By Allan Kissam

The view from Bainbridge Island. (Allan Kissam)Once again, I am on the road and looking for interesting things to do while participating in wine tasting (good activity) and less enjoyable shopping.  I am in a sort of time warp of suburban Seattle across Lake Washington.  This is Woodinville, next to Redmond where Microsoft lives.  Back in the 80’s I lived around here. What a change, but life marches on and I just try to keep up these days. Woodinville is getting big into wine tasting at traditional wineries and tasting rooms.  The tasting rooms, I am told, are looked down on by the wine snobs.  One big advantage of the tasting rooms is I didn’t drive across hot and dusty roads towards Yakima.  These tourist-designated areas let you quickly jump from wine-to-wine and get on to lunch in a great family-owned Mexican restaurant.