more could you want? They didn't have food but they gave us a takeaway menu for the Mexican place next-door and the food was delivered to our table. It was delicious and went very well with the Manton Hopper IPA - hoppy with citrus and pine but a solid malt backbone tempers the aggression often present in many West Coast IPAs.

Cedar Crest brewing Manton Hopper IPA

The brewery is curiously party of a shop selling fancy snacks and local art. It's got a sort of folksy, country, home-on-the-range vibe which manages to feel more homey than horror. 

The main pilgrimage of the day, however, was to The Rare Barrel in Berkeley. We timed it just right so that the doors opened as we walked up. Him Outdoors has been dreaming about this place, and he wasn't disappointed. The beers are exquisite and we loved every one. It was too hard to pick a favourite, so we were happy just to enjoy them all. 

The Rare Barrel

The menu

The beers

Mister Tea - The aroma has me salivating; the taste has me satisfied, and then some. Funky and tartastic. 4.75/5

Roads Diverge - More subtle than previous; the oak-aged saison displays the soft sourness of apricots, peaches and pears. 4.75/5

The Upside Down Under - Well, we had to, didn't we? Golden sour beer aged in oak barrels with dragon fruit and kiwis. Fruity and sour. 4.5/5

Blurred PsM - Who knew sour grapes tasted so good?! Intense flavours of cherries, plums, cinnamon and nutmeg. 4.75/5

Bourbon Barrel-Aged Ensorcelled (2018) - Wow! That is a massive beer! Dark sour beer aged in bourbons n barrels with tart cherries. Tart raspberries and chocolate. 4.75/5

Seditious Ways - Dark sour beer aged in oak barrels with tart cherries - rich deep fruit flavours and a huge hit of dark chocolate beneath the cherries. 4.5/5

Les Bouquet - Smells sensational like a herbal tissane or a bath bomb but, unlike those, it tastes amazing too! 4.75/5

Tiki Party - Sour edge to tropical hop flavours - mango; papaya; pineapple - like a particularly zingy fruit sorbet. 4.5/5

Driving back to Our Gracious Host and Hostess, we crossed the Oakland Bay Bridge. I do like bridges, as I may have mentioned before. I love the blend of art and engineering into something which is both useful and beautiful. William Morris would approve. As do I.

Oakland Bay Bridge

Our wonderful friends had delayed their Fourth of July party for the weekend, when we had returned and could celebrate their national day with them and a group of friends they had also invited. It was lovely to chat  and get to know them a little. 

Of course the spectre of politics shook its gory locks and I heard that people are still proud to be American, although it pains them that this is getting harder to admit as they are aware that the rest of the world sees their country as one dominated by Trump. Many of them refuse to allow him and his divisive politics rob them of their pride in their country. I admire this perspective and wish more fol from my own nation(s) could adopt it.

Our Gracious Host at the Fourth of July barbecue

See, people do eat vegetables in America!

I was very emotional to say farewell to my wonderful friend. It has been a magnificent trip and I look forward to the next one! Her father gave me this photo of us on her tenth birthday. Across the miles and the years, some things stay the same. In the immortal words of The Spice Girls' Wannabe, 'Make it last forever; friendship never ends'.

Our Gracious Hostess and me on her 10th birthday

And now

On the plane on the way home, I read the newspapers and corrected their errors. Of course, I was mainly interested in the football. It is (to misquote Karl Marx) the opium of the people.

 

And just because it makes me happy, here is a picture of the lads making it through to the semi-final in the most unlikely manner on penalties. 

Beer, Beaches, Books and the Bard (and some more trees)

Ferndale Cemetery may not be everyone's idea of a morning walk, but it is a beautiful, peaceful place with great views and interesting history.

We continued our drive up the coast to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. The Visitor Centre is on the seafront - another quick opportunity to whip off the shoes and walk along the beach.

As we drove into the woods, we saw these magnificent beasts by the roadside. The Roosevelt Elk are protected and they show no fear, as they graze gracefully and magnanimously allow photos.

 

And then we went for another walk through the woods and there were more trees. The species of Coastal Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) includes the tallest living trees on earth. They're big.

