The Yakima Valley is one of the Northwest's best kept secrets. Year round recreational activities, wine tasting, 300 days of sun, farm fresh produce, plus proximity to Puget Sound and Portland make this an irresistible destination.

In Zillah look for the Teapot Dome gas station, one of the oldest functioning gas stations in the U.S. and listed on the National Register of Historical Places.

Toppenish, 20 miles south of the city of Yakima, is the "City of Murals" where the West still lives. The more than 60 murals show scenes from the Old West, railroading, rodeos, farming, and Yakama Indian Nation scenes. Take a walking or auto tour, or better still, view the murals while riding in a Conestoga wagon pulled by mules.

While in Toppenish, visit the American Hop Museum here in the heart of the nation's largest hop producing area.

Also here is the Yakama Nation Cultural Heritage Center Museum on ancestral grounds of the reservation. Learn about Spilyay, the trickster who appeared most often in the guise of a coyote in Yakama legends. With daring and humor, Spilyay taught the Yakama people to survive and live harmoniously with nature and the cycle of life.

See examples of the Yakama people's homes like earthlodges and tule tepees. Hear how tules are gathered from the marsh to make mats and utility items. Listen as the guide explains the Yakama time ball, a personal calendar kept by a young woman after marriage.

Yakima Valley provides a glimpse into one of the most agriculturally productive regions in the world. Use the back roads as you wander the myriad of orchards, vineyards, fields of mints, onion and other row crops.

Winery hopping here is an unforgettable journey with its magnificent vineyards that lie in the same latitude as the great wine producing regions of France. Local winemakers are happy to discuss the fine distinctions between each grape, each harvest and each bottling.

For a truly delectable indulgence, attend the Red Wine and Chocolate festival every President's Day Weekend for sumptuous chocolate confections coupled with a wonderful red wine. Spring barrel tasting is the last full weekend of April. A fine way to celebrate Thanksgiving is sampling newly released wines in the grand tradition hosted by every winery in the region during the holiday weekend. Call ahead for dates and details.

Country leisure is at the heart of a visit to the Yakima Valley, an oasis of small farms yielding asparagus, eggplant, apricots, winter pear, mint, all kinds of berries, pumpkins and 30 other types of fruits and vegetables.

Here visitors explore the richness of nature cultivated into a cornucopia of the earth's best bounty.

Yakima Valley Visitors & Convention Bureau

800-221-0751

www.visityakima.com

Abandon everyday life for a getaway to the heartland, on and along the Mississippi River. Slow down and cruise at 12 mph on a steamboat in the tradition of Mark Twain.

The Julia Belle Swain, a small reproduction steamboat, is every inch as much a "wedding cake" as the larger Delta Queen, American Queen and Mississippi Queen, but without their sleeping cabins. Just like the Queens, the Julia Belle Swain churns her paddlewheels by authentic steam power, and boasts an authentic calliope too.

The Julia Belle Swain is based in the heart of God's country, LaCrosse, Wisconsin, home to the world's largest six-pack. The 54-foot tall "six-pack" serves as aging tanks for the G. Heileman Brewing Co., a popular tourist stop.

Up and down river from LaCrosse, majestic bluffs edge the water, bluffs reminiscent of the Hudson in the east and even the Rhine Valley in Germany. Often eagles soar overhead for this is the route of the Mississippi Flyway, a major north-south migration route twice a year for almost every type of North American song and game bird.

The upper Mississippi benefits from the construction of 27 locks and dams, providing a nine-foot channel necessary for navigation. On her two day excursions down river to Prairie du Chien and upriver to Winona, Minnesota, the Julia Belle Swain locks through Lock and Dam Numbers 8 and 9, and Lock and Dam #7 and #6 respectively.

Escape to river scenery still pretty much as Twain saw it as a river boat captain. Julia Belle Swain owner Bob Kalhagen specifically picked this part of the river, without heavy recreational traffic, to give the sense of going back in time.

Twain described it this way in Life on the Mississippi. "....And it is all as tranquil and reposeful as dreamland, and has nothing this worldly about it - nothing to hang a fret or worry upon."

Visualize Marquette and Joliet trading with native Americans in the 1600s, or immigrants arriving by the thousands to seek their utopia on the prairie.

Plan a mini-cruise, May to October, aboard the 1800s vintage Julia Belle Swain, featured in several films including "Life on the Mississippi," and "Tom Sawyer." Enjoy a five hour cruise or a two day excursion.

Julia Belle Swain Upper Mississippi half, full, & 2-day river tours

Great River Steamboat Co., 200 Main St., Suite G., La Crosse, WI

54601; 800-815-1005; 608-784-4882.

Wisconsin Tourism: 1-800-432-TRIP/8747