Following posts are from 2014. You're welcome to read them, however, there is no info pertaining to our 2015 adventure




On to Kuna

From Cascade to Kuna is a short 3 hour drive, back along the Payette River canyon. We arrived at the Ambassador RV Park right at noon on Friday. The park is in Caldwell, about 20 miles from Kim’s place in Kuna. Kim was working so we suggested she come to the RV park after work and we would BBQ something for dinner.

The rest of the time in Kuna we spent helping Kim with yard work. This meant trips to Lowes, Home Depot or Ace Hardware.  A trip to a really nice nursery added an apple tree, a peony, and some flowers. Her neighbors have some really tall trees planted against the side fence and many of the branches on Kim’s side needed to come off. Then there was a huge pile of limbs to get rid of and the trash was already full. So, Rob and Kim rented a chipper and now she has a pile of mulch.

Front of Kim's house

Backyard. Trees center and right were trimmed

Patio

Kuna was seasonably HOT! I helped weed the front planter trying unsuccessfully to stay in the shade. Gallons of iced tea and refuge in the air conditioned house helped, but we were all drained from the heat.

We took a vacation from yard work and went exploring the Snake River Wine area. The first winery we visited, Bitner, was really busy. It has a small tasting room and a medium sized patio area with tables and chairs for sipping and enjoying the scenery. They offer glasses of wine and cheese plates which were extremely popular. We were just there for the tasting. There were only two pourers for such a large crowd and our pourer kept breaking away to provide glasses and cheese plates for the diners. No matter, the three of us managed to polish off seven bottles of wine while we were there. The crowd continued to grow and we decided to leave. As we left, some entertainment was setting up on the patio. No wonder it was a popular place.

Just slightly tipsy we wandered down the road a bit to another small winery, Hat Ranch. No one was in the place except us and the server. The server had recently moved to Idaho from Southern California and this was her first day on the job. She was knowledgeable enough about the wine and we enjoyed tasting and talking with her. After a while another group came in…from La Quinta. We chatted with them for a while and exchanged favorite wineries in Paso Robles and Temecula.

Hat Ranch

Our final stop was at a winery/distillery, Koenig. The winemaker also distilled vodka. More wine tasting. By this time our palates were saturated. We decided three wineries was enough so we headed back to Kim’s. Kim bought a bottle of Huckleberry  to try. Our supply of wine was amply increased from the day’s adventure.

Our last day, we finished up some of the yard work, checked sprinklers and kicked back. We had dinner at Epi’s, a very popular Basque restaurant in Meridian. It’s in a small house and owned by the granddaughter of a Basque immigrant from Spain. She greeted us at the door and when we had been seated came over and explained the history of the beginning of the restaurant. Her grandmother came from Spain to join her husband. She spoke no English and all she knew how to do was cook, mostly fish which was in abundance in Spain. They settled in Challis, Idaho. The fish selection there was limited to Salmon and Trout so she soon learned how to cook beef and lamb by creating her own recipes. Her family grew with six or seven children and she gained a reputation of being a good cook, cooking for her church. She and a sister decided to start cooking for ranch hands and the idea for a restaurant was born. All the food is prepared fresh and it was delicious.  I had a wonderful vegetable soup followed by a great halibut filet. Rob and Kim chose the red bean soup and I have to admit it was better than mine. Kim opted for beef medallions and Rob had a lamb shank, all prepared from old Basque recipes handed down from the owner’s grandmother.  Back to the diet tomorrow.

Next we’re hopping, skipping and jumping across Oregon to get to some cooler coastal weather.