North to Santa Rosa – Nagasawa Park and the Paradise Ridge Winery

I was recently asked to write an article about US/Japan relations for a Japanese publication, and as part of that wanted to include the story of Kanaye Nagasawa, who was born in 1852 in Kagoshima on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan and, through a very circuitous route, ultimately made his way to the Santa Rosa area north of San Francisco in 1872 where he was one of the founders of the California wine industry.

Nagasawa's accomplishments were recognized during a speech made by President Ronald Reagan before the Japanese Diet during a visit to Japan in 1983 as follows:

"The Pacific Basin represents the most exciting region of economic growth in the world today. Your people stretch your abilities to the limit, and when an entire nation does this, miracles occur. Being a Californian, I have seen many miracles hardworking Japanese have brought to our shores. In 1865, a young samurai student, Kanaye Nagasawa, left Japan to learn what made the West economically strong and technologically advanced. Ten years later he founded a small winery at Santa Rosa, California, called the Fountaingrove Round Barn and Winery. Soon he became known as the Grape King of California. Nagasawa came to California to enrich our lives. Both our countries owe much to this Japanese warrior-turned-businessman."

The winery that Nagasawa helped to establish no longer exists today, but the property

where the winery existed is close to the Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa and the Winery has a small exhibit of photographs of Nagasawa and related memorabilia at its tasting building. In addition, Paradise Ridge has named its wine making building the Nagasawa Building, and one of its vineyards the Nagasawa Vineyard. They produce an excellent Chardonnay from the grapes grown there.

Friday was a beautiful day and since I was going to be in Petaluma and needed some pictures to accompany my article, I decided to drive up to Fountaingrove, both to visit the Nagasawa exhibit at the winery and to see the Nagasawa Community Park which was opened in 2007 and dedicated to Nagasawa’s memory. I first stopped by the park, which is on the shore of Fountaingrove Lake and is quite a pretty spot.

I then drove the short distance to the Paradise Ridge Winery where I visited the Nagasawa exhibit. I had met Walter Byck & Marijke Byck-Hoenselaars, the husband and wife who founded Paradise Ridge on a visit to the winery in 2005, and appreciated the efforts they had made to honor Nagasawa’s memory.

Sadly, Marjike was killed in a traffic accident in 2006, but the Byck’s children remain active with the winery. The Paradise Ridge tasting building is set on a hillside with a beautiful view from its terrace to the west across the vineyards to the Russian River Valley.

I also took some time to visit Marijke’s Grove next to the winery building and its wonderful sculpture garden, currently featuring works by a number of artists, including Gale Wagner, Ron Rodgers, Robert Ellison and, in particular, the “Rootings” exhibit by Bruce Johnson, several pieces in redwood and copper.

Since it is not in the heart of the Sonoma wine producing area and is in a relatively developed area, I am afraid that Paradise Ridge may be overlooked by some. However, both the excellence of its wines and the beauty of its surroundings are deserving of attention. Paradise Ridge's wines are not the easiest to find in wine stores, but one place I know in San Francisco that usually has a good selection is Wine Impressions in the Laural Heights Shopping Center.

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"You Cahn't Get Theyah From Heeah" – A Visit to the Pine Tree State

Every year we have a reunion of Nancy’s side of the family somewhere around the country. Given the size and dispersion of the large and growing Brown clan, there is no single place that works well for everyone, and our past annual gatherings have been in a wide variety of locations across the country.

This year the family meeting was held at the Inn by the Sea, a resort in Cape Elizabeth, just south of Portland, Maine. It was a beautiful location, although unfortunately, as can be seen from the following photos taken from our room on successive mornings, the weather was not very cooperative. If anyone was watching the US Open being played on Long Island, a bit south of us, you will get the idea.

Of our four sons, only Patrick was able to make the meeting this year, but there was a good turnout from the other family members and it was good to see everyone.

Although a good deal of time was spent at the Inn, we did manage to make it up to Freeport, a bit north of Portland, one day to visit the LL Bean mothership store, as well as some of the other high-end retail outlets which are clustered around LL Bean in downtown Freeport.

Pat and I even happened to be caught in a photo which appeared on the front page of the Portland Press Herald while we were there (see two non-descript individuals on the far right of the picture, obviously not contributing to the Maine economy).

As far as food goes, one of the high points was our visit to the Two Lights Lobster Shack just a couple of miles north of the Inn – reputed to be one of the best places in Main to get lobster rolls and fried clams. We tried both and they were excellent.

