Yakima: Great memories, family, and wine tasting

Yakima, Washington.  We arrived in Yakima safe-n-sound around mid-afternoon on Friday, 17 August.  After finding our campground at Suntides RV Park, we got everyting set-up fairly quickly and then called my younger sister, Carolyn, who promptly came over (she’s only five minutes away), and we sat outside and visited for a couple hours.  Really nice to see her again.  We tried to visit my Mom who has been living in an Alzheimer’s facility for the past several years in Yakima, but she was already asleep when we arrived.  She looked so peaceful lying in her bed that we decided to just let her sleep. I knew we would have numerous opportunities to visit with her during our stay in Yakima.

The Suntides RV Park  is a very nice park, well-maintained, and shares its location with the Suntides Golf Course, which I played many times while growing up in this area.  Appears they’ve covered up most of the little creek that ran thru much of the golf course – which I would certainly have appreciated when I played here (I always carried LOTS of water balls…sigh).   But back to the RV park. All the roadways are paved, making it very nice on the motorhome and towed car.  Each pad/site is also paved, which makes leveling the motorhome so easy.  Each site also has a green grassy area and at least one tree big enough to provide additional shade.  Like I said, it’s a very nice, neat little park located just a mile or two north of Yakima on state Hiway 12.  This Hiway leads to one of two passes over the Cascade Mts – White Pass and Chinook Pass – both with excellent views of Mt Rainier as you travel over the pass.  Chinook is the more scenic, but is closed for a good part of the year because of snow.  The road crews work to open the pass by June, but it closes again when the snows come in late Oct/early Nov.  White Pass is usually open year-round except when a heavy snowfall occurs.  White Pass is also home to a ski resort and is where the twin Mahre brothers – Steve and Phil – learned their skiing skills.  Both are former World Cup alpine ski racers and Phil won the gold medal in slalom at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, with Steve taking the silver medal just a fraction of a second behind his twin brother.  Oh, did I mention: they both went to the same high school, Naches Valley High, that all the Metzer kids attended?

Saturday, 18 August.  After getting up way too late (ah, it feels so good to be RETIRED), we went see my Mom and had a very nice visit.  I know these visits are for me more than for my Mom, since she no longer remembers who I am.  But she enjoys the company and is almost always very chatty, although who knows what she’s talking about half the time.  She seems to relish the time to just sit and chat with somebody, anybody, since many of the residents at Mom’s “home” aren’t very talkative anymore.  Very sad.  After seeing my Mom for about an hour, we drove over to my Aunt Nancy’s place to help celebrate my Uncle Floyd’s 80^th B-Day (both relatives are considerably younger than my Mom).  It was great to see all the relatives we haven’t seen for several years and get re-acquainted.  And of course there was all the great food everyone brought.  The only bummer was the heat – it was SO hot.  We were sure glad to get back to some AC at the end of the day. 

Sunday, 19 August.  Carolyn and her husband, Steve, came over for a visit.  Steve hadn’t seen our RV yet, so we gave him the royal tour.  Afterwards we went into downtown Yakima to take in the sights, sounds and wonderful smells of the city's weekly Farmer’s Market.  Such a wonderful variety of fresh fruits and veggies from thru-out the Yakima Valley, or has the BBB has called it, the Fruitbowl of the Nation.  We ended up buying some pluots (a hybrid between a plum and an apricot) that were simply delicious!  Pluots are extremely sweet – very high sugar levels – and come in a wide range of varieties. The fruit is actually around 70% plum and 30% apricot, but more closely looks like a plum. They are very nutritious and low in fat, making them ideal for snacking or sweetening up other dishes. Pluots are sometimes referred to as "Dinosaur eggs" due to the strange dappled coloring on some types of the fruit.  Steve and I were very tempted to sample any number of the foods that were available among the fruit stands, but we knew we’d already made reservations for a late morning breakfast/brunch buffet.  These “all-you-can-eat” buffets will be my downfall one of these days, but offer such a wide variety of eats.  Believe we all took quite good care of our hunger pangs!

Monday, 20 August.  With Steve working days, Carolyn, Lynette and I took a walk down memory lane today and headed up into the hills and fruit orchards of the Naches Heights neighborhood – some of our old stomping grounds – for a wine tasting at one of Yakima Valley’s newer wineries, the Naches Heights Vineyards (NHV) - their website is located at http://www.nachesheights.com/. 

This winery has only been open for a few months, but is already winning accolades and awards.  We sampled a number of very tasty wines and ended up buying a very nice 2011 Riesling and a 2011 white table wine called Can-Can (for the French can-can dancers on the label) that’s a blend of four different grapes: Chardonnay (37%), Rousanne (27.5%), Viognier (27.5%) and a touch of Pinot Gris (8%).  A NHV first-release, Can-Can is described as “off-dry” but I believe it could be considered a bit sweeter.  The wine tastes and smells of “ripe pear, lush tropical fruit, cardamom spice and a hint of apricot and Mandarin orange.”  Can’t wait to get it chilled and try it with some cheese and crackers or with even some fresh fruit or smoked salmon with cream cheese.  Man, I’m making myself hungry again!

