AprilMaynew

TRIP PLANNER: 

FAIRHAVEN 

DISTRICT 

PG.94 

Leavenworth 

Eco-Cabin 

Mix Up a 

Marmalade Sour 

Oregon’s Isolated 

Owyhee River 

LIVE THINK EXPLORE WASHINGTON 

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Everest, On His Own Terms 

Leif Whittaker’s new book, My Old 

Man and the Mountain, documents 

his family’s special relationship with 

Mount Everest. 

Freya Fennwood 

Leif Whittaker on the summit of Mount Deception in Olympic National Park.

Prayer flags adorn a Buddhist stupa at Thokla Pass in Nepal 

with Ama Dablam rising in the background. 

Leif Whittaker 


Melissa Arnot crosses a ladder in the Khumbu Icefall while Kent Harvey stabilizes the fixed lines.

AN EPIC GETAWAY. 

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9

WHERE 

Y UR 

HEART 

SKIPS A 

BEAT 

Feast your eyes, ears, mind and taste buds this Spring in Leavenworth. Tantalize your senses 

all through April with our month-long prost to pears. Celebrate Spring and sample our 

culinary prowess at Taste Leavenworth, where you will stroll through town with a passport to 

pear-inspired and locally sourced delights. Leavenworth is truly a storybook town inspired 

by its beautiful surrounding landscapes under the blue skies of Spring. Come visit! 

1-2 

APR 

UPCOMING EVENTS 

Taste 

Leavenworth 

21-22 

13-14 

MAY 

Maifest 

1-30 Spring 7-8 Leavenworth 23 

APR Sensations 

Earth Fair 

Day 18-21 Spring 

APR Film Festival APR 

MAY Bird Fest 

APR 

Alefest 

Find what you love at LEAVENWORTH.ORG 

#LOVINLEAVENWORTH | 509-548-5807

Stephanie Brown 

FEATURES 

APRIL | MAY 2017 • volume 2 

62 

Female Food Entrepreneurs 

Take a page from these Washington women’s 

stories and leave that desk job in the dust —just 

don’t eat the profits. 

written by Cara Strickland 

68 

Conservation Canines 

Nosy rescue dogs get another shot through 

Conservation Canines, trained to work for 

the University of Washington’s Center for 

Conservation Biology and sniff out information 

that helps with wildlife research. 

written by Abby Spegman 

74 

The Great Outdoors 

Deep in the backcountry of Washington’s 

Cascade Mountains. 

photos by Grant Gunderson 

A decorative yogurt spread for display at Flora Yogurt.

explore in seattle’s 

backyard 

AAWArail.org 

Working on the move! 

Passenger trains offer flexibility to work or relax on 

your way. Join All Aboard Washington’s members 

in shaping our rail future. 

Visit AAWArail.org to learn more. 

Ocean Shores 

MORE THAN A BEACH! 

LEARN SOMETHING NEW AT TUKWILA’S MUSEUM OF FLIGHT. 

The fun doesn’t stop in Seattle. There are plenty of places 

to play—and stay—in Seattle’s Backyard, Seattle Southside. 

With so much to see and do, it’s the perfect home base to 

get the most out of your Seattle vacation. Download our free 

Travel Planner at ExploreInSeattleSouthside.com 

SHOP • DINE • PLAY • STAY • FAMILY FUN 

VISITOCEANSHORESWA.COM 

OCEAN SHORES

006_1889_2017_APRMAY_FINAL_COVER_BM.indd 46 

April | May volume 2 

3/27/17 5:44 PM 

56 

DEPARTMENTS 

APRIL | MAY 2017 • volume 2 

LIVE 

22 SAY WA? 

Celebrate springtime in Washington with a trip through the tulips, 

a baseball game and an Earth Day cleanup. Leif Whittaker talks 

mountain climbing, and learn more about why Naomi Wachira’s lyrics 

and melodies are universally appealing. 

28 FOOD + DRINK 

Mix up a Marmalade Sour at your next cocktail party with our recipe and 

add our best burger to your dining to-do list. 

34 HOME + DESIGN 

Cherry Valley Dairy’s delectable flavors of cheese and butter will 

have your stomach grumbling til the cows come home. Check out a 

home in Leavenworth that takes energy efficiency to the next level. 

46 MIND + BODY 

Baden Sports produces balls and other sports equipment, and its 

CEO has created a culture of fitness, leading by example. 

26 

94 

48 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 

Hit the road in Washington and learn about the art and history of 

each region, thanks to Washington Folk Arts heritage tours. 

THINK 

54 STARTUP 

Bored with summer blockbusters? Boot up IndieFlix, a startup that 

allows users to stream independent films. 

56 WHAT’S GOING UP 

Mixed-use developments are going up in Aberdeen and Everett, as 

developers clean up industrial sites and make them viable again. 

58 WHAT I’M WORKING ON 

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson talks chess, the 

law and going head to head with the Trump Administration. 

60 MY WORKSPACE 

Carl Chamberlain builds streamlined, straightforward boats—but 

his heart is in simple, wooden crafts. 

61 GAME CHANGER 

ProjectWA started as a tourism app and has morphed into a 

teaching tool for Washington’s history educators. 

TRIP PLANNER: 

FAIRHAVEN 

DISTRICT 

PG.94 

Leavenworth 

Eco-Cabin 

Mix Up a 


Oregon’s Isolated 

Owyhee River 

18 Editor’s Letter 

19 1889 Online 

103 Map of Washington 

104 Until Next Time 

EXPLORE 

84 TRAVEL SPOTLIGHT 

Twede’s Cafe in North Bend rose to fame thanks to Twin Peaks. 

With an impending reboot of Twin Peaks, Twede’s is likely to get 

crowded with tourists once again. 

86 ADVENTURES 

Washington has dozens of wildlife sanctuaries, places filled with peace 

and (sometimes) quiet. Whether they’re in the woods, by the ocean or 

in the high desert, these are the spots to reconnect with nature. 

LIVE THINK EXPLORE WASHINGTON 

COVER 

photo by Grant Gunderson 

92 LODGING 

The Sou’wester Lodge & Cabins in Seaview is an artist’s retreat 

with a twist. 

94 TRIP PLANNER 

Bellingham’s Fairhaven District combines small-town charm and a 

sordid past. 

100 NORTHWEST DESTINATION 

Go along on a dangerous and beautiful journey through Oregon’s 

isolated Owyhee Canyonlands—by boat.

DRINK IT IN. 

wake up to 

Washington’s Magazine 

Purchase your limited edition* mug at 1889mag.com/shop today! 

*Available until May 31st, 2017

CONTRIBUTORS 

MELISSA DALTON 

Writer 

Into The Wild 

GRANT GUNDERSON 

Photographer 

Alpine Enchantments 

JAMES HARNOIS 

Photographer 

Keeping the Ball Rolling 

ABBY SPEGMAN 

Writer 

Every Dog Has Its Day 

“‘Getting away from it all’ looks 

“Growing up in a very active 

“When I was asked to 

“As a dog lover, I was thrilled 

different to everyone. While 

outdoors family, I was 

photograph Michael Schindler 

to visit Conservation Canines’ 

writing about a remote retreat 

introduced to the beauty of 

for the Mind+Body feature 

training facility in Eatonville 

near Leavenworth, I was struck 

the Washington Cascades at 

I was a little nervous. I had 

and meet the dogs using 

by the vision of the design/build 

a very young age. Thirty years 

only a couple of days to 

their noses to help protect 

team who crafted this home 

later, I am still mesmerized 

plan, shoot and deliver files. I 

endangered animals. I also had 

deep in the wilderness. Despite 

by the beauty of Washington 

knew I wanted to photograph 

a sneaking suspicion my own 

wild animals, forest fires and 

state’s alpine. Today my 

Michael while out for a walk 

dog, Eva, would be great at 

heaps of snow, they created a 

photography work takes me 

with his employees but in true 

the job—she loves to use her 

beautiful self-sufficient refuge 

around the globe several times 

Pacific Northwest fashion, 

nose! I quickly learned there’s 

for thier clients, using only solar 

a year to some of the world’s 

it was supposed to rain that 

more to it. These dogs have 

power. Inspiring!” 

most dramatic mountain 

day. I showed up expecting 

an incredible drive to work, 

(p. 40) 

ranges, but every time I return 

two, maybe three employees 

whereas Eva would rather nap 

home, I am reminded that I am 

ready to hit the Springbrook 

on the couch. Best leave it to 

lucky to live in Washington 

Trail Boardwalk. There were 

the pros.” 

with the Cascades in my 

close to a dozen employees 

(p. 68) 

backyard.” 

alongside the CEO, all smiles 

(p. 74) 

and ready to take on the rain. 

Michael said he never cancels 

his daily walk, rain or shine. 

Exploring the wintry landscape 

in the rain with a small crowd 

of passionate people was so 

refreshing and reminded me 

why I do what I do.” 

(p.46)

EDITOR Kevin Max 

MANAGING EDITOR 

CREATIVE LEAD 

DESIGN 

SALES + MARKETING 

WEB EDITOR 

WEBMASTER 

OFFICE MANAGER 

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES 

BEERVANA COLUMNIST 

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS 

Sheila G. Miller 

Brooke Miracle 

Ashlee Pierce 

Kelly Hervey 

Lindsay McWilliams 

Isaac Peterson 

Cindy Miskowiec 

Ashley Davis 

Kelly Hervey 

Jenny Kamprath 

Sandra King 

Jean Picha-Parker 

Deb Steiger 

Jackie Dodd 

Melissa Dalton, Greg Hatten, Michelle Hopkins, Julie Lee, Tricia Louvar, 

Dana E. Neuts, Abby Spegman, Cara Strickland, Corinne Whiting 

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS 

Elizabeth Baker, Stephanie Brown, Freya Fennwood, Grant 

Gunderson, James Harnois, Greg Hatten, Alice Hayes, 

Greg Lehman, Cameron Zegers 

Statehood Media 

70 SW Century Dr. 

Suite 100-218 

Bend, Oregon 97702 

541.728.2764 

1889mag.com/subscribe 

@1889washington 

All rights reserved. No part of this publiCation may be reproduCed or transmitted in any form or by any means, eleCtroniCally or meChaniCally, inCluding 

photoCopy, reCording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of Statehood Media. ArtiCles and photographs 

appearing in 1889 Washington’s Magazine may not be reproduCed in whole or in part without the express written Consent of the publisher. 1889 Washington’s 

Magazine and Statehood Media are not responsible for the return of unsoliCited materials. The views and opinions expressed in these artiCles are not 

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Statehood Media sets high standards to ensure forestry is praCtiCed in an environmentally responsible, soCially benefiCial and eConomiCally viable way. This 

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(RCRA) standards. When you are finished with this issue, please pass it on to a friend or reCyCle it. We Can have a better world if we Choose it together.

FROM THE 

EDITOR 

Washington State Attorney General Bob 

Ferguson was thrust into the national spotlight 

when the state’s highest lawyer took on the 

country’s top lawyer, declaring the so-called 

Trump Travel Ban unconstitutional. We caught 

up with Ferguson just as he was preparing for 

the next round of challenges against the Trump 

Administration’s reformulation of the ban. (See 

What I’m Working On, page 58) 

At the intersection of food and creativity we 

encounter three women who all have the same 

entrepreneurial gene and a passion for making the 

Northwest a little more sweet and savory. Food 

entrepreneurs all, they bring us European-style 

yogurts, crepes first conceived in Chinon, the 

“garden of France,” and wine from an accidental 

Walla Walla winemaker. 

Then up to Bellingham, home to the eminently walkable 

and charming historic Fairhaven District. It is in this area 

that we meander the streets and oceanside boardwalk to 

find art, good food, hippies and ourselves again. The town 

that “Dirty” Dan Harris cobbled together more than a 

century ago may be an overly sophisticated disappointment 

for the scoundrel-turned-real-estate-magnate-and-townfounder. 

Walk back in time and into one of Washington’s 

true gems in Trip Planner on page 94. 

Our Farm to Table for this issue centers on a dairy 

farm and cheesemaker 30 miles northeast of Seattle. 

On 122 acres in the Snoqualmie Valley town of Duvall, 

Cherry Valley Dairy puts emphasis on craft and trade 

with fromage blanc cheese to whey ricotta and cultured 

buttermilk. Head cheesemaker Blain Hages tells us what 

things look like when workers have fewer than two days 

to turn milk into craft dairy products. It wasn’t until a few 

years ago that they converted a mass dairy producer to a 

small crafter of artisanal cheeses. Walk the farm with us 

on page 34. 

Life is best when it’s unplugged. Head way back out into 

the Owyhee River canyonlands in far Eastern Oregon, 

where stone pillars rise hundreds of feet above the river 

basin and cell service is miles and hours away. One of the 

most remote places left in the lower 48, Owyhee was just 

passed over for a national monument designation in the 

waning hours of the Obama Administration. This wild, 

nonetheless, is as unrestrained as ever as our story unfolds 

with rafters hitting an opportune stretch of the river. Life 

seems as precious as the water of life—whiskey—on this 

trip. Join us for this adventure on page 100. 

We hope you enjoy this issue of 1889 Washington’s 

Magazine. Find us at 1889mag.com for more trip ideas, 

weekend giveaways, and connect with us on Facebook 

to glean inspiration from our travels, photos, videos and 

conversations. Cheers!

1889 ONLINE 

More ways to connect with your favorite Washington content 

1889mag.com | #1889washington | @1889washington 

washington: in focus 

Have a photo that captures 

your Washington experience? 

Share it with us by filling out the 

Washington: In Focus form on 

our website. If chosen, you’ll be 

published here. 

1889mag.com/in-focus 

wearable 

washington 

photo by Winston O’Neil 

Night falls on the Spokane River and the historic Washington Water 

Power building in Huntington Park, Spokane. 

MORE ONLINE 

Journey through the 

Owyhee Canyonlands 

with an extended photo 

gallery of our Northwest 

Destination pick— 

rowing on the Owyhee 

River in Eastern Oregon. 

1889mag.com/owyhee 

Grab one of our whale-tail T-shirts 

for the Washington-lover in your life. 

Use coupon code WHALETAIL for 

$5 off your first order! 

1889mag.com/shop 

APRIL | MAY 2017 1889 WASHINGTON’S MAGAZINE 19

FIND THE YOU THAT FITS 

oregonsadventurecoast.com | 1-800-824-8486 

1-800-737-8462 

visitsunnysequim.com 

Sunshine for all Seasons! 

Play in Beautiful, Sunny Sequim.

Stanton Stephens 

SAY WA? 22 

FOOD + DRINK 28 

HOME + DESIGN 34 

MIND + BODY 46 

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 48 

(pg. 21) 

Naomi Wachira combines simple melodies 

with thoughtful lyrics. 


Tidbits & To-dos 

A Sea of Tulips 

The quintessential flower of spring? The tulip. 

You’ll find thousands of these colorful spring 

symbols at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in 

Mount Vernon. Now in its thirty-fourth year, 

the festival continues throughout the month 

of April with special events each day. 

tulipfestival.org 

Upcycled Goods 

Alchemy Goods in Seattle believes in the 

power of upcycling —turning something of 

lesser value into something of greater value. 

