Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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WALLA WALLA - Imagine enjoying an afternoon tea in Victorian elegance without traveling to England or British Columbia. You can do so on Sunday, May 4, when Walla Walla's Kirkman House Museum hosts its annual Victorian tea. What is afternoon tea? It is a culinary custom that arose in Britain in the early nineteenth century. Sharing a snack and a pot of tea helped Britons endure the long interval between lunch and dinner, which in those days was eaten late, often eight or nine hours after the...
I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Florida for my uncle's 90th birthday. As usual, at the drop of the word party, our family convened from all over. A few of us stayed at a hotel with a huge courtyard and pool, and we invited everyone for a swim after Sunday's birthday brunch. It was great to spend time with my family poolside. The two to ten–year–olds were loaded with every pool toy imaginable. The 20 to 40-year-olds had fancy water bottles and an abundance of patience to exhaust the you...
While the fires in Los Angeles were raging, I texted my friends who had visited me last fall to let them know Walla Walla was sending some firefighters to the inferno that Los Angeles had become. Thanking me, they asked if I would throw some bottles of wine in the firetruck for them. Unfortunately, that was not an option. Knowing that they enjoyed our wine-tasting adventures when they visited, I sent each of them a bottle of wine to help them cope with their smokey, evacuation yoyo life. Of...
Recently, friends invited me to join them at a snowshoe event hosted by the Blue Mountain Land Trust at the Horseshoe Prairie Nordic Ski Area near Tollgate, Oregon. I've never snowshoed before. The event organizers said they would provide snowshoes and snacks. They had me at snacks. My friends are two of the most active and well-traveled people I know. This year marked their record of visiting all seven continents. I'm impressed and a little jealous. They always find adventure on their trips;...
I am heartbroken watching the fires burn in Los Angeles. I don’t have one friend or family member who has not been affected, from those who have lost their homes to those who have been on edge from evacuation orders in place, which were rescinded and then ordered again. Some have evacuated, others have their cars packed and ready. The house we owned is in a hole at the center of the fires, like the eye of a hurricane. The Palisades and Malibu fires are to the west, the Kenneth fire to the north,...
Six years and counting. I think I’m a bit of an outlier; I am not a big Wicked fan. But a lyric keeps playing in my head, “Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better? But because I knew you, I have been changed for good.” And that is how I feel about my move here. I happily say, “I have no regrets.” That being said, I recently drove to Tri-cities to have heels put on two pairs of shoes. When I lived in Los Angeles, this was a five-minute walk to my neighborhood shoemaker. I never paid...
First, after making twenty typos typing the title and first sentence, I am thankful for spell check. My fingers are stiff from the cold weather, and although I can spell, my fingers are less than agile. I am thankful for our wonderful neighbors who invited Daniel and me to spend Thanksgiving with them. We had planned on dining alone on Cornish game hens, with Mugsy waiting under my chair for a spill or leftovers. Instead, eight friends gathered, ate great food and had a lot of laughs and great...
I thought tennis was frustrating, but I think knitting is beginning to frustrate me more. Last week, I dug through bags within bags looking for my knitting needles. I opened the storage ottoman and unleashed a tangled mess of yarn skeins. It was a cacophony of colors and textures. I gave up all the overly ambitious patterns and dumped random knitting tools that have no function from what I can tell. The guest room bed is covered with yarn organized by color, needles, crochet hooks, and a...
Song lyrics often provide an accurate mood determinant for me. The lyric running through my head now, “Seasons change and so did I,” from the song “No Time” by the band The Guess Who. Fall is quickly turning to winter, and I am feeling (and maybe dreading) the changes, some of which could be good. But mostly, I keep asking, is it spring yet? The roads will soon be treacherous, with fog rolling in and snow, ice, and icy fog following. Driving to tennis games in Walla Walla and Costco runs wi...
I just finished the last of my three-day tennis camp sessions at Whitman College for 2024. Determined to improve my game, I stubbornly remained on the court through a barrage of hits and misses, peppered with lots of laughs, frustration, and exhaustion. At least I had no injuries until the last day of the previous camp. With no one to blame but myself, I missed a shot and whacked my lip with the racquet. I had no lost teeth, but I woke up with a black and blue lip. I started the first camp with a miserable backache due to the new mattress we...
My friends scheduled to visit a few months ago finally made it-no more COVID-19 or work delays. To say we hit the ground running is an understatement. We may have surpassed Henry VIII in gluttony and alcohol consumption over the weekend. They booked the brutal 7 a.m. flight out of Burbank (California,), so obviously, they were bleary-eyed when they boarded for Seattle. While in the Seattle airport connecting to Walla Walla, John ran into a shop, and his phone's magnetic wallet became detached....
We are family, and we have the hats to prove it. In a former column, I wrote about our blended family, which is rapidly expanding, with babies and significant others. Our family's philosophy is "the more the merrier," which makes our family reunions more fun but more than a little confusing for the newbies to figure out the family tree. It's been great to meet new babies and the new serious relationships that appear promising. We're not pressuring you, but we did spend time discussing movies...
At this year’s Pioneer Festival in Waitsburg, Lane Gwinn introduced me to Kari Isaacson. Lane mentioned that I write for “The Times,” and I added that I write what could be called an aspiring Erma Bombeck column. Kari immediately piped in with “The Grass is Always Greener over the Septic Tank,” one of Erma Bombeck’s classic lines and the title of one of her many books. The mention of septic tanks brought back teenage memories of living on Long Island, New York, in a 1953 Levitt house. Which, of course, had a septic tank. It seemed monthly tha...
