The Purchases

Isenhower was our favorite winery tour. The wine maker was jovial and very patient with all of our questions which were very elementary. He took us outside and showed us the crates in which the wine was pressed and had us lift the heavy plunger (I am certain it has another name) that is used in the pressing. Then he took us into the cellar and oh my, what a delightfully scented, dark, cool, barrel filled room that was! He explained that we were smelling the 'angel's share' which is the portion that evaporates from the oak barrels. For a brief moment he had Chris convinced that they topped off the barrels with beer! Here we bought our only white wine: 2006 Roussanne Red Mountain. And no, you don't get any!

SOLD OUT!! 2006 Red Mountain Ciel du Cheval Roussanne SOLD OUT!! 100% Roussanne. Our finest white wine ever! Aromas of mango, acacia and cardamom lead into a seemless, mineral mouthfeel and an endless finish. $0.00

We drank our bottle at our last dinner as a family before Anna Rae left Seattle. It was SO delicious! Drool away, wine lovers!

The Right Price

I've got to admit, it is the word FREE that lured me in here and because the tasting was free I didn't flinch when I bought a bottle of their basket pressed, yummy, plummy 2004 syrah which boasts the following accolades:
2004 Syrah, Columbia Valley

• Silver Medal, Northwest Wine Summit, 2007
• Silver Medal, 2007 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition

Glen Fiona, check it out!

Tertulia Cellars

Behind Northstar is Tertulia Cellars. Tertulia means 'circle of friends' in Spanish. It is here that we bought our only wine that was made with grapes from the immediate Walla Walla area. It is a 2005 les collines syrah.

A Small Town

Northstar Winery does make a highly reputable Merlot with Columbia Valley grapes but we purchased their 2003 Stella Maris red table wine. What a surprise we had that evening when we we went to Creektown Cafe and our waitress was none other than cheerful and gracious Meridith, the same young woman who was the pourer in the tasting room at Northstar. What a small town coincidence! I do believe we picked the finest eating venues in Walla Walla. We ate on the patio at Creektown and the owner cruised the tables taking time to talk with everone.
The food was delicious and perfect for our anniversary celebration. Chris had their seafood caesar and I had the special which was seared swordfish in an incredible sauce. Be sure to make reservations well in advance, they fill up quickly!

Of the Vine

Of the Vine
Originally uploaded by mtnester

Oh yes, touring wineries and visiting tasting rooms; that was the original purpose of this late August 'get away'. We visited the tasting room on Main Street in Walla Walla as well as 4 of the 144+ wineries/tasting rooms in the surrounding area. Now 4 may not sound like many but I do know my limits; in terms of drinking and in terms of spending. Nearly every tasting room has a $5. tasting fee per person and you would be hard pressed to find any wine below $30. per bottle. Not that it isn't worth it ! I do believe we heard "It takes a lot of beer to make wine." in every tasting room. After talking with the wine makers and tasting room hosts we really began to see how labor intense it is to produce fine wine. It is quite the science; most specifically chemistry. The weather, the grape type, the sugar content, the barrel composition, the timing of the bottling and so much more go into making or breaking a bottle of good wine. While we did see some vineyards, we did not see as many as we expected. One of the vintners explained that they purchased grapes from other areas to use in their wine making along with some local grapes because it would be risky to count on the weather for just one area to produce the quality of grapes needed.

Fruity Place

Before wineries flourished here, fruit orchards were a mainstay of the economy in this corner of Washington. Even today you can get some of the most tasty apricots, peaches, nectarines, and apples in the Columbia Valley area. As for me, I bought a case of tomatoes which I sliced, spiced, and dehydrated for pastas, soups, and sauces. Actually I can munch on dehydrated tomatoes as easily as potato chips!

Walla Walla Sweet Onions

And long before the wine, there were onions, in fact there still are onions!

Make Hay

Ghost Signs

Of Birds and Berries

Great Blue Heron in Mill Creek at Rook Park.
Elderberry wine, anyone?

An Easy Skate

Yup, that is Chris skating the Mill Creek trail in Rooks Park, 5 miles east of Walla Walla.

'Whoa, what's that?" I asked. "Walla Walla Community College Stadium." my DH answered.

See the Heat?

This is the 'wrong side of the tracks' where the state pennitentiary is located. Pretty barren, dry, and hot looking, don't you think?


"Yup, it is pretty damned hot here, let's get back in the car."

Whitman College

No, there is no one I know who is going to Whitman, but it is a lovely and verdant piece of Walla Walla.


"Bottom's up!"



Click on this photo to get the 'big picture'. The light green that appears to be duck weed is really the reflection of a lovely Japanese maple; and don't you love the variegated dogwood that hangs over the water? It was such a hot day, probably close to 90 F.The ducks and I had the best place to be in Walla Walla.

Our Anniversary 'Get away'

Southeastern Washington is a whole lot different than the Puget Sound; flat, dry, full of wheat fields, orchards and of course vineyards, which is why we made it our destination.
If you look carefully you can see the 'wind farm' in the photo above.


So we arrive in Walla Walla and is it a bottle of vino we uncork? No, it is incredibly delicious beer at The Depot. That is the raspberry wheat beer in the photo above. The hamburger I had was equally tasty and done to medium rare perfection!

We Give Thanks!