Using materials such as blown-out bike inner 

tubes and retired seatbelts, founder Eli Reich 

creates messenger bags, belts, wallets and 

more. With a sleek urban look, Alchemy’s 

products are extremely durable, highly water 

resistant and affordable. 

alchemygoods.com 

Earth Day in the Evergreen State 

Celebrate and protect Washington’s patch of 

green on April 22 for Earth Day. Join the Earth 

Day Run at Magnuson Park, followed by tree 

planting; help restore native forests surrounding 

Jackson Park Golf Course with Green Seattle; or 

explore Washington’s state parks for free. 

magnusonseries.org 

mark your 

CALENDAR 

22 1889 WASHINGTON’S MAGAZINE APRIL | MAY 2017

Wild Snacking 

Buck Wild’s chips taste guilt-inducing, but they’re 

not. On a mission to create delicious, snackable 

foods without questionable ingredients, the 

company has created tortilla chips with whole 

grains, vegetables, real cheese, herbs and spices. 

Flavors include Chipotle Cheddar, Roasted 

Tomato Herb and Jalapeño Jack. 

snackbuckwild.com 

Seattle Mariners Opener 

Baseball season has begun! Help the Seattle 

Mariners kick off their season at the first 

home game against the Houston Astros on 

April 10 at Safeco Field. Crowds will roar, clad in 

silver, blue and Northwest green, as a hopeful 

season begins with a home opener. 

seattle.mariners.mlb.com 

Modern Portraiture 

We’ve all seen classical portraits by renowned 

artists of years ago. But in the age of instant 

iPhone self-portraits, where does modern 

portraiture fit as an art form? The Tacoma Art 

Museum’s current exhibit, The Outwin 2016: 

American Portraiture Today, answers this question. 

On display until May 14, the collection comes 

from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. 

tacomaartmuseum.org 


say wa? 

Musician 

Naomi Wachira 

A Light in the Darkness 

written by Lindsay McWilliams 

THE LYRICS TO NAOMI WACHIRA’S powerful 

folk songs are purposely simple: “If a woman in 

Nepal is listening to my music, and she speaks 

English, I want her to understand what I’m saying,” 

the Seattle singer said. This statement speaks to 

Wachira’s ideas about the universality of the human 

race. “No matter where we come from, there are 

things that we all share.” 

She knows this from experience, moving from her 

hometown of Kijabe, Kenya to the United States as 

a young adult. In Kijabe, she grew up singing gospel 

music in the family band, which accounts for her taste 

in tight harmonies and positive messages. 

Wachira is often compared to Tracy Chapman 

with her smooth, alto voice and simple melodies, 

but her lyrics are what have compelled fans 

worldwide. In songs such as African Girl and I Am 

A Woman, she writes about her identity as both 

woman and African immigrant, identities that are 

controversial in today’s political climate. For her, the 

current social climate solidifies why she writes, why 

she must keep affirming who she is. “I would rather 

light a candle in the darkness than keep screaming 

into the darkness,” Wachira said. 

Her forthcoming album, Song of Lament, 

addresses many of these same themes but with 

diversified instruments such as horns and strings. 

Expected to release in May, this album remains true 

to Wachira’s value of straightforward lyrics that can 

be understood outside their cultural context—a 

value she realized when she began writing music 

seven years ago. “There is power in the simple.” 

24 1889 WASHINGTON’S MAGAZINE APRIL | MAY 2017 


Naomi Wachira moved to the United States from 

Kenya as a young adult and sings about her identity. 


say wa? 

Bibliophile 

Climbing in His Father’s Footsteps 

interviewed by Sheila G. Miller 


GROWING UP IN Port Townsend, Leif 

Whittaker wasn’t just another outdoorsy 

kid. His father was “Big Jim” Whittaker, the 

first American to summit Mount Everest 

in 1963. In his book My Old Man and the 

Mountain, Leif Whittaker describes the 

experience of growing up in an extended 

family of mountain climbers and under 

the weight of the constant question, “Are 

you ever going to climb Mount Everest?” 

In 2010, Whittaker surprised himself 

by enthusiastically saying yes to an 

opportunity to climb the mountain, and did 

so again in 2012. His book is an exploration 

of life in a famous, daring family and of 

carving out adventures of his own. 

Dave Hahn descends a ladder in the Khumbu Icefall at 19,000 

feet on Mount Everest. 


Dave Hahn 

Leif and Jim Whittaker take a break on the trail to Mount Everest Base Camp. 

Your memoir talks a lot about family 

dynamics and the challenge of growing 

up in your father’s shadow and in a 

competitive family. How did you balance 

that honesty with your family’s feelings? 

It’s delicate. I think that you have to be 

honest and say what you want to say and 

tell the stories as you remember them. I 

haven’t had any bad response from any 

of my family, even if it was something I 

foresaw and was worried about. I was 

worried about that, but you know, after 

my family having read it, they’ve been 

so wonderful in their responses. They 

say, ‘I felt the same way!’ or ‘I was such 

an asshole to you, sorry about that!’ 

Even some of my cousins have said, 

‘Leif, you put on paper what I have 

grown up with—people asking me if I 

was going to climb Mount Everest.’ 

Your dad must have known that you 

heard that question and felt that pressure. 

Oh yeah, and he tried to shield me from 

it as much as he could. In retrospect, 

it really obviously has strongly affected 

me. But some of those things are 

natural. People aren’t trying to be 

mean or put pressure on you, it’s just 

what comes into their heads. I even 

hear myself doing that to some of my 

younger family members—now I’m 

that guy! 

One of the cool things about your 

book is how easily you mixed your 

dad’s history with your present-day 

experience. Is that how you think of 

your climbs? 

When I was climbing Everest, it was so 

much about revisiting that history. As 

I was climbing, I was always thinking 

about those stories, reading my dad’s 

journals or reading Tom Hornbein’s 

Everest: The West Ridge or reading James 

Dobson’s A Life on the Edge. So I was 

steeped in stories and history and we’d, 

for example, be climbing the Khumbu 

Icefall and I’d be thinking of Jake 

Breitenbach (a 25-year-old American 

who was killed in the Khumbu Icefall on 

Whittaker’s father’s 1963 expedition), 

and thinking about what climbing 

through it was like fifty years earlier. I 

always had this idea of weaving those 

two threads together because it was 

so closely interwoven in my own mind 

when I was climbing. 

In reading the book, I couldn’t get over 

the sheer number of people going up 

Mount Everest today. Where do you 

think all that leads? 

I don’t expect there are going to be any 

limitations put on the number of people that 

will be climbing Mount Everest, because 

it’s a profitable industry for the Nepalese 

government and for people in Nepal, so 

there’s not a whole lot of incentive to reduce 

the numbers up there. But it should happen, 

and I think a way to manage the number 

of people up there would be for most of 

the guide services to get together and start 

to plan a little bit better so not everyone 

is going on the same day and not trying to 

summit Mount Everest all at the same time. 

But that’s challenging too, because you all 

want to be up there on the nicest day, when 

weather’s good, and I can see that being 

really difficult to organize. 

What’s next for you? 

My next book is called My Old Mom and 

the Sea. She’s fine with it, the title is her idea. 

It’s going to be a mother-son memoir about 

sailing the South Pacific. When I was 11 years 

old, we sold everything we owned and moved 

onto a sailboat and for four years we sailed 

the South Pacific. This would be the story of 

that sailing trip. I left out a lot of those stories 

in this book because I was saving them for 

the next one. 


food + drink 

Cocktail Card 

recipe by Jamie Boudreau of Canon in Seattle 


2 ounces cachaça 

¾ ounce lemon juice 

¼ ounce simple syrup 

2 dashes orange bitters 

1 egg white 

2 tablespoons low-sugar orange, citrus or 

grapefruit marmalade 

In a cocktail shaker or mixing glass filled 

with ice, add the cachaça, lemon juice, 

simple syrup, orange bitters, egg white 

and marmalade. Shake vigorously and 

finely strain into a coupe. 

Beervana 

A pint for the people 

written and photographed by Jackie Dodd 

MiiR combines doing good with beer and coffee. 

THE WOMAN BEHIND THE COUNTER at MiiR put a freshly poured 

beer in one of my hands and an empty, insulated tumbler in the other. She 

told me to turn the tumbler over. 

“There’s a code on the bottom,” she said. “You can track where your 

proceeds went and what they did.” 

A portion of the income from MiiR goes to help provide clean water, 

education and bicycles in underdeveloped nations, regardless of whether 

it makes a profit. I looked around at the space, an artisan shop filled with 

beautifully crafted growlers, pints, tumblers and bicycles on one side, and 

a light-filled, loft-inspired coffee shop and taproom on the other. Well 

situated below the Brooks corporate offices in Fremont, it was bustling— 

even mid-day—with a crowd of people enjoying the well-crafted coffee 

and impressive craft beer tap list. 

Turning back to my pint, I let the information settle into my brain, feeling 

better about my purchase as if the next sip of beer would taste better. In a 

year when it seems like there is more chaos than peace, more unrest than 

happiness, being able to pour some good into the world seems like all we 

can do to tip the boat back upright. 

Plus, the tap list of nearly thirty well-curated craft beers makes the space 

worth a visit all on its own. It just so happens I can also help provide clean 

drinking water to sub-Saharan Africa while I get my fill of great craft beer. 

It’s almost too effortless, an overly indulgent way of giving that makes all 

other afternoon IPAs seem a tad more selfish. It’s really just another great 

excuse to travel to Fremont for beer. I drink a great beer while making the 

world just a little bit better. One pint at a time. 

3400 STONE WAY N 

SEATTLE 

miir.com 


Oregon 

wine month 

Sign up for the 1859 Wine club in may and receive your 

first month of oregon craft wines for only $1.00 

1859magazine.com/wineclub

food + drink 

CRAVINGS 

Cris Molina 

CHICKEN 

Where to find the best chicken piccata you’ve ever tasted? 

Andiamo in Bellevue, a local favorite and dining destination 

with a cultured ambience. Basked in chardonnay, lemon, 

capers and butter, this melt-in-your-mouth dish is a favorite, 

though the chicken parmigiana and chicken Marsala create 

reasons to visit Andiamo three nights a week. If you’re a veal 

fan, the same preparations are offered and just as delicious. 

938 110TH AVE NE SUITE 1 

BELLEVUE 

andiamobellevue.com 

VEGAN 

Summer is peeking around the corner, and you’re 

aiming to eat healthfully before beach season. No 

Bones Beach Club in Seattle puts you squarely in 

vacation mode: a plant-based tiki bar with fries made 

of eggplant, wings made of cauliflower, and sandwiches 

with seared tofu, parsnip cakes or panko-battered 

buffalo tempeh. The beer-battered avocado tacos are 

the bomb, as are the tropical cocktails and mocktails. 

What started as a food truck became an obsession, 

then a brick-and-mortar, with a recently launched 

second location down south in Portland. 

5410 17TH AVE NW 

SEATTLE 

nobonesbeachclub.com 

Gastronomy 

Tulio Ristorante 

written by Julie Lee 

CELEBRATING A SILVER ANNIVERSARY this year, chef Walter 

Pisano of Tulio Ristorante has been delighting Washingtonians with 

delectable Italian specialities in city center Seattle for twenty-five 

years. In a world where chefs swap around and restaurants launch 

then shutter in a New York minute, Tulio is an anchor in the restaurant 

harbor—consistent, nostalgic, ambitious. The vibe at Tulio is old 

school, in a good way. Dark-paneled wood, narrow paths between 

tables, white tablecloths and candlelight; guests feel tucked in and 

heartily taken care of by a doting waitstaff. Start with the sweet potato 

gnocchi or you’ll miss out on one of the best dishes you’ve had yet this 

year. Follow with Penn Cove mussels and any housemade pasta on 

the menu—our favorite is agnolotti with wild mushroom—then bring 

it home with fennel-rubbed albacore or Kurobuta pork shank. It will 

be difficult to choose a dessert, and you can’t go wrong with any, but 

a recommended paradigm-shifter is the Nutella bar and grappa for a 

sweet finish. 

1100 FIFTH AVE 

SEATTLE 

tulio.com 

Chef Walter Pisano prepares an entrée. 

FISH & CHIPS 

If you’re craving fresh halibut and the idyllic setting in which 

to enjoy it, then Northern Fish Co. in Tacoma is where to 

go. With a sun-splashed, over-water deck and oversized 

umbrellas for shield, fresh halibut fish and chips and a cup 

of chowder can be devoured dockside. This is one of those 

spots you need to know about before you’ll stop there, 

located off Ruston Way and next to a Silver Cloud Inn. You’ll 

be paying forward the recommendation once you try it. 

Stop for lunch—then the fresh seafood counter will answer, 

“What’s for dinner?” 

2201 RUSTON WAY 

TACOMA 

northernfish.com 

BREAKFAST 

Seattle loves its biscuits, and Biscuit Bitch answers the 

call with three locations, great biscuits and a side of 

Southern hospitality. Each location comes equipped with 

a fun, sassy vibe and confidence born of knowing exactly 

what a customer wants. Food is meant to be fun, and 

it’s a refreshing relief that things aren’t taken so seriously 

here—guests can’t really order without using the word 

“bitch,” as in the cheesy pork n’bitch, the smokin’ hot 

Seattle bitch, or our favorite, the hot mess bitch. The 

company motto “trailer park to table” speaks volumes. 

SEATTLE 

biscuitbitch.com 


BEST PLACES FOR 

BURGERS 

TIPSY COW 

Locally farmed grass-fed beef patties between freshbaked 

Macrina artisan buns, topped with brewbattered 

onion rings, housemade dill pickles and a 

fried organic egg—it’s burger heaven at Tipsy Cow 

Burger Bar. This spot hits a homerun when you 

want to catch the Mariners on TV while downing an 

innovative burger and an ice-cold microbrew. 

WOODINVILLE & REDMOND 

tipsycowburgerbar.com 

RAIN CITY BURGERS 

In a city brimming with gourmet burger options, 

there sits an unassuming, family-friendly burger 

joint with unwaveringly great burgers at Rain City 

Burgers. The beef is still free of hormones, the cows 

still eat a vegetarian-fed diet and there are still some 

fancy topping options such as caramelized onions or 

jalapeño with garlic. But the best burger here is the 

simple bacon cheeseburger with American cheese 

and a seeded bun. For a game-day fuel fill, try the 

12th man burger: two beef patties, four slices of 

bacon and two slices of American cheese. 

6501 ROOSEVELT WAY NE 

SEATTLE 

raincityburgers.com 

FRIESENBURGERS 

Let’s admit it—burgers generally come with 

health warnings, what with the bread, beef 

and cheese not being highly recommended by 

nutritionists. Friesenburgers in Tacoma offers 

some peace of mind (and heart and thigh) 

with a bison burger on a gluten-free bun. Bison 

is a healthier red meat, lower in saturated fat 

and a great source of basic nutrients. The 

Friesenburgers’ non-GMO, organic bison 

burger on a guilt-free bun makes for a healthy 

burger choice as we head into summer. 