 

Out of the woods, and back to the sea - are you sensing a theme yet? Our route was to take us inland from Cresent City, but not before we stopped to admire the lighthouse. Battery Point Light was one of the first lighthouses on the California coast. At high tide it is cut off from the mainland, but fortunately it was low tide so we were able to walk across to it. 

I'm not usually a fan of net curtains, but these I can really get behind.

We set off inland through another forest of Coastal Redwoods. These ones are in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Named after Jedediah Strong Smith, a clerk, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer and explorer, this is the least developed of the redwoods parks and one of the most impressive. A dirt track winds through the trees and their size and proximity is overwhelming. 

Also known to some as the location for the forest moon of Endor from Return of the Jedi, you may spot a couple of gormless-looking eewoks among the trees if you look closely. 

We continued our drive and stopped for dinner at Common Block Brewing Company. Here we discovered good food, great beer (the Brick & Mortar Porter was deliciously chocolately with a touch bitterness, and the Cheek to Cheek Grapefruit IPA combines sweet malt with hop bitterness and extra grapefruit zest), and the game of cornhole.

Common Block Brewing Cheek to Cheek Grapefruit IPA

Cornhole may look like some deranged deck game for listless cruise-liner passengers to play, but it is, apparently, very serious business. There are heaps of rules, according to the ACO (American Cornhole Association), but basically you take it in turns to throw a bean bag at a sloping board, and get three points for a bag in the hole; one point for a bag on the board; and immense satisfaction if your knock your opponent's bag off the board. We were naturals... Apparently the way to decide tossing order (yes, that's tossing order) is that the ugliest person goes first. We didn't see that rule until later, so no one can have any complaints. 

Suitably refreshed and entertained, we continued to Ashland, which was to be our home for the night (and the next day). Our Gracious Host and Hostess had booked this place on-line and it was fabulous. It was once a 40-acre lavender farm. The owner sold it to move to a smaller place - the new owners planted a (totally legit in this state) cannabis crop and made $1 million in the first year. They the 'forgot' to plant anything the next year, went broke and had to foreclose on the house. The original owner bought it back and now rents it out to people like us. 

It still bears many traces of the purple plant, which frame the spectacular views perfectly. I was to spend some time in the pool and was also intrigued by the collection of oriental artefacts.

Him Outdoors went for a run with the glorious backdrop of Mt Shasta and the Cascade ranges.

Meanwhile, Our Gracious Hostess and I made good use of our time indulging in the main reason for coming to this area: The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It's a pretty big deal in these parts. First, I discovered these great books in which the stories of Shakespeare are illustrated with Lego. 

In Ashland itself we saw two Shakespeare performances. Between them we walked around the compact town with its neat streets and boutique shops. I was particularly drawn to the book shop where the window display featured books arranged by colour rather than author, title or subject. This is for all my friends who have ever worked in a bookshop!

As to the reason we are here; in the afternoon, we watched a version of Henry V, in which director Rosa Joshi incorporated innovative costume and set design to keep the pace moving briskly and precisely. The lead performance from Daniel Jose Molina is supremely confident (verging on psychotic) and the American accent and modern delivery ruins the rhythm but it sharpens the humour and militancy. The artifice of the warm-up routines on stage is one favoured of many amateur dramatic societies and would be better cut. However, when the actors move their own stage furniture into different configurations to assist the audience to 'piece out our imperfections with your thought' it is one of the highlights of the production. 

The evening's show was Love's Labour's Lost featuring the same Daniel Jose Molina as the King of Navarre and Stephen Michael Spencer channelling Jack Black in the role of Lord Berowne. Alejandra Escalante played the visiting Princess of France with a deft touch and a sparkling vivacity; the scenes with her companions were fresh and fun. Amanda Dehnert's direction was a bit messy, relying on tropes such as a band, finger painting on clothing and generally riotous behaviour, which overwhelmed the words and, at times, the story. While it was entertaining and diverting, it went on too long and forgot to recognise that the audience longs to revel simply in the genius of the bard rather than the bells and whistles of the ringmaster. I just loved being part of it all, however, as we sat in an outdoor amphitheater under the stars and fairy lights.