Day 39, Wednesday April 8th: A Very Scenic Drive

 Wednesday we woke to another beautiful morning in Seattle. 

Fred and Jack

Katie had long left for work by the time we got up, and we said our good byes to Jack around 09:00. Jack and Katie have a beautiful home. 

Jack made some suggestions of stops in Seattle we should make, but we decided to save them for a next time. 

Space Needle

We chose to depart Seattle via I5 south rather than take the 'worlds largest floating bridge' which spans Lake Washington. This route gives nice views of downtown Seattle including the famous Space Needle. Again we will leave this for a future visit. 

Snoqualmie Falls

We did make a quick stop at Snoqualmie Falls. We got a little moist in the falls mist but nothing like what we experienced in Yosemite.  You can just view the falls or hike to the bottom and back.

Our next planned stop is in Idaho, but we have been debating dropping down into Nevada since we skipped Nevada on the way out, so we took a southern route out of Washington and into Oregon. 

We did not take many pictures but we were in awe during the entire drive, the scenery of distant white mountains, lush high prairie and green mountain passes were all very scenic.  Once we got off I90 onto I84 the traffic was light and the roads excellent, what a very nice drive. 

Crossing the Columbia River

We crossed the Columbia River into Oregon on I82. I thought it was interesting that they had two very different bridges depending upon if you were going north or south. 

When we stopped for lunch I booked a Harvest Host, Copper Belt Winery, for the evening in Baker City, Oregon.  Copper Belt Winery is about 20 miles off I82 and as we made our way to the Winery, we saw several Historical Oregon Trail Markers. It is interesting to think of the Chuck Wagons crossing this prairie. We drove by the National Park Service National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and may stop there on the way out tomorrow.  

We arrived at our HH around 19:00, they closed at 18:00 but said we could arrive after hours. We were met by Mike, the owners' father who was still working, it seems he has a similar retirement to mine. 

Copper Belt Brewery

The place is beautiful.

Mike at Copper Belt Winery

Mike treated us to a tasting, had some wine with us and gave us a bit of the history on the property. The property was owned by his great grandfather who had a gold mine on the property. Mike is the fourth generation, his son, Travis, runs the Winery so it is staying in the family; it is a feel good story. He talked about how the State of Oregon almost put them out of business during covid since they cut off all his sales channels. He said that the Harvest Host business kept the business afloat, so they are very accommodating to Harvest Host customers. 

Copper Belt Winery

After the tasting, we bought a bottle of wine and Mike sent us out to the RV with a complementary glass of wine; he even said keep the glass, but they are a bit large for the RV. 

We would highly recommend this Harvest Host, they could not be more friendly. 

Thursday we will drop into Nevada before making our way to Idaho.