Wine tasting in Walla Walla Washington

I posted about this place once before here, but this weekend we actually got to be tourists in Walla Walla! We went wine tasting one afternoon with Scott's cousin Kathy's daughter and her hubby; Stephanie and Joe, soo much fun! Our first stop L'Ecole No. 41 an old school house!
Not too busy today which was surprising in the 97 degree heat! Too HOT!!!
I kept track of the wines we liked and didn't like.
Cheers!
Next stop was just down the street Waterbrook .
I just want to say here that Scott is our designated driver... he poured most of his wine into my glass, or I just drank from both glasses. Lucky for me Scott doesn't care for wine!

On that same note however, while you are tasting 6-7 different wines at each stop, you may choose to only sip a wine and pour the rest out if it doesn't please your pallet. As you can see the samples are pretty small, but you do have the option to have more or buy a whole glass.
Third stop Three Rivers.

I thought this sign was fun... until I discovered the true meaning!
We had to play 3 holes of golf before our sampling! What!?!
Anyone who knows me knows I AM NOT athletic! On top of that it is 97 degrees!!! I don't like the heat either, I live in the pacific northwest for a reason! But I went along with it... until Joe lost his ball, then I graciously gave him mine! Ha!
She's a pro, and she let me cheat!
He's a pro too, but doesn't admit it! Thanks for losing your ball Joe so I didn't have to embarrass myself anymore! =)
The hubby was amazing! I had no idea he played as well as he did!
Our lineup of samples! We could choose the left side or the right side! Yummy!
We asked about buying glasses also, and they gave us each a glass with our bottle or bottles of wine we purchased, such a great place!
Next on our stops was a surprise winery, we just decided to go in, we had the whole place to ourselves! Skylite Cellars.
Definitely worth it to stop at the smaller wineries, I would highly recommend it!
I felt like I was in Italy again!
We thought we were done for the afternoon since most of the wineries stop serving at 5:00 pm so we headed back to meet everyone for dinner. We drove past Whitman Cellars at 4:50 and decided to turn around and see if we had time to sample... we decided if they said no that would be okay, but we should try! We are soo glad we did! By the way, most of them don't really close right at 5:00 we found out!
Again, we were the only ones in the place and she welcomed us in! She was soo knowledgeable, she really enjoyed her job, she taught us all quite a bit about wines and flavors!
Thank you so much Stephanie and Joe for inviting us to go tasting with you... we missed you Glenda!!! =D maybe next time!

Chow!

Five generation gathering

We spent the weekend in Walla Walla for a Five generation gathering... above is the oldest 100 and the youngest 3 months. Will is Grandma Farnes great great grandson!
Above is the five generations, AMAZING!!! This is all on the hubby's side of the family =)
I had to get one of the paparazzi!
Above is a five generation photo that includes a grandchild from each lineage.





Grandma decided she wanted everyone sitting ON the table for the group picture!!! (I don't have a copy yet) She is 100 years old and she jumped up on the table like she was 70! Ha!
Such a sweet picture!




The hubby couldn't let things be serious for too long! He!
Such an adorable family, and a fantastic day at the park! We have made many trips to Walla Walla but have not had the opportunity to enjoy Walla Walla, so being able to go to the park for the pictures was such a nice change! We also got to be tourists for the afternoon!

Hope you had a great weekend!

2010 Relay for Life Garden Tour

The hubby and I went to the Relay for Life Garden Tour again this year... you may remember we went last year and I really enjoyed all the ideas I came home with. Click here, here, here, here, here, and here to see my posts from last year. This year was a little disappointing,
but the flowers were amazing!
Lots of pathway ideas...
mirrors were used in several of the gardens we saw.



Scott was impressed with this water feature since he would not have to clean it out the way he does our pond and waterfall, but I reminded him we have fish! But I think it would be fab to put one of these by our firepit!!! *grin*
*sigh* so pretty!
Only one old door was used in a garden this year... last year it seemed like every garden we went to had an old door. I am still looking for a few for my house *wink*
Lots of gates!

Loved the child's car filed with flowers! Another idea to keep a look out for.
Another mirror, lots of containers.
Loved this outdoor seating area! Oh. my. gosh. what is that!?! Back there?
Past the pond!
Finally! An outdoor room! Last year I fell in LOVE with the idea of having my own outdoor room... loving this one!



So cute! =D

Lots of yard art placed here and there!


Hehe!

Cute chicken claw door handle!

Wait, back up! Did you catch that in the picture above? The chicken claw door handle, it's a chicken coop! How fun! They had chickens too!



Roses just HUGE!




This garden is allergy free.


This was a cute idea to write the names of the plants on rocks.






This house was pretty far out of town, in Everson. Cute idea to use old ski's
and snowboards as outdoor seating!





Sorry, I {heart} barns!















After we went to the Garden Tour we drove up to Birch Bay for dinner. One of our favorite places to go.
These flowers we near the patio at dinner. I had not seen petunias this color before, they are bright pink with lime green edges, so different!
Had a great dinner, I had fish tacos, the hubby had a fisherman's basket! Yummy! The view was fabulous, the water so refreshing! Just recharges you for the week ahead! =)
Then we went for a walk on the beach with Koko and to make room for....
for ice cream. We had not ever been to Mallard before, it is downtown Bellingham, we usually go to Fairhaven for ice cream or gelato.
It was delish! I had chocolate lavender, such an interesting flavor I had to try it!!! I love things with lavender in it! We went to a Bed and Breakfast in Victoria BC a few years ago and the hostess served us Lavender Scones, they were the best things ever! Hubby had black cherry.

Hope you had a wonderful Sunday too!