Chapter 1: Yakima Winery Tour

On a beautiful Saturday morning, we set out to meet a group of friends to make a casual tour of the Yakima Wine Country. We meet each year to take a tour of a wine area. The real reason is that the guys get a chance to drive their Corvettes, Porshes, etc., on winding roads.


I heard conversations at each meal that sounded exactly like what I hear in class each day. "I smoked those corners", "I shifted the hell out of her but couldn't keep up with him...and then he tells me he was only in second gear!" "If you hit the canyon road before 8:00 a.m., there are no cops yet." "My agent made a bargain with my insurance carrier that if I didn't get any tickets for the next 6 months..."

Although we were only a couple of hours from home, we covered a lot of different terrains. From forest, snowy passes, and desert. As you can see on the fuzzy Washington map below, we didn't cover much of the state, but the landscapes were sure different.
A closer-up map of central Washington.

As you can see, I-90 heading over Snoqualmie Pass was beautiful.






This is Lake Keechelus right at the top of Snoqualmie Pass. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Keechelus It is a water resrvoir. I love this lake in the winter when the lights from the ski areas are reflected off of it.

We stopped at Snoqualmie Pass. The ski areas still have snow and hearty skiiers are hiking up the runs to ski down. http://www.summit-at-snoqualmie.com/

I remember when there was NOTHING on the west side of the mountains. Now each small community is vying for the dollars of passing travellers.

I was surprised when we got off I-90 for gas and found that little Granger had dinosaurs sprouting all over town. Apparently, tusks and teeth of a prehistoric Mastodon dinosaur were once found in a clay pit in Granger and they are now trading on that to pursuade folks to stop, get gas, look at their dinosaurs, and leave a bit of cash.

http://www.grangerchamber.org/tourism.phtml

We are heading down into the Yakima Valley. You can see Mt. Adams in the background.

This is a beautiful carp pond at the Bonair Winery http://www.bonairwine.com/ in the middle of wine country, which used to be a desert.

A sign in front of Bonair Winery.

Prosser? This is Prosser? Prosser used to be NOTHING! Now it is trading on the wineries in the area and has provided a nice "wine & cheese" park for picniking wine enthusiasts.

http://www.winesnw.com/news_reviews/newsandreviews_prosser.htm

The windmill and picnic area at the tasting lodge of the Hyatt vinyard. http://www.hyattvineyards.com/

The jag parked in front of the vinyard at Hyatt.

After our day cruising wineries, we went to Tony's Steakhouse in Yakima. http://www.tonysteakhouse.com/index.html I had my first Kobe beef steak. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_beef. Wow, it was indescribable.

Coming in #2 behind the steak was the sink in the women's restroom. I entertained myself with that quite a while. I had to wait in line behind everyone else taking pictures of this sink to take this my picture.

This little now-abandoned gas station in Zillah was built in 1922. It is on the National Register of historic places. It as built as a reminder of the "Tea Pot Dome" scandal. See the link below for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_Service_Station. Here is another link with information on this little piece of history. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/coffee.html. There is also a lot of cool other stuff to look at on the Roadside America site. After you select your list of must-see highway sights, it automatically located them on a map and you are off on your vacation!

The original Teapot gas station sign still stands by the highway.

My attempt at artistic photography like Kyanne does. I'll leave the artistic stuff to Kyanne.

The countryside in central Washington is so flat and mostly arid.

This is a good example of how irrigation turns a dry area into a farming community. You can see how the farmers are irrigating their way up the barren hillsides to create more farmland.

An odd little lake plunked in the middle of a desert.

More of dry central Washington through our bug-spattered windshield.

More of the irrigated areas that fascinated me so much...

On Sunday our group stopped at Miner's Drive-in in Union Gap for lunch. It's one of the few remaining '50s diners. The burgers were huge and the onion rings were the best EVER!

Heading back home on highway 12. The landscape changes drastically in just a couple of hours.

The dry brown hills are starting to get a peach fuzz of green as we head towards the mountains.

Like eastern Washington, there are still lots of cool rock formations on the drive home.

I'm not sure why I took this picture, but it speaks to me, so here it is. It probably because it entertained me when Bob kept trying to get out of the picture.

Rock formations have always fascinated me. This one is no exception.

After we left the desert, we climbed into the mountains. There is still lots of snow in the passes.

Photographer feet in the snow. Earlier, these same feet were buried up to their knees when they hit a soft pocket in the snow bank.

The jag against the woodsy background of White Pass.

This is the backside of Mount Rainier. It looks funny backwards.

As we climbed the pass towards home, the snow got deeper. . .

and deeper . . .

The Jag taking a break along highway 12.

Another change in the landscape as we flew by, last season's logging site just outside of Enumclaw.

The End.