Wine Tasting in the Yakima Valley

21 August 2016.  Spent yesterday, August 20th, delighting in one of my favorite pastimes, wine tasting in the Yakima Valley of Washington State.  While we centered our activities yesterday in the Zillah area, I can assure you that the entire Yakima Valley offers some outstanding wine tasting opportunities.  The weather cooperated with a "fine and dandy" day, warm, but not overly so, and, as George Strait would sing, with "blue, clear skies."  Although, I'd submit not clear enough to take a pic of Mt Rainier and Mt Adams in the distance.  Following the old Yakima Highway offers one some spectacular views of both mountains at several points.  Unfortunately, the far skyline was just a wee bit too hazy for a clear pic -- I didn't even try to catch a shot.  Oh well, there's always next year.

But back to our wine tasting mini-tour.  I'm a fan of port, or even what they call "port-style" dessert wine, and I know there are several favorite wineries of mine in the Zillah area that would offer such tastings. So, we set out late morning for not only some wine tasting in the Lower Yakima Valley, but to also seek out and find some ports. First up was a new winery for us, the Tanjuli Winery, and we came away quite impressed.  We ended up buying three bottles: one each of a 2014 Picpoul Blanc (sweet and crisp); a really sensational 2013 Orange Muscat Sherry (and I'm not a true sherry fan); and a fairly expensive (yes, I splurged) bottle of a 2004 Orange Muscat Sherry. This superb sweet sherry can only be described as "magic in a bottle."  An added plus: it comes in a 500ml specialty bottle shaped like a violin. Will save this one for that really special occasion. 

Check out that alcohol content.....

Our next stop was just across the road (Highland Drive), Bonair Winery, where we bought a couple bottles of wine: Sunset -- made from only premium varietal grapes -- was a really nice little wine, not too sweet and just a little tart; and a Bonnie Bonair, an off-dry Rosé of Pinot Noir grapes, with a hint of raspberry, but without any raspberries, of course. Bonair also offered small food plates and since it was lunch time we opted for a smoked salmon plate and a couples glasses of that Sunset to wash it all down. Nice little mid-day intermission. 

After lunch we moved on to one of my favorite wineries for ports, Maison de Padgett Winery.  Over the years I've visited this winery quite often and have never been disappointed.  They are famous for their landscaped gardens, which are often booked for weddings and anniversary celebrations.  I would highly recommend checking out their website and even visiting this winery if you have the opportunity.  And I just LOVE their wine labels -- very original, very artsy.   I'll include a couple labels in the pics with this post. Anyway, like I said, I love their ports, and once again, we came away with four: a Naked Raspberry Port; a Pillow Talk Vanilla Port; and two bottles of their Smoking Gun Coffee Port -- one for me and one for our youngest son, Jamie, who also fancies a good port.  Should make a nice Christmas gift, me thinks.   

View of the beautiful grounds and landscaping at Maison de Padgett Winery 

And here's some of their colorful labels I mentioned.  Excellent marketing.

 

Maison de Padgett Winery has a "sister" winery (same owner) a bit further down Highland Drive called Horizon's Edge Winery -- and, once again, known for their ports. We bought a bottle of Naked Raspberry Port-Style Dessert Wine and a delicious bottle of Wishful Thinking Chocolate Port. The owner of both Maison de Padgett and Horizon's Edge, David Padgett, was the one who poured our samples at Horizon's Edge, and, since it was just Lynette and I sampling wines, we spent about 30 minutes just chatting about ports.  He gave us a tip on another winery known for its ports, Thurston Wolfe Winery in Prosser.  Maybe next year..... 

Our final wine tasting for the day was at another of our favorite wineries, Paradisos del Sol Winery, where we bought a bottle of their tasty Riesling and a bottle of 2012 Zort, a Ruby Angelica wine based on their Zinfandel grapes. I've had the Zort many times and love the flavor.  Paradisos does wine tasting a bit differently, and if you ever get the chance, please do yourself a favor and take in a wine tasting at this small, but delightful winery. The owners -- Paul & Barbara -- believe in a mantra of SIP, SIP, BITE, SIP! There's a $10 tasting fee that they rarely collect, since the fee is not charged if you spend at least $20 on anything. The owners believe that wine should go with food, so, along with the wine tasting a small morsel of a food pairing is offered for each wine, usually seven or eight samplings. They recommend you first sip and swirl the wine around in your mouth. Then take another sip, followed by a taste of food, and a final sip to take notice of any difference in taste by eating a tiny morsel of food. This all takes a bit longer than normal wine tasting, but well worth it. And believe it or not, each wine does taste slightly different AFTER you take a bite of whatever small morsel is offered with that wine. Again, a bit different, but loads of fun! And maybe a bit educational.  We always enjoy it.

