Yakima Valley, Washington --- Wine Country

Roger here....   This post is from the Yakima Valley of Washington, which is known for the cultivation of great fruit and the production of very good wine.  As you can see from the opening photo, we have left the cool, green parts of the Pacific Northwest and have arrived in the much drier, warmer, and less green climate on the east side of the mountains.

Just a little explanation before talking about this area --- Some of you who know us well have probably figured out that we have been pretty far behind with our postings.  Visits with friends and family have necessitated writing the posts some time after the events actually occurred.  By the time you read this post and the previous post (Mt. Rainier),  I will be in Indiana doing some consulting work with my former employer while Dianne has some quiet time with the dogs in Salt Lake City.  There won't be much to post about during the next two weeks, but we should finally be closer to real time.

After a relatively short drive from the Mt. Rainier area, we arrived at the Wine Country RV Park in Prosser, WA around noon.  We checked in.  Turned on the air conditioning. Gave the dogs treats, and drove a couple miles to the Hogue Cellars.  We wanted to stop there because of a great Sangiovese wine from that winery that our friends John and Audrey shared with us last winter in Texas.  We were disappointed to learn that it is no longer produced.  We did taste some of the wines from that location, but only bought a bottle of merlot reserve and a bottle of tasty rose.  

It was still early in the day, so we dropped by the nearby Desert Wind tasting room.  Guess what!  They had Sangiovese (a little hard to find) --- Dianne's favorite.  It was good.  It was extremely reasonably priced.  We ended up buying nine bottles of Sangiovese and three bottles of a red blend that I liked.  I guess that made up for the money we did not spend at Hogue :-)

One of the activities that we enjoy in the tasting rooms is looking at all the wine-related paraphernalia and usually buying something we enjoy, but don't necessarily need.  The Desert Wind shop caught Dianne's fancy.  She bought some wine glass covers to keep the gnats out of the wine when sitting under our pergola in Texas, as well as some of those humorous wine napkins for our Texas happy hours.

The next morning we drove to a local fruit market where we bought cantaloupe, peaches and strawberries.  That afternoon we visiting three tasting rooms that were walking distance from our RV park, but we did not walk.  (It was in the mid-nineties).  We did not walk.  Our first stop was the Willow Crest tasting room, where we bought two bottles of Almond Roka Creme.  We will be pouring this over ice cream and in coffee (on special occasions).  Soooo good.  We also bought a dark blue wine glass made from a wine bottle to replace one that we broke last winter.

Next door was the most imaginative tasting room.  The Airfield winery was built to look like an airport hangar.  We only bought one bottle of Riesling there; however, I bought a baseball cap and Dianne picked out a t-shirt.  We like the wine here, but we really liked the logos on their stuff.

Our last stop was the Apex tasting room (only a block away).  We both really liked the wines here.  Again, like most wines from this region, they were very reasonably priced.  We bought a case --- half Syrah, half Cab.  We cannot buy any more wine or the motor home will be too heavy to make it over the next mountain range.

Since leaving Texas in April, we have visited four wine areas:  Temecula, CA;  Napa, CA; the Willamette Valley of Oregon; and the Yakima Valley of Washington.  My least favorite (for wine) was Temecula.  It was also pricey to taste and to buy, for no particular reason.  The town of Temecula is really nice, though.  Napa was fun and beautiful, but it was difficult to get to because of the traffic and kind of a hassle.  The wine was great there, but extremely expensive.  Also, they don't bother too much with gift shop items -- guess they don't feel the need to.  The Willamette Valley was the most beautiful, but we don't especially care for Pinots, which is the specialty of the place.  The Yakima Valley was far less pretentious than the other places, but for us, the wines were more of what we like.  It was also far, far less expensive; therefore, far more tempting to purchase.  We may well have wine shipped from here to Texas, if our growing supplies ever run low.

The places we visited in the Yakima Valley were nice, very appealing;  however, they did not have the elaborate landscaping of Napa or Oregon.  That is what we thought until we saw this place.  Oh, nevermind, it is a plant nursery.

After leaving Prosser, WA three days of driving (3-4 hours per day), with one-night stops in Baker City, Oregon and Hagerman, Idaho, brought us to Salt Lake City where I am writing this post.  (Well, as you know, I am actually in Indiana as you are reading this, but I wrote it in Salt Lake City).

The pet picture of the day shows Tequila keeping an eye on the open road.  It kind of reminds me of the Batman silhouette.  

This is my view as we travel the highways in the motor home -- the back of Tequila's head as she sits comfortably on my lap!  -- D.

