Last night, we ate at a restaurant that promised Tex-Mex food, but it wasn’t, but it was delicious anyway.

That about sums up the whole day today, in which we had an all-day tour billed as a wine tasting tour. We thought we understood what that would entail - we’ve done these things before, after all. Hop in a bus, travel to five or six different wineries with tasting rooms, head home.

Imagine our surprise, then, when guide Mark explained that we’d be visiting three wineries, one of those would actually be a lunch stop, and then we’d see a waterfall and a candy factory. Um… ok, whatever.

We had about a 40 minute drive out to the first place, Goose Ridge winery. It’s not in a vineyard, but in a strip centre with six other wine tasting places.

Mark (the guide, in the black shirt and hat) led us into the tasting room, which was really nice.

The wines were very good - in fact, we liked all but one of the five we tried. Alas, they don’t ship to Canada and we can’t take it on the ship without paying $20/bottle fee, so all their lovely wines stayed in their lovely tasting room.

We went next door to the Airfield winery and had lunch. French dip sammich was pretty good and the ships were (I think) homemade.

The other tasting was at Chateau Ste Michelle. The grounds were really nicely done.

The setup here isn’t a “tasting” like we had a Goose Ridge, but rather a flight of four wines, which we could pick from a list. They put the four on a fun little tree that you could then carry around with you while you enjoyed the grounds.

Hate to say it, but the wines were pretty crappy. I think we both left most of the wine in glasses 1, 2, and 3. Ah, well. After strolling the grounds for a bit more, it was time to get back on the bus for a surprise stop - and one that made me really happy!

We pulled off the road at Snoqualmie Falls and if you don’t know that by name, you might recognize it by the image:

Sadly, it was raining when we got there and there was heavy mist coming off the falls, so you can just barely see the Salish Inn at the top of the falls there… but if you could and the weather was better, it would look like this iconic shot:

Yes, it’s the Great Northern Hotel from the 1990s television series Twin Peaks.

While it was kind of a bummer that this was the only stop on the whole tour where we got rain, so the pics I took were not great, I was there and I saw it and that’s the main thing. I’ve been a “Peaks Freak” since 1990 when it originally aired and I was pretty stoked to finally see the falls in person. Got a Great Northern t-shirt and a key tag for room 315 at the gift shop. (And of course the reverse side of the tag says CLEAN PLACE REASONABLY PRICED.)
If you know, you know.

On our last trip through this area, we stumbled upon “Norma’s Double-R Diner” and had a slice of cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee. Didn’t have time to see the falls then, though. OK, back to present day.

Leaving the falls, we stopped at Boehm’s chocolate factory for a quick tour through the kitchens. It was interesting, seeing how these treats are made.

The gift shop was really cute as well. We picked up some peanut brittle, a pice of English toffee, and a stick of vanilla caramel infused with chilli oil. Honestly, I can’t taste the chilli at all, but the caramel is delicious, so it doesn’t matter.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel. We were both tired, so we just headed across the street to the pub, where Rob had corned beef and cabbage and I had the chorizo burger again.

Fun day. Tomorrow, it’s all aboard the ship!

OOH! Almost forgot: I won the trivia contest on the tour bus, and my prize was a funky oven mitt with a wine motif:

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