"Oh Yakima, The Beautiful..."

Yakima is an interesting place. There is beautiful wine country snuggled up against the fireworks stands on the Yakima Indian Reservation. There are estate wineries right up the road from desperate poverty. There are abandoned buildings right next to new housing developments. There are yards littered with dozens of scrap automobiles and old tires. There is a renaissance going on in down town with tasting rooms, gourmet restaurants, and art galleries. A block away the billboards are in Spanish and there is nothing but taquerias. And of course there is the restaurant with the throw back sign from the 40s, complete with a huge man pointing a gun in the sky! We were referred to said restaurant by our friend Dana and the food was actually quite good!

Funny story though – before dinner we were wine tasting and there was a guy who asked where we were going for dinner. He then boldly and loudly informed us, “DON’T YOU ALL EXPECT TO GET ANY CIGARS AT THAT RESTURANT, THE LIBERALS TOOK THEM AWAY. AND THEM LIBERALS IS GONNA TAKE AWAY OUR GUNS NEXT. YOU WAIT. YOU’LL SEE”! I was so proud of Stevie. She smiled and politely turned around and ignored the man. For those of you who know Stevie, that was nothing short of a miracle!

Today we’re hanging out at Dana’s and waiting for our friend Chris to arrive. Tonight we’ll hit the downtown scene and see if Stevie can’t stir up some political talk! Should be fun. TREE