Visiting

Last week was busy, busy, busy with visiting friends and family in the Yakima Valley. We stayed in Prosser, WA at the Wine Country RV Park. It is close to centrally located for us with friends/family stretching about 50 miles to the west and about 40 miles to the east. It’s always fun to be in our old stompin’ grounds again. Besides some terrific visits we also went to some favorite restaurants and got a few appointments taken care of.

Currently we are in Vancouver, WA visiting with my Mom. We’ll be here for a few more days before we head back to the Chehalis, WA area. It’s actually supposed to make it up to 80 degees this weekend here in Vancouver…we are looking forward to it!

Photos:

above- Cheye

below-

1. our site at Wine Country RV Park in Prosser, WA

2. A mare and her cute littl' colt in a pasture next to the RV Park in Prosser

3. John Day Dam in the Columbia River Gorge

Off we go

Being back in Prosser and the Yakima Valley has been fun. We’ve been busy going out with friends, visiting family and just enjoying the area, but we head out tomorrow.

The weather was a bit rough when we arrived, lots of wind, but it has smoothed out and was great today. Made it up to 90! Just beautiful. The park (Wine Country RV) filled up some over the weekend and I expected it to empty out a bit today, but not so. With this nice weather I guess it’s time for everyone to start camping!

Photos
Top: our site at Wine Country RV in Prosser, WA
Below: a happy Cheyenne

A little visiting, a little tasting

We have been having fun visiting with friends and family while we are here in Prosser, WA. We also managed to fit in a little wine tasting this trip. There are quite a few wineries just down the road from Wine Country RV Park so that‘s where we decided to go. They have organized the area nicely with paved walking paths between the different wineries so wandering and tasting is very pleasant. We visited just 4, Milbrandt Vineyards, Olsen Estates, Airfield Estates, Thurston-Wolfe and we managed to fine something we liked at each one!

Photos outside and inside of 3 wineries

Milbrandt Vineyard

Olsen Estates

Airport Estates

Beautiful Start

Since we have been up here Dave has been getting up early and going into coffee. Consequently I’ve been waking up earlier and this morning it paid off…what a beautiful sunrise! It was just the beginning of another day of fabulous weather.

Today I went visiting at the place where I used to work. It was good to see some people I worked with for so long. Later in the day a friend stopped by and we had a glass of wine and talked for a while.

Just as a note, Cheye’s fur-cut was a little shorter than expected…yes, she looks a bit funny but it will grow back...and she is still as sweet as ever!

Photos
Top: this morning's sunrise
Bottom: A funny looking Cheyenne

Really close shave

This morning I took Cheye for a walk around the park. It was crisp, sunny and the smell of cut grass was in the air…it was absolutely beautiful. This was the kind of morning I always loved here in the Yakima Valley. The day went on to be in the 70’s, it was fabulous weather.

We went up to Yakima today and visited with Dave’s sister and brother-in-law again. We had another nice visit. Today was also the day for Cheye’s spa visit; fur cut, shampoo, nails done…the fur cut is her summer cut…as you can see by the photos it’s really short! Later our niece Sarah came by and the three of us had dinner. It was a good time, lots of chatting and catching up.

But I guess I got ahead of myself…yesterday we ran one last load up to the storage unit plus some bags of stuff to Goodwill. We have open storage space in the trailer again… yeah! In the afternoon I went to a local winery with a couple of friends and did some catching up with them. We had a good time talking and tasting some wine. Another great couple of days here in Prosser, WA!

Busy couple of days

We’re still having a great time here in the Yakima Valley in Washington state. If you didn’t realize, we used to live here, just about 10 miles from the park we are at in Prosser, WA.

Friday we helped our friends Chad & Robin move. They sold their house and needed a hand with the heavy stuff and we were happy to help out. A few others came over too, good thing as there was lots of heavy stuff! Robin and I packed up the kitchen but at 9:30 I had to run because of my hair appointment that day. I made the appointment about 2 months ago and have been looking forward to having the hair stylist I’ve gone to for years cut and color my hair. It turned out great! By the time I got back to Chad & Robin’s all of the stuff they needed help with was moved so we went back to the trailer and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Today, after Dave got back from coffee with the guys, I went up to Tri-Cities to get a few groceries. I also did a little shopping at the Mall, found some jeans and a couple tops. This evening we went out to dinner and ran into a couple other people we know and visited with them a bit. Now it’s time to turn in for the night…maybe a little TV before sleep.

Photos:
Top: Our site here at Wine Country RV in Prosser, Wa
Below:
1. Chad hamming it up a bit while we are helping move them out of their old home
2. Moving the freezer
3. Packing up the kitchen

More visiting

On Monday we met our friends up at a restaurant called Ice Harbor Brewing Company on Clover Island in Kennewick, WA. As the name indicates they brew beer but also have a very nice restaurant too. Nothing fancy but really good food. We had a great time visiting.

