AT LEAST PARTS OF IT ARE PRETTY

As most of you know, I am still having trouble adjusting to Spokane and to this part of the country in general. Perhaps my entire lack of desire to adjust has something to do with this problem, but even so Matt and I are trying to make what time we have to spend here more enjoyable than an expensive and painful dental procedure. To that end we took a little road trip down to Walla Walla , which we had heard was a cute little college town with many a winery to sample should the town itself prove uncharming. It was a one-night trip so we felt our chances of being entertained were quite good.

We were right. After a navigational error that took us 30 miles or so closer to Seattle than we were supposed to go, we had a pleasant drive down, although for the life of me I couldn't imagine whatever possessed people to want to live on some of the dry desolate stretches we passed through. At my heart I am simply not a farmer and Matt claims I harbor a secret dislike of the people who choose that profession. I do not want to delve into that at the moment. We'll leave that for another time when I have more leisure with which to explore and root out such unjustified prejudice.

We hit some wineries on the way into town and had a good time. They did get more fun as we went along and we are still unsure whether that had to do with the wine or the wineries and their clientele in general. The first winery's tasting room was very nicely situated in an old schoolhouse but the people working for the winery were impressively unhelpful and the room itself was filled with obnoxious yuppie types. Yes, yes, I know, we were in a winery so what did we expect? But, lets face it, we were in a winery in Walla Walla Washington, not in the south of France or Napa or even Oregon or Yakima, WA, so really. How snobby did they need to be? We had a more pleasant time at the 2nd winery with a much more helpful staff and, amazingly enough, a list of their wines that actually included descriptions. This was not available at the 1st winery where we were expected to know what we wanted ahead of time. The 2nd winery was much more traditional in its approach to tasting, having a select menu that they poured through from their lightest whites to heaviest reds.

But the real fun came at the 3rd winery where the staff was very friendly, but not in an overly obnoxious way, and we ran into a very pleasant woman having a great time on her day off with her partner who played the straight man to her hilarity. She turned out to be a prison guard and said she was determined to have as much fun as possible on her mini-vacation. I don't blame her. We also discovered our favorite wine at the Three Rivers Winery , who are very proud of their female winemaker, Holly Turner. I have to admit, she is good. We tried a wine, Grenache, here that tasted like Canales in a bottle. By the way, did you know you can order Canales sauce and salad dressing on the internet? I may treat myself to some bottles and enjoy it with the 2 bottles of Grenache we bought.

Walla Walla itself proved a cute college town and we enjoyed appetizers and wine in a hipster-owned cafe, Grapefields. The next day we drove slowly back to Spokane, stopping to enjoy the sights of the Palouse Falls. Massive fires were burning somewhere south of us on the way back, though as the air was smoky and hazy all the way home. Some of it was blowing into Spokane and inhaling too much of it on a run caused burning lungs later in the week. But the short trip was fun and has inspired us to take them frequently during our last year here. We figure we won't be rushing back to the region anytime soon after we escape so we might as well enjoy what sights it has while we are here.