Walla Walla – November 2021

Hello dear readers! How’s it going? I’m really getting in to a bit of a blogging groove again now so hopefully you’ll see the posts continuing to hit your feed or inbox with some regularity!

I used the last blog post on Moses Lake as a bit of a segue in to this one as it kind of ended the Moses Lake chapter of our lives and subsequently affected this trip too.

On my last trip to Moses Lake, myself and Haleigh had got engaged so the next steps of our long-distance relationship were to get married and then we could finally start thinking about beginning our lives living in the same place (England).

With a Septermber (2021) wedding drawing ever closer, there were other decisions to be made in terms of our future. Haleigh was teaching in the US at the time and as the end of the school year was approaching, Haleigh had to decide whether or not she was committing to another year and simultaneously decide if she’d commit to renewing the lease on her apartment.

In a perfect world, it didn’t make sense to go another year. Consequently Haleigh left teaching at the end of the school year and also gave up her apartment that she’d called home for the last four years, with the plan to temporarily move home and stay with family in Walla Walla.

Alas, this was not a perfect world. Covid continued to wreak havoc on any planning and it became clear that with a US border in no rush to re-open, I wasn’t even going to make it to my own wedding. The US border remained closed and we were forced to push our wedding back and postpone until 2022 with the hope that things would be better by then.

It was a difficult period of change, particularly for Haleigh who’d now been left in limbo a little bit.  In hindsight she might have done another year of teaching and not moved out of Moses Lake but unfortunately the situation was out of our hands and Covid always found a way to wreak havoc and made making future plans incredibly difficult throughout these strange times.

Sure enough, soon after we’d postponed our wedding it was confirmed that the US border would be re-opening in November. Haleigh had luckily been able to visit me earlier in the summer but we hadn’t seen much of eachother and it had been over 18 months since I’d last stepped foot in the USA and abruptly said goodbye to Moses Lake. I’d set aside some time in the hope that the border might re-open for Thanksgiving and luckily it did!

From a life perspective, that period of limbo was hard and as I said particularly so on Haleigh. However from a travel perspective, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited at the prospect of spending some significant time in Walla Walla. Whilst I mourned the lack of farewell for Moses Lake and how abrupt that departure had been, I’d only ever really spent time in Walla Walla either visiting family or having Haleigh show off her favourite spots in the area. Haleigh had found temporary employment back home and that meant I’d definitely have some time to explore the city on my own!

First I had to get there. I maintain that 2021 was worse for travel than 2020 was. You kind of at least knew where you stood in 2020. The next year was just a bit of a shit-show with ever-changing restrictions and border openings and closures and it was so much faff trying to do anything. I’d booked the Ireland trip pretty last minute because of the UK’s “travel light” system and as excited as I was to get back to Washington, the anxiety of trip-planning made you question if travel was even worth the effort. For a relationship? Absolutely. For travel enjoyment? Absolutely not.

What are the entry requirements? Do I have to quarantine? What are the restrictions? Are the restrictions likely to change? Who do I book a Covid test with? Will I get the results back in time? Will the US be content with the test results? Will British Airways cancel my flight? How long is it going to take me to get through security?

I ticked off everything I needed to do and made my way to Heathrow which was nothing short of a shambles and truthfully, no better in early 2022 either.

My saving grace was that I hate being late which meant Heathrow being busier and more chaotic than I’ve ever seen it didn’t really matter because when you’re hours early for your flight, you have wiggle room for the nonsense.

Heathrow was a mess and I don’t think it helped that the self-service era of travel means you find a lot of people don’t really know what they’re doing. I sympathise because I always have that trepidation at baggage drop that I have no idea if I’ve done it correctly, I’m always conscious I’m going to arrive in my destination and find that my luggage hasn’t left England or worse that it has but I’ve somehow inadvertently sent my luggage to Timbuktu.

I waved my baggage off, hopeful we’d be reunited later that day and then made my way to security which was also a long experience. I eventually made it through, still with time to kill, because I’m not one of the maniacs turning up four minutes before a flight and blaming the airline / airport for missing it. Honestly, how are you not panicking the entire time before departure?