Waiting was hard and now it is over. Good news! My dad, aged 73 was diagnosed with bladder cancer in April then underwent intravesical therapy using the drug BCG in May and June which was NOT successful. Last week he had his bladder successfully removed (oh yes, you CAN do without!) and the report is that the cancer has NOT spread. We are thrilled, overjoyed and so very relieved! Thanks to all who have sent prayers and positive thoughts for healing. I talked to him today and he does sound tired but he is up and taking brief walks in the hospital halls and just maybe he will be going home this week. Being so far away is hard at times like these but it also makes me very thankful for the connectedness of my family. Everyday I have had someone to call, someone to fill me in. So in addition to being thankful for my dad's successful surgery I am thankful for the love and support of my family.

About Home Visits

This is my second year of August home visits and I always dread starting them because of the imposition they make on my time. Don't get me wrong, we are paid for the extra hours we use: up to 18 hours in August and 10 in September. But it is analogous to having the covers ripped away from you on a cool fall morning. Then I go on one visit, then two, and the ice is broken and I begin to be enthused and I anticipate all the potential that will be entering my classroom door. They are amusing, daunting, entertaining, adorable, precocious, timid, demanding, delightful, and more. They are part of a package wrapped in 'family' and 'culture' that add layers of information which I unwrap gingerly with as much awareness and consideration as I can muster. I think back on the little Cambodian boy who, along with his 3 year old brother, mount the arms of the family couches and vie for attention as they dramatize motorcycle stunts in their living room. I kid you not, they had all the moves down , including a pose very similar to what you see in this link. There is also the little girl who writes books; and I am being literal. She brought out a story she had written on 40, yes FORTY, pages of a sketchbook. Each page had 1,2 or 3 sentences with a combination of phonetic and correctly spelled words all in capital letters but with periods or exclamation points correctly placed. She reread her story to me using smooth phrasing and wonderful expression in appropriate places. Amazing!
I have been given coffee, cookies, much needed water, invitations to dinner and gifts of smooth pebbles, flowers, and drawings; all as mementos of my home visits.

Weather Girl

I definitely need to adjust my 'weather girl' as it is pouring outside right now. It sounds different to my ears; new gutters will do that. There's no more "plink, plink, plop" as raindrops hit various buckets at the corners of the house where the old gutters leaked. My mom and dad left last Thursday and while they are gone , they are never far from my thoughts. My dad will be having surgery next Wednesday to remove his bladder. He was diagnosed with bladder cancer in April and intravesical therapy was not successful so this is the next step. Blog readers out there: your prayers and positive thoughts will be appreciated. It feels a lot like summer is over for me! I have begun home visits to my incoming students. I have been warmly welcomed into 11 homes so far. More details forthcoming in my next post. In a few minutes here I will be logging off and heading to a math training to acquaint teachers with Everyday Math, our new curriculum adoption. I hope I remember how to sit still for 6 hours!

With Bubble or Without?

Do you like bubble tea? This summer I prefer bubble tea to frappacinos, fresh avacado being my favorite flavor. Mom and Dad thought pineapple bubble tea was mighty tasty and filling! The 'bubble' is sometimes called 'pearl' or 'tapioca'. In fact it IS tapioca but it looks kind of like a dark brown fish egg in my opinion, but it tastes nothing like fish. They are chewy and slightly sweet. I like the bubbles when they are really warm and the temperature is a sharp contrast to the icy tea. This photo is of the wide, colorful straws used in bubble tea.

Inside Uwajimaya

On Tuesday 8/14 we went to Seattle's Chinatown which is better know to locals as the International District. We had a totally regrettable, hopefully forgettable, lunch experience with inattentive wait staff and blah food at the restaurant Ocean City. I'm really loving getting acquainted with my new camera. Uwajimaya, a large grocery/department store provided me with many colorful subjects for photo experimentation. If I had to do it over, we would have eaten at the food court at Uwajimaya's.

On Alki

Alki has a lovely beach and a great view of the city and Mt. Rainier when the clouds aren't around. And there are always plenty of people to watch and good restaurants. We strolled a bit and then ate pizza at Pegasus; yum! After that we drove to 'the Junction' in West Seattle and had ice cream at Husky deli.

At The Market

Pike Place Market is always a good destination for visitors to Seattle even if, like mom and dad, they have been here a dozen times. Aren't the flowers beautiful, and look at that glistening fish; you just know it's got to be fresh!

Made In Canada

I can't begin to tell you how happy I was when I flipped over this huge box that had sat, just begging to be opened, in our stairwell for a month and saw the words 'made in Canada'. Our school PTA forked over a cool $400. for me to purchase this state of the art easel and after 13 years of using a painting easel as my teaching station, I think I deserved it. I was quite leery of diving into the instructions to assemble it and then heaved a sigh of relief when I discovered that our neighbors to the near north were the manufacturers. Canadian English and pictographs I can handle. Isn't a divine piece of teaching equipment? Drool away sister Lynn!
After showing off my skillful assembly job to my DH he told me that assembling a 'box kit' of furniture now merits a patch in Girl Scouting. That sure is a far cry from the patches I earned for starting campfires, reading a compass, childcare and sewing!

Nuts!

Every summer our hazelnut bush/tree has branches hanging heavy with nuts. The squirrels get busy long before they are ripe. In the 18 years we have lived in this house I have only eaten one ripe nut and that one I found on the ground as I was doing garden clean up in September. This picture was taken 2 weeks or more ago and today there is nary a nut in sight. I have tried picking them unripe and then laying them between newspaper in the garden shed but that was unsuccessful. I know my grandma could ripen hazelnuts in that way, but I must be missing some part of the trick because it did not work for me. This morning I picked blackberries in the vacant lot next door. Not quite enough for a pie, but almost! Time to vacuum and make this place presentable because tomorrow my mom and dad arrive from Wisconsin! I also have 3 home visits to incoming kindergartners to make this afternoon. Summer really is winding down. Boo hoo!