Miss me?  I spent the last few days on the “other side” of the Cascades.  On the off-chance that I might someday have  a reader who doesn’t know me or Washington state, there’s western Washington (everything west of the mountains) and eastern Washington (everything east – duh).  We are lucky enough to have several good friends that live in Wenatchee, about 2 1/2 hours east of Seattle.  I’d been invited by a Wenatchee native who now lives in Seattle to go east for her birthday weekend and meet up with some friends in Chelan, which is about 30-40 minutes north-ish of Wenatchee, and prime wine country.

I went to college in Ellensburg where the landscape is similar to this, maybe with a few more trees.  The skies are wide open and there ‘s not much green.  We stayed at Campbell’s Resort, which has been there for a million years.  The view upon arrival did not suck.

The purpose for our visit (besides celebrating Danielle’s birthday) was to visit some local wineries.  And taste. It doesn’t look like much now, but these will be wine someday.

Look at that sky!  It was crystal clear.  Also freezing.  This was on the Manson side of Lake Chelan – I couldn’t tell you which winery.  It wasn’t all tasting of wine – we also had a raging need for a cheeseburger, so we trekked off even higher into the hinterlands to Blueberry Hills for some eats. Seriously.  You don’t just happen upon this place.  It’s on the way to nowhere.  BUT once you get there – prepare yourselves, people.  Not only is the food great, there is STUFF.

There are fishing lures, rolls of wrapping papers, antlers, ribbon, and lord knows what else in the amazing light.  My photos do not do it justice.

And that’s just a start.  Our table had a sheet of glass covering trays with little slots full of all manner of THINGS.  36 rattlesnakes tails.  Tic Tacs. Clips. Perm rods.  COLOR COORDINATED.

As we were oohing and awing over this collection, the owner came over and explained that ALL THIS STUFF came out of her grandfather’s shed!  She arranged it all in this table.  She also did that spectacular light above our table and….

The last little bit of genius was what she did with her father and grandfather’s marbles.  Check it.

This was another light fixture. She glued them onto a glass sheet from what we could tell so it was a flat rectangle.  So cool.  We complimented her creativity and asked where she came up with this stuff and she said “Well, I drink”.  She’s currently working on a plan for hundreds of keys – we’ll have to go back to see what she’s come up with.  Also, to get some of their fabulous homemade pie.

One of my favorite things about little towns are the hardware/variety stores.  Chelan has one of the best. You can get any damn thing there. Swimsuits, wine glasses, the usual touristy crap and…

There was an ENTIRE wall of these and it was the highlighted item on their sign outside.  One does wonder who has this many coins to wrap.  Isn’t that what Coinstar is for?  I guess if you live in Chelan you have plenty of time to wrap coins.

Mainly, it’s the views that occupied my time.  I don’t know what kind of tree this is but the yellow color was amazing.

It was lovely to spend some quality time with some of my favorite women.  Looking forward to camping season and sharing more great views and wine with them.