La Rambla

La Rambla is known to be one of the best restaurant at the historic downtown of McMinnville. The restaurant is located near the West end of the 3rd Street. It offers variety of Spanish food, and it is quite different from the usual Mexican food that we have had. This restaurant was highly recommended to us by the inn keeper, and thus we decided to give it a try.


We drove to the historic downtown of McMinnville and parked the car at the parking structure on 5th Street. We walked to the restaurant and had a look at the menu on the door. While we were checking out the menu, a lady customer pushed the door open and told us we must try this place and the food is simply amazing. This has assured us that we need to give this a try.

We sat down at the table and looked at the menu again more carefully. We were a bit confused on what is being listed on the menu. It is very different from the type of menu that we have seen at a Mexican restaurant. It is a Spanish restaurant after all. It took us a while to decided what to order, and we decided to order 3 tapas dish. We ordered Empanadas, stuffed Piquillo Peppers, and Chili Shrimp.

Empanadas dish came quite fast. It is served with 3 pieces, that look like fried dumplings. It is stuffed with braised beef and other type of vegetables. There were also honey drizzled on top of it. The Piquillo Peppers are large red peppers stuffed with rice, chicken, and other vegetables. There were also sauces drizzled on top of it but we could not figure out what kind of sauce it is. The Chili Shrimp came with 4 pieces, with 2 pieces pair tangled together. The shrimp is quite tender and the chili spice is quite hot. Even after 5 minutes, we could still feel the hot spice burning on our tongues.

In general, this is quite an unique experience to us since we have never really had authentic Spanish food. It looked like the dishes that we ordered were just appetizers. We would say that this is an unique experience. One of the down side here is that the food here is quite expensive. Each tapas that we ordered was at least $13 per dish.

Youngberg Hill Inn

Youngberg Hill Inn is located near McMinnville in Oregon. As the its name suggests, it is located at the top of Youngberg Hill, at the end of the Youngberg Hill Road. The inn also has a large event venue for holding large events such as company retreats and weddings. The inn also includes huge vineyards at the top of the hill. Thus Youngberg Hill Inn also brews its own wine and offer tasting events. The inn is quite close to Portland, and only about an hour of drive.


We were looking for a place to stay and relax during the weekend before Thanksgiving and decided to visit Youngberg Hill. We left right after work on Friday and headed there. We were quite excited because we have never stayed at a Bed and Breakfast Inn with vineyards and really looked forward to this trip. When we got there, we were surprised to see the amount of cars there due the an event being hosted there that evening.

The check in time at the Inn is before 6PM and we got there at 7PM. The keys were left in the box beside the door for us by the inn keeper. So it was quite easy for us to get to the room.  After we relax in the room, we realized that we and the other couple were the only 4 people occupying the inn.

We woke up very early next day morning before the sunrise. We first wanted to do star gazing and also wanted to make sure we catch the sunrise on the top of the hill. The sky was incredibly clear to see all the stars in the sky. We could see the city light of McMinnville on the far East side. Unfortunately, the milky way was on the other side of the hill and we could not see it.

The morning on the top of the hill was quite cold however. We would recommend people to wear thicker jacket and wear gloves, especially during the winter time.

The breakfast is offered at 9AM in the morning. We were served with different type of breakfast everyday and it was amazing. While having breakfast, we could see number of tables being occupied to check number of people staying at the inn.

After the breakfast, we walked around the area and found the swing near the end of the gravel parking lot. The swing is attached to the branch of the huge tree and the swing is facing the vineyard. It is one of the most popular place for photography, especially for wedding photography.

The owner also owns 2 lovely dogs. The 2 dogs would be at the lawn enjoying the heat from the sun. These 2 dogs were so lovely and well trained. When we pet him, the dog would sit down and enjoy people pet him. They were just so cute and lovely.

Overall, Youngberg Hill Inn is definitely one of the most amazing place to do a weekend gateway from Portland. One could simply sit at the balcony for the whole day to read a book and enjoy a glass of wine. We highly recommend this place. The inn also has 2 nights for 1 night price special offer between January and March, which is an amazing offer!