Priest Lake/Prosser

View from the dock at Diane and Dave's house on Priest Lake

When we saw my sister Diane at Mickey and Allie's wedding in February, she invited us up to Northern Idaho for a visit. We originally planned for a week in early July. That didn't work because of a family issue so we had to switch. Our only option was to swap timeslots with the trip that Sandy and I had planned to the Washington Cascades. Fortunately we were able to switch the hotel dates. That was the easy part. We were also going to meet our friend Mary Beth in Prosser on the way home from Mt. Rainier to so some wine tasting. That didn't seem to be feasible anymore. Surprisingly, it turns out that the fastest way to get home from Northern Idaho is actually to go through the Tri Cities in Washington. I didn't think that was obvious at all. It turned out that going to Prosser only added an extra twenty miles, so with an early start we could be in Prosser for lunch. We were all set for the last week in July.

Happy Hour on the patio

Driving the longer but faster route up to Priest Lake was actually easier, as almost all of it was on interstate. The only exception was driving through Spokane on city streets, but we got there in the middle of the afternoon so it wasn't too bad. The direct route up ID 55 and US 95 is only two lanes and winds through mountains all the way. It's not really much fun to drive that.

This was the first time that I had been to Priest Lake. It's only thirty miles south of the Canadian border and is quite impressive. It's a big lake. Twenty miles long, it covers forty square miles and has a maximum depth of three hundred and sixty nine feet. The diver in me thought that the crystal clear water looked awfully inviting, but that's a little beyond the recreational dive limit. The lake sits at an elevation of twenty five hundred feet with the Selkirk Mountains rising above its western edge. There is dense forest all around the lake and much of the surrounding land is undeveloped. It's a beautiful place.

Looking up at Diane and Dave's house from their dock

Diane and Dave have a house on the east side of the lake, right on the water. It used to be a VRBO that they visited for several years. When they retired two years ago it came up for sale and they bought it as a summer house. It has multiple bedrooms (perfect for future family reunions) with a large patio looking out over the lake. Although it was hot in Boise, it was pleasantly cool at Priest Lake and we spent most afternoons sitting on their patio enjoying the view. I was definitely envious of their place, although listening to them, there is a lot of work maintaining two houses.

Besides my sister and her husband their two dogs were there, Morgan and Gort. I made friends with them right away. Morgan is a small dog and whenever I sat down she wanted to jump up and sit on my lap. Gort was just a friendly, good-natured dog. Even with two dogs, there was a lot less barking than Abby does all by herself at our house. Both Morgan and Gort were pretty calm.

Morgan surveys her domain

And yes, I did say "Klaatu barada nikto" to Gort. No response. Very disappointing.

While we were there we watched three Brewer games. They were playing the Reds and were in a virtual tie with them for first place. They won the first game 3-2, lost the second 4-3 and won the third 3-0, so all were exciting games. Dave is a Brewer fan from when he lived in Milwaukee. He tried MLB.TV a few years ago but thought it was too glitchy. After this week though I think he was a convert. Diane was figuring out how to subscribe as we were leaving.

To cap off our baseball activites for the trip, we watched Major League the last night that we were there. "Juuuuuuuuust a bit outside!"

After our three days at Priest Lake, we left for Prosser to meet up with Mary Beth. We got an early start so we would have plenty of time for wine tasting when we got there. Unfortunately, five minutes after leaving we were stopped by a work crew and had to wait while they oiled the road. It wasn't too bad - the delay was only fifteen minutes. Still, I'm not a morning person and I was really proud that I had gotten up bright and early. It just goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished.

Gort keeps an eye on me

After our delay we made good time and met Mary Beth at The Prosser House for lunch. They had a nice shady patio that was very pleasant. I had a marguerita pizza. Unfortunately they poured balsamic vinegar all over it. I know lots of people like it on their salads but I'm not a fan. I scraped most of it off but the flavor was still very strong. It didn't replace Idaho Pizza Company as my favorite pizza place.

After lunch we did some serious wine tasting. Our first stop was our favorite Prosser winery, Thurston Wolfe. They have a Pinot Gris/Viognier blend (PGV) that we really like as well as an Alborino that is very good. We bought our first case there. We followed with stops at Wit Cellars and 14 Hands Winery. By the time we were done we had four cases of wine for the three of us. A pretty good haul.

We stayed overnight at Desert Wind Winery, which has a B&B attached. A complimentary glass of their wine was included when we checked in. It was a good finish to a fun afternoon. The only down side was that it was too hot to leave the wine in the car. I had to carry all four cases up a flight of stairs to our room and then haul them back out to the car in the morning. Hard work, but it was worth it to get a lot of good wine home.

The trip home was uneventful. As always, Abby was glad to see us when we got home.