Saturday, August 19 we headed east to the Yakima Elks Golf Course and Lodge with RV parking. It is a gorgeous setting, but unfortunately, Yakima woke up this morning to smoky skies from the raging fires in Canada and a few in WA. Glad we have 50amp service to run the air conditioners and our air purifier 24-7. We stayed inside and were fine. We learned of several Yuma friends from Canada who have been evacuated from their homes due to the fires! They are all safe. We can’t complain about our smoky sky inconvenience.
Sunday morning is the only day for the Yakima Farmer’s Market, so we headed out right away since the air didn’t smell like smoke right now. The air quality was still listed as unhealthy. We took our masks to wear as needed. We wouldn’t be out too long.
Hanging pepper bunches displayed over spectacular looking watermelon. I immediately thought of my friend, Joni Keller when I saw the peppers. I remember she had one in her kitchen that finished off her pepper-themed accents. Having already had some sensational watermelon this summer, I went with a Dove cantaloupe since we never had one. We were not impressed. Maybe it wasn’t ripe enough. (Should have gone with the watermelon.)
I was interested in the mushroom tincture at the stand below, but passed for now. I will look into it more. We have plenty of CBD for the rest of our trip. I know there are definite health benefits to various mushrooms like lion’s mane, reishi, oyster, etc., but I need to figure out which one (or blend) would be the best to try.
We bought some ahi tuna ceviche that came with 6 corn tostadas for our lunch, but since we weren’t really hungry yet, we saved it for when we got home. It was really good!
Since visibility was poor, we decided not to travel out of our way to a winery where the ambience of a view would be seriously lacking, even if we weren’t sitting outside. We stayed local to taste indoors. The first stop ended up being closed due to a family emergency. Stop two, Rider Cellar, was only a simple tasting room. It was not located at the actual winery. Evidently, “newer”, smaller estate wineries are no longer granted a liquor license to allow for tastings on site. The owners were pretty disappointed as well. That was the intent when they bought the property in 2016. When I saw Rider Cellars pictures online and read their story, I immediately thought it was or should be a Hallmark movie! Their home and vineyard site is gorgeous. Colby was delightful to talk with as he shared their wines and their story with us in person. We bought two bottles: The Captain 2020 (red blend for Barry) and their Pinot Blanc (for me).
We could smell the smoke again as we walked to the Jeep. Air quality climbed to 200 – Very Unhealthy. We went directly “home”.
The smoky sun Sunday at 6:26pm:
Monday, we stayed inside all day since air quality outside was 225. So much for playing pickleball every morning we’re here!
Tuesday, SURPRISE!!! Air quality improved significantly to Unhealthy, but not VERY unhealthy…then it went to Moderate! Yea! I jumped out of bed to get ready for pickleball. Yakima Pickleball Club has people playing every morning at Franklin Park. There are 8 really nice courts!
SURPRISE #2!! When we play different places, we often see people who remind us of people we regularly play with in Yuma. Lo, and behold when I saw a guy who looked like Ken, it was really Ken (and Sue)!! How cool was that!?! They don’t live here, but are visiting for a month. They were equally surprised to see us!
We played some great games with Ken and Sue, and also with local club members Mike, and John.
Air quality continued to improve. We enjoyed the rest of the day with blue skies and GOOD air quality! We even ate our dinner outside enjoying the golf course views. We leave for Spokane in the morning.
Pictures from Barry’s drone footage:
