Heber, Utah

Monday evening we had a wonderful time catching up with my nephew, Tom, and his family for dinner in Meridian, ID. Unfortunately I was so caught up in conversation that I forgot to take pictures. But it was great to see them again after 20 years.

Tues. morning we were on the road at 6am to get through Boise before their rush hour traffic and we were glad we got an early start because it was already heavy traffic at that hour due to construction. But had a easy 409 mile trip to Heber, UT, which is about 30 miles east of Salt Lake City. We're at the Mountain Valley RV Resort, which is an excellent, fairly new park that is surrounded by mountains. There isn't much to do around here so after setting up ran into town to a fruit stand and bought some corn and a watermelon. Both turned out to be great.

This morning after our chores (wash windshield, laundry and house cleaning) we drove to Park City about 20 miles northwest. This is a ski resort that has an historical downtown, of course with all the touristy shops and restaurants. The elevation there is over 7000 feet. The day is overcast and off and on raining but not cold, in the mid 60s.

During our window shopping, I found Jim's Christmas present!

After window shopping and going through some art galleries we needed nourishment, so went to the No Name Saloon.

We had their Saloon Buffalo Burger and Fish & Chips, which were both good and more to eat than what we needed.

After lunch it is still raining, so unable to go anywhere to do any hiking or any outside activity, so went to the overlook of the Jordanelle Reservoir which is close by.

Some of the hillsides are displaying color already. With the overcast this picture just doesn't do it justice, but it is pretty.

Tomorrow we will be on the road by 6am again to head home with an overnight stop in Kingman which is over 500 miles from here, then only 300 more miles to Tucson. So this is basically the end of our 3 week trip, which I hope you have enjoyed coming along with us through this blog. We surely enjoyed ourselves and saw a lot of new country, tasted plenty of wine, did some hiking, saw waterfalls, geysers, bison and many beautiful sights. Ate buffalo, enjoyed a stop over to visit family, put a "few" miles on the Lincoln and by the time we are back in Tucson we will have traveled 4,330 miles in the motorhome. So the RV will go back in the barn for a few months before we take off again, probably towards Indio in time for Thanksgiving.

Caldwell, Idaho

We arrived at Ambassador RV Resort in Caldwell, ID about 25 miles west of Boise around 1pm yesterday after a smoky, easy 260 mile drive from Kennewick. After setup we headed out to have our first tasting of Idaho wines. The first stop, we didn't care for the wines, the 2nd stop, same thing. After the 3rd winery, we decided that this area's wines are just not to our liking. Not that they are not good wines, but they just don't fit our wine tasting buds. Here is a view of some of the vineyards.

There was one winery on "Chicken Dinner Rd". Such strange street names. After going to 6 wineries, we decided that was enough to know the area just isn't for us, so we headed back to the RV to get the Weber out to BBQ a pork roast and have an enjoyable evening on the patio. The RV park is quite spacious and pleasant.

This morning after our chores (laundry and washing windshield), we took a drive to Boise to see the State Capital. It's a big impressive building.

Here we are beside a big bell in front of the building.

Entering the front doors, your first view are these marvelous marble pillars, quite impressive.

This is looking up into the dome.

This is from the top floor looking down at the bottom 2 floors. We had our history lesson of Idaho for the day in the visitor center on the bottom floor.

After our tour of the Capital, we went to one of their many parks to have a picnic lunch.

This is the view we had from our picnic table.

 As soon as we sat down, all the geese got out of the water and came over to visit us.

 Once especially liked Jim.

After lunch we took a walk around the park, it's really pretty - especially green with lots of trees.

 The pathway and parks go right along the Boise River.

After a relaxing lunch and walk, we headed back to the RV. We are meeting my nephew and his family for dinner this evening. I have not seen Tom and Stacey for over 20 years, so it will be nice to see them again along with meeting their 2 daughters, Savannah and Taylee.