The small food morsels offered with each wine -- very different, but fun!

So, all in all, a great day of wine tasting and searching for delicious ports in the Yakima Valley. To top it off, we stopped at one of Yakima's famous eateries, Miner's Drive-In, for their HUGE cheeseburgers and fries on the way back to our campground.  Great day in the Pacific Northwest! 

Lunch Trip into Canada -- Wine Tasting, too!

8 August 2016.  A quick blog post, this one, but wanted to insert this entry now rather than chronologically.  I still have a couple "longer" entries (with plenty of pics) to post, so I'll pick those up when I have more time.  We've been staying at the Blue Lake RV Park in Naples, Idaho (about 20 miles north of Sandpoint) for the past few days -- we depart for the Spokane area tomorrow morning. The campground here is Naples is only about 30 miles south of the US-Canadian border, and while surfing the net I found two wineries in Creston, British Columbia: Skimmerhorn Winery and Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery.  So, I thought, "Wine" -- let's do a road trip!

I also discovered a scenic "loop" that would take us to our destination: the International Selkirk Loop, billed as North America's only multi-national scenic loop.  We would only drive a small part of the larger loop:  Up to Creston -- where we'd do some wine tasting -- then east on Canadian Highway 3, looping around Mt Thompson, and then reenter the US at Eastport where we'd pick up US 95 and head back to our campground in Naples.  So, around 10:30am we headed north from Naples on US 95/SR 1 and entered Canada thru Porthill.  First winery up once we got to Creston was Skimmerhorn, where we tasted all their wines -- found that we liked several -- and bought five bottles of wine and one bottle of their fortified port-style wine, Old Koot.  Think dark chocolate and cherry aromas with flavors of sweet plum, black current and cherry.  Quite nice, actually.

Entrance sign at Skimmerhorn

The Skimmerhorn Winery also offered several appetizers, and since it was close to lunch anyway, we opted for a cheese plate of local cheeses and crackers -- plus a couple of glasses of Skimmerhorn's fine Gewürztraminer.  The lunch hour was just about perfect weather-wise, with bright sunshine and blue skies (which would disappear on our drive home).  Skimmerhorn's also offered us a very nice covered patio where we relaxed and leisurely ate our scrumptious lunch.  Some really nice cheese with grapes and figs, in addition to the crackers.  Like I said, all in all, just about a perfect lunch.

 Lynette enjoying our cheese plate lunch -- and of course the wine!

View of Skimmerhorn's vineyards from their patio.

As a side thought, I almost bought two bottles of that Old Koot -- it really was delicious -- but I wasn't sure what customs might dock me when I reentered the US. Turns out I didn't need to worry. As the customs agent checked our passports at Eastport, he casually asked if we'd bought anything while we were in Canada.  I told him we'd visited a couple wineries in Creston and had purchased him a few bottles of wine.  He simply smiled, wished us a good day, and waved us through.  

Backtracking in my entry today, our second wine tasting was at the Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery, conveniently located right next door to Skimmerhorn.  We tasted all their wines, too, and ended up buying a bottle of their Récolte Blanche (Harvest White) -- a nice blend of four different white grapes (Pinot Gris, Schoenburger, Kerner and Gewürztraminer) -- and a bottle of their really nice Gewürztraminer.  I think we both liked the Skimmerhorn Winery better -- more rustic and enchanting, with a great view of their vineyards.

While munching on some cheese and fruit, I noticed a couple of photo ops: this old tractor... 

...and this really neat birdhouse tacked to a tree next to our table on the patio.

Me saying "So long" to the Skimmerhorn Winery

As another side note, the route that we drove today -- from our campground in Naples to Creston and back, leaving the US at Porthill and reentering at Eastport -- was just a small part (actually a side trip called Orchards Galore -- of the Selkirk Loop.  We did see loads of orchards as we left Creston on Canadian Highway 3: apples, pears, and cherries.

About the only drawback to the day was the weather, which turned nasty, on our drive home.  A thunderstorm, complete with heavy rain and lightning, accompanied us on virtually our entire jounry on Orchards Galore.  The rain really didn't let up until we had reentered the US at Eastport.  But we really did drive through some beautiful country.  Wouldn't mind returning to this area and driving more of the Selkirk Loop.  Hard to beat this Great Pacific Northwest scenery!

