A slice of history with your wine and cheese

Every Friday, Sam Jacobson invites Roche Harbor guests to join him by the fireplace for an hour of wine and cheese, as he tells stories about the resort's 122-year-old history.

Just pull up a chair. He can tell you about John S. McMillin, a Tacoma lawyer who built a limestone manufacturing empire and this town.

Or show you the guest book President Theodore Roosevelt signed when he visited on July 13, 1906.

Or tell the stories behind those 70 black-and-white photographs hanging in the lobby of the Hotel de Haro, built in 1886.

The 30-year-old Portland native, who sometimes peeks into the resort's vault filled with mementos and historical records, has become the resort's historian and storyteller in addition to his role as lodging director.

Jacobson is also credited with revamping the resort restaurant's acclaimed wine list after he started working here in 2001.

The Friday-evening chats combine his two interests: history and wine.

What's his favorite place here? The wooden bench across from the resort's chapel, for the view. "A half-hour before the sun goes down, we call it 'afterglow' — the turquoise, pink and lavender colors sit in the air for about an hour after the sun goes down."

— Tan Vinh