Last Day in Washington

Yesterday (Friday) was another beautiful day in southern Washington where we are staying, so took off around 9:30am to head towards the Walla Walla area to do (yes, you guessed it) some more wine tasting. Walla Walla area is about 50 miles east of where we are at in Kennewick. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of wines we found (which we purchased several) plus the wineries were all very unique and everyone goes out of their way to accommodate whatever your tastes may be. Here is a winery in an old schoolhouse.

Waterbrook had some outstanding wines and went overboard in their hospitality.

 Of course this time of the year the grapes are about ready to be picked, which makes them so sweet right off the vine.

After tasting at several different wineries, we were done for the day, so headed back to the RV and enjoy a quiet evening on the patio enjoying the beautiful temperatures (I'm getting spoiled with these 80 degree days).

Today is our last day here and didn't really have anything planned, so found a couple of wineries close by (within 6 miles) to pass the time of day. Which we also found some excellent wines in this area. Both Jim and I agree that this area might even be better than Sonoma County, less people, better wines and excellent hospitality.

At Kitzke Cellars, the owner actually took us out into the vineyard to taste the grape of the varietal we were drinking. As I stated, the grapes are so sweet and good, they just pop with flavor. I believe this was their Cabernet Franc.

Here's Jim with the owner. She also told us about a fruit orchard close by that you can pick you own fruit.

So off for an experience of picking peaches and apples.

We picked Gold Medal Peach and Gala Apples, we have a good supply now.

 After our farm duties, we went to our last winery of the day - Goose Ridge.

It was time for lunch, so we sat out on their back patio enjoying the tasting and a cheese/meat/cracker plate, which pared very well with the wines. Had a pleasant, relaxing snack.

I'm glad we got to experience this area of Washington, it is quite pleasant, people are very nice and the wines are excellent. It's been a good stop. But it's moving day again tomorrow to get further southeast on our way back to Tucson.

Columbia Gorge Area

We are at a Columbia Sun RV Park in Kennewick, WA which is semi-close to the Columbia River. It's sorta central for this area wineries - Prosser area, Columbia Gorge and Walla Walla. Landed in our space yesterday around noon after an easy going 200 miles from Issaquah. After setup (which takes us only about 30 minutes) we headed out to experience the wineries in Prosser area, about 25 miles back up the road we came down on. Our first stop was Hogue Winery, which we have had their wines before. We had a pleasant tasting and walked out with several bottles.

 From there we went to Kestrel, which we have never heard of before, but had pleasant wines. Of course Jim liked the most expensive one, so we left with a couple bottles.

 Then onto 14 Hands Winery, which we have also tasted their commonly distributed wine. We opted to taste from their reserve list and ended up with 4 bottles. We did a few more tastings, but nothing else was any good. In fact, it went down hill quite fast, so headed back to the RV for a pleasant evening out on the patio.

This morning we left early for a long day on the road to site see the falls that are about 40 miles east of Portland. Yes we drove about 180 miles one way to see some falls. Call us crazy or what. But the last time we saw these falls was about 3 years ago on a freezing December day when the falls were all frozen, so wanted to view when the water is actually running.

This is the biggest and best falls.

Pictures just don't do it justice.

We drove down the Columbia River on the south side (Oregon) and drove back on the north side (Washington). With all the smoke in the area from all the fires, we were concerned that we would not be able to see Mt. Hood, but the wind picked up today to at times felt like 40mph, and cleared out the air, so we did get a glimpse of the beautiful mountain.

 We stopped at our favorite winery - Cascade Cliffs to purchase a couple of cases of our favorite wine. Well, we did purchase the wine, but little did we know that they have two different Reserve Barbaras, which they gave us the wrong one. When we got back to the RV we checked and found that we purchased the wrong wine. Maybe it's not our favorite winery anymore. Oh well, I'm sure we will suffer through each bottle.

We next stopped at Maryhill Winery, which we enjoyed their wines the last time we were here, but this time, didn't find anything we liked.

Here are some vineyards on the Columbia.

