New Finds in Walla Walla

Trip date: November 2021

Last fall the ladies from the wine group I'm in decided a return to Walla Walla was in order. Covid was still wreaking havoc so it wasn't a normal Walla Walla trip but it was still incredibly fun!

Sarah and I decided to fly over, while Lorraine, Sandra, and Sonja drove. I had actually never flown to Walla Walla before; it's a quick 1 hour flight on a small prop plane, very similar to the flight into Santa Rosa wine country. 

When we landed we found out our friends, who were to be picking us up from the airport, were running a bit late. We tried to find an Uber or Lyft, thinking we would just meet them at our first wine tasting appointment, but Walla Walla still doesn't have car share services. When we found out the only restaurant in the airport didn't serve wine ("we don't want to seem like we are playing favorites" was the reply when I asked why not!) Sarah and I took the advice of the cashier and wheeled our suitcases down the street to Cavu Cellars and had a glass until our friends made it into town. 

Our first tasting of the weekend was at Grosgrain Cellars. It's in a beautiful location and the wines here are very very good. They even have a gorgeous vacation rental if you want to stay! 

We checked into our own Airbnb afterward; a HUGE 5 bedroom, 4+ bathroom house directly across the street from Pioneer Park. This was a great rental for a group with a super well stocked kitchen, lots of comfy seating, and big tv for movie watching. 

After a quick tasting at El Corazon, we had a stellar dinner at Hattaway's.  It was my first time here and I loved it! The food was great, our table in the wine cellar was perfect, and the wine selection was awesome. Highly recommend!

The next morning we called in salad orders from Graze -as we had a full day of tasting appointments and didn't want to have to worry about finding a lunch spot- and hit the road. Except for El Corazon, all the wineries we had lined up for the weekend were new visits for me and I was super excited! 

First up was Devison where we tasted in their working cellar. The reds here are absolutely delicious! I also recently had a chance to try their rosé which is super solid as well. 

We didn't have far to go for our next appointment at Rasa as they share the same building. They have a small tasting room set up with comfy lounge chairs and poured us through quite a big line up. I think the group had mixed opinions on the wine here but I did buy a couple of their QED which is a nice Rhone blend. 

Our third stop was at Dillon which is near the airport. Dillon specializes in Chardonnay and Syrah and although domestic Chardonnay does not tend to be my favorite varietal I absolutely loved Marc Leahy's! This is one talented winemaker! They were also kind enough to let us eat our salads as we tasted. Another stellar stop!

We were all very excited for our final tasting of the day. Alton Cellars has been getting a lot of press since opening their new tasting room in 2020. The building, by Architect Jon Gentry of GO’C, is simply stunning. Sitting in the middle of rolling hills, the steel/glass/wood structure manages to look both completely out of place and somehow natural in it's setting. 

And that's the end of my positive experience at Alton. As we walked inside and were seated we all commented on the VERY strong scent of what we assumed was someone's cologne. So strong was the smell that I could actually taste it in the back of my throat. This is obviously something that you don't want while wine tasting.

One of my friends finally asked/commented about the smell to the woman pouring for us and she responded excitedly that it was actually a scented candle that they had burning. And in fact they consider it their signature scent.

WTF????? What winemaker has scented candles burning in their tasting room?? Especially one called Cowboy's Camp? Did I also mention that their tasting fee was $30? Utter bullshit. Enough said.

We decided to have dinner at home that night and picked up an order of Greek food from Yamas, which had been recommended to us by one of the (better) winemakers, and to-go cocktails from Passatempo. Both were absolutely delicious! 

The next morning, after some mimosas and pastries, we had our first tasting. The winemaker of Tempus Joe Forest was great and took us through a tasting in the cellar room. The wines here are super approachable, very well priced, and the staff were all great. I think everyone bought a few bottles!

Down the road and very near the airport we stopped at the incubator area. These cute little buildings are part of a program to help growing wineries and winemakers get a foothold in the industry. We had an appointment to taste at itä where winemaker Kelsey Albro Itämeri charmed us while pouring some absolutely delicious rosé, semillon, and pinot noir. 

This was such a great stop! Kelsey is from Seattle and does club pick up parties both in Walla Walla and Seattle making joining her wine club an easy choice for all of us. 