308 E 26TH ST 

TACOMA 

friesenburgers.com 

LUNCHBOX LABORATORY 

Fresh-baked buns, Kobe beef, fancy fixings: 

Lunchbox Laboratory brings a good burger 

game. For those who love to get a little wild with 

their burgers, Lunchbox offers toppings that 

range from unusual to just plain wacky—like 

escabeche (Latin spicy pickled veggies) Guajillo 

cream cheese and black garlic truffle mayo. It’s 

BYOB here (build your own burger) with a wide 

selection of patties, like dork (duck meets pork), 

super-beef, chicken and vegan black bean. Then 

you build your empire-sized burger from there. 

Bonus: add poutine for just $3. 

lunchboxlaboratory.com 

Jannie Huang 

Dining 

Rally Pizza 


When a longtime chef and alum of the iconic 

Ken’s Artisan Pizza, Alan Maniscalco, decides 

to open his own shop, people pay attention. 

Maniscalco and wife, Shan Wickham, a 

former pastry chef at Ken’s, launched out 

on their own last September to outstanding 

initial reviews, and the momentum has 

only kicked up since. Lauded for their 

micro-focus on making everything but the 

furniture you sit on in-house, Rally Pizza 

offers template-shattering pizzas made with 

hand-pulled mozzarella and ricotta cheese, 

house-smoked Canadian and belly bacon, 

pickled smoked jalapeños or a fried duck 

egg for the venturesome. The sides are just 

as noteworthy—roasted vegetables that 

will make you never question eating veggies 

food + drink 

Rally Pizza strives to make everything in-house. 

again, a crisp Caesar salad with local greens 

and the perfect amount of lemon anchovy 

dressing and crispy potatoes with warm 

prosciutto cracklings that inspire a crack-like 

addiction. Save room for dessert—Wickham 

presents concretes, frozen custard blended 

with housemade treats like devil’s food cake 

and tart cherry pie, and sundaes such as 

“clouds in my coffee” with mocha sauce and 

chocolate pearls or “campfire” with gooey 

burnt marshmallow and chocolate fudge 

sauce. Open for lunch and dinner, Rally offers 

prices so reasonable you’ll feel guilty paying 

them, with a special lunch combo and a 

stellar happy hour to boot. 

8070 E MILL PLAIN BLVD. 

RALLYPIZZA.COM 

MORE ONLINE For more Washington eats, visit 1889mag.com/dining 


© Kimberly Kay 

NEW! VACATION RENTAL HOMES 

are breaking ground this summer 

and are available for purchase. 

© Kimberly Kay 

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home + design 

Farm to Table 

Cream of the Crop 

Dishing on the delights of 

Cherry Valley Dairy 

written by Corinne Whiting 


One of Cherry Valley Dairy's cows gets up close and personal.

home + design 

Angelique Denneman 

Emily Deans 

Head cheesemaker Blain Hages holds up a three-year-old wheel of cheese. 

LONG BEFORE THE SUN has climbed 

above the horizon, dairy farmers across the 

state have begun their morning routines, 

commencing a daily mission of creating 

high-quality milks, cheeses and other creamy 

delights. This lifestyle is not for the faint 

of heart. At Duvall’s Cherry Valley Dairy, 

about 30 miles northeast of Seattle, a typical 

production shift involves working from 

4:45 a.m. until noon (with other chores and 

deliveries completed after that). The cows 

get milked at 5:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., head 

cheesemaker Blain Hages explained, and 

workers have fourty-eight hours to “use or 

lose” what they’ve collected. 

Five dedicated employees and a few 

volunteers run this thriving property that 

Hages describes as a “classic hillside dairy” set 

on 122 acres of beautiful Washington land. 

A farm for eighty-seven years, it was bought 

in 2005 by eco-preneur Gretchen Garth. She 

envisioned a smaller operation with a focus 

on “keeping a healthy, meadow-grazing herd, 

crafting traditional, natural dairy products 

and employing innovative, environmentally 

friendly principles to manage the historic 

farmstead.” Initially a bulk milk supplier to 

local favorite Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, 

the venue began its creamery renovations in 

2009 and made its first wheels of cheese and 

butter in 2012. 

Today the refurbished dairy—and 

designated “salmon-safe farm”—has a 

single herd of forty jersey cows, employs 

an impressive list of “green” practices and 

churns out fifteen to twenty delicious 

products (all pasteurized), depending on the 

season. Cherry Valley currently produces 

12,000 pounds of cheese each year and 9,000 

pounds of butter, and its received top honors 

at national competitions for both their aged 

cheeses and top-notch butters. 

Buzzworthy products range from curds 

and fromage blanc to cultured ghee and 

cultured buttermilk. Its Dairy Reserve semifirm 

cheese has an enticing description of 

“tangy, sweet and buttery with a smooth, 

nutty finish,” while the Meadow Bloom is 

“a luscious, tangy, unctuous, mushroomy 

double-crème bloomy rind cheese.” 

Butters come in innovative flavors like 

“coffee” and “herbed rose,” in which a French 

blend of dried green herbs, dried lavender 

and rose petals get folded into the signature 

Gray Salt Butter. Those with food sensitivities 

love that Cherry Valley breeds for 

an A2 milk supply, limiting leaky 

gut symptoms and other stomach 


home + design 

"If you can cook, you can 

make cheese." 

—Blain Hages 

A freshly churned tub of butter. 

Cheese curds are cut and drained before being turned into Dairy Reserve. 

ailments often associated with allergies. Hages’ personal favorite? 

The whey ricotta, which he calls “very true, nice, grainy … It’s 

fluffy and smears like ice cream.” This high-protein product 

also happens to be the “most guilt-free cheese you’ll ever eat,” he 

promises, further adding to the allure. 

Hages grew up in Ellensburg’s “cow land,” but never partook 

in 4-H activities or anything of the sort. In fact, he knew nothing 

about cheese until joining the Beecher’s team in 2003. He 

reminisces about his career’s “humble beginnings” in which he 

“started at the bottom, had a really good boss and did all the 

work no one else wanted to do.” While consulting in 2010, he 

met Cherry Valley’s Garth, who brought him onboard. After 

commuting from Seattle for seven years, Hages finally relocated 

to Duvall, a move that allows him to walk to work, and his 5-yearold 

daughter to go to school across from the farm. 

Although the farm offers scheduled tours, “we’ve never turned 

away anyone who’s walked up curious,” Hages said. “It’s nice to 

explain to people what we do, to take some of the mystery out 

of it.” While some who call ahead ask to take a full tour, others 

simply focus on photos of calves. 

Cherry Valley keeps standing orders with Kirkland’s 

bustling Deru Market, and they’ve sold their delectable 

buttermilk and cream to Seattle’s Canlis, perhaps the most 

lauded restaurant in the Emerald City. In Eastsound, Rosario 

Resort & Spa exclusively serves Cherry Valley’s Gray Salted 

Cultured Butter at The Mansion Restaurant, where servers 

field queries about the butter on a regular basis. Products can 

also be found online through the Puget Sound Food Hub, as 

well as at the Duvall Family Grocer, Match Coffee & Wine Bar 

and the seasonal Duvall Farmers Market. 

On Bainbridge Island, head to Bay Hay and Feed and Pane 

d’Amore. In wine-centric Woodinville, book a coveted table at 

The Herbfarm. For Woodinville’s Matthews Winery, Cherry 

Valley provides herb butters as well as cubed, sliced and alreadyprepped 

cheeses to fill convenient grab-and-go boxes. In Seattle, 

peruse spots from Central Co-op and Kurt Farm Shop to Pike 

Place Market’s DeLaurenti and Beecher’s Handmade Cheese. 

Cherry Valley has recently begun its first foray into bigger 

markets like Issaquah and Redmond’s PCC, too. 

“If you can cook,” Hages insisted, “you can make cheese. A 

lot of the job is repetition, doing the same thing over and over. 

Boredom sets in, and you find a way to turn it into a game,” testing 

new variables and creating new recipes. Sure, sometimes the end 

result has to be discarded. Other times, Hages happily reported, 

“mistakes turn into really good things.” And, might we add, really 

delicious things. 


ORDER 

YOUR FREE 

GUIDE! 

OPEN UP to Snohomish County. Just 30 minutes north 

of Seattle, there’s a treasure trove of adventure waiting for you to discover.

home + design 

Washington Recipes 

Dairy Delights 

Cherry Valley Dairy Truffled Ricotta 

Dumplings 

REDMOND / Pomegranate Bistro 

Tana Mielke 

2 cups Cherry Valley Dairy whey ricotta 

6 egg yolks 

½ cup Cherry Valley Dairy premium reserve 

cheese, finely grated 

1 cup and 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour 

1 teaspoon salt 

8 tablespoons Cherry Valley Dairy PNW 

truffle butter 

1 tablespoon pink peppercorn 

Semolina as needed 

FOR THE DUMPLINGS 

In a bowl, combine ricotta, egg yolks, cheese and salt 

until fully incorporated. Sprinkle with sifted flour and 

work into cheese mixture, being careful not to overwork. 

This will keep dumplings like soft, pillowy clouds. Form 

into a disc and turn out onto kitchen film. Wrap tightly. 

Refrigerate 2 to 24 hours. 

After dough has rested, remove from film and cut 

off a 2-inch section. Place section on a lightly floured 

work surface (wood is best). With open hands, using 

only your palms, gently apply pressure to the top of the 

dough and roll from the center, working to the ends until 

a rope forms and measures about ¾ inch in diameter. 

With a floured bench scraper or knife, cut ropes in 

¾-inch pieces. Don’t worry if they are imperfect. Toss in 

semolina and lay out on sheet tray or plate. If you don’t 

plan to use dumplings immediately, freeze them. 

FOR THE DISH 

Start a pot of boiling water and season liberally with salt 

so that it tastes like seawater. Add dumplings (fresh or 

frozen) to boiling water and boil for about 2 minutes. 

You will know they are done when they float. 

Before dumplings are cooked, start your sauté pan 

over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of butter. Transfer 

the now-cooked dumpling to the pan, adding a couple 

ounces of cooking water with each portion. Keeping 

the pan moving (either swirling or tossing), add 2 

tablespoons of truffle butter per serving. The cooking 

liquid and butter will emulsify. Be careful not to apply 

too much heat during this process or the butter will 

separate. If it seems like this is happening, add a little 

more water. 

In the final moment, add a pinch of pink peppercorn. 

Spoon dumplings onto a plate, garnish with a little more 

peppercorn, and if you like, more cheese or shaved truffles. 

Pappardelle with Brown Butter 

Hazelnut Ragu 

EASTSOUND / The Mansion 

Raymond Southern 

8 ounces fresh pappardelle pasta 

(or dried pasta if fresh is not 

available) 

½ cup hazelnuts, skins removed 

1 bunch fresh thyme, leaves only 

Olive oil, for sautéing 

Kosher salt, to taste 

Fresh ground black pepper, to taste 

FOR TOASTED HAZELNUTS 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread hazelnuts 

on a baking sheet and toast until golden brown, 

20 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven, peel off 

skin, let cool and chop coarsely. Set aside. 

FOR BROWN BUTTER 

Place butter in a small pan and cook on high 

heat until it just starts to bubble. Turn down 

heat and continue to cook until butter is very 

dark brown and starts to smell like toasted 

nuts. Remove from heat and pour right away 

into a cold non-reactive container so the butter 

will stop cooking. Refrigerate at least one hour 

or until the mixture is solidified. 

Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. 

Add hazelnuts to lightly toast. Season with salt 

and pepper and add heavy cream and white wine. 

Pappardelle with brown butter hazelnut ragu from The Mansion. 

1 ½ cup heavy cream 

¼ cup white wine 

2 ounces Cherry Valley Dairy 

whey ricotta 

½ cup Cherry Valley Dairy 

cultured butter 

optional 

Soft poached egg 

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese 

Photography courtesy of The Mansion 

Bring the cream to a boil, then simmer until 

reduced by almost half. 

While the sauce is cooking, boil the pasta 

to your desired doneness, or per package 

instructions. 

When the sauce has reduced, toss in the 

cooked pasta. If the sauce is too thick, add a 

touch of pasta water. Toss in whey ricotta, fresh 

thyme and stir in 1 tablespoon of the solidified 

brown butter. Season to taste with more salt 

and pepper. Serve immediately in warm dishes. 

Optional: Top pasta with a lightly poached 

egg and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano 

cheese. The runny yolk will add another level of 

richness to the dish. 


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home + design 

“When you live in a 

remote place like that 

you really connect with 

nature.” 

— Alexandra Immel 


Into the Wild 

written by Melissa Dalton 

photography by Alice Hayes 

home + design 

Energy efficiency meets art and soul in an 

off-grid cabin in the woods 

IN 2012, Aviathar Pemberton 

was picking up supplies in a 

Leavenworth lumberyard when 

he encountered unexpected 

resistance. Pemberton is the owner 

of Warm Homes Construction 

in Skagit Valley and had come 

to the area to build an off-grid 

cabin nestled deep in 25 acres of 

forestland outside town. When 

he revealed this to one man in the 

lumberyard, recalled Pemberton, 

“The guy looked me up and down 

and said, ‘Really? Nobody builds 

up there. That’s in the middle of 

nowhere.'” Such an untouched area 

had earned its reputation. “It’s truly 

wild there,” Pemberton said of the 

cabin’s site. “There are cougars and 

forest fires. You can get snowed in 

and freeze.” 

It was just that wildness that 

appealed to the “backwoods tough” 

clients who would be calling the 

cabin home. “They like to grab 

a backpack and charge up into 

the mountains. Hike for miles up 

to a lake that nobody’s been to 

and catch a bunch of trout. Then 

bring ‘em on down home and 

cook them up,” Pemberton said. 

“That’s their idea of living the good 

life.” To realize this dream, they 

teamed up with Pemberton and 

British architect Alexandra Immel, 

who works as an architectural 

designer in Seattle. Both of them 

understood the need to be selfsufficient 

and energy independent 

in such a remote place. 

Most of the site’s acreage was 

deemed unbuildable due to 

potential fire exposure, so the cabin 

was restricted to a steeply sloped 

50-foot-by-50-foot parcel. Immel 

was able to carve out three stories 

in the modest footprint. There is 

a basement for storage, a middle 

level with two guest bedrooms and 

an upper floor that contains the 

main living areas and a principal 

bedroom suite. “The idea was that 

most of the time they could live on 

the top level,” said Immel, but also 

have accommodations for visiting 

friends and family. 

For inspiration, she looked to the 

architecture of traditional Pacific 

Northwest fire lookouts, melding 

form and function in the house’s 

overall shape. “There were two 

reasons that we loved the old fire 

lookout buildings,” Immel said. 

“One is that they’re very beautiful, 

but also that they get up above 

the level of the snow.” The lower 

levels form a columnar structure 

submerged in the hillside, while a 

wraparound deck on the top story 

evokes a fire lookout’s observation 

platform. The deck overhang also 

cleverly shelters the entries below 

it. That way, “There’s always an 

entrance that’s protected from the 

snow,” Immel said. 