Things were surprisingly smoother on the other side of the Atlantic. I was anticipating further chaos and the usual border-patrol interrogations I receive Stateside but I recall this being one of the stress-free custom experiences I’ve had on US soil. You had to do a lot of the document / Covid verification before travel and maybe that was why but it was bizarre in a country I’ve often faced hefty interrogation.

At last the stress was over, if nothing else I was in Washington State after a good 18 months away. I still had to get from Seattle to Walla Walla but if anything went wrong there, I could figure out a plan B.

If ever there was further proof needed that car is king in America, this is it. Sometimes Haleigh would pick me up at the airport but given the distance, the need to pass over the mountains and the potential weather disruption and then also work commitments I’ve often made my own way to Moses Lake. I’d usually been able to get to Moses Lake quite easily and could catch a bus directly from Seattle to Moses Lake, sadly there was no such luxury for Walla Walla.

I’m sure there is a way of doing it on public transport with several transfers spanning many hours but it’s much more of a chore getting to what should theoretically be a much more touristy city. There isn’t much to Moses Lake really but it’s conveniently located along one of the major highways in the state, Walla Walla is much more charming and its wine industry is BIG but it’s more of a ball-ache to get to so naturally the transport links are rubbish.

My only option was to fly across the state which meant catching another flight out of Seatac and hanging around in the airport for a little while. I had plenty of time to kill because again, how are any of you comfortable with a short layover? I’m an optimist by day but I prepare for worst case when it comes to travel.

With time to kill I went and found a little bar and grabbed myself a beer. Unfortunately I was robbed soon after.

Alright, let me clear that up. Robbed is perhaps a bit extreme. I ordered a beer and thought little more of it until I was ready to move on and then I asked for the bill. I don’t know if it was the long gap between trips to America, maybe I’d forgotten how expensive it is Stateside and moreso in airports after 18 months away but I looked down at my check and the amount read $12.

“What do you mean!?” – Twelve dollars for a beer! 12!!

Plus tax, naturally. That took my beer up to $13.20 in total and I scoffed how expensive a local beer could be. It’s not even like it was an out-of-state beer that needed shipping over, this was an Elysian beer based out of fucking Seattle!

As if $13.20 wasn’t enough for a solitary beer, I was then in America wasn’t I? Am I supposed to tip here? What’s the tipping etiquette on airport robbery? If you’re not paying your staff a decent wage whilst charging $13 for a beer than you should be in jail.

After tipping (I know, I know..) I barely got change on the $20 and took my grumblings to Twitter. It was time to find somewhere cheaper that might only want a kidney in exchange for a hot meal before my flight.

The flight over to Walla Walla was a late one but short. All in all it takes roughly an hour but you’re only in the air for maybe 45 minutes or so. It’s nice and easy, much nicer in the daytime when you can enjoy some of the views over Washington but soon enough I’d landed with Haleigh waiting for me. I landed around midnight so it was straight to bed from there with Sunday pretty relaxed and spent enjoying some time with the family.

Monday morning rolled around and with Haleigh working I was up and ready to go and explore Walla Walla solo for the first time. I knew my way around Walla Walla a little based on previous visits with Haleigh but there’s something to be said for exploring a place on your own and on foot too!

As I said earlier, Walla Walla is charming. Moses Lake holds a lot of good memories for me and I did grow attached to it but from a travel perspective, there is no contest as to which is the better place to spend your time. I adore Walla Walla, how could you not!?

I made my way downtown and downtown Walla Walla is just lovely. It only consists of a few main streets (one unsurprisingly called Main Street) but it has a nice collection of restaurants, shops and 41,782 or so wineries with wineries outnumbering* the locals.

*Probably.

Truly, Walla Walla is famous for its wine. After California, Washington State is the biggest producer of wine in the USA and this is the city to enjoy that wealth of Washington wineries.

Ironically, Haleigh’s hometown is somewhat wasted on her as she isn’t really one for alcohol and although I am partial to the occasional drink, I’m by no means a wine drinker so this wasn’t something we’d ever done on any of my previous visit to Walla Walla.

