Saturday Tony took Monica & David to the airport. We rode into Yakima late in the evening with the intention of going to a Civil War reenactment at the fairgrounds. After eating at Outback, we headed that way and it started raining. We sat in the parking lot for about 15 minutes, then decided to not get wet and we headed back home. Sunday, we went looking for the Cowiche Canyon hiking trail and we spent about an hour wandering around the valley, ending up two towns north of where we are outside of Yakima. We did finally find the trail, but it didn’t look too friendly! Way too much sagebrush next to the very narrow trail – way too “snakey” looking, so we walked when we got back to the house. It is very hilly here, so we got a good workout walking down the street, then back up. Everywhere you look, there are apple trees, vineyards, or hops growing on the hillsides. There seems to be a vineyard with a wine tasting room about every mile. According to some information we picked up, the Yakima valley produces more hops, grapes, and produce than anywhere else in the nation. They grow over a thousand varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables. David and Monica have raspberries and blueberries growing in their yard. The raspberries are beginning to ripen. I have picked some for the past two days and eaten all of them. I have never liked raspberries, but I’ve never had them fresh off the vine. The dogs have gotten used to us. They sit in the backyard, like a pride of lions, watching and guarding their property. On the hill, they can see for miles around and they do let us know if anything is going on within their line of vision.
What’s left of my afternoon snack.
The house and the four huge babies.
A few pictures coming from Spokane to Yakima. The land is very dry, high desert and nothing grows, not even trees, unless irrigated. The river is the Columbia, coming through the Columbia River Gorge – windy, windy, windy. The first picture is a “dust-nado” formed from all the dust that was in the air from farmers plowing the fields.
GA Gypsies - Fulltiming 