Albarino Tuesday Tastings for next 9 Weeks.

The next 9 Tuesdays I will be participating in a Albarino grape tasting sponsored by Wild for Washington Wines. This is an opportunity to learn so follow me at 6:00pm PST on Twitter michellestewart@pack5michelle. Should be fun and informative.

National Sibling Day!

"A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life." ― Isadora James

Thankful for my sisters. My only wish is that we could spend more time together. 

Fortunately with today's technology, even though we are miles apart, we are really just a click away from each other.

Extremely tired, first day on the job way out in the middle of no where. Something new for me because I have never worked in this type of environment before....so the jury is still out.

Also the crock pot garlic chicken was a total failure. Since it's summer may just put something on the grill and a salad for a quick meal.

A glass of A Chardonnay from Yakima Vinters and then to bed, early morning with son's surgery.

New career, new me

A longtime friend encouraged me write something every day, even if it was a short paragraph.  

As mentioned in an earlier post, I started back to work today full time. My schedule will be 4-10's with Friday off. I still plan on being at The Clore Center on the weekends so I am going to have to figure out how to manage my time efficiently. 

I want to eat better and work out as well so time management is crucial and I do tend to overbook myself. Creating a habit to establish a routine will be key in my success. Since I will be working too far out to eat out at lunch time, this will give me an opportunity to learn to eat smaller meals every two hours. So I am going to start with oatmeal in the morning then every two hours eating an apple, then some nuts, a peanut butter sandwich, an orange and end with a powerbar. The night before I will start a light meal in the crock pot for dinner. Tonight I put a honey garlic chicken together so that all I have to do in the morning is pull out of refrigerator and start the crock pot. I will let you know how it all turns out. 

Workouts will be a little bit harder, so since I do enough walking on the weekends at The Clore Center, my goal will be yoga on Wednesdays and hiking on Friday. My goal is to be down 25lbs before our camping trip on July 4th at Lost Lake in Oregon. I really can't wait to share photos of the scenery in Oregon. Hood Mountain is captivating. Not to mention since I moved up here I have always wanted to visit Timberline Lodge that the outside of the Shining was filmed. Yes, I know it is based on the Stanley Hotel in Colorado but the filming of the exterior shots was Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood.  

Well before I close just wanted to mention that Oregon is also known for its Pinot noirs and Pinot Gris which are great summer wines. Of course a visit to the Naked Winery will be a must, to be continued July 5th.

Reading my post again before publishing, my conclusion is that I am going to have to learn not to speak in the first person so much.... hope to improve but not tonight, EXHAUSTED and 4:30 comes early.

"If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade." Tom Peters

Cheers to me! Another opportunity has come my way, so that means I will officially be back to work full time tomorrow. It's been almost 17 months, yikes. Wish I had more time to change my sleeping habits.

No worries I am not giving up my weekends at The Clore Center. There is too much to learn and I enjoy every minute I am there.

Tonight I went to a motivation presentation called "Power to Wow" by Kristine Bono, Tasting Room Manager at Goose Ridge Estate Winery. It was superb and reminded me of why hospitality is so important. One of my first tasting experiences in Washington was with her at Alexander Nicole, she impressed me then and again tonight.

Background picture.....

The background of my blog is Diablo Lake. I took the picture when driving through the North Cascade mountains back in 2015. The water is truly turquoise, attributed to the surrounding glaciers that grind rocks into a fine powder carried into the lake through creeks. Unfortunately, a couple of months after that picture was taken there were severe fires on the east side of the loop extending through central WA. Last year was the worst fire season in state history. They contributed it to the blob (a fixed pool of warm water that’s been shape-shifting throughout the last couple of years off the Pacific Coast) and of course El Nino. Hope to go back soon in order to share some updated photos.

In order to be consistent with my theme I wanted to share what I learned about wine this weekend. Have you heard of Left Bank or Right Bank in the wine industry? One of the wines we poured this week is call Left Bank which apparently has a meaning.

According to Dr Vinny of Wine Spectator, "Left Bank vineyards are dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, while the Right Bank ones focus more on Merlot. This means that the Cabernet-based Left Bank wines tend to be a bit more tannic, while the Merlot-based Right Bank wines tend to have more restrained tannins."

Hmmm who knew? Well thanks to my colleague William Pollard I now have a little more knowledge. Check his site out http://www.wild4washingtonwine.com/.

Just learning how to blog. 

New phase in life trying to find my passion. Travel is a dream of mine so while I have been in the Pacific Northwest I made a point to see everything I can and have lots to share.

Did you know that Washington is the second-largest producer of premium wine in the country?  Well it is and I live right in the middle of the largest AVA (American Viticulture Area) in the state. There are 13 AVA's in the state with 12 of them being on the east side of the Cascades.

I invite you to follow this blog as I learn everything there is to know about wine, especially WA wine. Recently I have started working part time at The Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center, located in Prosser, WA the birthplace of Washington State wines. The center is a not for profit organization named after Dr. Walter Clore known as the Father of Washington Wine. We are an education center for the wine and culinary industry. There are over 850 wineries in the state and 350 vineyards. Between my house and the center there are 25 wineries, which I have visited them all several times. It is my goal this year to visit as many as I can across the state to increase my knowledge and love for the industry.

My goal with this blog is to share my experiences not only in wine but as someone in a new phase in life.

Cheers!