Nonetheless, I had time to myself and “when in Rome” I figured why not? As tempted as you might be to head straight for the wineries, I grabbed myself a light breakfast at a nearby cafe first and figured I’d then see what all the fuss is about.

The most difficult decision you’re going to face in Walla Walla is where to begin? I joked that the wineries perhaps outnumbered the locals but to offer some actual context, Walla Walla is a fairly small city. Its population is around the 30,000 mark and yet more accurate Google searches will tell you that there are roughly 120 wineries in the Walla Walla area! Why so many!?

The downtown is FULL of wineries and there’s a good number a little further out of town too but without the means to get around, I figured that the 20 or so downtown was probably a good place for me to start. After whittling that down to those open on a Monday I was still left with far too many options or any idea on which to start with! In the end I settled upon visiting Spring Valley.

I’ll start by saying I know nothing about wine. My knowledge extends as far as knowing red and/or white were likely on the menu for the day. Fortunately my host was much more knowledgeable and placed a number of wines in front of me before delving in to the history of the winery, wines and the inspiration behind them.

It was a nice experience. I think it would undoubtedly have been better with company but my friendly host made me feel welcome nonetheless. I’d recommend it for any visitors to Walla Walla and the wines tasted nice to a novice who admittedly knows nothing about wine.

Not content with a “one and done” approach, I figured I should at the very least check out another winery for comparison. Whilst Haleigh isn’t a big wine drinker, the rest of (my) family are much happier wine drinkers and I figured a bit of market research on their behalf wouldn’t go amiss. Unsurprisingly I didn’t have to go very far before stumbling upon winery number two.

I won’t name and shame winery number two because I don’t think the tasting experience is necessarily catered towards solo drinkers but the room itself was a little more intimate, I was the only person tasting and it was all a little more awkward as a result.

My host didn’t quite have the same charm as the previous winery which in addition to my own lack of social skills and lack of wine knowledge just made for an uncomfortable visit all round. I think company would have made all the difference here but it was a quiet Monday in November – hardly tourist season – and so between the two of us we muddled on by until I put us both out of our misery, finished my wine and got out of there!

Reviews online are much kinder for what it’s worth and I think the awkwardness probably wasn’t helped by having to entertain someone with no real care for wine. I’m sure a beer tasting would have been much more enjoyable and less awkward for us both but there was no comparison between the two wineries that I’d been to. The wines at both were nice enough and I now wasn’t opposed to drinking wine – with what had been a red-heavy afternoon – but I settled on that being enough for today.

After a wine-heavy day so far I figured I’d better go and fill myself up with something more substantial – beer lunch! I popped over to what has become a little favourite of mine in recent times – the Red Monkey.

The food in all honesty is nothing exceptional – it’s standard pub fare but I like the atmosphere, the staff have always been friendly, they show some live sport which is nice and the selection of beers is always pretty good. I probably didn’t need the latter – particularly not knowing what my limitations were with wine but c’est la vie.

Due to the time of year, by the time I’d made my way back to the house it was fairly dark and it’s probably safe to say that the wine had caught up with me. As a first-time wine drinker I’d surpassed my limit and was starting to feel the effects. I’m not a bad drunk really, I’m not violent or aggressive nor am I any of the worst traits of drunks you sometimes encounter.

I’m generally a sleepy drunk, sometimes a soppy drunk but Haleigh put this firmly in to the category of “stupid drunk” and I think her sentiments were largely along the lines of “my boyfriend’s an idiot..” – fortunately I crashed soon after so despite the “luxury” and “fortune” of being the one and only ever witness to wine-drunk Jason, I think she was rather pleased to be rid of me for the night!

After sleeping off the effects of Monday’s wine antics, Tuesday was much more relaxed. I don’t think I really did much before me and Haleigh spent the evening together. I didn’t get many photos on Tuesday but my photos suggest that we must have gone out for dinner together on Tuesday evening – wine was not on the menu!

Thursday of course was Thanksgiving so Wednesday to Sunday was largely filled with Thanksgiving and family festivities. This was Thanksgiving number two for myself having attended my first in 2019 and missing 2020 for obvious reasons.