The RV park we are in is quite spacious, which makes it so much nicer. The last park in Issaquah was so tight quarters, I had to move the picnic table to the next lot over so Jim wouldn't run into it driving out of the lot, but then our RV is a "little" bigger than normal RVs.

We are now sitting out on our patio enjoying 80 degree weather with a light breeze having our evening glass of vino. Haven't discussed what we are doing tomorrow, in fact, I'm having a hard time knowing what day it is or what day of the week it is. Only my Apple Watch is keeping me on schedule.

Issaquah

After a 500+ curvy, winding, slow miles we ended up  at Issaquah RV Park (about 15 miles east of Seattle) yesterday. Traffic wasn't too bad, but the road through the mountains sure caused stress on the driver and the navigator. Many things in the cupboard were shifted during the trip. We arrived to a small. tight quarters for our RV, park, but we got settled into our new home. We came here for the wine, especially Chateau St. Michele Winery.

We headed out this morning for about a 20 mile drive to Woodinville where all the wineries are located. Our first stop - of course, Chateau St. Michele.

As you can see, we left the winery with a few bottles.

Our next stop was Columbia Winery.

 Yea, a few more bottles.

 

OK, pulling the wallet out again at another winery. 

Went to several more wineries and only purchased a couple more bottles. It's time to go back the the RV. Only can take so much tasting before nothing tastes good and the designated driver is unable to drive.

I'm glad we have GPS or we would still be lost. This area has no direct route to anything. Made it back to the RV and rested after a hard days work. Moving day again tomorrow. Was scheduled to stay in this area for 4 days, but felt didn't need to, so changed our scheduled. We will start back heading south tomorrow.

Glacier: gley-see-ur

I like the way the English pronounce "glacier" better than American way - it just sounds like it's spelled and it just makes more sense to me. Yep, you probably guessed where we are at - Glacier NP. We are staying in an RV park in Columbia Falls, about 15 miles west of the west entrance of Glacier NP, so quite convenient.

As you read in the last post we arrived Friday afternoon and as we were enjoying our evening patio time, it started to rain, so put out the awning as much as the tree would let us and we sat under the slide-out to keep out of the rain and still enjoyed a beautiful evening outside.

 Sat. morning we headed out to discover Glacier even though it was overcast and rainy. The park is just beautiful. The roads on the valley floor go between towering trees. Everything is just so green.

 Here is a small waterfall on the Flathead River.

We drove up the Going to the Sun Road, but it was so overcast and raining that we didn't stop anywhere to take any more pictures, you really couldn't see any of the mountains. We just drove around the whole loop back to Columbia Falls, where it was a bit warmer and not raining. We did drive south a bit and found a winery where we did some tasting and purchased some wine. Then another winery was about 20 miles south of that and we purchased a couple wines there after tasting them. That was about our day, got back to the RV and went for a walk and relaxed for the evening.

Today the weather was better - at least no rain, but still overcast and real hazy. I think some of the haze must be coming from the wild fire that was in the park. We saw a portion of that on our drive yesterday and it is just devastating what fire does to the beautiful forests.

Finally stopped and took pictures. Here is a couple of pics of the waterfall across the valley originating from the glacier right above it (the white in the picture right above is the glacier).

As you probably know, but there really are not many glaciers left. There might be more up in the Canada portion, but not where we were.

At the summit, it was cloudy and all fogged in, so did not get to see any views from that viewpoint. The valley floor was at about 3500 elevation and we felt like we climbed much more than the 6646 ft..

But the temp sure indicated we were up high, it was a cold 48.9 wet degrees.

Here is a waterfall right along the road.

This is a pano shot looking at the valley were we came from and the river flowing through.

Just a scenic pic of one of the mountains.

It's beautiful country and would loved to have experienced it when the weather was better with the sun out to get some better pics. Of course we needed to stop to pick up a huckleberry pie for dinner.  I'll let you know how it tastes. They told us these are really "huckin" good!

We head out tomorrow bright and early for a 500+ mile drive west. Will keep everyone updated on our adventures.