Minot, North Dakota and the Scandinavian Heritage Park

5 August 2016.  Beautiful day here at the Blue Lake RV Resort in Naples, Idaho, and we're making it an R&R day...at least till later this afternoon when we'll drive into Sandpoint for a sunset cruise of Lake Pend Oreille -- complete with complimentary wine and an assortment of desserts!  What a great way to end the day!  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Even though this is a R&R day, I thought I'd try and do some more catching up with my blog entries.  For this entry we're going back to July 27-28, our two days in Minot, North Dakota.  Why Minot you ask?  Good question.  When I was in Air Force basic training, back in the fall of '67, our TI (training instructor) used to try and scare us with tales of a couple really bad (subjective, I know) first assignments.  The two he always used were Tulle, Greenland, and, yep, you guessed it -- Minot AFB, ND.  Now, I'd never been to Minot AFB before (in spite of numerous TDY's around the globe), so when I saw US Highway 2 took us right through Minot, I thought here was my chance.  Lynette was able to find us a pretty nice campground just outside Minot on US 2 for a couple days.

We searched for some interesting things-to-do in Minot (pop. ~35,000), and came up with the Scandinavian Heritage Park.  Since Lynette's family tree runs deep with Swedish roots, this was right up her alley -- so off we went.  A tour of the Scandinavian Heritage Park provides remembrances and replicas from each of the five Scandinavian countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.  There's a real grass roof Stabbur (traditional storehouse), a replica Stave Church (from Gol, Norway), and a 25-ft Swedish Dala horse -- plus a waterfall and beautiful landscaping and grounds. In fact, the day we visited we saw signs for "Reserved Parking" for a wedding party later that day. What an awesome setting for a wedding!   Hope you enjoy the following pics as much as we enjoyed touring the park.

 View of the Gol Stave Church, a full-size replica of the finest-designed Stave Churches built in Norway. To say it was stunningly beautiful would be a vast understatement.

 Lynette posing at entrance to the Park, with Gol Stave Church in background.

 These close-up shots of the wood carving do NOT begin to describe the intricacy of the woodwork.  Simply amazing, both inside and out.  All done with traditional tools.

 Another view of the carved woodwork...

 Me posing at a side entrance into the church...

A different view of the church...

 The alter inside the church.  Just stunningly beautiful.  Hard to put into words.  That small closet looking cabinet was used by the priest to provide communion to lepers, who were not allowed inside the church proper.  Or so said the young lady staffer at the church.

 Wood carving of the Last Supper, just off to the side of the altar.

 View of the woodcarving inside the church.   The numerous faces (13 in all, I think, around the interior) represent various Nordic spirits.

 This pic doesn't do justice to the narrow, woodcarved door into the chapel area.  Quite ornate.

 Me and the traditional Dala Horse inside the Park.

 Me and some famous Nordic skier...

 Me and and an even more famous Scandinavian, Leif....Erikson, that is.

 Another famous Scandinavian.....

 ,,,,,and Lynette just had to shake hands with him!

 View of Gol Stave Church from across the Park.  Stunning sight, even from here.

 Obligatory visit to the Park's gift shop offered me an opportunity to meet the local gnome.  Nice guy, actually.  Reminded me a a friend of mine who goes by the initials of BH,

Lynette also met some "local" creatures at the gift shop!

After our tour of the Scandinavian Heritage Park, we headed out to Minot AFB, which is located about 11 miles north of Minot.  Originally opened in 1957, Minot AFB became a major SAC base in the early '60's, with both nuclear-tipped ICBMs and manned bombers, plus refueling aircraft.  Today the base has a population of about 5,500, down from 7,600 in 2000, and is home to two major Air Force wings: the 5th Bomb Wing (B-52 H-model) and the 91st Missile Wing, both part of the Global Strike Command.  The 91st Missile Wing has three operational Missile Squadron with some unique names:  Vulgar Vultures, Gravehaulers, and Wolf Pack.

I came away with a favorable impression of the base, regardless what my life-long impression was (remember my basic training TI?) prior to this visit.  I'm sure the winters are harsh (average high winter temperature is 15 degrees, with an average low of minus 2 degrees), but our weather was a balmy 75 degrees on this day.  We checked out the local BX and commissary, and while small, both seemed able to fill the needs of the base population.  All in all, glad we took the time to drive out to Minot AFB.