Not only did Immel have to 

design the house to withstand 

extreme weather conditions, 

Pemberton and his crew also 

adapted their approach to 

construction. “This is not a site 

for every contractor,” Immel said, 

calling Pemberton as a natural fit. 

He began his career in the early 

’80s with the then-burgeoning 

“homestead culture” in Northeast 

Washington, and he still lives in 

the off-grid home he built thirtyone 

years ago. For this project, 

he and his crew, including his 

two sons and son-in-law, 

camped on site during the 

summer months. 

APRIL | MAY 2017 1889 WASHINGTON’S MAGAZINE 41 

Trees milled from the construction area were used as exterior siding.

home + design 


home + design 

Then they raced to wrap up before the winter snow started, 

ultimately completing the project in two years. 

The cabin’s siting did not have ideal sun exposure for mounting 

solar panels on the roof, so the array had to be positioned 200 

feet away. This prompted a realization from Pemberton: “We 

can put the solar panels up first, and then run the power down 

from the panels and build the house from solar power.” After Fire 

Mountain Solar installed the panels, Pemberton's crew did just 

that, running all their tools and machinery via solar power for the 

duration of the build. “It worked fantastically,” Pemberton said of 

the unconventional setup. “The only problem was that we needed 

very long extension cords.” 

Thanks to the efforts of the design-build team, the finished 

cabin melds modern, energy-efficient technology with 

handcrafted soul. Interior air temperatures are stabilized by a 

super-insulated shell, courtesy of insulated concrete forms in 

the lower levels, a structural insulated panel in the roof, and 

triple-paned windows. Upstairs, an efficient Quadra-Fire woodburning 

stove surrounded with artful shelves and niches serves 

as a focal point. Topped with a steel plate, the homeowners can 

use the stove for cooking if necessary, and it also acts as the 

linchpin for a simple heating system that Pemberton designed. 

Energy-efficient fans draw down and disburse the stove’s heat to 

the floor below. Those same fans can pull cool air up from the 

basement to chill the top floor in the summer. “It works very well. 

It was a very clever system that he devised,” Immel said. There is 

also a backup propane system to meet state code requirements. 

The homeowners rarely use it, though it’s helpful for keeping the 

house from freezing if they’re away. 

The forested site supplied the raw materials for key finishes. 

Pemberton’s crew milled the yellow pine and fir trees that were 

cleared during construction. Once ready, they applied those 

boards to the exterior siding and staircases, as well as the floor and 

trim inside, enveloping the interior with warmth. Immel specified 

custom rift-oak kitchen cabinets stained blue to create a pleasing 

contrast with the wood tones. The homeowner fabricated several 

artisan glass accents, from a mosaic at the hearth to thin inlaid 

strips in the kitchen cabinets, which lend additional color and 

soul. Pemberton fashioned a sliding door from salvaged wood 

windows inset with handmade glass panels. 

A 9-foot doorway joins the upper floor to the generous porch, 

offering a covered place to perch and enjoy the home’s natural 

setting. “You feel like you’re a bird up in a nest at the top of a tree,” 

Immel said. The owners are currently crafting an installation for 

the porch’s floor, which will depict the topography of the area 

in another handmade glass mosaic. In so many ways, the cabin 

enables them to really appreciate the wilderness they love so 

much. “When you live in a remote place like that,” Immel said, 

“you really connect with nature.” 

FROM LEFT A large porch allows for outdoor living. The wood-burning stove keeps the 

home heated. The cabin was built on a steeply sloped parcel. 


home + design 

Cabin Cozy 

Give your home a woodsy feel 

Woodworker Benjamin 

Klebba leads Phloem Studio, 

a Stevenson furnituremaking 

outfit where every 

piece is built to order. With 

its elegant wooden frame 

and tufted upholstery, the 

Regina Lounge Chair and 

Ottoman is perfect for a 

fireside hang. 

phloemstudio.com 

Eighth Generation is a 

Native-owned product line 

founded in 2008 by Louie 

Gong, an artist, educator, 

and public speaker raised in 

the Nooksack community. 

In 2015, he debuted wool 

blankets that offer modern 

interpretations of traditional 

Native weaving motifs. 

Curl up with the “Salish 

Pattern” wool blanket, a 

Gong original that celebrates 

Coast Salish culture. 

eighthgeneration.com 

Headquartered in Colville, 

Washington, Quadra-Fire 

manufactures a series of 

efficient wood-burning 

stoves. Many are EPAcertified, 

meaning they’ve 

been independently tested 

and proven to meet specific 

limits on particulate 

emissions. The 5700 Step 

Top Wood Stove can heat 

up to 3,700 square feet, burn 

fifteen hours at a time, and 

offers a range of leg style and 

door trim options. 

quadrafire.com 


Stay & relax 

in our new 

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Nestled in the heart of the Gorge on the Columbia River one mile east of Stevenson, WA, The Resort at Skamania 

Coves offers luxury vacation home rentals and RV lodging on 30 beautiful riverfront acres. Our Osprey Treehouse 

is also now available! Conveniently located close to all the Gorge has to offer. The Resort at Skamania Coves is 

perfect for a romantic getaway, family fun, and outdoor enthusiasts alike!

mind + body 


mind + body 

Keeping the Ball Rolling 

The CEO of Baden Sports knows a 

thing or two about athletics 

written by Sheila G. Miller 

photography by James Harnois 

MICHAEL SCHINDLER RUNS the kind of 

company that you have heard of, even if you 

think you haven’t. As CEO of Baden Sports, 

he’s responsible for many of the basketballs, 

volleyballs and other athletic equipment 

you see everywhere from county fairs to 

sporting events. 

“You wouldn’t believe how many people 

don’t know we’re local,” Schindler said from 

his Renton office. 

Baden may be best known for its 

basketballs and volleyballs, though it also 

produces other sports implements as well 

as backyard games. It recently moved into 

the baseball bat market with its Axe Bat, a 

design with a new style of grip and handle 

shaped like … you guessed it, an axe. 

The company originally produced tennis 

products. In 1978, Schindler got involved 

and the company moved away from tennis 

and toward balls. Baden’s big break came 

when women’s college basketball started 

testing a smaller ball. Unlike many of the 

other sports equipment companies at the 

time, Baden developed a prototype. When 

the rule change was made, Baden was the 

only company that could meet the demand. 

As a kid, Schindler played basketball 

incessantly, and continued with that passion 

through high school and college. 

“Back in my day there wasn’t barely even 

TV, so I played basketball for hours every 

day, from the time I was 5 or 6 years old. I 

just played basketball all the time,” he said. 

Then in his late 40s, Schindler tore his 

meniscus and had to have arthroscopic 

surgery. When the surgery was over, his 

doctor had some bad news for him. 

“He said if I wasn’t committed to playing 

basketball five days a week, I’d be in here 

and he’d be sewing up an Achilles tendon 

rupture,” Schindler said. “As busy as I was 

with my kids and my business, that was the 

end of my basketball career.” 

Today, he dabbles in golf but mostly walks 

for its health benefits. 

Every day, Schindler is joined by 

colleagues as he walks about 2.5 miles on 

a trail that traipses through wetlands near 

Baden headquarters. 

“When I first stopped playing basketball in my 

mid-20s, just getting out of shape a little, that’s 

when I turned my first ankle,” Schindler said. “It’s 

a commitment, it’s tough to stay in shape.” 

When Schindler plays golf, he skips the 

cart so he’s forced to walk the eighteen holes. 

“The only reason I continue to play golf 

is for the exercise because I’m sure not 

doing it to be a better golfer,” Schindler said. 

“I haven’t gotten any better since the first 

month I played.” 

There’s also a ping pong table in the office, 

and frequent tournaments take place down 

the hall from Schindler’s office. 

“They kick my butt,” he said, laughing, 

about his employees. “Like anything you 

have to play it a lot.” 

Schindler chooses to get his walking in 

during the afternoon, because there’s limited 

daylight in the Seattle area, especially in 

winter. He’s preparing to return to personal 

training and free weights, because he’s 

noticed that age means a loss of muscle 

mass and he worries about that. 

“It’s really the weightlifting to keep you 

toned, it’s critical,” he said. “I used to really 

think I was very coordinated. You go hiking 

and you go across the river jumping from 

one rock to another. But now I crawl across 

or I’ll fall in the drink.” 

While Schindler is a regular on his walks, 

his Boston terrier, Lulu, no longer joins him 

after she was stung by bees. “I think she 

thinks I’m the one who stung her.” 

As he ages, Schindler is all right with letting 

his activity fall by the wayside a bit and letting 

the younger people he works with be the 

athletic ones. 

“I’ve never been injured drinking coffee,” 

he said. 

Michael Schindler 

CEO, Baden Sports 

Age: 67 

Born: Portland, Oregon 

Residence: Burien 

WORKOUT 

• Walks daily, about 2.5 miles 

• Hikes on occasion at parks and 

trails in the area 

• Golfs on occasion (no cart) 

NUTRITION 

Fresh foods, not processed (he 

hasn’t eaten a meal from a fast 

food restaurant since his oldest 

child, who is now in his 20s, was 12 

years old) 

• Yogurt and cottage cheese 

• Raisins 

• Seasonal berries 

• Roasted or baked chicken 

INSPIRATIONS 

Schindler is driven by a passion to 

make the very best product in every 

category Baden enters. He said the 

Axe Bat is a perfect example. He 

sees it as a product that improves 

the game for the player and helps 

hitters perform better. 

He’s also inspired by his 

longtime employees, and in 

wanting to make a difference in 

athletes’ lives. 

Michael Schindler, right, walks with coworkers during the 

lunch hour each day. 


Washington History by the Mile 

Northwest Heritage Resources provides an audio 

connection to the past 


photography by Jill Linzee 

48 1889 WASHINGTONS’S MAGAZINE APRIL | MAY 2017

artist in residence 

Horse packer Jess Darwood of Carlton with his 

handmade saddle. 

Mary Donaty of Paradise Found Fiber Farm in Clinton “kisses” 

one of her llamas. She also raises alpacas and pygora goats on 

her farm. 

Scottish highland dancers compete at the Whidbey Island 

Highland Games. 

LONG ROAD TRIPS IN WASHINGTON don’t have to 

be boring. In fact, Northwest Heritage Resources’ heritage 

tours put trips into the realm of memorable. The tours are 

audio guides meant to be listened to on any of ten common 

routes throughout the state. 

Narrated audio guides include traditional music, stories 

and other content from locals who live along each route. 

These tours identify scenic views, natural sites and historic 

locations along the route and provide insight into the 

state’s culture. 

Jill Linzee, the executive director of Northwest Heritage 

Resources, said the tours were the brainchild of several of 

the state’s public folklorists as part of an effort to educate 

people about the local culture. 

“As one of my colleagues put it, it’s about the invisible 

cultural landscape,” Linzee said. “It’s not necessarily 

invisible, but when you drive along you aren’t necessarily 

connected with all the people who live there and why they 

live there and what their local culture is.” 

Each of the guides are dedicated to a heritage corridor 

or scenic byway in Washington. Some of the guides were 

created with help from the Washington State Department 

of Transportation, while others had the support of the 

National Endowment for the Arts. The guides are timed to 

the drive, so that when you’re driving through Snohomish, 

you’ll be hearing about Snohomish from people who live 

there. Most of the audio tours come with complementary 

guidebooks—with more information, bibliographies and in 

several cases sequences of maps for each area identifying 

places of interest. 

Producing the guides is labor intensive. First, cultural 

specialists spend hundreds of hours researching the area. 

“We’re looking for, what is the local folk life? What are 

the cultural communities that are unique and important to 

this part of the state?” Linzee said. “That is done by doing 

basic library research about the region and the history of 

settlement in that part of the state, from the earliest times 

right up until the present. We are interested in showing the 

history of cultural development of the area but also present 

day.” 

Next, folklorists identify people in the area to highlight, 

then head to the region to do interviews and recordings. 

“For example, when we go to a place like the 

Cascades Loop, because it covers a lot of ground 


artist in residence 

Jan Ellis, an Oak Harbor resident of Dutch heritage, stands in 

front of the windmill at Holland Gardens Park. 

Wooden boat builder Will Shields at Ross Lake Resort. His boats are used by lodge guests. 

and some of it is on Puget Sound and some of it is up in 

the mountains, we might be interviewing people like boat 

builders on Whidbey Island and crop farmers on some of 

the famous historic farming areas of Whidbey, people who 

are cowboys and ranchers in eastern Washington, people 

who work the woods but also different kinds of cultural 

traditions that come out of those,” she said. “We would 

record Native Americans telling legends tied to various 

places. We might go into the local Grange Hall and record 

people playing music for a dance for the Scandinavian 

community, or singing blue grass gospel in the areas 

where the old Tarheels settled from North Carolina in 

Washington.” 

Often the folklorists end up with more than two hours of 

a single interview, then have to narrow it to a three-minute 

clip. 

The group has recorded Mariachi bands in Wenatchee, 

interviewed Bavarian mural painters in Leavenworth and 

taken a deep dive into the Vietnamese community in Everett. 

In the Cascades Loop, much of the land is overseen 

by the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies, 

so they let USFS employees tell stories. In the Methow 

Valley, multiple generations have made their livelihoods as 

horsepackers. 

There’s a lot of history in the guides, and all have Native 

American voices in them as well. 

“Everywhere you go in the state there was at one point 

in time native communities,” Linzee said. “Some of them 

were forced out of those areas, but we tell their story too. 

Actually what’s important is that they tell their stories, 

that’s what’s really interesting about these guides. We find 

people who represent these aspects of the culture and we 

interview and record them.” 

“We’ll pick out some of the music, or if we have, for 

example, a cowboy poet, we’ll have them reciting some of 

their cowboy poetry,” Linzee said. “We may have somebody 

telling a story or a legend, and maybe we can’t have the 

whole legend but we can have some important piece of it.” 

Linzee said she’s listened to other guides while traveling 

in other states, but has never heard anything quite as wellresearched 

or as well presented. “It’s not just some narrator 

telling you about the area,” Linzee said. “You’re hearing 

local people telling about it.” 

50 1889 WASHINGTONS’S MAGAZINE APRIL | MAY 2017

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SNEAK AWAY

Elizabeth Baker 

STARTUP 54 

WHAT’S GOING UP 56 

WHAT I’M WORKING ON 58 

MY WORKSPACE 60 

GAME CHANGER 61 

(pg. 60) 

Carl Chamberlin designs boats in Port Townsend.

startup 

Streaming Out of the Mainstream 

IndieFlix brings independent films to the masses 

written by Isaac Peterson 

“WHAT WOULD YOU DO if I sang out of tune? Would you stand 

up and walk out on me?” Joe Cocker’s broken, downbeat version of 

the Beatles’ song resounded through American living rooms in the 

late ’80s, a signal to gather around the TV and watch The Wonder 

Years, an offbeat show that championed the outsider. 