Maine is Boston Red Sox country and Pat and some friends took in a game one afternoon at Hadlock field, the home of the Portland Sea Dogs, one of the Red Sox farm teams. The field even sports a mini-“Green Monster,” just like at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox theme continued that evening at our dinner at Joe’s Boathouse in South Portland.

One of the most memorable activities of the trip was a trip we took one evening on the schooner Wendameen from the Portland Harbor to Cow Island, one of the islands in Casco Bay.

There we had a proper Maine seafood dinner prepared by the folks from Rippleffect, including lobster, mussels and corn on the cob.

On Monday morning on the way to the airport we met up at Becky’s Diner, a Portland institution, with Sam Van Dam, a college classmate of mine who is an architect in Portland. It was great to see Sam after many years and the breakfast at Becky’s (especially the the grilled blueberry muffins which I tried) was fantastic.

Incidentally, the quote in the title to this post comes from a performance of “Bert & I”, collections of humorous stories reflecting traditional Maine culture and told with a Maine accent, created by the storytelling team of Marshall Dodge and Bob Bryan in the 1950s and 1960s. When I was at Harvard in the 1960’s my roommate, Duncan, who was from the Boston area, introduced me to the stories. The above quote is the very Maine-esque punchline in the story “Which Way to Millinocket?", a portion of which can be heard here. A performance by Bob Bryan can be seen here.

On to Pittsburgh for next year’s family gathering!

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Those Oysters Ain’t from the Ocean – A Trip to Cody

I got behind on my posting last month and have to catch up, starting with the trip to Cody, Wyoming, Pat and I took at the beginning of June. We left San Francisco Friday morning on a 6:10AM Delta flight bound for Salt Lake City where we transferred for the hop to Cody. The trip got off to a rousing start when we boarded the flight at SFO to the crowing of roosters who were apparently just waking up in the cargo hold.

Our flight to Cody was smooth and on-schedule and Mom and Robert met us at the Cody airport.

A view of Cody - Cedar and Rattlesnake Mountains in the distance

As is our custom upon mid-day arrivals in Cody, we immediately headed downtown to the Proud Cut Saloon for our traditional “welcome to Cody” lunch of Rocky Mountain oysters and Big Sky BrewCo’s Moose Drool Brown Ale. As we later saw on another menu later during our stay:

“These oysters aren’t caught at sea pardner. These babies are from one angry steer!”

We then checked in at the Skyline Motor Inn and greeted the manager, Roger Bjornson, who sports quite an impressive beard to say the least!

Pat and I then headed over to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody where we spent the afternoon at the Center’s diverse exhibits of firearms (yikes – LOTS of them, plus many stuffed animal heads on the wall!), Plain Indian culture, Buffalo Bill memorabilia, and the Yellowstone ecosystem. Sadly the Center’s Whitney Gallery of Western Art was closed for renovations, although we may not have had the energy to do it justice in any case.

The weather report for the weekend was a bit threatening, and after some mulling we decided to try to drive into Yellowstone Park on Saturday. The weather did not look too promising as we started off to the Park’s East Gate, about 40 miles west of Cody, but by the time we got into the Park there were patches of blue sky.

After a stop at Fishing Bridge to warm up with some soup (even though it was June, there were a few snowflakes in the air!), we took a counter clock-wise loop through the heart of the Park that took us to Canyon Village and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Norris, Madison, Geyser Basin and Old Faithful and West Thumb, before heading back to Cody.

We were also able to see a variety of wildlife, including buffalo (actually bison) and elk. From the ominous warning we received about the buffalo at the Park entrance, it seems that a few people may have been getting to close recently.

That evening Pat and I headed over to Cassie’s Place, a restaurant and dance hall at the edge of Cody where, with the assistance of Levi, who may have been working his first night at Cassie’s, we had a couple of pretty good steaks.

When we stuck our head out the door at the Skyline on Sunday morning it was clear our decision to drive to Yellowstone on Saturday had been the right one -- about four inches of snow had fallen and it was chilly.

However, by the time we had walked over to Robert’s apartment and had finished our breakfast, the snow was melting pretty quickly so we decided to drive over to Powell, a town northeast of Cody. On the way back we stopped by the memorial for the Heart Mountain Relocation Center between Cody and Powell, one of the ten War Relocation Authority internment camps where Japanese-Americans – over 10,000 in the case of Heart Mountain - were interned during World War II. As you can see from this video I took, and the below shot taken of the camp during World War II, it is a wind-swept, bleak place, even in June much less in mid-winter.