After NHV, we continued into Naches via the South Naches Road; I hadn’t been on this road for ages.  Believe the last time was when I dated a young lady from Highland High School (an arch rival of Naches) and was looking for a parking place (get it: parking place).  Brings back some fond memories!  Carolyn directed us to an arts-n-crafts store in Naches, the Kit-Kat Art Gallery; lots of wood pieces of art from small to quite large.  Everything in the gallery is made by employees or former employees of Laymen Lumber in Naches.  Some very talented artists are displaying their wares, so if you’re headed into the mountains thru Naches it’s worth a stop; right on Hiway 12 on the northern edge of town.  After looking but not buying anything, we headed into downtown Naches for a bite to eat.  We settled on Margaret’s Apple Cart Deli on the town’s main drag, Naches Avenue, of course.  Now, this was definitely some of my old stomping grounds.  Carolyn picked the Apple Cart because her in-laws like it and said it had great food.  Well, the food was terrific – I had a wonderful BLT and blackberry milkshake made with real ice cream – but the real surprise was the owner, Margaret, or Maggie, as I called her in high school.  Maggie and I graduated the same year – 1965 – from Naches High.  I had not seen her for many, many years.  What a wonderful surprise!  We both seemed to recognize each other at about the same time as I stood at the cash register ordering our food.  It was like, “Forget the food order, give me a hug!”  Between a hectic lunch crowd, taking orders, and delivering the food to customers, Maggie was able to come over to our table and visit, catch up on our lives, and take some pix.  Maggie brought me up-to-speed on some of our mutual acquaintances/friends.  Man, what a fortunate stop for lunch on our outing!  The Apple Cart Deli serves up great food at very reasonable prices, fast service, friendly atmosphere, and, if you’re lucky, a hug and kiss from Maggie!  Thanks, Maggie – I thoroughly enjoyed seeing you and catching up on all things Naches-related.   You’re a sweetheart!

Tuesday, 21 August. The "Three Musketeers" continued their wine tasting in the Yakima Valley, this time in the Zillah  grape growing region , about a 30 minute drive southwest of Yakima, just off I-82.  The Yakima Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) was the first AVA established in the state, gaining that recognition in 1983. Part of the larger Columbia Valley AVA, Yakima Valley AVA  is home to more than 11,000 acres of vineyards, giving the area the largest concentration of wineries and vineyards in Washington State. The most widely planted varietals in the area are Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Gris, and Syrah. Nearly 40% of Washington State’s yearly wine production is made from Yakima Valley grapes.  BTW, in addition to grapes, the Yakima Valley is also home to several fruit orchards growing apples, cherries, nectarines, peaches, pears and plums. Around the small town of Zillah, there is the Zillah Fruit Loop driving tour through the area's orchards and vineyards. One other interesting fact, especially for you micro-brew aficionados: this area is also home to nearly 80% of the US hop production. The Zillah wineries are actually located in the Rattlesnake Hills sub-AVA of Washington’s wine country and home to over two dozen wineries.  My Mom was born and raised in Zillah, so I know the area fairly well and have visited many of these wineries before – and purchased many fine wines, dessert wines, and ports over the years.  I wanted to see if there were any new wineries (there was one) and also visit some of my favorites.  Zillah is a quaint small town (2,700 residents) surrounded by vineyards and orchards.  The many wineries, produce stands, and B&B’s are hidden among the many acres of farmland surrounding the town. The Rattlesnake Hills AVA, established in 2006, has 17 wineries and 29 vineyards that provide many Washington producers with Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay and Riesling.  The first commercial vineyards in the region date back to 1968.  While we only visited four or five wineries today, we still ended up with almost a FULL case of wine.  A couple nice Rieslings, a Zort (see below), and a very nice ice wine from Hyatt Winery, at a VERY reasonable price of $39.  The one vineyard/winery where we all agreed that we had the most fun – thanks to its owner Paul (read his “story” at their website) – was at Paradisos del Sol .  The winery’s motto is that while wine should be very pure and natural, it also has to be distinctive wine. Wine with full, rich flavor. Wine that makes food and friends better. Wine that brings dismay when you find the bottom. Wine that makes music in the glass, sings on the tongue to tell where it grew. Wine you can afford to drink. Wine made by Paradisos del Sol.  Quite a statement, yes?  Read Paul 's “story” at their website - and yes, he does know his wine.  We bought several bottles from Paradisos, but I’ll only mention two.  A Zort, or Ruby Angelica wine, based on their Zinfandel grapes. The Zort is meant to be consumed with friends — and a raspberry-infused chocolate truffle — or a pear with Stilton cheese — as an aperitif with salted nuts — or in front of a fire on a howling winter night while releasing its captive sunshine.  It’s spicy and bramble fruit and spicy aromatics evoke summer in the berry patch with a lover.  A wine for bed, perhaps?  (yes, Paul is quite the writer). The other bottle we bought was a 2010 Angelica MRS. Being in the midst of a region famous for apples, pears, and peaches, there is a need for a wine for apple pie, poached pears, peach cobbler, and the great American classic, pumpkin pie. Angelicas were originally made at California missions as communion wine. Paradisos del Sol makes this wine for giving thanks with family and friends at a meal’s end – with pie or cheesecake or crème brûlée!  Angelica MRS is blended from Muscat, Riesling, and Semillon grapes, thus, the MRS.

We ended this wonderful day - full of sunshine and blue skies - by having a late lunch at a fairly new restaurant in downtown Zillah, the Old Warehouse Restaurant.  Turned out to be a great little cafe with great food.  The building itself was for years home to a fruit warehouse, then became an auction house, and is now home to the restaurant.  In fact, the decor is plainly old antiques and assorted auction items, so this place may still have an auction from time to time.