On the way we passed through Mt. Vernon, where last year a semi had some contact with a portion of the bridge on I5 crossing the Skagit river, causing this:
Fortunately it was fixed when we did our crossing.
It was a lovely early spring day, and a fine drive up through what will be colorful fields of tulips in another month or so. Bellingham would be a nice place to live, about equidistant between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. Large by my standards, at 82,000 Bellingham supports a number of good restaurants and venues for arts, and it's climate is quite mild by Montana standards.
The tour of the small distillery was interesting, it was quite small with only two 'stills', I'm sure there is a proper name for them, but I don't know it. We sampled the product as it was coming out of the 'still' into a container, then some of the finished product. They make vodka, gin and brandy, all out of apples, also cider, both soft and hard.
The view of Mt. Baker from the parking lot of the distillery was quite nice:
I bought a bottle of the honeycrisp apple vodka, I'm sure it'll last me well into summer.
Another view of Mt. Baker at sunset from the Bellingham paper's archives:
Honeycrisp apple vodka sounds wonderful!
ReplyDeleteHow does it taste?
Like vodka, with a small splash of apple juice.
DeleteI thought, too, that Bellingham might be a good place to live, when my ex and I drove through in 1993 on our way to BC. We were there at the end of the tulip season, but there were plenty still in the fields to oooh and ahhh over, plus some other bulb flower - blue, but I don't remember what it was. I'd like to see it now, to see if it has lost any of its charm.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pictures, Mike.
More than welcome, Martha. Hope you're well.
DeleteExcellent photos of a beautiful area. Had never heard of vodka made from apples --and glad they did not keep the doctor away. Looking forward to trying this novel libation, Mike.
ReplyDeleteI think the novelty is more in it's existance, rather than the taste, Geo. Sort of like the dancing bear.....it's not how well he dances, etc.
DeleteIt is very nice out there. I have been tempted to leave this frozen wasteland on numerous occasions about this time of year.
ReplyDeleteI have that urge in October, when the first taste of winter arrives. By this time I'm resigned to it.
DeleteHi Mike-picture a dancing bear drinking honeycrisp vodka...haha. Well, I guess it depends on the bear. Maybe a small black bear with a sweet disposition dancing while drinking honeycrisp vodka. I'm off track again. Wow, Mt. Baker is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteYeah, but let's up the ante: I picture in a month a cranky, 700 lb grizzly waking up 10 miles north of town, wandering south, yawning, finding my bottle on a dirt road just outside of town, sitting down and guzzling...then ambling into town, in search of breakfast.
DeleteYeah, Baker gets more snow than any other cascade mountain.
It's a wonderful picture of Mt. Baker among all your other beauties. Unsurprisingly I'm feeling a bit out of joint looking out on masses of snow and ice while recalling the view we had of Mt. Hood and St. Helen's from our balcony. By now I should have been getting my garden prepared.
ReplyDeleteNice pics Mike! Especially so when I enlarged them.
ReplyDeleteI like honeycrisp apples and I like vodka, so there is absolutely no reason to believe that I wouldn't like honeycrisp vodka. Pure logic, yes?
wow amazing..
ReplyDeletevery nice post
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