We spent most of these days out at one of the grandparent’s house, eating good food, playing games and mingling with the family. It’s always nice getting together and seeing how Thanksgiving is done Stateside. It’s a big holiday and with a big family, it’s always a fun occasion! 2020 remains the only year I’ve missed it!

We spent most of Friday out at the Grandparents again but on Friday we did escape for a couple of hours and headed downtown for some food at another local favourite – Wingmans!

One of the highlight of this visit was bearing witness to the infamous “Apple Cup” which is contested around Thanksgiving every year. College football is so popular in the States but every* November the two big Washington colleges go head to head. The University of Washington (Huskies) face off against WSU (Cougars) for the Apple Cup and local bragging rights.

Much of the family are WSU fans and t seemed so was the large majority of Wingman’s who were showing the game on TV so the place was full of people cheering on the Cougars with a few outliers. It was fun to see a bit of local rivalry in full swing and a really fun atmosphere to boot. The Cougars ended up winning this year which went down a treat both here and back at the house.

* They’ve shamefully moved this fixture so that it no longer falls over Thanksgiving! It’s sad to see that tradition lost! I’m sure for the Washington natives it’s an important clash at any time of year but as an outsider, it was a special part of the Thanksgiving festivities. Who really cares about the “Apple Cup” in September?

Sadly come the end of the weekend the holiday fun was beginning to wind down and people were making their way back out of town and heading home. We had a last breakfast together on Sunday but then people were on their way.

Originally the plan was for me to do likewise but I just wasn’t ready to go and ended up extending my trip a little longer.

Thanksgiving week just always goes so quickly. Particularly with Haleigh working on this occasion too. It felt like we’d barely had more than five minutes together, *cough* not helped by wine-drunk Jason *cough*, and then my trip was over. As fun as the week is, I wanted longer in Washington and fortunately could make it work for a few more days.

So rather then leaving, I stayed. Haleigh still had to work unfortunately but it gave us a bit more time together and myself a bit more time to have some fun in Walla Walla. Another Monday to myself gave me the opportunity to visit another winery.

“Oh no Jason, didn’t you learn your lesson?”

Don’t worry, I did! I grabbed some breakfast and then figured I’d check out one final winery, just the one this time though! See! I did learn my lesson!

This time I opted for the Mark Ryan winery right on Main St which had stood out previously. I’m sure in the summertime this is a lovely winery to visit as it has a little outside seating which would be perfect for people-watching but at the end of November, not so much. It still is a lovely Winery though. This week’s host was friendly and despite again being the only person wine-tasting, I’d still recommend this as one to visit. Although it’s worth reminding you that my wine-knowledge is non-existent so my winery recommendations are on nothing but vibes alone!

Keen to avoid wine-drunk Jason making a reappearance, I did stop at just the one winery. With 120-odd to visit, I hadn’t seen many but I’d seen enough for this trip and done my share of the “market research” – the remaining wineries would be down to the family to visit when they come to Washington!

I spent the rest of my day mooching around town, grabbing some lunch and having a little wander. The perk to staying a little longer was the Christmas decorations were starting to make an appearance and Walla Walla was starting to look quite Christmas-y. Myself and Haleigh rounded off the day by grabbing dinner at ‘Hop Thief’ across town (technically in neighbouring College Place) where you can pour your own beers so that was a fun outing!

The next day was pretty chilled, relaxing around the house before a busier Wednesday. Beyond the wineries, there are probably two main attractions in Walla Walla. The Whitman Mission, which Haleigh had taken us to on my first visit, and then ‘Fort Walla Walla’. which is an old military fort which was my main stop for today.

It depends where you’re staying but ideally you’re probably going to want a car to visit both of these attractions – definitely for the Whitman Mission but I figured Fort Walla Walla was probably reachable on foot. One of the nice things about Walla Walla is that it is mostly flat.

I made some stops along the way. One of the busier roads in the city has a few fun little things on the side of the road that I’d passed in the car many times but I figured this was a good opportunity to see some of them up close. I then stopped for lunch at a bar on the outskirts of Walla Walla before venturing over to Fort Walla Walla.

It’s an interesting place with varying exhibits, some temporary and some permanent. I was mostly interested in seeing the permanent exhibits and outbuildings that tell you more about the history of the place.

