Steele Snowcoach, Yellowstone National Park

Fred and I have travel luck.  Raya was called in to work on her day off, and there were two available seats on her snowcoach.  This was on the list of things to do but everything had to line up just right.  Raya has been a winter guide at Yellowstone for 8 years, but this is the first year that she has not been a snowmobile guide, driving snowcoach exclusively.  

Snowcoach is not easy to drive.  It is kind of like driving a snowmobile, which is kind of like driving a water ski but on the snow.   

Raya is the tour guide you want.  She knows her stuff.  Three Bears Lodge is where her tours are booked.  

A dormant eagle's nest.

There is a herd of bison in the background behind us.  

Yellowstone is the only place in the United States that bison have continuously lived since prehistoric times.

When we left West Yellowstone it was snowing and windy.  Raya wasn't sure if we would be able to see anything.  The weather improved throughout the day; by the end of the day we had sun and blue skies (although I am sure it never surpassed 20 degrees).  Raya said she had never seen the weather change so much in one day.  

There are four types of geothermal features in Yellowstone; hot springs, geysers, fumeroles and mudpots.  The differences between the features depend on amount of water, whether pressure builds, and what state of matter is released. We have seen them all but never in this much the snow.  When you are in Yellowstone you feel like you are on a different planet, the snow just amplifies the effect.  

We strapped on snow shoes and walked around Geyser Hill while waiting for the geyser to erupt.  It was almost impossible to get a picture of Old Faithful erupting because of the color of the sky but we did see it.   

All of the colors near the geothermal features are a result of different species of bacteria.  This bacteria mat looks like land from an airplane.   

The Old Faithful Inn and Old Faithful geyser are behind us.    

On the way back to West we took Firehole Canyon Drive.  Behind us is Firehole Falls, a 40 foot waterfall.  

The hill behind Fred shows the caldera rim, the top of the rim used to be surface of the land before the Yellowstone caldera was formed.

After the best snowcoach tour ever we ice skated in West (no bones were broke!...obviously Fred did not strap on skates).  Raya's friends' Brad and Madeline (whom we stayed with) joined us.  We had to rent the ice skates for 5$ from a local sporting goods store but there is no cost to enter.  The rink is created by the firefighters who use their fire hoses to fill the area (I guess they have some extra time in the winter).    

We love the Northwest!   

Big Sky, Biggest Skiing in America

After about 14 hours of travel on the 1/1/2014 we woke up in West Yellowstone with big plans to go to Big Sky, Montana.  After Big Sky bought out its neighbor on the mountain, Moonlight Basin, it officially became the biggest continuous ski area in the United States.  It has over 30 lifts and almost 6,000 acres of skiing.  Ironically, I purchased a 'beginner lift ticket' for 35$ and used just one permitted lift, the Explorer.  There are numerous runs you can take from this lift, and since it was my first day of the season I felt better not spending three times as much.  

Bighorn sheep in Montana are a lot more common than they are in the Anza Borrego desert.  There are over 5,000 bighorn in the state, but they are still fun to observe as an out-of-towner.  

Montana is so beautiful.  It is difficult to keep your eyes on the road.    

Moose Drool is one of Big Sky Brewing Company's clever creations.  

We got a beautiful sunset on the way home.  This was the perfect way to start our trip!  The last time it snowed was yesterday.  

It was cold (the high was 30 and the low was 5) but were are not complaining.  I am pretty sure it is normal to be cold in January.  

The clarinet at fancy panties

Kimmie is only here for a few short days, and of course I want to go wine tasting with her again!  

She has good taste.  

We started at Leonesse and ended at Fancy Panties (Frangipani winery), per my suggestions.  I love Leonesse because their vineyard and structures are gorgeous, and of course their wine is tasty.  We ended at Fancy Panties because the wine is great, but it has low crowds and is very homey.  I love that you can sit outside and order at an outside window just a few steps away.  

They even have a cat that you can taunt.  

Kimmie, her dad, and Nuno all liked Fancy Panties better than Leonesse, because of the reasons mentioned.  Kimmie's dad said he will not drink if he is standing up at a bar (and he did not drink at Leonesse at all). Nuno felt like a bottle of wine should not ever be sold for 55$.  

There are no arguments that fancy panties are/is great.  