So enamored by the incubators we headed next door to Hoquetus (rhymes with lettuce) and tasted through the three wines that winemaker Robert Gomez was making. You may know Robert as he worked at Montana bar and Dino's Tomato Pie in Seattle before moving to Walla Walla in 2017. His wines are crunchy and lovely.

Before leaving the airport region we stopped at Prospice where they were holding tastings outside under a big tent. Sarah and Sonja went to the nearby taco truck and brought over lunch while we tasted some gorgeous syrahs. Jay Krutulis (former cellarmaster at Tranche) and Matt Reilly (former cellarmaster at Gramercy) aren't new to wine making but this is their first venture together and they just started in 2019.

The wines are great, well-priced, and they made it very easy to join their cellar club :) 

We headed back into downtown after this and Sandra, Lorraine, and I did a final tasting at House of Bones which is in the old Rotie space. I was pretty excited about trying the "French-style" chardonnays here but they only served one and the other 3 tastes were Proper Syrahs. All good, but I somehow thought we'd be tasting all Chard.

They did pair the wines with some delicious chocolates though!

We met everyone at Brasserie Four and had a cocktail out on the patio with some oysters & escargot while waiting for our delicious to-go order which we thoroughly enjoyed back at our home.  

The next morning the car-crew headed out fairly early as there were reports of snow in the pass. Sarah and I called every "taxi" driver in town before finally getting hooked up with some random guy and his SUV. 

I headed across the street to Pioneer Park to take a little walk in the sun while Sarah packed up. It's a gorgeous park with huge trees, a pond, and an aviary.

We picked up another order from Graze and headed to the airport. After checking in (1 case of wine free per person flying out of Walla Walla!) we found an area upstairs in the airport where we could have our lunch away from other people. 

It was a great weekend, with some great ladies, and a chance to taste some really lovely wines! 

All Walla Walla photos here. 

Covid Escape to Maui

Trip date: October 2021

I took my first long-haul flight since the Covid-19 pandemic in late October to Maui. My friend Gail and I were using another Westin condo deal (my 4th time on one of these!) for the Kaanapali Ocean Villa Resort. This was the 4th rebooking of the trip, once due to work constraints and twice due to Covid. For $948 we would be staying for 5 nights/6 days in a one bedroom/2 queen bed apartment. This included a rental car which we upgraded to a convertible for $318. 

We also used an Alaska Air companion fare and upgraded to Premium seats which gave us free drinks as well as the middle seat free, something Alaska had done during the pandemic for a while. 

There were forms to fill out for entry to Hawaii, including proof of vaccination, and masks were required on the flight. It felt heavy & a little uncomfortable but it also was exciting to finally be going somewhere again!  

Our first stop after leaving the airport (which has a huge new rental car area that you take a trolly to) was Tin Roof to pick up some lunch. The casual eatery, owned by Chef Sheldon Simeon of Top Chef Seattle season, was doing take-out only from its strip mall location. We pulled in, made our order online (dodging the line in the hot sun), and found a random beach along the highway to eat at. My mochiko chicken with garlic noodles were delicious!! And the orders were huge!

Upon checking in to the Westin the front desk agent gave me an option between a few rooms, we ended up with a fantastic location, mid pool with peek-a-boo views of the ocean and a balcony spanning the living room and bedroom. Room #2311 if you are so inclined. Bliss. 

Most of our days started with a walk along the beach path, breakfast at the hotel's restaurant Aunties (one of only two restaurants open due to hiring challenges), then down to the pool (masks were required inside the hotel but not by the pool or on the beach) where we rented a clamshell cabana for $75. We had gone grocery shopping so we could have our own wine or margaritas (our kitchen was fully furnished including a blender) and snacks by the pool. Daily drinks on the beach at sunset became a wonderful study in the changing clouds over Lanai.

One day we booked a snorkel trip with Ultimate Whale Watch out of Lahaina out to Lanai. We were on a Zodiac style boat but it had seats built in. Our captain Chris and his mate Levi were awesome. It wasn't whale season but we did see spinner dolphins which I hadn't seen before! 

We went past Manele Bay, where the Four Seasons is located, and snorkeled just near this rock and coast cliffs. The coral was absolutely gorgeous and there were tons of fish. Gail and I were first in and last out and had a blast! Once back onboard the crew handed out homemade banana bread as a snack. Very sweet. 