After a lunch at Bubba’s in Cody, we stopped by the Cody Library where we heard a lecture by an author named Guy Gertsch, author of "Following Lewis & Clark: a 4,200 Mile Walk.” As described in the program announcement,

"Two hundred years after Lewis and Clark embarked on their 1804 adventure of western discovery, Guy Gertsch began walking the same path from Illinois to the Pacific Ocean, following the explorers as closely as the 21st century would permit. Gertsch, then 60, made the 4,200-mile trip alone and on foot. Gertsch tells the stories and shows photos of his two years trekking with the spirits of the Corps of Discovery."

Sadly, the announcement was a bit more interesting than the program.

For dinner we headed down to the Irma Hotel, once owned by Buffalo Bill Cody and named after one of his daughters (and the location of the famous Cherrywood Bar, made in France and a gift to Buffalo Bill from England's Queen Victoria). We had some very good bison.

On Monday morning, before heading to the airport, we headed down to Mom and Robert’s favorite breakfast spot, My Place. It did not disappoint.

We are already looking forward to our next visit!

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A Celebration of Connie and Andrew!

Sunday evening was the main course (in more ways than one) of our trip to LA – the opportunity to get together with Connie’s extended family, and Andrew and Connie’s friends, to celebrate Connie and Andrew's marriage last month. Happily on Saturday their marriage license had arrived in the mail so all was official!

A group of about 80 of us gathered at the Elite Restaurant in Monterey Park on Sunday evening. Unfortunately, Robert, Janet and Patrick were not able to make it, but Aunt Ellen joined us to bolster the Moyle ranks.

Cooper Carras, the wedding photographer who had accompanied Andrew and Connie to Buenos Aires last month, was also there to take more pictures. After a series of more formal family photographs we got down to the business of eating.

Even before we managed sit down at the tables and get to the formal menu, a roast pig arrived to tide us over during the reception.

The ears and snout were crispy and quite tempting (especially in light of my recent pig head adventure), but, keeping in mind the need to make a good impression on Connie’s side of the family, I managed to restrain myself.

Connie had planned a fabulous dinner of - OMG - THIRTEEN courses.

The dishes just kept coming throughout the evening as we whispered words of encouragement to each other and admonitions to “pace yourself”. Of course, it did not help that at our table we had a few extra dishes off the menu in light of the alergies Andrew and Alex have to certain seafoods!

Andrew and Connie circulated among the tables during the evening entertaining the gathering by periodically responding to the clinking of glasses with a kiss.

We are very lucky to have Connie as a member of our family and to joined with the Sung family.

I hope for more such dinners between our families in the future!

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Bergamot Station - Time Out for Some Culture in Santa Monica

We were in Santa Monica on Saturday visiting Andrew and Connie and, after a nice breakfast at a cozy diner named Snug Harbor, a short walk from their apartment (we somehow still had some room left notwithstanding the huge dinner at Carlitos Gardel the night before!), decided to check out Bergamot Station, a cluster of art galleries housed in a complex of industrial buildings just off the 10 Freeway in Santa Monica. The name, Bergamot Station, dates back to 1875 when the area was a stop for the Red Line trolley running from Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Pier.

Although we did not manage to visit all of the galleries, of those we did visit the exhibits I enjoyed the most were:

~ “The Last Iceberg,” an exhibit of beautiful photos taken by Camille Seaman at the Richard Heller Gallery [“one piece of a larger project entitled "Melting Away" which documents the polar regions of our planet, their environments, life forms, history of human exploration and the communities that work and live there.”]:

In addition to her photos of icebergs, I also found online a selection of some incredible photos from Seaman's new portfolio, "The Big Cloud".

~ An exhibit of paintings by Julie Heffernan at the Mark Moore Gallery (a beautiful set of paintings, each showing a great deal of work and attention to detail, although with a somewhat disturbing undertone -- I am not sure where I would hang one in our home):

Julie Heffernan - Self Portrait as Great Heap

The Sour Harvest blog has a very good overview of the show.

~ An exhibit of works by the Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo at the Latin American Masters gallery:

We also took a look around Hiromi Paper International which had some amazing Japanese and other paper products and really deserved more time.

Finally, we also stopped off at the Cafe for a late lunch.

Bergamot Station is well worth a visit.

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