Eco-Tourism and My Honeymoon

I had the most unique and wonderful honeymoon I could have imagined. There were two incredible components to the trip, so I will start with a little bit of history. Ever since my cousin Jessica got married at the Sooke Harbour House, I wanted to either be married there or spend my honeymoon there. I had no idea that years later, my dream would come true.

My cousin Buddy Cook, and his daughters Jessica and Sarah Cook are proud Canadians, and for 20 years, Buddy has been the head organic gardener at the Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island. This eccentric little B&B is well known for its restaurant, gardens and commitment to sustainability.

We began our honeymoon by visiting Doug's parents in Seattle, and then we drove up to Canada for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics! This was so special to me in that I attended the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and I thought that was a once in a lifetime opportunity. We attended Women's luge, Women's hockey, Men's curling and Women's downhill skiing events over the course of 3 days. It was a busy and tiring few days, but well worth the effort!

The night life in downtown Vancouver was vibrant and the local micro brews were delicious!

Our final day held the greatest treat of all...we got to see Lindsey Vonn win Gold for the USA!!!!

I am definitely now a lifetime lover of curling. It's basically shuffleboard on ice that allows cheating. The men tended to be a little more into shoving the opponent's stones out of the way with brute force, but the women would sit there and triangulate ways to out-maneuver the other team with precision.

We spent two days over on Vancouver Island, but did not get to see much. It was a very short trip, but I got what I wanted. I got to see my family and Doug and I had a very relaxing time in the Whale Room. I do wish that I could spend more time with the Cooks, they are lovely people and I have enjoyed getting to know them into my adulthood.

Aidan, Buddy, Deborah, Doug



British Columbia and Seattle offers a lot for the Eco-minded tourist. Everywhere we went there were public bins for composting and recycling, even out on the streets of Vancouver! Many restaurants and microbreweries we visited focused on locally sourced ingredients. Buddy often boasts that the only items on the menu at the Sooke Harbour House that are not local is the coffee, tea, sugar, chocolate and wheat flour (though Canadian-grown and milled). Seasonal, local food just tastes so much better! It is often not possible or practical to go 100% local, but every little change helps.


I think I have mentioned before that the goal of this blog is to educate my friends and family about the benefits of dining and shopping locally. Yes, local eating can be beneficial in the grand scheme of things (such as climate change, over-fishing, etc... but I'm not going there right now), the MAIN FOCUS is to SUPPORT your LOCAL ECONOMY, bringing food commerce back into your area (or keeping it there) and away from mass-produced products that are often stripped of character, culture and nutrition.


Food is less expensive and better for you when produced locally and minimally processed, which puts more cash in your pocket and more into the immediate community. It's not all about "saving the Earth," its about saving local, healthier ways of living.


You can do this even when you are on vacation. Pick a hotel or B&B that is environmentally aware and supports the community. Don't be wasteful...recycle when you can and don't eat at the mega TGIMcDougall's restaurants. It doesnt take that much research or effort, you can do it!

Back in Seattle after the Olympics, we went to the Theo chocolate factory!

Their tour was educational and the aroma was intoxicating. I wanted to morph into Lucy and step right onto the production line....except with Theo, they produce small artisinal batches of chocolate, so there is no "production line!"

Some awesome resources:

The only Organic, Fair-Trade Certified bean-to-bar chocolate maker in the United States: http://www.theochocolate.com/ Seattle, WA


Speaking of helping communities...what is Fair-Trade Certified?


This is not all just a bunch of hippie psychobabble....it's about doing the right thing for fellow human beings!

Drinks for the New Year

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, there has been TOO MUCH going on!

I've found that this absence from writing has given me some time to get my thoughts together for the New Year blog. With the parties that have come and gone from Christmas all the way to Super Bowl Weekend, I've done some looking around for local spirits and festive drinks.

When most people think about the South, they think about Jack Daniels from Tennessee, Kentucky Bourbon, and of course hot toddy (NOT HOTTY TODDY!!!!) and mint juleps. The hard stuff has the most vibrant history as well, from rum-running along the barrier islands by famous pirates like Blackbeard, to the birth of the modern sport of NASCAR in the foothills of the Appalachians.

Beer has unfortunately been slow to take hold, probably due to a couple of centuries without refrigeration and hot, humid conditions. Wine is made in the mountains but are not known for the best of vintage. The best "vintages" from those locations is of the moonshine variety. :)

I'm going to touch on a couple of items that I've found in local liquor and wine stores that are truly unique and worth your time!

Some of you may have heard of this stuff called "Firefly", which is a sweet-tea infused vodka produced in South Carolina. I do not care what the New York Times has to say about it....(what do they know about sweet tea anyways)...but this stuff is NASTY. I don't care if it's local, don't do it!

What IS worth your while is another liquor product from the Firefly people: Sea Island Rums. The Sea Island Carolina Gold Rum is made from sugarcane grown in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. It is delicious to mix into a South Carolina peach daquiri or just by itself on the rocks.

Living on Hilton Head Island and being exposed to the "wine scene" here has been an excellent education. The wine store and restaurant owners and staff are well versed in where to go for "local" wine....which comes from North Carolina or Georgia. There are a couple of Lowcountry "wineries" in the area that make wine, but the grapes come from as far away as Oregon. I'd prefer something a little fresher, and representative of the upland Southern climate and soil.

The best wine I've had that is "local" is from Shelton Winery in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. That's about 200 miles north of here, around the Winston-Salem area.

They grow 22 varities of grapes and broke ground on their 33,000 square foot facility in 1999.

Their 2007 Bin 17 Chardonnay is medium bodied and is a bit dry. It's not overly oaked, which is important to me. I have also enjoyed their 2007 Yadkin Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Doug has had a glass or two of these wines since his return from Japan, and he was quite surprised that it is so good. He definitely has been spoiled by good Washington State wine, so his thumbs-up on any East Coast varietal is awesome.

Another "older" winery is from Biltmore, also in North Carolina. Most of the vines were established in 1971. Biltmore has a bit of a reputation for being a producer of very sweet wines, varieties include Chardonnay, Riesling, Viognier, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. It has been hit or miss with us--a bottle of Pinot noir recently went down the drain after one taste, but I did very much enjoy the 2008 Limited Release Malbec.

This tour of Southeastern wineries would not be complete without mentioning Château Élan. This winery is located about 15 miles from my parents home near Oakwood, Georgia. North Georgia does have higher elevations that could be conducive to growing decent grapes, but this is not the case. There is, however, one grape that can stand the Georgia heat, humidity and pests. Native only in the Southeast, the muscadine grape is characterized by heady rose and lemon aromas and was traditionally made into a sweet, low-alcohol wine. Château Élan has done some pretty impressive things to make their muscadine wine delightful. They have developed methods to harness and control its components, with the result being a light, fruity and uniquely Southern white wine. I have enjoyed many a glass of their Autumn Blush chilled on a hot summer evening.

Lately I have encouraged my friends and family to buy local, and if that is impossible, at least buy American. There are so many good wines out there from Washington State, Oregon, and California that it is hard and even scary to branch out into "local" Southern wines. From what I have been exposed to so far, there is something from Virginia all the way to Georgia that can satisfy any wine-o.