 The best wine we tasted was the estate claret, which I liked to refer to as clarinet.  (I am fancy.)

You know how drinking makes you funnier... and funnier?  Well, I told the bartender I was going to order a drink via pantomime.  I played the clarinet.  He guessed zinfandel.  How does that make any sense?  After I explained my hilarious joke the bartender would not let us order the estate claret without playing the clarinet.  Nuno really needs to practice the fake clarinet.  Ummm, Nuno, are you playing the kazzoo while tickling a kitten?

Just kidding.

This was a much better way to say farewell until summer.  

Baja Missions

Kimmie and Nuno are visiting from Switzerland.  When Kimmie told me she wanted me to take her to Mexico I was nothing but elated.  I have two willing Baja guests!?  I am like a painter with a blank canvas.  It is Nuno's first trip to Mexico.  I planned on taking them down the coast to Ensenada and then back through the wine country, ending up in Tecate for the return.  My plan was foiled because the highway was closed after reaching Puerto Nuevo and all of the traffic was rerouted inland.  Although it took longer to get to Ensenada we ended up on El Camino Real, and drove past a mission (my first mission in Baja) so we stopped to check it out.  La misión San Miguel Arcángel de la Frontera is now nothing but a small pile of ruins but its history cannot be weathered. It was founded in 1787 by Dominican missionary Luis Sales to serve the Kumiai population.  It was very successful in its time due to the proximity of the sea and the fertile lands (which is why the area was successful for the Kumiai for 15,000 years pre-colonization).  It was abandoned in 1833 due to political reasons.  

I have driven by this marisco cart in Ensenada numerous times, it is hard to miss as it is always packed with locals (today was mild).  This was our first stop.  We got ceviche with mixed seafood.  I don't usually like octopus but it was my favorite item in the mix.  It was so fresh and tender.  I couldn't finish my large order but I tried.  It was incredible.  

We then walked to the Santo Tomas bodega in Ensenada.  It was nothing like how it was described online.  First of all there are no tours, just tastings.  And the tasting was 18.50 US dollars.  We left because I knew there were better deals along with return.  This was just one stop on our tour.  Santo Tomas is the oldest winery in Baja.  They grow the wine about 30 km south of Ensenada and tours are by appointment only.  They do the manufacturing portion of the process here.  I still would like to go to the original winery but as far as the bodega it seems like a tourist trap for cruise ship customers.  

This is more like it.  

Viñedos Malagón is a 400 acre ranch found on the El Porvenir route that runs parallel to the 3 highway.  The tasting room is located in an old Russian settler home, who originally purchased the land in the early 1900s.  The Russian immigrant history in northern Baja is fascinating and something I am still discovering.  

The wine is the best wine that I have had in Baja so far.   

Our time was running out.  The sun was beginning to set and most places close by 5.  

We next tried Monte Xanic.  The olive oil they make is divine, as is the local bread and cheese.  Pero el vino es muy mal.  

We didn't want to leave Mexico with a terrible taste in our mouths so we found another winery that was open.  Vinos Fuentes no era mejor.  It is difficult to admit but it went straight into the trash, every one we tried.  Qué terrible.

We were in the same position we were in before, we needed a good glass of wine.  Unfortunately by this point everything was closed except for the very reliable, very LA, very expensive, Encuentro.  I had to take them.   

We enjoyed a glass of their house red on the patio while looking at constellations sitting next to a fire pit.  

It wouldn't be a trip to Mexico without taking my guests to El Mejor Pan y Los Panchos.  

Ratones!

Kimmie and Nuno enjoyed their Mexico experience.  The line at the border took us two hours (but I can guarantee it would have been longer elsewhere).  Since the border at Tecate closes from 11pm-5am we were just 20 minutes away from having a gate closed in front of us and rerouting to Otay.  There were many people behind us who drove away very disappointed.  

Sucks for them!  

As for me, I have some serious Baja wine tasting to do.  I am discovering that the quality of Baja wine varies greatly and I do not want to take people to Mexico to drink mediocre wine.  Mexico's reputation has been tainted with drug cartels, fraud, crooked cops, beheadings... the last thing it needs is to further tarnish its reputation with bad wine.  

The missionaries brought wine to Baja during colonization.  Where there are missions there is wine, and where there is wine there am I.