The weather sucked this last weekend.  Rain.  Sun.  Rain.  Sun.  Rain, rain, rain.  Today?  90% chance of rain.  Almost makes me welcome going to work.

Thus, I spent much of the weekend post-processing photos.  I’m rather sick of it, truth be told.  I understand that I sank my own battleship and dug my own hole when I took over 2000 photos on our recent trip to Costa Rica, but, good grief, it’s a lot of work.

But, don’t worry, I am persevering.  Still have more stories to tell and photos to share.

Let’s take a brief break from Costa Rica, shall we?

Late last week I spent a couple of nights in Richland, WA for work.  Land of Washington wine.  Yum.  Yes, I did bring some home with me (did you even really have to ask?).  I drove over Hwy 12 (White Pass on Wednesday afternoon).  It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful drive.

We’ve had a lot of rain this year, and Central Washington has benefited from that as well. I’ve been to the Tri-Cities before in May, but have not seen it this green before.  It was lovely.

I arrived at my hotel in the late afternoon to 80+ degree weather (yes, yes, yes!).  I stayed at the Hampton Inn, which is right (right!) on the edge of the mighty Columbia river.  I strolled along the river, then headed up town for dinner.

I found a cute little bakery/cupcake shop/bistro and sat on their patio enjoying a glass of wine and a goat cheese and beet salad.  I took cupcakes back to my room for dessert (though I chucked them on the ground in their container as I bobbled my camera and had to scrape the icing off the top of the container and back on to the cupcakes.  Sigh.  And, the cupcakes weren’t fantastic.  Double sigh).

After dinner I discovered that the well-stocked gift shop in the hotel sold a nice variety of local wines, so I bought a bottle and sat out on the patio until almost dark enjoying the heat and views.

Dreamy.

Thursday was much cooler (and I optimistically only brought summer dresses with me), but that was okay as I was in a convention center all day.  Thursday evening I joined co-workers at the restaurant of a local winery for some fantastic food and equally tasty wine.  We watched a storm roll through that evening…wind, rain.  I mentioned the summer dresses, right?

Friday was cooler than Thursday, but I again was in the convention center until it was time to head home.  I stopped in Prosser for Chukars cherries and in Naches for fresh asparagus and made the long trek home.  There are worse places to go for a couple days of work.