Colter's Creek, Juliaetta, Idaho

Liza, Maddie, and I traveled down to Juliaetta, Idaho for a few days with Beth and Mike. Melissa and her husband (also Mike) own Coulter's Creek winery. It's a family run winery that means business. It was fascinating to go and see just the tip of the iceberg of this huge operation. I was really in awe of the scale of the whole thing.

Buty what makes it really cool is how tied-in the Sandborn parents are with the essential running of the place. Wes is in heaven: working all the time, driving tractors, fixing big equipment, mowing giant fields, etc. Carol moves through the background in that Midwestern way: quietly (but fiercely) efficient in keeping the multiple houses in order, assuring a steady supply of excellent food, watching the baby, assisting with the front of the house in the tasting room, and no doubt, a bunch of other stuff.

They all work super hard, but it's clear they all value each other's respective roles and contributions and that they're all 100% in on the operation without qualification.

It was impressive and inspiring to watch them all do their things. They have this characteristic that I find very attractive. I've seen it with many people that build their own stuff: they often have a purposeful worldview -- they must build a thing. The permanence of the endeavor is pure to me. And I really admire it when a group of people work together to build a thing in such a singularly-focused way.

Juliaetta is down the road from Lewiston. It's  really hot little region there. Rattlesnakes are fairly common. This guy was curled up outside our house on the second night we were there.

Maddie has been taking tae kwon do from Beth.  They paused on a nighttime stroll to strike a pose.

Beth gets all juiced up on adrenaline by capturing angry roosters. This was a great thing to watch. Click for big: the rooster is all hackled up here. It was pissed. And serious about messing Beth up.

But she caught it and calmed it.

Mike and Melissa's house has a design that resembles a truss-style bridge. Aside from being super smart in lay-out and in its energy efficiency for the extreme seasons of the region, it fits really well with landscape. It cantilevers over the river and visually just belongs there.

The guest house is down the road a bit. It's got an amazing deck that shoots out over the river too. No picture of that.

This is the Colter's Creek tasting room in the town of Juliaetta. The night we were there it was pizza night. Mike bakes all the pizza on a Big Green Egg, which works amazingly well and is surprisingly production-friendly. Since it was "pizza" night, he was able to turn out about 30 pizzas in an hour and a half... I don't have a picture of Mike, but he's a super intriguing dude. The Green Egg pizza solution might be a good indication of how he approaches problem solving. I'd like to know him better. Given his schedule, I only had the opportunity to have a couple brief conversations with him.

Carol, Melissa, Faye...  a quick pose before popping back up and seeing to guests.

Wes and me: sharing a moment. Our family's have known and hung with each other since I was about 9 years old. I get to kiss Wes for that.

The winery at the confluence of the Potlatch and Clearwater rivers. This is the Clearwater. Super cold and wonderful. Mike and Melissa had just recently purchased the chunk of land and house that abuts this piece of river. They're looking to plant more vines down there.

The winery is full-on. Many barrels in this temp/humidity-controlled room are waiting it out. 

We spent a couple hours one morning planting new grape vines. We planted a bit over 300 vines in about 2 hours. Hard work. I'd like to go down for a longer chunk of work when crushing happens. I'm guessing doing small chunks of work down there won't do much to temper my romantic vision of the operation... but I'm curious...

Here are some of the guys that work in the vineyard and winery: they're watching Beth do her rooster catching. They seemed impressed.

Maddie vacation: Day 4

South Beach to Lyre River

Ruby Beach, WA. Ridiculous at low tide. So cool.
Maddie climbed up this rock easy-peasy. Climbing down: not so easy.

We went up to Neah Bay and went through the Makah museum. Then we stopped on this beach and hung for an hour or so.

We camped at a DNR site called Lyre River. We fished a bit. I caught the tiniest fish I've ever caught. 

See that rock? See that kid? That kid fell off that rock into the river about 20 minutes after I took this picture. It was freaky, but she lived.

Maddie vacation: Day 3

Seaside, OR to South Beach, Kalaloch, WA.

Clam digging in Seaside. It's so cool to see all the families out there early on a Sunday morning... taking care of business.

Bridge from Astoria to Washington State.

Fort Columbia.

We stopped in the Willapa Bay area and bought a bunch of oysters from Goose Point. The guys that harvest the oysters were just getting off shift. I chatted with a guy for a few minutes and he pulled these two out of his pocket. They are Olympia oysters. The oysters that people generally associate with Willapa Bay are Pacific oysters. He loves the Olympias. They were good. Metallic sort of.

Goose Point sold shooters. The oysters in the shooters were pretty big. Too big for Maddie, who usually shoots the small ones happily.

South Beach, Kalaloch, WA.
Kalaloch is little section of the Olympic National Forest on the coast. There's a Kalaloch Resort and a mega Kalaloch campground. South of that stuff is a little camping area called "South Beach." Highly recommended.

I think it would be cool to go to Olympic National Forest with a proper camper, some bikes, and a small boat for a few weeks. There's rain forest, there's ocean, there's lake, there's trails, there's mountain. 

That little dot is Maddie.

We played shuffle board on the picnic table after dinner. I schooled her. The next morning she schooled me.

That's the camp site. There's bathrooms with flush toilets. But no potable water. Perfect.

Maddie vacation: Day 2

Netart Bay, OR. Saturday morning and families galore are out there at 8 AM clamming. So cool. Maddie and I crept around the edges of family clam digging to listen to the work-a-day chatter and periodic celebrations of newbies: "I got one!"

Netart, OR. Aside from the surfers in wet suits, Maddie was the only one in the water in all of the beaches we hit today. I got in up to my waist, but went numb and stayed out the rest of the day.

She's not making water. 

Sea carrot.

Hug Point, OR. Rad spot. I remember going here with Liza in pre-Maddie days. 

Tide was low. Lots of anemones to disturb.

"Bare necessities, the simple bear necessities..."

We ended up in Seaside, OR tonight. The plan was to go to the beach and hang... just watch the tide go out. 

Maddie had to get in. Of course.

I read. She played. It's really not that complicated.

And a healthy dinner.

Maddie vacation -- Day 1

Spokane to Tillamook.

Lots of driving.

Tomorrow: beach.

Rufus, OR. Windy.

One of my favorites: Double Mountain Brewery, Hood River, OR

Hood River #1

Hooe River #2