Mt. Rainier, How Many Pictures Can One Take?

Roger here... This post is definitely about our short time at Mount Rainier; however, I must point out that when I asked Dianne (after a Yakima Valley wine tasting excusion) if she wanted to do this post, she said, "You do the Route Manier Post."  Never again will I feel guilt when she insinuates that I might be slurring!  :-).

On to the post.   I have been seeing Mt. Rainier from a distance for a while:  once when  I was in Seattle with my parents, once when we landed in Portland during my nephew's HS graduation, several times recently from the Olympic Peninsula and Seattle.  Now.... We are there.

 We originally intended to spend four days in the Yakima Valley sampling wine.  When we discovered that taking a slightly different route would take us right next to Mount Rainier National Park, we opted to reduce a couple of wine days (we need no more wine) and stop by the national park.  Since arriving in Washington, we have seen iconic mountains floating above the clouds:  Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood (the perfect cone), Mt Olympus,  and Mt. Baker (the forgotten giant). 

We finally got to see Mt. St. Helens without clouds from Mt. Ranier

What a mistake it would have been to miss Mt. Rainier ---the MOUNTAIN. 

We found a local RV park in Packwood, WA, that was just a few miles from the National Park.   This was not a fancy place, but it had full hook-ups and lots of grassy room for the doggies to relax (and us).  The next morning we walked the dogs and drove a few miles to the national park entrance.

Our first stop took us to a point where a bridge and tunnel intersect.  The bridge spanned a narrow canyon with a raging stream below.

Love the white water.  We learned that glacial melt water is milky looking.

A short trail led to a view of the mountain and the glacier-scraped rock, covered with red lichen.

Returning to the bridge we were able to look straight down to the churning water.

Moving on, the views of Mt. Rainier became more spectacular.

The view from the reflecting lake was especially nice.

A close-up of the glaciers at the top hint at the bluish color of the ice.

When we arrived at the visitors' center, after exploring the exhibits it was time to go off our diets and have lunch --- wraps in front of The Mountain.  (I was good and had a veggie wrap -- D.)

The foreground of this picture was filled with flowers shown in the pictures below.

After lunch, we opted for a short -- but very steep -- hike uphill to a waterfall.  Our first views, as we got even closer to the mountain, were worth the effort.

A few painful steps later brought us to this even more amazing view.  Wow!

The easier trek downhill took us by the Mt. Rainier Lodge.  What a setting to spend the night.



Before ending, here is one more view of Mt. Rainier, this time with the zoom lens.  All of those black specks are climbers heading to the top of the mountain.  Oh, to be young enough to do this!

To answer the question posed in the title; How many pictures can one take of Mt. Rainier?   Certainly more than we were able to post in this blog.

The pet picture of the day shows Bandido relaxing in the shade.

Sequim Lavender Festival, 7-Day Diet Experience, and Mountain Alpine Wildflowers

Hi all, Dianne here.  This opening photo shows Fat Smitty's restaurant, home of delicious burgers and shakes, fish and chips, and all things non-dietary.  (Not to mention some really cool chainsaw art!)       Fat Smitty's Yelp Reviews

 
I love the whimsical decor, outside and

 inside...

Fat Smitty's was the scene of our "last meal" before we began a 7-day "detox diet."  After Fat Smitty's burgers and blackberry milkshakes on top of all the restaurant food consumed with our friends Jay and Nancy and our daughters and granddaughter over the past month or so, Roger and I each managed to gain about six pounds!  Worse than that was how we felt.  Sluggish, bloated, and tired to the point that every time we got into our car to go somewhere with the kids I could hardly keep my eyes open.  

If you're not interested in the diet details, simply scroll down to read about the lavender festival and the check out some really pretty flower photos from Hurricane Ridge.

Our friends Bob and Linda had found this diet and blogged about it, and I thought it sounded like just the thing to jump-start Roger and I back into healthy eating habits.

Linda e-mailed me the link, and I printed out the directions for the diet.  My granddaughter, Kaia, saw them lying on the counter and added her own comments (above).   Here is the link, in case any of you want to check it out for yourselves:

7-Day Diet

Full disclosure:  My starting weight:  142.6 

(Aren't I brave?  Oh well, it is what it is!)

Roger's breakfast

Day One:  Nothing but fruit and "wonder soup" (recipe in the link).  (Note:  when I made our wonder soup I added garlic, leeks, and some "Slap Ya Mama" Cajun seasoning to give it a kick.)

My breakfast

One major advantage we had was our location:  Just up the road (in Sequim, Washington) was an awesome fruit and vegetable market, with lots of organic and unusual offerings.  We spent $100 on fruits and vegetables there, but believe it or not, we ate every molecule of them before the week was done, and that's all we ate for the week.

