Yakima, Washington: Going Home

So can you go home again? I am going to find out this week.

Yakima, in Central Washington, just a bit over two hours drive from Kirkland, is where I was born and spent my first 33 years.  Joel and I usually get back there a few times each year as it now the Gateway to Central Washington Wine Country.  I even wrote an article about Yakima and its growing popularity with tourists for the Seattle Times a couple years ago. But this trip is different because I am traveling through history - my own.

While I look forward to every trip, this one has me so excited that I'm in a near frenzy state as I fret over whether Washington's late spring storms will dump snow on Snoqualmie Pass preventing me from my rendezvous with Mary, my sister-like-friend with whom I shared the joys of childhood.

After realizing we had let 20 precious years get away since we were last together, we set our our itinerary: Mary will drive from Pasco, in the southern part of Washington on the Columbia River and I'll come from Puget Sound. We will return to the neighborhood where we grew up and other places that make no sense to anyone else; such as riding the elevator in the now-historic Larson Building where our dentist once had his office. See? Makes no sense; except to us who share those long ago memories that make such a simple act something special.

Lunch will be at a long-time favorite Miner's Drive-In with college roommates (our other sister-like-friends) we've rounded up for the occasion. I'll report back on our trip but in the meantime would love to hear from you about similar journeys you've taken.