One of my constant pleasures in traveling is Horizon Air. This is Alaska's northwest regional fleet of turboprops (q200?), flying to small or nearby cities. Horizon is home to the tacky shirt, and the free microbrew, complimentary wall street journal at the terminal in seattle, and northwest vintages. The stewardess often makes it through the aisles a second time to top anyone off if they want it.
I had the luck to be Horizon's guest on my recent trip to Pasco, for a visit to a winery nearby in Eastern Wa. Unfortunately, it was a very short flight, and I opted for coffee in the morning and slept on the return leg.
The Tri Cities lie at the confluence of the Columbia and yakima rivers, and seem to be in a boom. Looking at new construction visible from a short drive and a day trip, it looks like a lot of the live-work-play destinations they have been busy marketing near bend, or. I suppose that California will in time fill up, and the north will ironically be the new sun-belt. Since Portland and Seattle are overcast 9 months a year, the inland will fluorish. It should be an alternating patch of golf courses and homes stretching from the Coachella valley (or Yuma?) all the way to Spokane. Of course, it will come in spurts, and the snowbirds may still find deals in Guadalajara or elsewhere... but the north is it. How odd. How long until nice Southern men and women start retiring to the deals of the north? How long until the deals of the north evaporate, and rural missouri becomes the hot-spot? Where will the madness end? I can only watch, and hope the big one doesn't take me out.
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