Day One was uneventful, other than it was a good thing we stayed close to home so that I could pee every ten minutes.  (Not much of an exaggeration).  Our energy level went way up.

(My weight after day one:  140.2)

Day two was nothing but vegetables, including the "wonder soup", salad, and stir-fry:  

Day two was harder for me than Roger, because he actually likes vegetables.  Another down day in the motor home doing paperwork, etc., so no real exercise to speak of.  My weight after day two:  140.4 (bummer)

Day three was nothing but fruits and vegetables; fruit for breakfast, then veggies, soup, and stir-fry for the other meals.  

My weight after day 3:  139.4 (that's more like it)

Day four was the unusual menu we had on the day we hiked at Whidbey Island:  Bananas and skim milk.  This was meant to replenish potassium and calcium.  Wonder soup was also allowed.  We hiked 7 miles altogether that day.  I must mention that the detox part of this diet forbids alcohol and caffeine for the entire 7 days.  We did forego our beer and wine, but there was no way I could give up my morning coffee, so we cheated on that.  When we stopped for the latte on Whidbey Island, I rationalized that that wasn't too far off the diet because we were allowed skim milk that day.  You  can see a photo of our banana and soup lunch in the blog entry before this one.    My weight after hiking and banana day was 139.6 (added muscle).

Day five was pretty easy for us:  protein and tomatoes; tomatoes for breakfast, then salmon + tomatoes for both lunch and dinner.  We had some awesome local salmon in the freezer that we had purchased in Oregon, so this really wasn't a hardship.  My weight after day five was 138.2. 

Day six was the same as day five, except that instead of tomatoes and salmon it was vegetables and salmon.  Grilled asparagus was just the thing.

My weight after day six:  136.6

Day seven was only fruits, vegetables, and vegetable juices.  We also took a hike that day up on Hurricane Ridge (see flower photos coming up).  Here was our lunch during the hike:

I also drank a bottle of carrot juice with dinner.  Weight after finishing day seven (last day of the diet): 136.4   Total weight loss:  6.2 pounds!  Roger lost 6 pounds too.

Would I do it again?   Maybe.  Most likely it gives us added impetus to continue our healthy eating habits so that we don't have to do it again.  We immediately felt more energetic, less lethargic, and the thing that amazed me the most was my miscellaneous aches and pains went away.  Now our stomachs have shrunk so we don't get hungry as often, and we are back counting our calories (I use the "Lose it!" app on my iPhone), exercising more, and cutting out the sweets and starches.  So far, so good....

If you skipped the diet play-by-play, you can start reading again here:

On one of the salmon days (I forget which one) we went downtown Sequim to check out the Lavender Days festival.  Lavender Days is a really big deal in Sequim, Washington, because Sequim is known as the "Lavender Capital of North America."   There are a number of lavender farms there, and lavender is growing all over town.  

It was so crowded that it was difficult to walk through and see all the tent booths.  This was just one section of tents.  

There were all things lavender available for sale, along with other local items and booths from far and wide with the usual festival offerings, though most seemed a cut above the norm as far as quality.  We walked through the crowds, then left before we were tempted by the kettle corn and other foods that would have ruined our diet.  

And now for some mountain alpine wildflowers...

Our last day of the diet we revisited Hurricane Ridge so that I could experience the awesome hike that Roger and Amanda took together.  When I hiked it, we did not see a bear, but we did see one mountain goat...

...and a couple of marmots...

At one point we traded photos with another couple who wanted their picture taken.  Love this backdrop!

Still smiling, even after a carrot stick & V-8 lunch!

Things were a little different on our hike than the hike the previous week with Amanda.  For one thing, the lake where they threw snowballs and which had been covered in ice had melted...

And there was a new profusion of wildflowers.  If only this blog had smell-o-vision -- from the strong, deep pine of the towering trees, to the perfume of wild roses that completely covered one hill that sloped away from the trail.

Here is a sampling of what caught my eye (and nose):

These flowers have a very short growing season high up in the mountains, but they sure make the most of their short time in bloom!

I didn't re-take the unbelievable mountain vistas that Roger and Amanda took during their hike.  If you missed that and want to see them, scroll down and click on "older posts" twice, until you get  back to the one entitled "Olympic National Park - Hurricane Ridge Hike."  

Scary Cat Eyes!   Seems he has an "inner glow"!

The pet photo of the day shows Charlie enjoying his new crackly sack.  He loves it when we go shopping!