Given the overwhelming number of wineries in the area I did somewhat chuckle at the jail for the drunks. The irony wasn’t lost on me either that it was donated by a fellow ‘Reid’. A donation for our drunken sins perhaps.

Anyway, it was a fun visit and I’m hopeful I’ll get back there soon as I think they currently have a World War exhibit going on which sounds interesting.

Nothing notable happened with the rest of my day, nor the rest of my time in Walla Walla really. Myself and Haleigh tried to make the most of our time together as this’d likely be the last we’d see eachother before the big ol’ wedding trip in a few months.

One of the fun things we did do with our final couple of days was check out some of the Christmas decorations around town.

Unsurprisingly, American homes go all out in terms of decorations and some even go as far as putting on a full lights show accompanied by music. Christmas rave anyone?

Sadly on Saturday morning we said our goodbyes and I caught the early 5am flight out of Walla Walla. There is a later flight out of Walla Walla so there are pros and cons to catching the early flight. The con is obvious, it’s a bloody 5am flight. Who wants to be up that early in the day? On the flipside, it means a longer layover in Seattle.

I knew I’d arrive in to Seattle a little after 6am and I wasn’t flying out of Seattle until a little after 6pm which meant I had almost half a day to go and have some fun in the city. Alaska Airlines pushed my baggage straight through to London so I didn’t have to worry about it in Seattle which was all the more reason to head in to Seattle and explore for a few hours.

The one thing I really noticed on this flying visit was the difference between “after dark” and “before light”. I’d been to Seattle before and spent time in the city after dark on previous trips and it doesn’t feel like an unsafe city. I appreciate that some of that is circumstantial and my experience is going to be different to others but I have few qualms walking around any big city late at night. I’ve rarely found myself in a situation where I’m uncomfortable.

However before light is another city entirely. The links from the airport in to the city are pretty quick so given it was early December, it was still pretty dark by the time I’d arrived downtown and let’s just say that the city has a little more character at that time of the morning. I think it’s the first and maybe only time I’ve been in Seattle and it’s felt a little sketchy to me and I was sure to be a little more aware of my surroundings.

I went and found myself a place to grab breakfast, I’d heard good things about Seattle’s five point cafe – a nice little diner in a good location downtown. At the time, the Covid restrictions were a little stricter in Seattle than the rest of the state so this was a hangout spot for the vaccinated only and I did see a few grumble in the short time I was there. It’s a cool place to start the day though and I enjoyed my pancakes and tea!

I hadn’t committed to any particular plans but after breakfast I wanted to go and do something fun. Despite its reputation for bad weather, I’ve often said Seattle’s reputation is unjust. Whilst I’ve visited Washington many times, I haven’t spent huge amounts of time in Seattle itself but it is invariably always sunny when I do. I’ve convinced myself that the Seattle weather is a myth!

Alas, this was one of the rare occasions that the weather gods have let me down and it was a bit grey and dreary with a little light rain. I figured today would be a good day to visit one of its indoor attractions. Unbeknownst to me, most of them don’t open until 10am! What’s that about!? Like, wake up Seattle!

Ordinarily it wouldn’t be a problem, I don’t typically make it habit to be out and about at the crack of dawn but it’s a tad inconvenient when you are and nowhere is open. I’d been to Seattle’s MoPop museum before and didn’t really fancy visiting the Space Needle on a cloudy day so opted to visit the famous Chihuly Gardens and Glass museum which also opened at 10am. I loosely wandered a little but mostly spent the time awkwardly loitering and waiting for the doors to open.

For what it’s worth, it was a good decision. I hadn’t visited before but I think this is another must do in Seattle. Chihuly is a little more famous in this part of the world but has exhibited his work globally and it’s easy to see why. I thought it was a fascinating museum and one I’d probably return to.

I could have probably spent longer there but I was a little conscious of time and wanted to grab some lunch somewhere before making my way to the airport. All in all, it had been another lovely trip to Washington that went far too quickly as it always does. It was time to go home. The next time I’d be visiting Washington, I’d be getting married. More on that soon.

Until next time!

Jason