Last spring, when Daniel was working as a private chef in Europe, I defied his command and purchased a new lawn mower. I went with a battery-operated model, then gave away our smelly, hard-to-pull-start gas mower. Along with the mower, I was sucked into the “package deal,” which included a weed whacker, and an extra battery for the mower, fortuitously a stroke of luck. For some unknown reason, one of the batteries was faulty, and it died. Or so I thought. My maintenance philosophy drives Dan...
I wrote a column a few months ago about recognizing the seasons by the bugs that show up, but in retrospect, I’m not sure that is the best determinant. I’ve seen my share of bees and hoverflies this summer, but not like the swarms of past summers. It also seems that ladybugs are in short supply this year. I did need to thwart a minor invasion of squash bugs using an organic spray and marigolds planted throughout the garden. Thankfully, we haven’t had a bumper crop of summer squash, aka zucch...
I went to a garden party, and to my surprise, I saw a face that was familiar but out of context. Then it hit me, "I know you from tennis." First, I thought, "What are you doing here," but asked more politely, "How do you know this group?" It turns out that her husband is a guitarist in the host's band, and they are long-time friends. It was another connection in this cool web of the Waitsburg, Walla Walla, Dayton small-town labyrinth of friends. And, not that I would have anything bad to say,...
I have been thinking about getting an electric vehicle for quite a while, and the Ford F-150 4x4 Lightning was at the top of my list. I was unsure whether the yea-sayers and the nay-sayers were giving me the correct information to inform me in making the purchase. I liked the idea of no longer burning dinosaur juice to get back and forth to work, but the tried and true system of filling up at the pump made me hesitant to change my ways. On a recent trip to San Jose, California, I discovered...
Yes, we had visitors, just not the visitors we expected. At the last minute, a friend in the group that was going to visit last week came down with COVID-19, and their trip had to be rescheduled. The Zoom meeting to coordinate a new time also had to be delayed. Evidently, he had a Paxlovid rebound and was still not feeling great. That’s when we had a fortuitous switcheroo. Daniel got a call from friends from Los Angeles who were heading to Walla Walla with their friends from Vancouver, W...
Waitsburg's inclusion in ArtWalla's First Weekend events has inspired me to get involved in the local art scene. Despite having a bachelor's degree in art history, I do not consider myself artistic (in the traditional sense) whatsoever. So, instead, I created a series called The Art of Mixology. We had our second session in the series last Saturday night; the subject was The Golden Ratio. What I know about art is that proportion is crucial to aesthetic expression. In bartending, that proportion...
I’m so excited. My friends, former clients, visited me and Daniel in Waitsburg last week. A few weeks ago, we had an extended laugh-a-thon Zoom meeting trying to figure out their flights and other travel logistics. The arrival time hadn’t sunk in for Vicki (yes, another Vicki) because she sent a text the night before the flight saying, “OMG, what were we thinking, getting to the airport at 6 a.m.?” The good news was that the early flight meant they didn’t have to fight traffic to the airport—u...
During the last few springs and summers, I dedicated much time and energy to our garden. I was also happy to have bought into the co-op garden in Walla Walla for tomatoes, corn, and peppers, but most of the time, we ate a good amount of produce from our garden. This year, I spent more time and energy on my tennis game than the garden, and now the consequences. My initial strategy for planting was the "random, no plan" method. I planted things helter-skelter with no rhyme or reason, except for my...
CRANBROOK, BC - To most of us Waitsburgers, when we call to mind the Columbia River, we think of the two-mile-wide body of water at Wallula Junction, also known as the McNary Reservoir, or the same one-mile-wide river that bisects the Tri-cities that we cross on our way to Costco. The fact that only 12 vehicle bridges cross the river between Richland, Wash. and Astoria, Ore., where it meets the mighty Pacific, demonstrates the enormity of the challenge of crossing such a river. However, walking...
Three and Done (for now). I recently completed my third week of tennis camp. Exhausted doesn’t begin to describe how I ache. But persevere, I have, and I’m sure the makers of Advil are celebrating my stubbornness and my dependence on their miracle drug. With all that time and money spent, you’d think I’d be scouted to play at Wimbledon, but nope. I am relegated to my usual but fun, regular games. And I am grateful that I can still play, have friends to play with, and have not been sidelin...
I just completed my first tennis camp session, and I'm not as fit as I thought (or hoped) I was. The camp started at one o'clock on Thursday afternoon, and I, being overly ambitious, decided to play a two-hour singles game before camp. I began camp a little "used up," but luckily, there was a break with snacks for a little energy boost. After camp ended in the afternoon, I met a friend for a quick dinner and went on to the tennis league games that started at six. To say I slept well that night...
Camp is not just for kids. It is for us tennis aficionados as well. Otherwise known as the overly ambitious, overly confident, ready for sunburns, exhaustion, and probably a good dose of tennis humility. The Whitman College tennis team coaches run three-weekend tennis and wine camps in the spring and another three in the fall. I will be a returning camper and plan on attending all of them as I am a glutton for punishment. The Tennis and Wine Camp is for adults and offers a full day of tennis...
