98, 99, 100- Ready or Not, Here We Come!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, or if you’ve been anywhere within earshot of any of our family for the past nine months or so, you know that our youngest daughter Jennifer, aka Jo, is getting married this coming July. As part of the pre-wedding hoopla, Jo decided to have her bachelorette party as a tour of Washington Wine Country. I thought bachelor and bachelorette parties happened the night before the wedding and involved embarassing hired help, but apparently the times and the customs; they have changed.

Therefore in the spirit of due diligence, and in fairness to any unsuspecting wineries out there, here is fair warning of the proposed itinerary. We have notified some of these people ahead of time by e-mail or voice during our recent tours, but if any one of these (wisely) close their doors, any other wineries or party-like establishment near this path could be added to the list. The name of the journey will have meaning to some. I’ll add that Barb wrote this, so this is her first guest appearance as a Yak Yak blogger (Thanks honey!) Here it is:

P A N G A N I B A N

Portland And Nearby Glamorous Areas Nuptial Initiation Bash And Nightcrawl  – April 8, 2010 – April 11,2010

Thursday – arrive at Portland Airport at 7:10 pm. You will be greeted by DaddyYakYak, your Sommelier/Designated Driver/Tour Guide/Chaperone and be transported to the hotel in a Bandago Dodge Sprinter motor van (aka the PanganiVan) featuring comfortable seating for 9, Xbox 360 gaming system, LCD Video entertainment, WI-FI access, and surround sound stereo with individual wireless headphones. We will check into The Sheraton near the airport, change into your fancy duds and have dinner at one of the excellent restaurants in Portland (bride’s choice). After dinner, we will drop you at any of the clubs in Portland (Jo has the links, her picks). The old folks will nap in the van as we are way too old to go clubbing. We hope to get you back to the hotel by 1 am as we need to be up and ready to go by 9 am on Friday.

Friday – up and in the PanganiVan by 9 am! You can grab a cup of coffee to go in the lobby if needed and I will provide muffins, juice, and yogurt in the van to eat on the way so you can squeeze out every last second of sleep. We will drive from Portland up the Columbia River Gorge (don’t forget your cameras, it’s a gorgeous drive) to Cascade Cliffs, home of the Goat Head Red that will be served at the wedding. Jared will give us a tour of the winery, the vineyards, and of course pour us some wine to taste. They are also the tasting room for ‘Naked Winery’. (I will underline the places you can go to a website to check out if you are a planner or care) We will then stop at Maryhill Winery (you can buy their wines at some stores in the Midwest, we have bought it at The Decanter in Decatur) and then Columbia Crest (one of, if not the largest in Washington, it’s available in stores everywhere) where we will have a picnic lunch on the patio.

Lunch will consist of antipasto trays of cheeses, salami, crackers, artichoke hearts, peppers, pepperocinis, carrots, cukes, pickles, nuts, perhaps an avocado or two and some sliced fruits. Cookies for dessert. Oh, and water, you’ll need to drink plenty of water!

From Columbia Crest we will head across Horse Heaven to the town of Prosser where we will stop at Alexandria Nicole, home of the Quarry Butte that will be served at the wedding. Then to VineHeart (where the Riesling grapes came from for their wedding wine) and onto Red Mountain where we will stop at Fidelitas and Terra Blanca. Trust us when we say that will be plenty of wine tasting for the day.

We’ll head back to our house where we will have dinner. And of course, more wine! We will make bow tie veggie pasta with a creamy wine cheese sauce. Meat options are grilled shrimps, grilled chicken, or grilled portabella mushroom (just let me know who wants/prefers what as we’ll cook all 3 options). We’ll also have a green salad, bread, and dipping oils. For dessert, Tiramisu.

You can eat, drink, laugh, watch movies, drink, tell stories, laugh, drink whatever til whenever, just be ready to be up and moving again by about 9am Saturday.