Scilla (pronounced Sheila) Andreen understood feeling like 

an outsider. Growing up, her Chinese heritage set her apart 

from other kids. She was a college dropout who left New York 

University to work in television. When she first started working 

on The Wonder Years, she did minor tasks in wardrobe, but after 

a few episodes found herself leading the costume department. 

“I pretty much dressed Winnie Cooper as I had dressed as a 

kid,” Andreen recalled. “Of course, I always checked the dates in 

my research that consisted of yearbooks and Sears catalogs that 

were piled high on my desk.” 

She was nominated for an Emmy, and the show gave her the 

financial freedom to start participating in the indie film circuit. 

Such is the backstory for IndieFlix, Andreen’s streaming service for 

independent films which challenges traditional distribution models 

by directly connecting artists with their audience and paying the 

filmmakers according to a unique revenue-per-minute model. It’s 

an artist-centered forum which can potentially change the game 

for indie filmmakers, allowing them to use their work to directly 

generate revenue for their next project. 

Though IndieFlix has been around since 2005 (originally 

as a DVD-by-mail subscription service similar to Netflix) the 

Madison Park office in Seattle runs like a startup, with a culture 

that’s energetic and experimental. It’s not unusual for a strategy 

meeting to take place on the dock overlooking Lake Washington. 

The space is the IndieFlix corporate headquarters, but it’s also 


startup 

an artistic production studio. Andreen is usually there 

editing her films or working with employees and 

interns to perfect her new virtual reality project. 

Andreen is a CEO and an artist, and she pushes 

the boundaries of both roles. Her current project is 

called Angst: Breaking the Stigma Around Anxiety. It 

tells stories of anxiety and how it impacts individuals 

as well as society at large. The project will be released 

as a multimedia experience: a movie, a documentary 

series, app and virtual reality experience designed to 

simulate a panic attack. She wants to use art to break 

through the isolation of anxiety disorder and tell the 

larger story. 

Andreen’s love of independent films goes back to 

her days on The Wonder Years. 

“During my hiatus, I would produce or direct a 

movie and travel with that film through the film 

festival circuit,” Andreen said. ”It was during that 

time I learned about how many thousands upon 

thousands of incredible films are made every 

year and yet less than 1 percent find any kind of 

meaningful distribution.” 

It was a critical insight. The prospect of distribution 

was a slim all-or-nothing experience. Filmmakers 

dreamed of getting noticed and having their projects 

picked up by the artistic branch of a big studio. 

Artists were at the mercy of the Hollywood studios 

and only potentially profitable projects really had a 

shot. There were breakout hits where indie movies 

crossed into the mainstream, but for the most part 

the big distribution model left an endless number of 

unwatched independent films in limbo. Why not help 

people see them? 

Andreen’s idea was the true beginning of IndieFlix, 

although the state of technology at the time couldn’t 

support the concept. 

“I decided right there and then to start a company/ 

marketplace that would serve incredible movies that had 

no home,” Andreen said. “The industry was extremely 

fragmented. My goal was to curate some of the best 

content in one place and to help filmmakers learn to be their own 

gatekeepers and to make meaningful revenue.” 

Andreen co-founded IndieFlix with Gian Carlo Scandiuzzi. 

Today IndieFlix gives cinephiles access to more than 8,000 highquality 

independent shorts, features, documentaries and webseries 

from eighty-five countries, 2,500 film festivals and the top 

film schools for a low monthly membership fee ($4.99/month and 

$39.99/year). IndieFlix’s royalty payment system (RPM—Revenue 

Per Minute) pays filmmakers for every minute watched. The RPM 

system directly connects filmmaker and viewer, allowing viewers 

to finance their favorite filmmakers just by watching. 

“I believe that we have proven we can make quality content that 

has universal appeal on a modest budget,” Andreen said. “For me 

right now, it’s all about returns. I want to make quality content at 

a reasonable price for many to enjoy for years to come. IndieFlix 

IndieFlix CEO Scilla Andreen got her start on The Wonder Years. 

was one of the first, if not the very first, company to truly address 

the needs of the filmmaker-content creator.” 

For Andreen, creating a place for art and creative freedom is more 

important than ever. 

“I think we’re going to have an explosion of art because of this 

current political climate,” Andreen said. “People more than ever 

need to express themselves. I think it’s one of the most exciting times 

for all forms of art.” 

Ultimately, the outsider’s perspective is something she can’t shake, 

despite her success as an artist and the success of her company. 

Perhaps it’s a feeling to be cultivated, a way to stay artistically sharp. 

“It seems that no matter how successful or popular the movies and 

TV shows I work on … I still feel like an outsider,” Andreen said. “I 

think it must keep me humble and in a state of learning.” 

Coco Knudson 

Use promo code ‘1889’ for two months free at indieflix.com/promo 


what’s going up? 

RMG Architects 

Redeveloping Industrial Sites 


Waterfront Place Central in the Port of Everett will be a mixed-use development. 

SOMETIMES CAPTAINS OF 

industry leave behind a real mess. 

Such is the case at former industrial 

or commercial sites around the 

country called brownfields, where 

environmental contamination has 

damaged prospects for redevelopment. 

Think abandoned lumber mills or 

empty factories. 

Increasingly those areas are being 

cleaned up and redeveloped, thanks 

in part to federal and state grants that 

assist in the cleanup. 

Waterfront Place Central in the 

Port of Everett is one such project. 

A former shipyard, the first phase of 

the 65-acre mixed-use development 

will feature apartments, a hotel, 

commercial buildings and retail and 

restaurant spaces. 

Seaport Landing in Aberdeen 

is undergoing a similar transition. 

Slated to be a mixed-use waterfront 

development overlooking Grays Harbor, 

the development will also feature a 

visitor information center and other 

projects designed to encourage tourism. 

The Grays Harbor Historical Seaport 

Authority is handling the project, set on 

the site of a former sawmill. 

A rendering of Seaport Landing in Aberdeen. 


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what i’m working on 

Attorney General Bob Ferguson 

Opposing the Trump travel ban 

interview by Kevin Max 

Photo courtesy of Washington State Attorney General 

Attorney General Bob Ferguson plays a chess match with Q13 Fox News political analyst C.R. Douglas. 

WASHINGTON STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL Bob Ferguson and his legal team led the successful opposition to the Trump 

Administration’s executive order that singled out seven predominantly Muslim countries in a wide-ranging travel ban, arguing the ban 

was unconstitutional and would lead to financial hardship for the state and its leading businesses. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals 

ruled in favor of Washington, effectively denying this executive order. We caught up with Ferguson just as the Trump Administration was 

signaling it would rewrite its travel ban and try to reinforce it. 

Tell us how Washington first got engaged 

in the legal fight against the Trump travel 

ban. 

After Trump was elected president, we 

began having internal conversations 

about what he would do based on his 

campaign promises. So we were not 

caught by surprise when he made the 

executive orders. I was angry but not 

surprised. 

What would a fully enacted Trump travel 

ban mean for the state of Washington? 

The impact on students and colleges 

and businesses. On that first 

weekend, my solicitor general Noah 

Purcell suggested we reach out to 

businesses to look at the impacts on 

them. I called the legal counsels for 

Expedia and Amazon on that Sunday 

and, to their great credit, they had 

declarations signed on Monday. We 

supplemented our complaint since 

then with something like ninety-seven 

additional companies. 

What was your process like from 

touching down at Sea-Tac and the filing 

of the brief? 

The executive order came out on 

Friday evening. I was in Florida for 

an attorneys general conference. I 

landed in SeaTac on Saturday. At that 

point, there were already people being 

turned back—even those who had 

visas. There was a press conference 

planned for that day at the airport. I 

had to skip it though as I needed to 

get home and get to work on this. 

As we speak, the Trump Administration 

is working on repackaging this 

ban. What’s Washington’s plan? 

Honestly, it’s impossible to know what 

to expect. It goes without saying that 

we’ll be scrutinizing any new order the 

President signs. 

You were an internationally rated chess 

player growing up. Does that have any 

bearing on your recent mission? 

I think it’s fair to say that some of 

my motivation comes from being a 

chess player. I saw Soviets and people 

from the Eastern Bloc trying to defect 

after being punished for speaking 

out against their totalitarian regimes. 

My own chess coach in Seattle was a 

Bulgarian named Dr. Minev. I know he 

and his family left everything behind to 

defect to the United States. 


Fran 

Visit the Palouse 

Ken Carper, carper.wsu@gmail.com 

In Eastern Washington, find our state’s official waterfall, capture a 360 degree view 

of rolling hills from one butte or hike to see a patchwork of farmland from another. 

Stay in Pullman. See our sights. Picture yourself here. 

Ask for more from the Pullman Chamber of Commerce | PullmanChamber.com | 800.365.6948

my workspace 

My Workspace 

Basic Boats 


photography by Elizabeth Baker 

Carl Chamberlin caught the boat bug when he was 

12. His father brought the family of nine, originally 

from Newport, Oregon, to Spain to build a dream 

boat. Chamberlin spent part of his days working 

on the boat in the yard and the other part reading 

literature about boats. 

A self-taught boat designer of more than 

fifty years, Chamberlin now resides in Port 

Townsend with his business, Basic Boats—a 

name that refers to his straightforward, 

streamlined style of design. “For me, boating 

has always been simplicity and that’s always 

been a theme for me,” he said. 

One of his favorite projects was designing 

a 9 ½-foot plywood kayak for the Port of 

Toledo Wooden Boat Show. Over one of 

the show’s weekends, families came out to 

learn how to build their own kayaks, called 

‘Nufs, based on Chamberlin’s design. 

Using conceptualization, hand drawings and CAD 

programs, Chamberlin designs commercial fishing 

boats, sailboats and yachts—anything a client 

wants. But his heart is in the small, wooden boats 

that don’t have much of a market these days. In 

his early 20s, he bought his first little sailboat, 

which he decided to sail up the coast to Port 

Townsend to start his business. 


game changer 

ProjectWA 

Teaching state history through technology 

written by Dana E. Neuts 

Tim Fry and Anthony Rovente pose in front of their camper. 

IT STARTED AS A SIMPLE destination 

tourism app for Washington chambers 

of commerce. But the project, now called 

Washington State Insider and ProjectWA, 

has evolved into an entirely new way to 

encourage and reward kids for learning 

about state history. 

The genesis for ProjectWA was a discussion 

between Anthony Rovente, a teacher at Lopez 

Island Middle School frustrated that students 

didn’t seem interested in learning history, and 

Tim Fry, a Lopez Island parent and owner of 

mobile marketing firm 468 Communications. 

Fry thought he could help Rovente engage 

those students using technology. Fry suggested 

adapting his 468 Insider tourism app, which 

promotes tourist sites and rewards users who 

visit those sites, for Rovente’s seventh- and 

eighth-grade Washington state history classes. 

The adapted app was called Washington 

State Insider, and it was developed over the 

course of a semester by Rovente’s students. 

Students were responsible for creating content 

for the app, choosing places that had historical 

significance and convincing Rovente, Fry and 

their classmates that those places should be 

part of the app. The semester-long project 

was known as ProjectWA. By the end of the 

semester, the students had added nearly a 

hundred historical locations. 

To promote the project, Fry and his family 

took a two-month, 2,000-mile history tour 

of the state last summer, visiting about fifty 

locations in the app. The family saw every 

corner of the state, camping in a different 

spot every few days and visiting nearby 

historical sites like the Elwha River Dam, the 

Oysterville Baptist Church, the “haunted” 

St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax and Fort 

Vancouver. Fry blogged and posted photos 

to Instagram along the way, so students 

could follow along. 

As educators around the state learned 

about ProjectWA, the demand for the 

Washington State Insider app grew so much 

that Fry created 468 Field Trip, a new app 

that can be licensed by individual schools to 

create their own customized app. 468 Field 

Trip builds on the Washington Insider app, 

but takes engagement one step further— 

adding quizzes at each location. In addition 

to getting points for visiting each site, 

students can take quizzes which improve 

their retention of knowledge while earning 

additional rewards. 

“I am very excited about where this is 

going,” Fry said. 

Perhaps the most positive result from the 

apps that inspired ProjectWA is it has engaged 

young people to explore history through 

technology, similar to Pokémon Go. 

“These apps have driven people out into the 

world to experience their communities,” Fry said. 

“Though there’s a lot of discussion these days 

about the ill effects of too much screen time, this 

is a positive use of mobile technology that people 

aren’t talking about.” 


Take a Bite (or Sip) of Entrepreneurship 

Three female food entrepreneurs share their stories 


From Concerts 

to Crepes 


IT CAN BE TEMPTING to give up your 

desk job and start your own business. It can 

be even more tempting if you’re considering 

starting a food business (as long as you don’t 

eat your profits). Three Washington women 

turned their dreams into reality, and the 

results are delicious. 

Kristen Ward has always had an 

entrepreneurial spirit. Although she has a 

background in some of the finest kitchens 

in Seattle, where she landed after culinary 

school, in the middle of her career she became 

a touring musician, supporting herself with 

music for several years. 

After her daughter was born, Ward 

moved back to Spokane, the backdrop of her 

childhood. She had a kernel of an idea from 

her time leading culinary tours in Chinon, 

a tiny town in Northern France. One rainy 

day, she ducked into a café to wait out the 

storm. Within moments, she was eating 

a hearty buckwheat crepe (a specialty of 

the region) heaped with soft, spiced apples 

and Normandie butter. Since then, she’s 

been looking for a way to bring that French 

comfort and sophistication, coupled with her 

love of Pacific Northwest ingredients and 

flavors, to the inland Northwest. In 2014, The 

Ivory Table was born. Now, she creates the 

descendants of that first crepe every day in 

the café. 

Each delicious crepe belies the intense 

amount of work involved in running a 

restaurant. “I’ve been in the restaurant 

industry for almost twenty years and nothing 

ever could prepare you for opening a 

restaurant until you actually do it.” yourself,” 

she said. “You can’t learn these things in 

school.” 


Although the most visible part of the 

business is the café with its black-and-white 

striped awning, a tiny taste of France, Ward 

also caters large and small events, working 

with clients to marry her creativity with their 

vision. 

Each month, Ward hosts a supper club, a 

prix fixe meal, with wine pairings, made from 

the freshest local ingredients she can find. “I 

believe in respecting food first and foremost,” 

Ward said. “I try to find ingredients that don’t 

need to be tampered with in order to show 

off their true beauty.” But it’s about more 

than just the food. “I’ve always been really 

passionate about dinner parties,” she said. 

The week before the dinner she pores over a 

seating chart, hoping to spark conversations 

and connections between guests. While 

preparing for a supper club, she sips wine 

from all over the world, closing her eyes to 

give it a chance to tell her what it wants to be 

served with. 

This schedule already seems enough for two 

people, but Ward is not slowing down. “I’m 

really interested in doing pop-up dinners and 

farm dinners where we’re actually bringing 

a table to a farm and eating things that 

came out of the farm. I want to start doing 

cooking classes, too,” Ward said. “When I 

was in France, I’d go seek out some amazing 

ingredient and then teach the students how 

to work with it. That’s something I’m hugely 

passionate about.” She hasn’t stopped singing 

for her supper, either—she’s been writing 

songs and hopes to record another album 

this year. 