Unfortunately on our way back across the channel our boat had some engine problems, but instead of stressing about it, our crew pointed out flying fish and told us things about the islands and their diving. And when we did finally get back over to Maui they took us to Turtle Town. This area, where an old cement wharf had come down in a hurricane, is a favorite hang out for honus. As soon as we jumped in there were 3 huge turtles swimming towards us! I had to try to back up to give them way! We ended up swimming around with 8 turtles and spied a small shark under one of the sunken cement blocks. We celebrated the great snorkeling back on board with mimosas we had brought with us!

Another day we drove up the to the very northwest tip of the island for a hike to the Nakalele Blowhole. The drive is very windy but beautiful. We parked at the 2nd trailhead which is just past MP 38. There isn't really one set trail, it's a very dusty and rocky hill that you kind of have to scamper down. 

It's only about a mile down to the blowhole and the last part of the scramble is mainly old lava flow. The rock formations are super interesting and there are lovely views of the ocean of course. But the main attraction is the blowhole and it certainly did not disappoint! We hung out for a bit taking in the cooling spray!

The climb back up wasn't exactly hard, but it was difficult to pick out the best way up through the rocks and lava. Two guys who were just a head of us were super sweet, pointing out the best routes and even lending a hand up the steeper parts. It was a great adventure!

We drove back down towards Kapalua, stopping to take in a great view of Honolua bay and a pod of dolphins swimming around. 

Originally our plan was to snorkel at D.T. Fleming beach but the red flags were out and the surf was big so we continued driving thru Kapalua to check out the other beaches. We passed a sign for the Sea House restaurant, which offered parking and ocean views, and decided to have lunch there. Turns out they are right on Napili Beach! We had a great lunch on their deck and then grabbed out gear (we had rented from Bob's) out of the trunk and went for a snorkel. Immediately upon entering the water there were 2 large honus!! This will be a reoccurring stop for me on future trips!

Another day we drove up to the old town of Paia. I had never been and with Covid the tiny town was even quieter than normal it seemed. We had a good time shopping at some of the cute boutiques before heading to Mama's Fish House for our lunch reservation. 

While wandering their grounds before lunch we spotted another huge turtle sleeping in the shade on the beach! 

Mama's is beautiful and delicious and very expensive. I've been just once before for dinner and I have to say that lunch is the better bet because you get the gorgeous views!

During our trip we also ate in Lahaina a few times. It was easy to take the Westin shuttle and then Uber back as we were generally returning after the shuttle ended for the night. 

Kimo's is one of my regular stops; I go simple with their fresh catch and brown butter. If you have a sweet tooth their Hula Pie is ridiculous and not to be missed. 

We had a surprisingly great lunch at Lahaina Fish Co one afternoon. My poke salad was HUGE, the Mai Tai was solid, and the view was gorgeous! I'll return here.

We also tried the Mala Tavern, not at sunset as most people do since sunset was at ~5:30 and we just don't eat that early! It's a very cute spot with nice cocktails and great food. 

And the Mexican food we had at Frida's on our last night was sooooo good! My black beans with grilled fresh prawns in garlic butter were thoroughly enjoyed sitting outside with this view of sailboats moored in the bay.

It was great to have some new places to check out in Lahaina and none of them disappointed. Closer to our hotel we walked over to Dukes on two separate occasions for dinner. It was close and waiting for a table in the sand with one of their big Mai Tai's is not a hardship for me!

Of course I had to sit through a 90-minute timeshare presentation at the Westin which is now owned by Marriott Bonvoy. In years past I had scheduled the presentation for my last day and then canceled, saying I had to leave to catch my flight. But the fine print now states that if you don't attend you will be charged at full rack rate upon checking out.

I booked it on the first morning we were there as I knew jet lag would have me up early anyway. It was painless as I just kept saying that I wasn't interested. Upon leaving they offered me another vacation package! Since I still had 4 more days I could think over that offer while enjoying a Mai Tai or two! I did end up purchasing another package so I'll be visiting this resort again in the next 2 years :)

Total turtle count: 11! Sun, sand, snorkel...it was a fantastic girls' trip and a bargain on top! 

