191. Roses

Sitting here this early summer morning of 2021 on my deck in the back yard it has occurred to me that I have not written about roses. I’ve made lists about the things I appreciate in America and nowhere have I written down roses! I while away hour after hour in my yard with roses. Last year when we built our garage I spent hours digging up my rose bushes and replanting them along the south side of the house (the best place I had in a pinch) to save them while letting other plants get buried beneath cement. I love roses and cultivating them. Just yesterday we walked in the park and I felt like I was in heaven as the scent of the rose garden enveloped me. I used to buy a new rose bush for every year we lived in our house until I couldn’t figure out where to plant them anymore. Now I am resuming that plan as I have built my garage and I can place them throughout the property. How could I have overlooked that thing that gives me so much pleasure throughout my life? I love roses.

The buds of roses, after the little green wrapping has unfolded, reveal the colors that the full flower will have. Each petal unfurls slowly, releasing the scent of heaven. Some roses are single petaled, meaning that when they open there aren’t layers of petals. This type is the hardy old-fashioned type that can handle harsher weather, the type that the houses of York and Lancaster used to symbolize their families and why their wars were known as the Wars of the Roses. The hybrid roses have multiple petals and are probably what most people in our modern world imagine when the word rose is conjured up. The Tudor rose was the combination of the houses of York and Lancaster, so it would have been a hybrid. I like them all and I aspire to have a myriad of colors and fragrances in my own yard. While I used English monarchy to explain roses, you need to know that wild roses are native to the US and their essence pervades the hills right now. I so appreciate roses.

 

190. The Ice Berg Drive In

Back in the post war mid-twentieth century fast food was becoming a thing here in America. It was hardly ever dine in, just drive in, pick up your burger, fries and coke and take it home, on a picnic, or eat it in your car (remembering that cars were huge in those days). That’s the time period in which I was born and how I remember drive ins. Most of them weren’t chain restaurants, though that is when A&W and McDonalds were getting their starts. Some of those original, old fashioned drive ins are still around and they usually still have really great food and often their original menus.

One such drive in that I like to stop at whenever I’m in Walla Walla, Washington is the Ice Berg. This place has been a staple of Walla Walla since 1952, long before Walla Walla became trendy as the wine tasting hot spot of the Northwest. the food is good. It’s the typical old-fashioned burgers, fries, onion rings, and shake place. There is no dine in place there, it’s still the original drive in building and it can get really busy around lunch time any day of the week. I always enjoy onion rings and this place has the best. They use the native Walla Walla Sweet onions and the breading sticks right to the ring. You never end up taking a bite and getting all the onion pulled from the breading. But it’s not just that—they really taste great.

And Americans have loved ice cream in the summer since way back in the nineteenth century (if not earlier).  I don’t know when we perfected soft-serve and milk shakes but I’m assuming it came with the advent of the drive in. The Ice Berg certainly has great, thick shakes. They have quite the array of flavors as well. I’m pretty sure the majority of these have come about in the last few years of this century because I don’t remember most of the flavors they now offer as being a thing when I was a kid. If it’s a soft serve cone dipped in chocolate you are looking for, the Ice Berg has those as well. I really appreciate a good old-fashioned burger and shake with a touch of history. You can find that at the Ice Berg Drive In in Walla Walla, Washington.

 

189. Deschutes Brewery

I have been a fan of the Deschutes beers from the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon for some time. They have a variety of beers ranging from lagers and pilsners to porters and stouts. Their signature beer is definitely Mirror Pond Pale Ale named after that very pond in downtown Bend. My parents live in Central Oregon so it has become the go to beer for them and because of that I have also fallen into that pattern, but the reality is that I go more for citrusy IPAs. That is not a problem with Deschutes. I’ve really become a fan of Fresh Squeeze IPA and Inversion IPA and the other rotating IPAs that the brewery puts out.

Deschutes Brewery has restaurants in various towns, but I’m only familiar with the one in Bend, the original. I love that restaurant because of its variety of foods that include vegan and vegetarian fare as well as the favored Northwest Salmon and even an elk burger. It’s not one of those overly pricey places that makes you feel uncomfortable with a crazy menu, but a typical brew pub with good food, yet food that includes, rather than excludes, dietary concerns and preferences. I appreciate that.

But, of course, what I really appreciate about any brew pub is the beer. Deschutes has an extensive beer menu that you can easily see when you go to the store to buy some beer, but they have even more choices in their brew pub because they have some exclusives that they only have at that pub. I usually order the tasting trays that allow me six four ounce pours of various beers and maybe a cider or seltzer thrown in as well. I’m in heaven just drinking a variety of their IPAs, but if I’ve gone a couple of days close together (which I have) I might throw in a raspberry stout as a dessert drink for my salmon sandwich. Or I might just stick in a seltzer for a light finish. And I do share what I get so others can see what they like or don’t like. It’s a great place to go for beer sampling.