TINY TOWN TOUR

I hope your Memorial Day weekend was enjoyable, relaxing and/or fun. Davey and I spent our weekend in Walla Walla, WA -- the city so incredible, they named it twice.

Usually, when we go on vacation, we have some kind of plan, a list of things to see and do, and by the time we get back home we are exhausted and need a vacation to recover from our vacation (can we say run-on sentence?). However, this trip we took our time, slept-in, moseyed around, and came back home pretty refreshed. Here are some of the things we did on our journey through the country with links to more details - should you want to do our "relaxing weekend tiny town tour".

MAP & SEMI-GAMEPLAN:

Day 1 - Seattle to Dayton, WA then hotel in Walla Walla, WA

Day 2 - Walla Walla, WA to Pendleton, OR and back to hotel for the night

Day 3 - Walla Walla, WA through tiny towns to Yakima, WA then back home

Roughly 650 miles

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DAY ONE

Dayton Days - we missed the morning parade, but we did stroll down main street and hit up a few antique stores before heading over to the horse races at the fairgrounds.

Did I mention how MUSCULAR these horses were? I mean, they were ripped!

Although we didn't place real bets on any of the races (mostly because we didn't understand how it worked and the few things we did figure out while we were there made it obvious it was a total rip-off) but Davey and I made fake bets with one another. The horses I picked in two races both won, but the third race I totally lost, so I broke even...possibly.

In between the races and the rodeo we went back to the car and took a short nap -- much like this little red BC chillin in his owner's truck outside the fairgrounds. We had to get up at 6am to drop off Jazz at the kennel before heading out East, so it was good to get a little "dog nap" in before the evening's festivities.

Pre-rodeo fun included Mutton Bustin' where the kiddos got to ride sheep. This was such a typical southern crazy thing to do to your kids, but I was actually kind of jealous and wanted to try it.

Can't have a rodeo without Old Glory flying overhead and good 10 minute schpeel about how awesome America is!

Then onto bareback riding

Then a little cattle-ropin

The beautiful fire-ey sunset backdrop to the rodeo arena

We watched some bull riding, calf wranglin', and finally barrel racing -- which was so fast I couldn't get a good shot of it.

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DAY TWO

Wine tasting a Waterbrook Winery in Walla Walla. The staff there were so nice and took the time to explain things to Davey and I (who aren't big wine drinkers, but we wanted to know more about the process and what the difference was between different types of wine)

Davey and I are usually white and rose wine drinkers only, but with the help of the staff we were able to find some reds that we liked. It was a great learning experience and I feel more confident about purchasing wine now, knowing more of what I like and what I don't like.

The tasting room was absolutely gorgeous (a new building) with lots of outdoor seating with a pond and a bocce court.

CHEERS!

After lazying the morning around town and the winery, we hopped in the car (being sure we were safe to drive after sipping on wine) and headed to the Umatilla National Forest for a drive through the country woods. This is Stateline Road -- the right side is in Washington and the left side is in Oregon -- so we drove down the middle so Davey and I could be in two different states, even though we were sitting next to each other.

I took lots of pictures out the window

Lots of country pictures

Then we crossed over into Oregon and saw

THIS

(click for a larger view)

We drove down into that valley to Pendleton, OR, where the big Rodeo Round-Up is held in September. Since there were no cowboys/girls to be found this time of the year, we ate at what is probably the most crowded restaurant during the rodeo

Hamley's has a complex with a restaurant, cafe, coffee house, and saloon.

They even had a wine cellar downstairs with a private tasting room.

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DAY THREE

Our goal for the day was to get from Walla Walla to Yakima by 3:00pm, stopping at several tiny towns (the red stars on the map) on the way to check out the local scenes. So, when we saw this from the interstate, you know we had to stop:

The Dairygold Dairy Fair

Complete with a 2nd floor self-guided tour

Which lasted approximately 5 minutes. They also had free cheese samples, which were basically cubes on a tray with no labels or descriptions. We were very disappointed in the Dairy Fair and the cheese for that matter. So we moved on...

To Granger, WA - "Where the dinosaurs roam". There are numerous life-size cement dinosaurs throughout the community -- I think we counted over 20. It's their hokey way of getting people into their town (which is a good idea, because we wouldn't have stopped otherwise)

I don't like dinosaurs. Can you tell? This guy was an herbivore and I still didn't like being that close to him.

Davey, on the other hand, loves dinosaurs and feels completely comfortable with them. He would own a pet dragon if it was allowed (oh yeah, and if they existed).

In Zillah, WA we discovered (after accidentally doing a complete loop of the town) the Teapot Dome Gas Station. For being on the US National Register of Historic Places, this little gem was poorly marketed. I just recounted how many FREAKISHLY HUGE BILLBOARDS line I-85 for one flea market somewhere in South Carolina. I mean, I knew EXACTLY what exit to take to get to that flea market, a good hour before I actually got there.

We stopped at one last antique shop in Yakima before we headed home. All in all a very relaxing, but fun trip. I enjoyed seeing the spaced-out smaller towns and walking down the main streets that had such cute shops and restaurants. Each community was very similar, but each one had their "claim to fame" that made it different.

What did you do over the holiday weekend? Any fantastic discoveries? Any hokey tourist spots in your town or state?