All Maui photos here. 

Olympic National Park Road Trip

Trip date: September 2021

Thanks to COVID, the PNW hiking trip that I had planned with my friends from Paris, Forest and Nicky, for fall of 2020 got scrapped. We had rescheduled everything the best we could for Sept of 2021, but with the USA still closed to non citizens, Nic had to pass on the trip again. Forest decided to brave the pandemic and fly into Seattle, it had been since Jan 2020 since I had seen my BFF, the longest since we have known each other!

We had a six day road trip planned around the Washington coast and ONP, all places that neither of us had stayed at before and we were excited! First stop, Kalaloch Lodge.

We stopped for lunch along the way at Chelsea Farms in Olympia. I love this place! We had some gorgeous oysters on the ½ shell and I had their decadent clam chowder. It's a great place to break up the ~3 ½ hour drive to the coast. 

Originally we had booked to stay at the Quileute Oceanside Resort, but tribal lands were closed due to COVID. Our cabin at Kalaloch sat on the bluff overlooking the ocean, had two bedrooms, a bathroom, small kitchen, and a wood fireplace in the living room. 

It was very rainy when we arrived, so after unpacking we got a fire going, set up a game of dominos, made some cocktails, and settled in for the night. The restaurant onsite was take out only so I had brought a batch of my mac and cheese that we just had to cook up in the oven, and a green salad. It was a super cozy and relaxing night!

The next morning the skies had cleared so we drove out to the Hoh Rain Forest, which was about an hour each way. We did the short 1+ mile Hall of Moss trail which is nothing less than gorgeous!

Pictures just can't do justice to the amazing hues of greens and yellows in the Hoh. I had never been in the fall before and it was stunning!

We were really hoping to see some elk as there had been sightings that morning, but no such luck! 

Just outside the park, we stopped at the Hard Rain Cafe for sandwiches, eaten outside on their front porch as almost everyplace was still closed for indoor dining. 

Back at Kalaloch we went out for a nice walk on our beach. We were the only ones out there, except for a couple of bald eagles!

That evening the sunset was just amazing! We put together a little happy hour and sat outside in our adirondack chairs enjoying the view.

Although our cabin had a kitchen and we were told there would be a bin of sanitized cookware, they only provided us with paper plates and plastic utensils. I had brought posole and quesadilla makings for our 2nd night dinner and we ended up having to eat the posole out of cooking pans! I also had to go buy souvenir wine glasses from the lodge as they only gave us paper cups! But they did provide each cabin with a bundle of wood per day so we were all set for a fire and dominos after dinner (pro-tip: no wifi at Kalaloch Lodge or the cabins).

The next morning we checked out after breakfast of banana bread and tea in the cabin and drove the short distance to Kalaloch Beach for a little hike along the shore and to check out the very cool Tree of Life. Afterwards, on our way to Ruby Beach we stopped for a quick look at Big Cedar which is indeed a very big cedar. 

At Ruby the tide was in so our hike was shortened drastically. But it is still such a gorgeous spot and we were having the best weather!

We stopped in Forks for a quick lunch before continuing on to 2nd Beach. This is a gorgeous hike thru the forest and then onto the beach!

It's about a mile through the woods out to the beach. 2nd Beach feels much more remote that Ruby since you can't drive right up to it. We had a great time exploring and were two of only a handful of people out there.

Three beach hikes done for the day! We got on the road and stopped to check out John's Beachcomber Museum but unfortunately it was closed. We drove through his property and could see that there was a pretty impressive collection of items ammassed!

It was just under an hour drive to Lake Crescent Lodge, which is where we'd be staying for the next two nights. We had rented one of the Singer Cabins, two seperate rooms connected inside and sharing a cute front porch with views of the lake.

I had been wanting to stay out at this lodge for years and it did not disappoint! Such a gorgeous setting! We hung out in adirondack chairs on the lake shore for a bit and then headed inside the lodge for cocktails by the big fire.

Because of COVID the drinks were served out of plastic cups but they were solid. We hadn't made reservations for dinner and because of reduced seating in the dining room there were no tables available so we ended up ordering off the take-out menu and having dinner in front of the fire as well.