Yesterday I went in to the accountant and got them started on our taxes. Later I met a couple of friends for lunch. While waiting for my friends to arrive I ran into a couple other people I knew well and sat down with them and caught up just a little. The rest of the day was pretty quiet.

Today we went down to Tri-Cities again, back to the storage unit with some more stuff. From there we went to the Mall and had lunch at Ivar’s, yummy fish there! Costco was another stop along the way where we picked up some things and I ran into my former boss and his wife so we got to chat with them a bit too. All in all we have been having a great time visiting with friends and being in our old home area.

Photos
Top: Ice Harbor Brewing Company in Kennewick, WA
Bottom: Sunset in Prosser, WA
Video: Clover Island and driving from Tri-Cities to Prosser, WA

Blowin' in the wind

Statement as of 1:37 PM PDT on March 31, 2009 ... High Wind Warning in effect until 8 PM PDT this evening... Sustained winds of 40 to 50 mph with gusts of 60 mph will persist through the day and into the evening. Areas of blowing dust can also be expected with the visibility reduced to one half mile or less in places.

Unfortunately strong winds are a pretty normal here in the Lower Yakima Valley. I was hoping to miss the spring wind but guess not! It started howling around 10 a.m. and got progressively worse - highest gust I’ve seen listed on the internet so far is 41 mph.

We’ve been busy with our visiting; Sunday night we went to some friends for barbecue and had a fun visit. Yesterday we went up to Yakima to visit with Dave’s sister and brother-in-law. It was good to see both of them and get caught up. Tonight we are meeting friends in Tri-Cities for dinner. Just lil’ ol’ social butterflies! :o)

Photos: all taken at Wine Country RV Park in Prosser, WA

Havin’ a good time in the Yakima Valley

Being back in our old stompin’ grounds has been lots of fun so far. We have been out to dinner a couple times with friends and have plans for meeting up with other friends this week. On our way up to Tri-Cities we drove by our old home in Benton City, WA… it looks great. We also made a stop at the Columbia Center Mall for a little shopping.

I thought I’d share some photos showing the interior of our trailer with the new furniture …maybe not real exciting but we are sure enjoying it. You may notice we have no table and chairs, that is because we put them in storage before we started on this journey since we knew we wouldn’t use them. Currently we have the couch where the table and chairs would go which gives us more space for the 2 recliners. Still need to find some sort of end table but this arrangement seems to really work for us.

Prosser, WA

We’re currently at Wine Country RV Park in Prosser, WA. This is the town both Dave & I used to work in, our old home is about 10 miles east of here. After we got set up Dave went into Grandview, WA to get a haircut and stopped by to see some of the guys at the place he used to work. Later we went to our storage unit in Kennewick, WA to store a few things and pick up a few things. While in Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Richland and Pasco, WA) we did a little shopping, a new coffeepot, a toaster and some bedding, grabbed a quick dinner and came back to the trailer.

This morning Dave went to coffee at the 10-4 Café in Grandview, WA, something he used to do when we lived here. Basically a group of guys get together for coffee every morning before work…he saw quite a few of the regulars and had a good visit with them. Once he got back I went into town and did some banking.

It’s fun to be back after being away for 9 months. There have been a few changes but for the most part it is the same ol’ place. We’re looking forward to seeing friends and just hanging around the area.

The photos are ones I took on our drive from Maryhill State Park to Prosser. The amount of wind turbines in the Columbia Gorge is amazing. I have no idea how much power they get from these but they sure are impressive to see!

Photos
Top: Mt. Adams viewed from the road by Goldendale, WA
Bottom: Views of the wind turbines around Goldendale, WA

Goodbyes... naw.... See you laters

This afternoon I had lunch with 2 friends, Sandy & Karen. Since we will be heading out Wednesday morning it will probably be a year before we have our next lunch together. Then later in the afternoon another friend Debbie called and I met her and Linda downtown Prosser for a Margarita. Again, it will be a long time until we next see each other. It is such an odd feeling to have known 3 of these people for about 20 years, work with them and have some fun times together, get to know their families and now to know it will be such a long time before we see each other face to face. Of course I haven't seen as much of them since I left work, but still they were close by. Thank goodness for email, instant messaging and attached pictures! It really does make the world a little smaller. :)
----Lori

Our Walk

Our walk this morning was a route we have taken a number of times while staying here. It is about a 1 mile loop that goes past a number of wineries here in Prosser. A very pleasant area, they have paved paths between the wineries and a few large grassy areas for groups or picinics. The area is still under construction, but is still a pretty walk.