Kennewick

We left Baker City in Oregon and headed up to southwest Washington and into wine country. If you don’t know, Washington State makes wonderful wines. We stayed at the Columbia Sun RV Resort in Kennewick which is part of the tri-cities (Kennewick, Pasco and Richland) along the confluence of the Yakima, Snake and Columbia rivers. The Columbia Sun RV Resort was a beautiful campground that had huge spots.

I loved the little check in booth the resembled a wine cask! Check out the flowers in the area:

Just beautiful! We were lucky enough to get an end one where we could chain Bear up on the thirty footer and he could watch the world go by.

One of the nicest sites that we have ever had! Green, green grass! That night we went to the Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar for dinner.

Very nice place with good food! The tomato basil soup was delicious! The smoked Manhattan was also fantastic!

Katrina remembered that the folks that we purchased our casita and lot from in Myakka hosted a wine tasting event that featured Washington wines. We got in contact with Mike and Carol Johnson which we learned recently bought property in Kennewick area. What a wonderful resource! Mike gave us a plethora of places to try!

We started our wine tour of the area the next day by traveling to Prosser and tasting reds with our lunch at Newhouse Family Vineyards at Bunnell Family Cellar and Wine O’Clock Wine Bar. That’s a mouthful! We tried a couple of red wine flights and ordered lunch which consisted of a white cheese and apple pizza with a delicious dessert of toasted marshmallow tart.

Mike hit a home run for us there! Tasty reds and yummy food!

We decided to veer off Mike’s suggestions in order to hit a few more wineries right in the same area. The second one we tried was called Martinez & Martinez Winery. We got one flight of reds and sat outside talking with a family.

The wine was ok, but not good enough to purchase a bottle (should have stayed the course with Mike’s suggestions). Loved The Who-ville evergreens!

The third place we tried called Coyote Canyon Wineries hosted in the same building. Another single flight of reds.

Pretty location, but the reds left something to be desired.

Right around the corner there was a place called Airfield Estates where we got a red flight. We talked with another couple from Utah while we sipped the wine.

Again, not up to Mike’s standards!

We decided to get back on Mike’s track and drove over to Alexandria Nicole Cellars and got there just in time to try a flight.

Mike sure knows his wines! We liked a few of them and decided to purchase one bottle. We dropped Mike’s name and although the Johnson’s aren’t members there, they gave us a discount!

We headed back to the Busse Bus and felt an emptiness as the Olympics were over and we needed to find some other activity. We ended up renting the movie “A Quiet Place II”. We had to watch it in silence…

The following day we went to the Walla Walla area to try some of Mike’s recommendations. Since we got a later start than we anticipated, we stopped at the nearest ones to us that served food. First up was Waterbrook Winery. What a great venue with outstanding food!

Bear was very happy as we brought him along for the day and he was able to sit with us outdoors. Our server even brought him some treats!

The next and final stop was Woodward Canyon Winery where we got a flight. We struck up a conversation with another couple while we tasted the reds. We ended up purchasing the red blend called “Pizza Wine”. If we bought a bottle the $15 tasting fee was waved and the blend was $25 – good deal!

We had enough for the day and drove back to the coach and chilled.

We spent a relaxing afternoon at the pool. Met a nice couple, Craig and Lisa Lilienthal from Las Vegas. They just started their RV experience in the last few months. Nice exchanging places to stay with them.

In the early evening, we went over to taste some reds at the Barnard Griffin Winery. Beautiful place and the wife of the establishment created all the glass art in the building!

We enjoyed the flight and ended up purchasing bottle of petit verdot. Afterwards we headed to the Tagaris Winery for dinner. This Mediterranean restaurant featured gyros.

Lovely dinner in a wonderful setting!

We caught these sunset pictures on the drive home:

Beautiful with the sun settings over the mountains and the wildfire smoke creating vibrant colors.

Another day of wine tasting in Walla Walla Washington (it’s just fun to say that). We split a flight of reds at Long Shadows Vintners. The wine was great but it was a little early in the day to be purchasing bottles.

All day we decided to heed Mike’s recommendations and again he wasn’t wrong here.

Next up, Gramercy Cellars. This place didn’t have any signage on the outside so we weren’t sure if the GPS was correct. We finally saw small print on the door that confirmed we were in the right place. So glad we went inside and onto the patio for a tasting!

Bear enjoyed sitting outside with us chewing on his bone. We purchased two bottles – one Cabernet Sauvignon and one Syrah.

From there we headed to Foundry Vineyards where we were able to have Bear join us outside. We let him run as we were the only ones there and the area was fenced in. He didn’t actually run too much as it was 103 degrees. We again split a flight of reds and enjoyed sipping them and viewing the artwork.

We ended up buying a red blend bottle that should be served chilled.

Since we were hungry we listened to our server and went over to the College Station area and ate at The Happy Wanderer for Mexican.

The tacos were really good!

We quickly left lunch because we had a reservation to taste wine at the Spring Valley Vineyard in their downtown tasting room. We were able to keep Bear with us on the sidewalk seating.

Good wines – we purchased the Petit Verdot.

Our last stop for the day was just around the corner at the Mark Ryan Winery. Good reds with seating out front for Bear. There was an Visitor Information store where Katherine English told us about different happenings around town.

She even brought some treats over for Bear and Bear performed some of his tricks for her. We liked the Red Table wine and purchased a bottle.

The following day we hung around the coach until dinner time. Then we met up with Mike and Carol at J. Bookwalter Winery. Fantastic place! Food was amazing – I had the fish, just for the halibut! Covered with a coconut curry sauce, yummy! Mike picked a wine for us that was delicious!

What a wonderful evening! So good catching up with the Johnson’s and learning about their plans on developing the nine acres that they purchased just down the street from our campground.

We got a bike ride in the next day following the Columbia River. Even though it was very smoky, it was great getting the bikes out to exercise our legs.

We rode up from the bridge to just past Washington State University. We got back to the Busse Bus and hit the pool to cool off as temperatures were well over 100 degrees. An interesting aspect of getting older is to say to each other “there are too many kids in the pool, I wonder when “adult swim” is?” Therefore, we left.

We went out to dinner with the couple we met earlier in the week at the pool. Craig drove us to the Atomic BrewPub where Lisa and him split their dinner and Katrina and I did the same.

I tried the Half-life Hefeweizen “twice” and we ate the red potato soup and three different types of pizza. Not deep dish, but very good!

Great stop and very nice getting to know them! The good news is that we will see them again in a couple of weeks in Bend, OR.

With a lot of the wineries tasted and heavy wildfire smoke hanging in the air we said our adieu to Kennewick to set out on our next adventures of mountain climbing.