The next morning we had breakfast in the lodge dining room on real plates and with a front row view of the lake. It was a gorgeous day and afterwards we set off for a short hike to Marymere Falls, the trailhead starting just behind our cabins. The 2 mile round trip hike is really pretty, lots of old growth trees, some deer sightings, and of course the waterfalls!

Then we jumped in the car and drove to the salmon cascades on the Sol Duc River and watched the salmon make their way upstream. I live near the Ballard Locks so I've seen this many times but I have never experienced it in the "wild" and wow, was it cool!!

We stayed for quite a bit watching and wondering how these salmon were not crushing their skulls on the rocks. The concierge at the lodge had told us about this when we checked in, it was a great tip. The salmon generally run from mid Sept to mid Oct so if you are in the area go check them out! 

Originally the plan had been to go soak in the Sol Duc Hot Springs, so we continued up the road and had a little picnic before checking out the pools. But just like my other time there, it seemed crowded with kids and not very relaxing, so we opted to head back to our lovely lodge. 

We settled into a couple of adirondacks with some wine and books and enjoyed the gorgeous fall weather. As it got later I bought a bundle of wood from the front desk and they delivered it to one of the fire pits for us. I made a small fire that we enjoyed before heading up to our front porch for a great happy hour spread that we had packed in our cooler.

Dinner that night was in the lodge dining room and it was ok, nothing to write home about but fine. I had taken the rest of our wood back up to our cabin, and after dinner we grabbed it and returned to find some other guests keeping our fire going with driftwood. We enjoyed some lovely rare whiskey around the fire, such a gorgeous setting!

The next morning after breakfast and a little more wandering around the Lake Crescent Lodge grounds, it was time to check out. I loved this lodge and would absolutely love to return; fall was the perfect season! 

Our drive to Hurricane Ridge was gorgeous and sunny until we hit Port Angeles. The weather turned drizzly and as we made our way up the road leading to the ridge clouds settled in so low that I couldn't see a thing in front of me. This was not going to make for a good hike, so sadly we turned around and headed back down.

We stopped in Sequim for lunch at Salty Girls which had been recommended. Unfortunately it was just ok. They shucked the wrong oysters for us twice and my crab melt was just luke warm. Maybe it was an off day.

Not to miss out on a last hike in the area, we pivoted (thanks Covid for teaching us all the importance of the pivot!) and drove out to the trailhead for the Dungeness Spit. 

It had been probably been 15 years since I'd been out here. And no we did not hike all the way out to the lighthouse! But it's such a unique and wild strip of sand and driftwood, it was a great last hike!

Our last stop on our fabulous WA Peninsula trip was Port Townsend. I had been thru the quaint town many times but had never stayed! We were booked in at the very well known Old Consulate Inn which at one time was the German Consulate. 

And in true BFF fashion, Forest and I had the honeymoon suite, which was up on the top floor of the house and had a sitting room in the turret! The views of the Pacific from the room were also fantastic!

We walked into downtown that evening; Port Townsend is such an adorable place, full of Victorian style buildings, gorgeous views, and more deer than people it seems!

Unfortunately the restaurant Finistere was closed the night we were in town so we decided to wander into to the Alchemy and get on a waitlist for a table. Thanks to social media I saw that my friends Andy and Carol were in town and were also at Alchemy! They invited us to join them for dinner and we had some very good drinks and bites! 

Breakfast was included at the Old Consulate and was served in a very nice sitting room. It's really a great house to explore, lots of antiques and interesting spaces. Afterwards we packed up and checked out, then drove into town and walked around doing a bit of gallery going and antiquing. 

Andy and Carol had told us they had spent a day in Poulsbo and thought it was really cute, it just so happened that there was a shop I wanted to check out there so after our walk around we headed to Little Norway as it's called.

We had a great time shopping along the main drag. Nordiska is a wonderful store full of everything Scandinavian and also has a lot of artist Anna Brones' work. We also found an adorable housewares/wine shop and did a little tasting outside while we waited for a table at The Loft for lunch.

We took the Bainbridge Ferry home because a ferry ride is *the* way all PNW trips should either start or end! 

This was such an awesome trip around the Olympic National Park and peninsula. I live in a ridiculously gorgeous part of the world and it was super fun to go exploring with my bestie who also has a deep love for the PNW.

All Washington Peninsula photos here.