Although running her own business is a 

juggling act at times, for Ward, it’s completely 

worth it. “With everything in my life right 

now there’s a lot of creative flow. Some things 

don’t work, but it’s not ever boring,” she 

said. “The feeling of being an entrepreneur 

and pursuing your dreams is exhilarating, 

especially when things start to work, that 

makes all of it worth it.” 




Greg Lehman 

Giving Back 

In A Glass 

ASHLEY TROUT KNEW nothing about 

wine when she moved from Washington, 

D.C. to Walla Walla for college. When a 

part-time job at a winery came up, Trout 

applied. “Luckily for me, it was at a time 

when there was not a huge educated wine 

workforce ready to be hired, because that 

certainly was not me, but I was there and I 

was willing to regularly show up, and I was 

willing to give anything a try, and in a small 

winery, that’s what’s needed,” Trout said. 

She kept that job for the better part of eight 

years, learning the rhythms of making wine 

and tending delicate vines. In 2004, when 

Trout was in her 20s, she started her own 

brand: Flying Trout, so named because she 

worked both the Walla Walla and Argentine 

harvests, making wine in both places. In 

2010, she sold the brand to Mike Tembreull 

and Doug Roskelley of TERO Estates and 

stayed on as winemaker until 2015. “Like 

any 24-year-old entrepreneur, I made a ton 

of decisions that I wouldn’t make again,” 

Trout said. “I got to the point where I was 

really burnt out running it the way that I 

was, and I didn’t give myself any option to 

run it any other way. I’m very thankful for 

that five-year period. It was nice to take a 

rest from the classic stress of owning your 

own business and also to sort of regroup.” 

But she couldn’t stay away forever, and 

in 2016 Trout launched two new brands— 

March Cellars, which Trout describes as 

“a good old-fashioned winery that aims 

to showcase both the hardship and the 

beauty of the West,” and Vital Wines, a 

nonprofit winery benefiting SOS Clinic, 

which provides free, bilingual medical 

care to vineyard and winery workers in the 

Walla Walla area, no questions asked. All 

profit from Vital’s wine sales go directly to 

the clinic. “It’s important to me that we do 


something like Vital, because a lot of people in 

the wine industry don’t have health care from 

an employer,” Trout said. “There are so many 

seasonal jobs and jobs that are just one day a 

week .” 

It’s obvious that this idea has struck a chord. 

“Companies have come out of the woodwork to 

donate,” Trout said. During the 2016 harvest, 

she had to turn down tons of donated fruit 

because the wine community had provided an 

abundance. The wine community has donated 

everything from the bottles and labels to lab 

work and corks. “I want to be very careful not 

to imply that nobody was doing this and so 

I had to. It’s an industry that simply couldn’t 

focus on fixing it earlier because we are all 

small business owners, but it’s not something 

that people thought was unimportant.” 

What’s next for Vital and March Cellars? 

“I think Walla Walla and Washington state 

wines are still relatively unknown throughout 

parts of the East Coast and the middle of the 

country,” Trout said. “I love traveling and 

that’ll be a lot of fun for me to go learn about 

these other places and introduce people to 

Washington state wines.” 


Greg Lehman 

FEBRUARY APRIL | MARCH | MAY 2017 1889 WASHINGTON’S MAGAZINE 65

Creating 

Culture 


YOGURT 

KARYNA HAMILTON, OWNER OF Flora 

Yogurt, was in search of community when 

she joined a local milk co-op six years ago. 

“I was pretty inspired by these moms whose 

kids were a little bit older than mine. There’s 

another whole level of importance about what 

you feed this tiny little baby when you see how 

vulnerable they are and how much the things 

that they are exposed to can have an effect on 

them,” she said. She was getting better milk 

than ever before, but suddenly she had more of 

it than she knew what to do with “There was a 

recipe for homemade yogurt and so I thought 

‘Well hey, I have all this milk, why don’t I give 

it a try?’” 

The process was anything but effortless. “The 

first two or three times it didn’t work at all 

because I used cultures from the grocery store,” 

Hamilton said. “I couldn’t quite figure out why 

and it led me to research more. In the process, I 

learned about all the additives that they add to 

yogurt and I was a little put off. I finally found 

one that didn’t have all that other stuff and 

that would, in fact, make yogurt.” She started 

experimenting with yogurt for her family and 

a small group of friends. “People were literally 

dropping off glass jars on my doorstep at all 

times of the day and picking up these little 

packages of yogurt that I would leave out for 

them.” 

A local small business owner and loyal 

yogurt consumer encouraged Hamilton to 

pursue yogurt as a source of income. The main 

roadblock was a pasteurizer with a $12,000 

price tag. Hamilton created a Kickstarter, and 

to her surprise, it was funded. At that point, it 

was time to get to work. “I thought: OK, I’m 

doing this. This guy is building me this really 

expensive machine and I have a commitment 

to all these people. I have to up my game a little 

bit.” 


Hamilton reached out to friends on 

a fermentation message board, asking 

about heirloom cultures. “One woman 

has something like twenty-five different 

yogurts from around the world. She lives 

all the way on the East Coast and she 

freeze-dried yogurt for me and mailed all 

of these individual little cups of yogurt 

cultures so that I could rehydrate them 

and try them out at home. I made all these 

different yogurts and I tried them out on 

my little yogurt community. There were 

‘yeas’ and ‘nays’ and ‘no ways.’ I ended up 

landing on four or five different varieties 

that I make now.” 

While the yogurt most commonly found 

in the grocery store is based on a Bulgarian 

style and taste profile, there are hundreds of 

styles of yogurt. In addition to a Bulgarian 

version, Hamilton makes a Swedish 

yogurt called filmjölk, a Greek heirloom, 

a cultured buttermilk and occasionally a 

Finnish yogurt called viili. Her products are 

available at some local grocery stores and 

farmers markets. “I’m just happy to make 

yogurt and that people love it,” Hamilton 

said. “I am proud of what I do. I think that I 

contribute to the world in a way that I can 

really lay my head down at night and be 

satisfied.” 




Every Dog Has Its Day 

Conservation Canines gives shelter dogs a 

second chance, while doing biological research 

written by Abby Spegman 

photography by Cameron Zegers 

DOG HANDLER JUSTIN BRODERICK HAD TO RUN 

to keep up with Chester, a 14-year-old golden retriever lab 

mix as he bounded and zigzagged his way through the forest. 

“Atta boy, let’s check back this way,” Broderick called out. 

Chester sniffed the area, slowed, stopped—and looked 

expectantly at Broderick. 

“Can you show me?” Broderick asked. 

Chester indicated, nose to the ground, toward a scat 

sample another handler had placed for this training exercise. 

His reward: A minute or two of playing with his beloved ball. 

Chester is one of twenty-one dogs at Conservation 

Canines, a detection service run by the University of 

Washington’s Center for Conservation Biology. At UW’s 

4,300-acre experimental forest near Eatonville, handlers 

train rescue dogs to find scat from some of the most elusive 

and endangered animals in the world, clues that researchers 

use to determine a species’ health and likelihood of survival. 

These dogs have helped track the effect of windmills on 

migratory birds and tar sands oil extraction on caribou 

herds. They’ve looked for grizzly bears in the Pyrenees 

on the border of France and Spain; lions and leopards in 

South Africa and Mozambique; pumas and jaguars and 

giant anteaters in Brazil. In February, handlers Jennifer 

Hartman and Suzie Marlow, along with two dogs, Athena 

and Skye, were scheduled to leave for four months in Nepal 

and Vietnam searching for pangolin, the most trafficked 

mammal in the world, poached for its scales and meat. 

For dogs like Chester, who came from an animal shelter 

in Seattle, conservation work is also a chance at a better life. 

“We want them to be curious, we promote their wildness,” 

Hartman said. “Some of the dogs we rescued hadn’t really 

been outside. They were afraid of leaves, and seeing grass 

and wet and gooey (stuff ) was weird for them. They would 

look at their own shadows and freak out. But what’s neat 

about bringing them here and encouraging them to be 

themselves, you see this whole other side come out.”

They’ve looked for grizzly bears in the 

Pyrenees on the border of France and 

Spain; lions and leopards in South 

Africa and Mozambique; pumas and 

jaguars and giant anteaters in Brazil. 

Heath Smith and Dio training in Eatonville


Suzie Marlow and Zilly search for scat.

Conservation Canines’ clients are universities, 

government agencies, conservation groups, even 

companies seeking to measure their impact on 

wildlife hire. From scat samples that handlers 

collect, researchers can learn about an animal’s 

diet, genetics and exposure to toxins. They can 

determine the population size, distribution 

and what environmental pressures it is facing. 

Hormones can indicate stress levels and 

reproductive health, all without disturbing the 

animal. 

Twenty years ago UW’s Samuel Wasser, who 

directs the Center for Conservation Biology, 

pioneered the use of detection dogs for wildlife 

monitoring with help from narcotics dog trainers at 

the Washington State Department of Corrections. 

They knew that a dog’s 

nose was infinitely better 

than the human eye when 

it comes to finding scat, 

and dogs can cover more 

ground than cameras or 

baited traps. 

These dogs can also 

help researchers get a 

broader picture of what is 

happening in an ecosystem. 

Conservation Canines’ dogs are being used in a UW 

study tracking wolf recolonization in northeast 

Washington. Instead of just finding wolf scat, the 

dogs find samples from cougars, bobcats, coyotes, 

black bears, grizzly bears, lynx, fishers, martens 

and wolverines. One of the first scents that dogs 

here are trained to detect is wolverine scat, partly 

because the animal is so rare that if their dogs ever 

find it in the field, it is a prize for biologists. 

“This method allows us to see, as the wolf moves 

in, what actually happens to the coyote population, 

what happens to the lynx, the bobcat,” said Heath 

Smith, Conservation Canine program coordinator. 

“We’re really trying to encourage researchers to 

collect scat from more species so they can look 

at the bigger picture of what’s going on in the 

ecosystem, rather than being so focused on just 

one species.” 

The cost of this operation is sometimes an 

impediment. Thrifty researchers are hesitant to 

enlist the help of handlers, as their services are 

These dogs will 

eat through drywall 

to get to a ball. 

more expensive than using cameras or traps. A 

Conservation Canines handler and dog generally 

run about $52 per hour. Smith said they get a lot 

of people wanting to just rent a dog without a 

handler. Conservation Canines dogs and handlers 

are trained to work together, said Smith. Without 

the handler, the dog might get frustrated, develop 

bad habits, lose interest. “Then those people say, 

‘Well this doesn’t work,’” Smith said. 

Most of Conservation Canines’ dogs come from 

the keen eye of shelter staff who know what traits 

to look for, or from desperate owners who couldn’t 

handle their high-energy dogs. One such owner 

took his dog to a trainer, a behaviorist, a therapist 

and put him on medication to control his energy 

before bringing him to Conservation Canines. 

There’s no perfect breed for 

this line of work, though 

handlers do consider a dog’s 

build, since bulky dogs are 

strong but might not have 

the endurance needed for 

a ten-hour hike. Australian 

cattle dogs, labs and 

retrievers are well suited, 

but then there’s Duke, a 

30-pound Chihuahua, and 

Casey, a 15-pound Jack Russell. 

What all these dogs have in common is intensity 

when it comes to fetching a ball. 

“They’re kind of shaking and they’re just waiting 

for you to throw that ball,” noted Smith. “Those are 

the dogs we get.” 

In the home, these dogs will eat through 

drywall to get to a ball—but it is this intensity 

that Conservation Canines handlers covet. The 

moment the dog smells the target scat, the ball 

appears. The moment its nose touches the scat, the 

ball appears, over and over until the dog correlates 

the ball with discovery of the relevant scat. 

Many people contact the program with a claim 

that their dog is high energy with a nose for smells. 

“I’m not sure there’s a dog that doesn’t love to smell 

things,” said Marlow. “We’re not looking for dogs 

that are just going to run around in the woods.” 

These canine handlers are also a rare breed. They 

have to like dogs but also be capable of surviving 


alone in the wilderness for long stretches of time 

and without cell service. 

“Your job as a handler is to anticipate 

everything,” said Marlow. How will the weather or 

terrain affect scent dispersal? What other animals 

might be nearby? Could they harm the dog? 

Could the dog hurt them? Is the dog taking in 

enough water? “The whole time you’re working, 

you’re constantly trying to be one step ahead of 

the dog that’s running ahead of you,” Marlow said. 

Conservation Canines now works with nine 

handlers, though that number varies depending 

on the work load. When handlers aren’t on 

assignment, they live in sparse cabins near the 

dog kennels. 

On the last Monday in January, one handler was 

in Utah with a dog working on an eagle mortality 

study. Two other handlers were in New Mexico 

with two dogs on a five-month cougar survey 

and camping in 40-knot winds strong enough to 

uproot a tent. Another handler lives year-round 

on San Juan Island with a whale scat detection dog 

as part of an ongoing UW study on killer whales. 

Whale scat stays on the water’s surface for a few 

minutes, and a detection dog helps researchers 

following the whales in boats to reach the scat 

before it sinks. 

Back at UW’s experimental forest outside of 

Eatonville, Chester ran ahead of his handler, 

Broderick, on the hunt for scat. Handily he found 

the next two samples. When the training exercise 

ended, Chester rolled on his back for Broderick to 

rub his belly. At the end of the day, even though 

Chester has traveled the world helping protect 

endangered species, this dog sometimes craves 

attention for himself. 

FROM LEFT Justin Broderick rewards Chester with a 

ball and cuddles after finding scat. Jennifer Hartman 

rewards Athena with a ball playing session for 

finding scat. 



Alpine Enchantments 

photography by Grant Gunderson 

THE ENCHANTMENTS, in the Alpine Lakes WIlderness of 

Washington’s Central Cascades, aren’t easy to get to. But once 

you’ve hiked in, you’ll find perfect blue lakes, craggy peaks and 

yes, mountain goats.

FROM LEFT Matthew Amrhein and Sarah Hoen hiking in Washington’s Enchantments 

located in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Courtney Estes takes a risky step for a 

breathtaking view.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP A time-lapsed photo captures the stars as they cross the night 

sky. Courtney Estes cozies up in her sleeping bag as everyone settles in for the night. Sarah 

Hoen sets up camp after backpacking in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

A mountain goat in the wild.

Courtney Estes going for a swim in one of the alpine lakes after a long day of hiking.

Morning alpenglow and sunrise over Prusik Peak.

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travel spotlight 

Twede’s Cafe 

Twin Peaks reboot returns to town 


photography by Thorin Nielson 

ON MAY 21, television drama Twin Peaks 

will return on Showtime after twenty-five 

years of hiatus, drawing cult followers back 

to Twede’s Cafe in North Bend, otherwise 

known as the Double R Diner. 

