MONDAY, SEPT 22

MONDAY, SEPT 22:

     A much more laid back day today, our last day here.  Did a little laundry in the morning – our last until we get home.   As predicted, the weekend’s fantastic weather is eroding as a trend towards cloudiness and light rain begins.

    In the early afternoon we drove about 10 miles southeast to the town of Woodinville, one of Washington state’s largest winery areas.  There are about 100 wineries in this town of  12,000.  We went to one of the largest and one that I’d heard of – Chateau St. Michelle.  They were open for tours and tastings.    

     This is a lovely place.  The grounds are beautiful, as is the “chateau,” or main building.   The entire estate used to be a dairy farm, although, as Bill says, “I’ve known some dairy farmers, and their farms sure didn’t look like this!” 

                                                        

      The tour was very nicely done – half devoted to educational and technical aspects of how they produce their wines,

                                                     

                    
                                                Fermentation tanks:

                                            Being aged in barrels:

 

and the other half to a free tasting of 3 of their wines. 

 

 

 

 

 

      Their signature wines are Rieslings, although they’re beginning to produce more and more reds.  All of their grapes are grown down in the Columbia River valley, and are harvested and juiced there, and then brought here in tankers.  One question I thought of later that I would have liked to have asked is, “Since there are no local vineyards in this immediate area, why is there such a concentration of wineries here in this particular town?”

     At any rate, after our free tasting, we plunked down $10 for an extended tasting.  We didn’t pretend to be conversant in wine culture and knowledge – we just had fun and discovered what we liked there.  Came home with 4 bottles of their white blend which they produce exclusively every year for their summer concert series, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.  They were running a promotion on that wine – 25% off  if you purchase 4.  It was one of the wines we really liked – very light and refreshing.  So as we open a new bottle, it’ll be like opening a bottle of summer in Puget Sound. 

     We totally enjoyed our time here!  The city was so stimulating, and the things we chose to do really enhanced our enjoyment and appreciation of its unique beauty and character. We found nearly all the people to be very friendly, open, and helpful.  As we stood looking over our city map and brochures, obviously out-of-town tourists, more than one person came up and asked if they could help us find something.  Same thing for navigating the bus system – people would see us scrutinizing the bus schedule, and ask if they could help. And while there is a significant homeless/transient/indigent population in the heart of downtown, including where we got off and on the bus each day, they were never aggressive nor seemed out of control.  We never felt unsafe, even on Sunday night while we were waiting for our bus in the dark (there were lots of streetlights and a dozen or so other “regular” people at the bus stop).  What happens to those poor souls when the warm weather disappears and it’s continuously soggy and wet, I don’t know.  Will they seek a sanctioned shelter?  Will they move on to a more hospitable climate?

     As far as Seattle’s (and for that matter, Portland’s) ultra liberal, anything-goes reputation, we observed very little that was off the spectrum.  A good number of eccentric looking people, yes.  But, again, nothing at all menacing.  Much more of a true liberal, “Live and let live” approach.  And, interestingly, never once did we smell pot (recently legal here in Washington state for personal use).  We did see what certainly appeared to be a couple of  (illegal) drug deals taking place, more overtly than we’d expect to see in St. Louis.  But no signs whatsoever of an entire exuberant counter-culture heady with its recent marijuana legal victory.

     We of course saw Seattle (actually the whole Northwest) at its best.  The Puget Sound summers are legendary.  But they pay a high price the rest of the year.  Interestingly, they have no more average annual rainfall than St. Louis does.  In fact, they’re way down at  55th in terms of annual rainfall in U.S. cities.  So in a sense, they get a bad rap as far as rain is concerned.  But the thing is, they’re totally encased in cloud cover anywhere from 200-220 days a year.  And a fine mist or drizzle often accompanies the clouds.  So for much of 9 months of the year, it’s soggy and grey.  That’s what I couldn’t deal with.  I prefer my rain coming down as real rain, even in torrents, as long as there are long periods of dry and sunshine in between.   And I love hearing the rain come down on the roof!  Can you hear a mist??  So, if we return, and we hope we do, it will again be during a Northwest unbeatable summer!