Saturday – Waffle Bar for breakfast from 9 am – 10am. Waffles, fruits, homemade jams, syrups, milk, juice, coffee. We will hit the wine trail by 10am. Our first stop will be Steppe Cellars, home of the Gewurztraminer that will be served at the wedding. Then, off to Two Mountain (their Riesling is almost as good as what we made for the wedding!) and Severino, home to one of the red blends that will also be served at the wedding.

We will have lunch on the patio at Severino – ham/turkey/veggie wraps with Gardetto mix, pickles, and some fruit something. I will mix and match the wraps and will keep the veggie ones separate. Please let me know if you hate or can’t/won’t eat cream cheese, avocado, red/yellow peppers, humus, or normal stuff that I would put in a wrap.

After lunch, we will head to Prosser Vintner’s Village where there are 12 or so wineries within walking distance of each other. We will make 2 special stops on the way – one for dessert, and one as a surprise for Jo. You may want to buy something at the surprise stop – email me if you are curious and can keep a secret. At Vintner’s Village, we recommend Maison Bleue, Milbrandt (home of the Chenin Blanc that will be served), Gamache, and Thurston Wolfe (nice dessert wines) but all the places serve good vino. We won’t head home ‘til you guys are done (and some of you will be over done and really baked by this point).

For Saturday’s dinner I need you guys to decide if you’d rather have Taco Bar (meat, beans, chips, lettuce, guacamole, salsa, tortillas, onions, olives, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, cilantro, etc…) or Shish-ka-Bobs and rice. If you choose shish-ka-bobs we would do red/yellow peppers, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and then could do either pears, apples, smoked sausage and Merlot sauce or the veggies with meat options of steak, shrimp, chicken, and of course we’d grill Portabellas for the Veggies. So, really 3 choices, pick one as a group – taco bar, shiskas with fruit and merlot sauce, or the 3 meat trio with veggies probably in an Italian marinade. Whatever option you choose, we think a Sundae bar will be fun for dessert – with dessert wine, of course.

Saturday night you can eat, drink, and be merry as late as you want but remember, we have to be in the PanganiVan heading back to Portland by 5am – sorry, it’s a long drive.

Sunday Morning, you can sleep in the van and then again on the plane! We’ll eat breakfast on the way. Back to PDX by 8 am to catch flights away from wine heaven.

A few things to consider –

 · Please remember to use the restrooms at the wineries. We will be going from BFE to Western BFE with not a lot of potty options in between. Sagebrush is very rough on the bottom.

· Drink plenty of water in between wineries and eat snacks too. This really helps from getting plastered so fast.

· Also, it is totally ok to spit or pour out wine you don’t really care for, skip a wine you don’t want and/or so you don’t drink too much too soon. Believe me, we will be visiting enough wineries each day that soberness will not be an issue.

· Dress very casual (except for the Portland dinner). Part of what we love about this area is that it’s a Birkenstock and jeans kinda place, no matter where you go.

 · Most of the wineries offer 2-3 white wines and 3-5 red wines, some more, some less. For example, Severino and Maison Bleue are on the low end, but Columbia Crest or Maryhill will have up to 30 or more different wines for sale and 10-12 available for tasting on any given day (see the note above; you don’t have to taste them all!)

 · If you want to buy wine, white wines are typically $10-$15 per bottle, $20 on the high end. Reds start at $10 and can go as high as $50 with every price point in between. Some really good wines are at all ends of the price range. It’s really about what you like!

 · You might want to bring an extra suitcase for any wine purchases and ask Jo for those packing eggshell thingies they have. That way you will know if they fit in your suitcase and how many bottles you can buy.

· You can have also the wineries ship home to you, but it’s expensive, like $25 for 2–3 bottles so you may as well pay Alaska to check the second bag. Or, just plan on wearing the same clothes all weekend to save room for the wine you buy!

We are really looking forward to helping make Jo’s last bash a blast. We will stay sober (during the daytime) to supervise and ensure that no one gets lost or ends up in the men’s restroom and that everyone gets back on the plane Sunday morning!