Short trips: Willapa to Wine country
We've taken a couple short trips the past month. Our first was out to the coast to Tokeland, WA to see our friend Katherine White who, with her husband Scott, runs the Tokeland Hotel. This is the oldest resort hotel in the state. It was built in the late 1800's and was purchased by the Whites and another couple and restored. It's a step back in time. The rooms are styled like originally built. Walk-down bathrooms with only a couple exceptions. Our first stay here was occasioned by our stopping at the restaurant about 2 years after they reopened the hotel. We've been back enough times that Katherine has become a friend. She used to manage the Seattle Post Intelligencer Annual Sports Banquet and she always got us good tables. Several times we were sitting next to or near the Mariner's table. That was a joy for our daughter due to her passion for baseball. Rae has been here many times with us starting almost 23 years ago. We couldn't do a trip around the Olympic peninsula without staying a day or two here. The hotel is about a block from the bay and there's plenty of beach things to do within 5 minutes drive.
There's a nice restaurant but since Scott passed a little over a year ago Katherine has had to run the place by herself. The restaurant is no longer open except for Saturday and Sunday mornings but Katherine does prepare wonderful breakfasts for her hotel guests. She's trying to sell the hotel now, it's gotten too much to do alone. We had stopped by last year and it was only a couple weeks after Scott's death. We had planned to be back and finally took the time to get there.
After leaving we drove US12 from I-5 across White Pass to Yakima in order to see if we could pick up some wine at Cultura in Zillah and stop by at Sleeping Dog in Benton City. The weather was real nice, warm and sunny, probably one of the last really good weeks of the year. It had snowed a few days before and there was some at the highway level across the pass.
We weren't able to pick up any of our vino and decided to return in two weeks when Catch the Crush was scheduled. We drove back to Seattle via Chinook Pass. At 5400 feet it's the east entrance to Mount Rainier Park. Unfortunately it was raining on our way over so we were unable to capture any photos that trip.
Now, this past weekend was different. It was cooler but it was sunny, almost no clouds in the sky. We drove over on Saturday and got to Cultura and finally corralled our spring release package. We picked up our spring "6 pack" at Todd and Sara's place and got a couple bottles at Porteus just down the road before heading to Richland for the night.
On Sunday we toured the Red Mountain AVA just outside of Richland, WA hitting some wineries that we hadn't done before. We found some nice ones and came back with a case and a half of wine beyond what we had alreadyWe stopped at Sleeping Dog while Larry and his volunteers were working on crushing some Petite Sirah and small quantities of other varietals that he's going to use to produce his first port, scored a couple of his already released wines and will have to wait till mid-November for our fall release.
After Sleeping Dog we went to Hightower Cellars, Hamilton Cellars, Taptell, and Monte Scarlito, getting something at each place. You'll find some good reds at each of these places. On Monday we stopped at McKinley Springs in Prosser at the recommendation of one of the servers at Sleeping Dog who also works at McKinley. It was a good tip. They have a really nice Chenin Blanc. Not a common varietal now.
On our return trip we went back over Chinook Pass on WA 410 again. Two weeks earlier it was cloudy and raining. When we got to the pass the clouds were at ground level so no photo opportunities. This time, as I said earlier, it was sunny, giving us chances for good photos of the Naches River valley as we drove up to Mt. Rainier and over the pass at 5400 feet. Snow had fallen over the previous days and about a foot of it was on the ground. If we go back to Sleeping Dog for his release party on Nov 12 I doubt we'll be able to get over this pass. It will probably be closed as soon as there's a heavy snowfall. No point in trying to keep it open. It's too high, there are alternative routes and this one is really dangerous when icy, as you can guess from the photos.
In 1976 when we did our "Bicentennial Tour" to San Francisco, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone and home we drove over Douglas Pass in Colorado. It's about 8,300 feet in elevation. This was in mid June on our way to Yellowstone by way of Flaming Gorge. There was no snow on it. We came over Chinook Pass about 2 weeks later, just before the Fourth of July and there was still 10 -12 feet of snow on Chinook. It was hard to see Mt. Rainier due to the snow on the side of the road. You had the two lanes and maybe a foot of leeway before the snow wall. This pass usually doesn't open until June, when the state can finally get the thing cleared enough to get through.
This may have been our last best chance this year for a trip like this, no snow or hazardous driving conditions. It's started raining for the winter since we got back. Monday was sunny and dry as you can see from the mountain photos. Tuesday it started raining. There are storms lined up from China to Washington. It's gonna rain and blow for the next 6 days, or more. The dreary times have begun. Get used to the grey.
Unsure when the next trip can happen. Maybe in a month, but we may have to go the long way, down to the Columbia and then east to get to wine country avoiding mountain roads.
So,,,Ciao for now.