Twin Peaks put the small towns of North Bend, 

Snoqualmie and Fall City on the map in 1990 

as the filming locations for the ABC television 

drama starring Kyle MacLachlan. A frequent 

hangout in the show, the Double R Diner still 

exists in North Bend as Twede’s Cafe—and 

it continues to serve the famous cherry pie 

and “a damn fine cup of coffee.” Originally 

built in 1941, a fire closed down the building 

in 2000, which has since been restored. The 

café, however, retains its dark, campy feel that 

originally drew in director David Lynch. 

The new version of the show keeps its old 

tricks, with several returning cast members 

and many of the same shooting locations, 

including Twede’s Cafe. The network provided 

a permanent update to the café in 2015, but 

the real win for owner Kyle Twede will be the 

influx of business spurred by the return of the 

series. If you visit, expect to see loyal fans, 

cameras in hand, swarming for their cups of 

coffee and slices of cherry pie. 


You’ll Call It Amazing. They Call It Home. 

Come to the San Juan Islands to watch majestic orca whales. 

Discover the place these amazing creatures call home. 

I NSPIR ATION FOR THE SENSES 

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Lopez Island • Orcas Island • San Juan Island / Friday Harbor 

photo by Michael Iwasaki 

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adventure 

Adventure 

The Wild Collective 

Exploring Washington’s national wildlife refuges 

written by Tricia Louvar 

If you travel much in the wilder sections of 

our country, sooner or later you are likely to 

meet the sign of the flying goose—the emblem 

of the National Wildlife Refuges. 

— Rachel Carson, author, scientist and chief 

editor for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service from 

1939 to 1952 

ON THE SHOULDER OF WINTER and spring, 

with my kids in school, I looked at a topographical 

map of Washington. Up close the contour lines 

of Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest 

resembled hand-picked molluscan seashells. So 

many wild places to enter. Where to start? 

Excursions live on a spectrum of “wild.” It’s 

a fast and loose term. Are we talking one-too- 

many-cocktails-at-Bathtub-Gin-on-Second- 

Avenue wild? Or scaling Mount Rainier in 

August amid a blizzard? The word is relative. 

However, I lean to the more conservation-style 

of wild. I had diverse ecoregions in mind: marine 

West Coast forest, North American cold deserts 

and forested Western cordillera. 

My research led me to the state’s National 

Wildlife Refuge (NWR) system, a conservation 

and education program of the U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service, a federal agency within the 

Department of Interior. I tend to wander and 

favor areas with infrequent human sightings. 

Give me a fiery gathering of bluff mallow, 

rustling pronghorn antelope, dusty boots and 

thermos of coffee as entrance barriers of the 

wild. The Pacific Northwest has me wanderlust 

jonesing for its Greek blue alpine lakes in the 

Northern Cascades or the rustic A-frame cabin 

with an Antibes green front door in the Olympic 

National Forest. 

Each state has at least one NWR. Washington 

has twenty-four designated NWR areas all over 

the state. Flattery Rocks NWR, for example, is 

one of the first refuges founded by Theodore 

Roosevelt in 1907. Seabirds being ravaged 

along the Pacific coast prompted Roosevelt’s 

environmental action and placed executive 

orders along swaths of natural habitats for 

restoration and conservation. The avifauna and 

wildlife abound in these sacred sites. Today, the 

Fish and Wildlife Service manages more than 

20 million acres of designated NWR wilderness 

lands across the country. 

Given the immensity of Washington’s 

geospatial wonders, here are a few brush 

strokes of its coveted NWRs. As Rachel Carson, 

conservationist, environmentalist and biologist, 

said, “Wild creatures, like men, must have a place 

to live.” 


COASTAL REFUGES 

Proximity and similarities to regional 

ecosystems organize the NWRs. Think seabirdcentric, 

puffins, seals; marine life diversity and 

stunning vistas. On the Washington coast, 

birders study the tide chart and arrive within the 

two hours of high tide to witness a flurry of birds. 

Grays Harbor NWR, for example, becomes a 

matrix of avian activity as hundreds of thousands 

of birds use the area as a seasonal migration spot 

from late April to early May. 

COLD DESERTS 

The wide basalt plateau of the Columbia River 

Plateau or Columbia Basin, known as a cold 

desert, reaches far and wide from Washington, 

Idaho and Oregon. In these NWRs, expect to see 

shrublands, savannas and grasslands. The Saddle 

Mountain National Wildlife Refuge occupies 

32,000 acres and has become part of the 

Hanford Reach National Monument, rife with 

paleontological artifacts from the late-Miocene 

to late-Pliocene. 

FORESTED WESTERN CORDILLERA 

Forest covers one half of Washington, and even 

then it’s subdivided into specific regions, such as 

coastal, lowland, mountain or eastside forest. 

Trees are not just trees to Washingtonians. 

The dialed-in native or environmental scientist 

knows tree types by their elevation and moisture 

level. Western hemlock thrives in moist zones. 

Depending on elevation, thick evergreens 

bundle up or thin out, resulting in these forested 

treasures at Little Pend Oreille NWR in the far 

northeastern corner of the state. 

Given my need for silence, breathing and 

lack of crowds, I think a springtime road trip 

to a collection of these refuges is in order. 

Sketchbook packed. Coffee brewing. Backpack 

loaded. May the light discharge itself and nests 

empty themselves with new life. 


adventure 

OLYMPIC PENINSULA 

4 

3 

1 

2 

17 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

San Juan Islands NWR 

Protection Island NWR 

Dungeness NWR 

Flattery Rocks NWR 

Quillayute Needles NWR 

Copalis NWR 

Grays Harbor NWR 

5 

6 

8 

7 

9 

10 

11 

24 

15 

18 

16 

19 

20 

21 

23 

22 

12 13 14 

SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON 

Willapa NWR 

Lewis and Clark NWR 

Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the 

Columbian White-tailed Deer NWR 

Ridgefield NWR 

Steigerwald Lake NWR 

Franz Lake NWR 

Pierce NWR 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

EASTERN WASHINGTON 

15 Turnbull NWR 

16 Saddle Mountain NWR 

NORTHEASTERN WASHINGTON 

17 Little Pend Oreille NWR 

VISITING A NATIONAL WILDLIFE RESERVE 

Check each NWR’s website before leaving to 

find if there are any alerts in the area regarding 

wildlife, weather or access. Stay on the trail, 

leave only footprints (no litter) and keep the 

appropriate observation distance, such as 100 

yards between you and the wildlife. It is illegal 

to approach, feed or touch wildlife and sea 

animals. Do not disturb the wildlife on land 

or sea. Know the accessibility for people with 

disabilities. Bring binoculars. 

MID-COLUMBIA 

Columbia NWR 

Toppenish NWR 

Hanford Reach National 

Monument NWR 

McNary NWR 

Umatilla NWR 

Conboy Lake NWR 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

PUGET SOUND LOWLANDS 

24 Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually NWR 


Whistler is the perfect place to connect with the beauty of the 

surroundings and explore your wild side. Nestled at the base 

of Blackcomb Mountain, the legendary Fairmont Chateau 

Whistler defines mountain luxury. Offering classic elegance in 

a modern alpine setting, this award-winning hotel showcases 

exceptional, locally-inspired dining and full resort amenities. 

Whether it’s reaching new heights with peak to peak views, 

connecting to art and culture, or simply relaxing fireside, our 

mountain playground lets you choose your own adventure. 

Enjoy the hidden treasures and new experiences that await 

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lodging 

LODGING 

For weekend travel warriors, 

the 1892 lodge features four 

separate suites, each with a 

private bath and kitchen, as well 

as three large bedrooms with 

a shared kitchen on the main 

floor. Along with cabins for rent 

there is a fleet of vintage travel 

trailers ready to accommodate 

all-sized families and groups. For 

those who arrive via RV, there 

are campsites and dry hookups 

throughout the property, as well 

as an outdoor kitchen. 

DINING 

While there isn’t an on-site 

restaurant available, the nearby 

Depot Restaurant is a cozy bistro 

with the same retro feel and 

some great seafood dishes like 

Dungeness crab mac, mango sea 

scallops and Thai calamari. For 

land lovers, the steak Killian, lamb 

shank and southern pork shoulder 

are equally good. The on-property 

store features local beers and wine 

as well as some picnic-type food 

for on-property snacking. 

Sometimes you go on vacation to check 

out. Sou’wester Lodge & Cabins is where 

you go to check in...to yourself. This retro 

resort offers engaged vacationing with 

an available artist residency program— 

weekly residencies that provide a 

distraction-free environment to write, 

paint, compose, cook or create to your 

heart’s desire for only $200 to $300 per 

week. At that rate, you might just want 

to move in! “The Champion” is a 1968 

Ford motor home converted to an analog 

recording studio, offering a space to 

compose the next great hit, and several 

on-property cabins are perfectly equipped 

to get the creative juices flowing for 

CLOCKWISE TOP One of the vintage travel trailers at Sou’wester Lodge. 

The sauna can hold up to seven people. The interior of a vintage travel trailer. 

Sou’wester Lodge & Cabins 


writers and artists. The “leave something 

for the Sou’wester” encourages artists to 

leave a memento—a donation of work or 

a product that can be sold in the small, 

on-site honor system store. What keeps 

owner Thandi Rosenbaum inspired? 

“The creativity and support from the 

community we’re building.” Tucked in 

trees, with enchanting wide-open spaces, 

fresh air and close proximity to Seaview 

Beach and Cape Disappointment State 

Park, Sou’wester is serenity defined. 

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AMENITIES 

Complimentary with any stay 

is an inviting wellness area with 

a Finnish sauna, featuring Port 

Orford cedar benches that 

can hold up to seven people 

comfortably. The lush garden spa 

offers a changing and showering 

room as well as a cold plunge in the 

private outdoor garden for cooling 

off. Clothing optional, of course. 

Full-service bodywork, massage 

and community acupuncture are 

available for reasonable rates. 

EVENTS 

Spend an idle summer eve 

listening to music under the 

stars or learn a new skill in the 

artist-led workshops during the 

week. Wellness workshops are 

in collaboration with Vetiver 

Therapies and include mindfulness 

meditation (pay by donation), 

herbal plant walks, DIY elderberry 

syrup and herbal vinegar 

instruction, vitality seminars and 

yoga classes. 


trip planner 

Fairhaven District 

A historic hub and a whole lot of fun 

written by Michelle Hopkins 

AN ESCAPE FOR CITY SLICKERS and a destination 

for tourists, Bellingham’s Fairhaven District has been 

referred to as a hidden little gem worth discovering. 

For good reason—it oozes charm with its artsy shops, 

fabulous restaurants, cafés and outdoor walkways. To 

top it off, it is a mecca for the outdoor enthusiast. 

Fairhaven’s red brick district has experienced a real 

resurgence over the past fifteen or so years. If you factor 

in some cool outdoor special events and festivals, such 

as the Annual Dirty Dan Harris Festival (held in April), 

it is no surprise people are flocking to this quaint seaside 

village. 

Overlooking Bellingham Bay and the San Juan Islands, 

Fairhaven has gone through an interesting, colorful, and 

yes, scandalous past. It began in 1854 when a boozesmuggling 

21-year-old, Daniel Jefferson Harris (AKA 

Dirty Dan), descended on its shores in a rowboat. It has 

been reported that Harris earned his moniker because, 

frankly, he wasn’t one to bathe often, dressed slovenly, 

shaved rarely and pretty much didn’t behave as society 

deemed proper at the time. 

Regardless, the smart entrepreneur is credited with 

founding the community and erecting its first hotel in 

1883. 

The boom really kicked off in 1889, when it was 

widely speculated that Fairhaven would become the 

next railroad terminus, bringing wealth and prosperity 

to its citizens. Hotels and buildings went up. The boom 

lasted only three years before Seattle was selected as the 

new terminus instead. The town was devastated and 

construction came to a grinding halt. 

It wasn’t until the 1960s and ’70s that Fairhaven 

began to undergo a revival. Soon, the town’s dilapidated 

buildings were restored to their former glory. In the early 

‘70s, it earned the moniker “hippie mecca of the West” by 

the Seattle Times. You need only walk the cobblestone 

streets to meet up with a few of those early hippies. 

In 1977, Fairhaven was designated a National 

Historic District for its fourteen historically significant 

brick buildings. Today, with more than 200 (mostly) 

independent businesses, Fairhaven District has earned 

its rightful place as a hub for great art, crafts and culinary 

delights. 

More than 125 years after the legendary founder’s 

death, tourists can still feel his presence. Outside the 

Colophon Café is a bronze sculpture of Dirty Dan sitting 

on a bench, while the Dirty Dan Harris Steakhouse has 

regaled customers with tales of Dirty Dan for more than 

four decades. 

There are several marked plaques sprinkled along 

Harris Avenue offering a glimpse into its shady past, like 

these prized nuggets: Site of Hotel De McGinty, the first 

jailhouse occupied by drunks and small town crooks, 

1890; site of Sam Low’s opium den, 1904; huge freight 

wagon disappeared beneath quicksand here, 1890; and 

Policeman Phil DeFries shot at 23 times from 1899 to 

1905. 

If you’re ready to let yourself get lost for a couple days, 

keep this amazing little town in mind when you set out 

on your next adventure. 


trip planner 

Annette Bagley 

Peter James 

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Historic red brick district in Fairhaven. 

The Schooner Zodiac. The Chrysalis Inn & Spa. 


trip planner 

Day 

SHOPPING • MASSAGE • JAZZ 

Once you have checked into your hotel (in my case, the 

charming Fairhaven Village Inn), meander along the town’s 

six-block shopping district. If you are a book lover, a visit to 

Village Books is a must. Inside this three-story, block-long 

homage to everything wonderful about print you will discover 

new and gently used books, including hard-to-find gems, a 

great children’s section and the Book Fare Café. For art lovers, 

both the Gallery West and Artwood Gallery feature the works 

of some seriously talented local artists. 

After taking in the quaintness of this seaside village, take 

a lunch break at the Colophon Café. Housed in what was once 

the McDougall, Dodson, Gates and Fraser Building (1891), the 

Colophon is known for its healthy, locally inspired comfort food. 

The menu features an array of homemade soups (may I suggest 

its African peanut soup), innovative salads, deliciously sloppy 

burgers and decadent desserts. 

Do not miss the opportunity to join the walkers, bikers 

and joggers along the Interurban Trail which leads you to 

the Taylor Dock. Opened to the public in 2004, this notable 

waterfront boardwalk (circa late 1800s) used to support the 

waterfront industry. As you stroll along, it offers picturesque 

views of Bellingham Bay, including Boulevard Park. If you are 

adventurous, take the trail all the way to downtown Bellingham. 

From the Fairhaven Village Inn, this widely popular wooden 

connector is one of the best ways to experience a slice of what the 

district has to offer. There are benches along the way to take a seat, 

or better yet, grab a cup of java at Woods Coffee Shop and soak in 

some great people watching from its outdoor patio. 

If you need to recharge, there isn’t a better place than the 

spa at the Chrysalis Inn & Spa. The waterfront boutique hotel’s 

spa is the perfect antidote for tired, sore muscles. Who doesn’t 

deserve a bit of pampering after strolling in and out of shops? 

