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.

Willamette Valley, Oregon

Roger here....  For those of you who follow us, we apologize for dropping off the edge of the Earth for a few days.  We have excuses.  Of course we have excuses.  Our dear friends from Indiana, Jay and Nancy, have been with us this past week, so we have been busier than usual.  AND, we have been parked under a tree at Nehalem Bay State Park; therefore, our satellite internet coverage has been nonexistent.  

We are still at Nehalem Bay State Park, but we, ahem, emptied our sewer tanks this morning and parked at a slightly different angle.  The satellite now has a clear view to the southern sky and we have returned to the connected world.

Our last day in

Newport was quiet, but we did travel to the Newport Farmer's Market to buy some fresh produce.  Every state seems to have its idiosyncrasies.  There are a lot of them where we spend the winter in Texas.  Oregon has more than its share.  You cannot pump your own gas in Oregon, as it must be done by an attendant (takes me back a few decades).  AND, pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way.  This is true in most states, but it is a religion in Oregon.  In the picture above, notice the lady on the way to the market with the yellow flag.  She picked it up on one side of the street and deposited it in a container on the other side for others to use.  When we left Roseburg a few weeks ago, I was stopped (no ticket) by a friendly (he really was) officer because I did not stop at a cross walk where people were waiting to cross on the sidewalk.... a new place to focus attention.  I now psych up every time we drive into a town.  People here tend to plunge into the street, knowing that the traffic is required to stop.  When I am on foot, I still look both ways --- you never know when an ignorant out-of-stater might come barging through.

The drive to Nehalem Bay State Park near Manzanita was uneventful except

for the magnificent scenery along the Oregon Coast.  Jay and Nancy arrived the day after we arrived, so Dianne had time to plan for a delicious welcome dinner.  After a search we found the freshest of fresh salmon (caught that morning) at the local grocery.  The manager of the meat counter actually called us when it arrived.  Yum.

Since the weather forecast was gloomy for the following day, we decided that it would be the perfect day to visit the Willamette Valley wineries.  Sampling wines can always be an indoor activity.  

The first leg of the hour-long drive to the Willamette Vally was certainly not as quiet as our drive along the coast two days before.  100 yards before our turn from Hwy 101 to Hwy 26 we rounded a corner and found a tractor-trailer blocking both lanes of traffic.  The accident had obviously just happened --- no police or emergency vehicles.  Not sure how it happened (ongoing discussion between Jay and Nancy).  The good news,  for us, was that the trucker went to the back of the trailer and directed traffic from both directions.  (Nice guy)  We were soon on our way.

We visited several

wineries, including: Elk Cove, Erath, and Winderlea.  The wines (mostly pinots) were good; however, the highlight at these three establishments may have been the eye-popping Oregon scenery and landscaping.  Warning.... lots of scenic views:

Since we already have plenty of wine and because pinots are not our favorite, we were not tempted to spend money other than the tasting fees.  However, we spent quite a bit of time at the last winery in the town of Dundee.  The Argyle Winery specializes in sparkling wines and champagnes --- something different.  

 The landscaping around the winery was extremely well-done  --- slate walkways (just like our previous home in Indiana).

 The front porch entry way also reminded us of our last home in Pendleton, IN.

 More than a lot.  The front view of the winery could have been built by the same builder who built our former house in the early 1900s.

Here's two photos (winter and summer) of our old Indiana house that the Argyle Winery reminded us of:

Winter Scene

Front Porch Summer

We sampled the various champagnes and sparkling wines --- excellent.

We did not want to transport more wine -- especially wine that might need to be refrigerated -- in our motor home. 

However, Jay did some serious damage as he had quite a bit of champagne shipped.  The plaques on the wall were letters of appreciation from the White House thanking Argyle for various wines that were served at Presidential functions.  The letters included thanks from the George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama administrations.  Impressive.

Needless to say, this was our favorite stop.  The knowledgeable lady who poured our wines offered to take our picture together.  

 

We plan to close our Manzanita posts with sunset pictures taken from Jay and Nancy's motel on the beach.

What goes with wine?  Cheese, of course --- the topic of our next post.  Check back soon, for we plan to catch up on our postings from our event-filled week with our friends.

The pet picture of the day is a particularly good shot of Tequila.

Mom uses lots of slipcovers so I can lay on the furniture!

Prospect, Oregon.... Hiking from the Campground and Moving On

Roger here..... The Rogue River rolled directly behind our campsite.  

The entrance to the National Forest trails could not have been closer to our campsite.  

We walked the dogs along the trails a couple of times every day while we were at the Crater Lake Campground.

If we turned right on the trail, we eventually arrived at a small dam and reservoir.  

Walking across the flow of fast-moving black water.....

brought us to a quiet picnic area and a continuation of the trail.

If we walked to the left,  we could descend to the river and...

Take another look at the raging river.

Bandido and I were forced to hop around a number of river pools to get the photo on the right.

A lot of very green plants also edged the trail.






One morning, after a night of gentle rain, the greenery on the sides of the trail looked as if they were covered with diamonds.  The opening photo show the identity of the small sparkles.

 Some of the water droplets decorated the plants.

Some smothered spider webs.  All were beautiful.

It was always a short, easy stroll back to the motor home.

Two days before we were to depart our spot in the forest, the water in the campground failed.  The problem was eventually solved, but not until midmorning on the following day.  We decided to leave a day early, but not with bad feelings about the campground or the people who were in charge.  The next leg of our journey was going to be a five- or six-hour drive.  We decided to cut it in half.

We drove back to I-5 following our arrival route to avoid snow.  We then drove to the small town of Winston, near the highway, where we spent the night in a great campground, Rising River.  

Retama friends, John and Audrey, emailed us about a winery in that area that had a tasty Tempranillo.  

We were in the Umpqua wine region of Oregon, known for excellent wines.  We managed to arrive at the tasting room more than an hour before closing.  The wines were excellent, in the opinion of someone who is not a wine expert.  We bought some Tempranillo and some Viognier.  

The pet pictures of the day show a couple of scenarios along the trails at the campground.  The first shows Bandido flaunting a stick he found on the trail.  He protected it in the same manner that he protects his precious toy balls.

The second shows Tequila.  Her obsession with lizards in the desert has now transferred to an obsession with squirrels.  She remained frozen in this pose, staring at the squirrel that she ran into the tree, until we pulled her away.