We topped off our day by dining at a local brew pub, Souris River Brewing.  A bit hard to find in the old downtown area, which went through a tremendous flood in 2011. That flood was greater than the so-called 100-year flooding of the Souris River.  The US Army Corps of engineers estimated that type of flood to have a recurrence interval between 200-500 years.  The 2011 flooding topped the levees in Minot causing the evacuation of about 11,000 residents; it was worse than both floods in 1881 and 1969.   But I digress.  Back to Souris River Brewing.  The food was good: I had an elk burger with a coconut-infused brown ale on-tap -- quite tasty and certainly quenched my thirst. Lynette drank a bottled dark stout with her spicy burger (too spicy for her with the jalapeno flavors and bleu cheese). All told, a nice choice for dinner!  Here's a couple pics of me enjoying my burger and brew in one of their wooden booths made from reclaimed church pews, believe it or not.  Pretty cool decorating for this brew pub.

Notice the trim detail on this reclaimed church pew...

National Eagle Center, Wabasha, Minnesota

4 August 2016.  Okay, I know I'm just a wee bit behind with my blog entries, but we've been having too much fun along the way.  We are now in Naples, Idaho, about 20 minutes outside Sandpoint, Idaho, which is where we plan to spend the next four days exploring the area and sightseeing.  But more on Sandpoint later.  In this blog we're going back into July, while we were still encamped in Nelson, Wisconsin.  After two days of wine tasting up and down the Great River Road, we decided to take a break and head across the Mississippi River to Wabasha and visit the National Eagle Center, which sits right on the river -- a beautiful setting,.

We weren't sure what to expect but were delighted with what we experienced.  The National Eagle Center (NEC) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on conservation, research and educational efforts relating to eagles.  It is essentially a world-class interpretive center that's home to non-releasable bald and golden eagles.  In other words, the NEC takes care of eagles that have been injured (a broken wing, for example) and can never be released into the wild.  During a visit to the NEC, one will experience these magnificent creatures up close and in person -- so to speak.  As we found out during a 45-minute instructional presentation put on by a NEC staffer -- with an eagle as center stage -- the Upper Mississippi River Valley is home to hundreds of bald eagles -- and also many golden eagles. Many choose to build their nests in the tall trees along the river valley. Hundreds more bald eagles arrive here in the winter months, as the Mississippi River stays open around year round in the Wabasha area.  

In 1989, NEC began as a group of volunteers sharing with visitors to Wabasha views of wintering bald eagles from an outdoor observation deck along the river.  Since then, the Center has grown a lot. In 2000, NEC opened year-round in a small storefront downtown and welcomed two eagles.  In 2007, in a partnership with the City of Wabasha, NEC opened a 15,000 sq. ft. interpretive center right on the banks of the Mississippi River. From this facility one can enjoy magnificent views of wild eagles and also meet the resident eagles.  Today, the Center cares for four bald eagles and one golden eagle and uses them in their interactive and interpretive programs.  Definitely worth the visit and admission fee if you're ever in this area.  Plus the NEC has a magnificent view of the Mississippi River -- it's right there in front of you as you stand at the Center.  Stunning scenery.

To top off our day, after our NEC visit we opted to have lunch at the famous Slippery's Bar & Grill, just down the street from the NEC. This river side tavern restaurant was made famous in the movie "Grumpy Old Men" when Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon confronted each other in Slippery's bar.  And the gift shop has t-shirts that advertise that fact!

 A view of the Center from the street...

 Lynette posing with a replica of the bald eagle...

 One of the exhibits inside the NEC...

 ...and another exhibit.

 One of the eagles at the Center...about 5-ft away from my camera.

 I don't think this guy was too happy with me taking his pic!

 The lone golden eagle at the Center...

 A NEC staffer with an eagle she used during our 45-min. presentation.  The "eagle" behind her is only part of a mural that shows the river where the NEC sits.

 Ya' just gotta believe this fella knew how majestic he is!

 Notice the long leather glove the staffer is wearing?  The eagle's talons are really something else to see up close and in person.  Plus this guy wasn't all that cooperative.  First thing he did when she brought him into the demo room was to take a crap -- right there on the carpet!

 Staffer encouraging this eagle to sample the tailend of a fish...

 Now he's getting the hang of this...

 Turned out he was pretty hungry after all!

 Yep, mighty tasty!

 

 REALLY tasty!!!

 Our national symbol -- well deserved.

 As we wandered outside after our presentation, we were treated to one of the Mississippi River's grand paddle-wheelers.  This one was headed back to its home port in St. Louis.

 Really an impressive sight...

 Maybe someday...

 Boaters enjoying the river on a nice, sunny day...

 Even the jet ski was getting into the action...

 The pontoon boat looks more my style for relaxing on the river...

 Still at the NEC, looking down river...

 Me posing with Chief Wapahasha II (at the NEC)

More info on the Chief...

 Our lunch destination...

 The gift shop lady offered to take our pic with this sign.  Course, I did buy a t-shirt!

View of Slippery's from the mighty Mississippi!