A signature Swedish massage is just the thing to loosen up any 

tension and get you ready for an evening of wining, dining and 

a little jazz. 

For late-night noshing try the Skylark Hidden Café. Every 

Thursday to Saturday you can listen to some impressive local 

jazz, soul and R&B musicians while dining on “unpretentious, 

local and fresh” Northwest cuisine, according to owner Donald 

White. Choose from the addictive scampi-style prawns, beef 

and poultry or any of its pasta dishes. 

FROM TOP Fairhaven has 200 mostly independent businesses. 

The Fairhaven Village Inn combines charm and convenience. 


Oceanfront Rooms & Suites • Indoor Pool 

Continental Breakfast • Spa • Game Room 

Private Park • Pet-Friendly Rooms 

Mariah’s Restaurant, on site. 

Call for Seasonal Specials! 

1-800-562-4836 thepolynesian.com 

Ocean Shores, WA

trip planner 

Brandon Sawaya 

FAIRHAVEN DISTRICT, BELLINGHAM 

EAT 

Colophon Café 

colophoncafe.com 

Skylark’s Hidden Café 

skylarkshiddencafe.com 

Magdalena’s Creperie 

magdalenascreperie.com 

EAT Restaurant 

4u2eat.com 

Jalapeños Restaurant 

jalapeños-WA.com 

Book Fare Café 

villagebooks.com 

STAY 

Fairhaven Village Inn 

fairhavenvillageinn.com 

The Chrysalis Inn & Spa 

thechrysalisinn.com 

PLAY 

Shopping 

fairhaven.com 

Sailing Cruises 

schoonerzodiac.com 

Whale Watching 

whales.com 

Kayak Rentals 

boatingcenter.org 

Bike Fairhaven Park 

fairhavenbike.com 

Hike Whatcom Falls Park 

and Interurban Trail 

wta.org 

traillink.com 

Day 

CREPES • HIKING • CYCLING 

Couples on Taylor Dock. 

There are crepes and then there are 

Magdalena Theisen’s crepes. Originally from 

Poland, Theisen founded Magdalena’s Creperie 

to offer locals and tourists a sampling of 

Europe’s finest sweet or savory wheat cakes. 

Besides crafting some of the best classic French 

crepes, Theisen also offers her handmade 

traditional Polish pierogis, sandwiches or 

gluten-free options. 

A short drive away, walk off your breakfast 

at the Whatcom Falls Park Trails. With 3.5 

miles of footpaths, meander as long or as little 

as you like. Snap a few photos on the iconic 

moss-covered Chuckanut Sandstone bridge 

overlooking the Whatcom Creek and the 

powerful falls. 

For those who prefer to cycle, you can rent 

from Fairhaven Bike and explore the waterfront 

or head north from the park for about a mile 

on the South Bay Trail. Although there is a 

short uphill trek, the former rail bed presents 

excellent water, city and mountain views for 

much of the way. 


northwest destination 

Northwest Destination 

Rowing in the Deep 

written and photographed by Greg Hatten 

One of the most experienced rowers in our river party, along 

with his passenger, were stranded in the middle of a treacherous 

Class IV rapid called Montgomery, on the Owyhee River. His 16- 

foot raft was fully loaded and firmly wedged between a boulder 

twice the size of his boat and the high canyon wall rising several 

hundred feet on the left side of the river. The strong current 

pounded the boat from behind, wedging it tighter and tighter in 

the gap and threatening to stand the raft on its end and flip it 

completely over. 

Two days and 30 miles upriver from this spot, our party of eight 

boats, nine men and two dogs began this adventure in one of the 

most remote and isolated areas in the United States. The Owyhee 

River runs through three states in a vast and natural canyonland 

sprawling more than 2 million acres. It’s farther away from major 

highways (and cell service) than just about any area of similar size 

in the United States. In the 50-mile stretch above the Owyhee 

Dam, there are maybe one or two ranches in sight and no visible 

roads or trails. Cattle outnumber people. 

About the only way to see this stretch of river from Rome to 

Leslie Gulch in the High Desert of southeastern Oregon is via 

the river, when there is enough snow and spring runoff from 

the Sierra Mountains in Nevada to safely run it—which hasn’t 

happened in several years. 

So last spring, when rainfall was above normal on top of a 

higher-than-average snow level in the Sierras, my posse of river 

rats dropped everything, loaded up and headed for the Owyhee. 

On the long drive across Oregon, I felt myself getting “small” 

as we left all signs of civilization and traveled into the vast. For 

miles and miles we traveled two-lane roads lined with sagebrush 

that stretched out so far the road looked like a single straight line 

no wider than a string. The horizon was dominated by mountain 

peaks as wide as they were tall. 

We finally reached the river after a nine-hour drive from the 

McKenzie Valley, and we set up our tents as the wind blew cold 

through the campsite. The next morning dawned crisp and clear. 

Cowboy coffee warmed our hands as we broke camp and loaded 

gear into our boats. The thermometers in our trucks verified it 

was 20 degrees. Frost was everywhere—on the tents, the boats, 

the camp chairs, the blankets, anything exposed to the overnight 

river moisture and cold temps had a layer of white that sparkled 

and glistened in the rising sun. 

Within the first few miles of rowing, farm fields gave way to 

high riverbanks and sharp short cliffs that foreshadowed what 

was to come. Pillars of sun-bleached sandstone and volcanic 

red rock columns began to appear on both sides of the river and 

stood erect like guardians of the ancient canyon we approached. 

By mid afternoon we were already in the shadows of the canyon 

walls, so we pulled over, set up camp and started dinner as twilight 

approached. 

Two days and 30 miles upriver from this spot, our party of eight 

boats, nine men and two dogs began this adventure in one of the 

most remote and isolated areas in the United States. The Owyhee 

River runs through three states in a vast and natural canyonland 

sprawling more than 2 million acres. It’s farther away from major 

highways (and cell service) than just about any area of similar size 

in the United States. In the 50-mile stretch above the Owyhee 

Dam, there are maybe one or two ranches in sight and no visible 

roads or trails. Cattle outnumber people. 

About the only way to see this stretch of river from Rome to 

Leslie Gulch in the High Desert of southeastern Oregon is via 

the river, when there is enough snow and spring runoff from 

the Sierra Mountains in Nevada to safely run it—which hasn’t 

happened in several years. 

So last spring, when rainfall was above normal on top of a 

higher-than-average snow level in the Sierras, my posse of river 

rats dropped everything, loaded up and headed for the Owyhee. 

On the long drive across Oregon, I felt myself getting “small” 

as we left all signs of civilization and traveled into the vast. For 

miles and miles we traveled two-lane roads lined with sagebrush 

that stretched out so far the road looked like a single straight line 

no wider than a string. The horizon was dominated by mountain 

peaks as wide as they were tall. 

We finally reached the river after a nine-hour drive from the 

McKenzie Valley, and we set up our tents as the wind blew cold 

through the campsite. The next morning dawned crisp 

and clear. Cowboy coffee warmed our hands as we 


FROM LEFT Hatten’s boat about 

to hit the river, A narrow opening 

upstream from camp, Hatten’s tent set 

up on the banks of the Owyhee. 

WHERE TO EAT, DRINK & STAY 

The Owyhee River is in the middle of 

some of the most remote geography 

in North America. 

If you go, a great staging point is the 

town of Jordan Valley. 

Basque Station Motel 

801 MAIN STREET 

541-586-2244 

OWYHEE RIVER 

broke camp and loaded gear into our boats. The thermometers in 

our trucks verified it was 20 degrees. Frost was everywhere—on the 

tents, the boats, the camp chairs, the blankets, anything exposed 

to the overnight river moisture and cold temps had a layer of white 

that sparkled and glistened in the rising sun. 

Within the first few miles of rowing, farm fields gave way to high 

riverbanks and sharp short cliffs that foreshadowed what was to 

come. Pillars of sun-bleached sandstone and volcanic red rock 

columns began to appear on both sides of the river and stood erect 

like guardians of the ancient canyon we approached. 

By mid afternoon we were already in the shadows of the canyon 

walls, so we pulled over, set up camp and started dinner as twilight 

approached. 

Our cook team for the night prepared fresh halibut on an open 

flame, rice, salad and cheesecake—as memorable as the river we 

slept beside. It was a three-blanket night on my cot under the stars. 

My breath hung heavy in the cold air as I peeked through the slit of 

my bedroll and admired the view of the night sky. 

After running nearly 15 miles of river on day two, we approached 

a narrow opening where the river takes a right turn, then careens 

left at the base of a ten-story rock wall. It’s technical and tricky, but 

as we rode out the wave train of the rapid called Whistling Bird, 

I immediately wanted to go back to the top of the rapid and do 

it again. We camped just downstream and the pictures I took at 

sunset of that narrow slot captured an image I’ll never forget. 

That night, most of us slept under the stars after a Dutch oven 

meal of prime rib, baked potatoes and cobbler as the temperature 

crept up to the low 40s. The after-dinner whiskey felt as warm as 

the night air. 

By now we were in the deepest part of the canyon and cliffs 

on both sides rose straight up to touch the sky. The ridgeline of 

the canyon walls snaked across the night sky, and the stars were 

brilliant. 

Just an hour into the next day, we faced the notorious Class IV 

Montgomery rapid. My friend Aaron waved me to shore and filled 

me in on the predicament our teammates were in. The whole river 

tilted to the left in the rapid and the current, swollen from the spring 

runoff, rushed down the drop for 200 yards before slamming into 

the canyon wall. Our rafters couldn’t break through the vice-grip of 

the river and were pinned between the rock and the canyon wall, 

with the nose of the raft teetering over the edge of an 8-foot drop. 

Aaron and I jumped into our more nimble drift boats and were 

able to break the grip of the river. With a lot of effort and a little 

difficulty, we found safe passage down the right side. 

At the bottom we pulled hard on the oars and got our boats to a 

cliffside eddy on the left side of river just downstream from the raft. 

The guys in the raft tied together every rope they had and threw the 

long line overboard. I fished the rope from the water and threw it 

up to Aaron, who had scrambled up the rocks above me for greater 

leverage. 

He leaned back and pulled hard on the rope. It was just enough 

to get the front end of the raft to tumble over the drop. The boat 

splashed to freedom, and we tossed the rope into the raft as it 

passed 15 feet below us. 

More close calls took place in the canyon rapids before our 

adventure was over. The last night in camp, we enjoyed another 

great meal and more whiskey than usual to celebrate the trip. 

Campfire smoke followed me to my cot and eventually faded—but 

the smallness I felt while rowing in the deep Owyhee is with me 

still. 


1889 MAPPED 

The points of interest below are culled from 

stories and events in this edition of 1889. 

Oroville 

Forks 

Friday Harbor 

Port Angeles Coupeville 

Port 

Townsend 

Bellingham 

Mount Vernon 

Lakewood 

Marysville 

Everett 

Okanogan 

Republic 

Colville 

Newport 

Aberdeen 

South 

Bend 

Shelton 

Montesano 

Port Orchard 

Cathlamet 

Longview 

Olympia 

Chehalis 

Kelso 

Seattle 

Bellevue 

Renton 

Kent 

Federal Way 

Tacoma 

Ellensburg 

Yakima 

Waterville 

Wenatchee 

Ephrata 

Prosser 

Richland 

Pasco 

Wilbur 

Kennewick 

Ritzville 

Dayton 

Walla 

Walla 

Davenport 

Spokane 

Colfax 

Pomeroy 

Asotin 

Vancouver 

Stevenson 

Goldendale 

Live 

Think 

Explore 

22 

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival 

54 IndieFlix 

84 

Twede’s Cafe 

23 

Tacoma Art Museum 

56 Waterfront Place Central 

87 

Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge 

28 

MiiR 

60 Basic Boats 

92 

Sou’wester Lodge & Cabins 

31 

Rally Pizza 

64 Flying Trout 

94 

Bellingham Fairhaven District 

34 

Cherry Valley Dairy 

66 Flora Yogurt 

100 Owyhee River Canyon 


Until Next Time 

Huckleberry Heaven 


photography by Pamela Strickland 

IN THE MIDDLE of the hottest 

days of August, when everyone is 

counting down the moments before 

they can escape to the lake, even just for an 

afternoon, it’s time to start looking more closely 

at the bushes high in the mountains. Huckleberry 

season has come. 

There are other indications as well. Suddenly, 

huckleberries are on every menu, ingredients 

in pancake syrup or a salmon glaze. One local 

producer incorporates them into a sweet wine. 

Sometimes I’m tempted by the tiny, dark 

purple orbs at the farmers market. There is a 

man there who sells beautiful chanterelle and 

morel mushrooms, garlic scapes and baskets 

of huckleberries, all foraged from the fields, 

mountains and valleys just outside the city. At 

the market, huckleberries are never less than $20 

a pound. 

As a kid, I learned to keep sharp eyes for 

huckleberry bushes on family bike rides on Mt. 

Spokane, high above my city. In the summer, the 

trails we used to cross-country ski became perfect 

for mountain biking. It was overwhelming to see 

so much lush green in a 

place I’d only experienced 

covered in heavy snow. 

We would stop whenever we found a likely 

place, and my mom, dad, brother and I would 

spread out with large Ziploc bags or small 

Tupperware containers, looking for berries the 

size of a pea. It took a lot of huckleberry bushes 

to fill up even a small bag. 

By the end of those days, my back and legs were 

sore and the back of my neck was sunburnt from 

leaning over bushes, hoping to rob the wildlife 

of their fruit. But it was worth it when my mom 

would make pancakes, carefully dropping just a 

few precious huckleberries into the cakes already 

in the hot pan. 

These were different than the blueberry 

pancakes we had at other times of the year 

with blueberries from our own garden. The 

huckleberries managed to be both generously 

sweet and slightly tart. Later, it began to make 

sense that they worked so well with savory and 

sweet. They refused to fit into my preconceived 

ideas of what a berry should be. 

One summer evening, I went on an adventure 

with a friend and her husband. She told me 

to bring along a container. “Are we going 

huckleberry picking?” I asked. “You guessed it!” 

she said. 

We drove up the mountain, looking for the 

right spot to pull over and start looking, starting 

at about 2,000 feet. My ears began to pop. Soon, 

we picked a patch and settled in, filling our 

containers with purple-blue dots. 

We weren’t far into our work when we heard 

a sound, deep and keening. Turning around, 

we saw a moose on the trail, peering at us 

curiously. “Move very slowly,” my friend said as 

she clutched her huckleberries. We slipped out 

of the huckleberry patch and inched along the 

trail toward the car, eyes on the moose. 

We headed back to town, ready to top our 

vanilla ice cream with our edible treasures. I like 

to think that after we left, the moose took our 

place in the huckleberry patch, treating himself 

to a little dessert of his own. 


1515 Commerce Street 

Tacoma, Washington 

(253)591-9100 

www.TacomaCourtyard.com 

You’ll find us 

at the corner of 

Rest 

& 

Relaxation.

AprilMaynew

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