The Grappa Life!
My wife and I had a great Northwest experience this weekend; we went camping here in Washington during the Memorial holiday. If you live in Washington, then you have an idea of what that entails: State campgrounds full of families, RV’s, tents covered with large blue tarps, smokey fire pits and soggy ground. This Memorial Day Weekend was no exception but despite the rainy weather, everyone was making the absolute best of it.
Gerry and I spent the weekend in a Yurt at Kanaskat-Palmer State Park outside of the Mount Rainer National Park area. We are avid outdoor-folk but this weekend was a whim; we decided to make our outdoor escape only a week before the holiday weekend. We were fortunate to find campsite that late in the game and extremely fortunate to end up in a Yurt.
Now, if you’ve never been in a yurt, it’s an experience. They seem to be cropping up as warming huts and gathering places in local Northwest ski areas over the past few years. Washington State Parks began putting them in as alternative accommodations a while back and they’ve been well received. The yurt is the traditional nomadic dwelling of the herders of Mongolia and are still in use today because they are light, efficient and easily maintainable. It was our first experience in one.
Frankly, we couldn’t have asked for more for our first campout of the season. Gerry and I are experienced tent campers and owned a small trailer for a year but the yurt was perfect! Once we pulled in on Friday evening, we were greeted by a cozy circular canvass dwelling with a snug little front porch planted right on the edge of the campsite. The 16′ in diameter structure was roomy enough for a small couch, a queen size bed and a small table. We even had electricity and heat!
We unloaded the truck and then unloaded our worries as we cozied up on the couch to the sound of rain on our canvass roof and center-skylight over head. We chatted the evening away and enjoyed a few drinks of our latest experimental Grappa – our west coast whiskey – together. We were finally getting a chance to reconnect with each other and reconnect with ourselves.
We spent the rest of the weekend either reading and talking or taking long walks through the woods behind our site. On Saturday morning, we awoke late, made breakfast and cowboy coffee and suited up. The rain was, of course, coming down on this beautiful wet Washington morning so we dressed in rain hats, gloves, rain coats, gaiters, boots and warm cups of caffe corretto (coffee with a dash of Grappa) in hand!
We wandered the woods for a couple of hours with Tehya – the adventure dog – and made our way down to the Green River. With each other to keep us company and our hot drinks to keep us warm, we made memories as we trekked through single-track trail lined by ferns and salal brush. The Salmon berries were bursting from their wild vines and moss clung to every low surface. It was green and wet and absolutely beautiful. It was a perfect Northwest weekend.
We all here at Soft Tail Spirits hope that your Memorial Day Weekend was as wonderful and safe as all of ours. Here’s to a great summer!
Cheers!
plowline
stilljunkie
Awesome stuff! I camped at Mt. Rainier in the rain this weekend. They don’t have any yerts out there
It was a wet one but the Quarter Dome kept me dry all night. Glad to hear your having fun.
Great post Jeremy! It made me want to go camping (which I did not get to do because we had to move). Perhaps you and Jerry can come over to our new place for a drink sometime soon