Hot air and coffee
To begin with, our journey this weekend was made possible in part by the loving kitty care of mysticalforest and trueunicorness without their help and support - our return would have been unpleasant to say the least and our journey fraught with much worry and fretting over our kitties well-being.
Friday we spent a romantic evening in and finally settled on the fact that we didn't have to leave at the crack of dawn to get to Prosser, WA on Saturday.
Saturday we brewed coffee at home. I measured out 8oz and added milk to fill my cup. It was a bit 'sweet' but it worked and I suffered no headaches that I could tell from the smaller dose of coffee. We also showered, packed, took care of last minute kitten care instructions, and we left the house before 9am. So still early by normal human Saturday standards.
I drove, as a birthday treat for Matt! His b-day is coming up, he hates long drives, and he drives me around a lot...so since my car was fixed (tire patched, oil changed) I drove. I quickly learned that I have a minor alignment issue that I need to have looked at sooner rather than later and that wasn't fixed by the patched tire. It only got super noticeable at 70mph. So it's not a huge problem yet since I can't drive that fast on my normal routes...but better safe than sorry.
We stopped at a few wineries that weren't really all that exciting and then ate lunch in Yakima. When traveling we like to eat where the locals eat. this took us to the Old Train Stop (or something like that) in Yakima. Good lunch. We split a burger, fries and soup. Beef veggie. It was all tasty.
We got to Sunnyside, WA where our 'hotel' was and learned that it was really a 'motel'. No hallways, just rooms with doors to the outside that face the parking lot. I guess they had some kind of breakfast thing available, but we didn't stick around to find out. Our room wasn't ready - they didn't have any that were, and we would have to return in an hour or more to claim our key. I needed gas, and the station we stopped out didn't have pay at the pump. They did however have a cashier who couldn't figure out how to calculate the cost of 6 gallons of gas and who would have gladly sold me one of the 1/2 dozen or so water pipes that were behind the counter. Shady. In short, unless there are no other rooms available in the while area (and there were not, we checked) don't bother staying in or even going through Sunnyside, WA.
The harvest fest and night glow were perfect country community gatherings. Night Glow takes place at the highschool football stadium and the harvest fest is right in downtown Prosser. The artists and venders at the harvest fest were pretty good and while we didn't buy anything from them, we did find a punch bowl in an antique shop that we were able to bargain down to $25 even paid with a check and wrapped/packaged ourselves. The owner didn't want to get out of her easy chair. Night glow pictures are available on my FB page and via my Twitter feed.
Those links will also show you pictures of the Sunday morning launch at dawn at the Prosser airport (man is that tiny!)! Awesome and totally fun to watch these things inflate, heat up and take off! Sunday morning we woke after sleeping in our clothes on top of the covers. The room was a comfortably temperature and the bed could not be trusted. The head was 3 inches lower than the foot of it (so I slept with my head at the foot of the bed). Moreover the whole room smelled like urinal cake which we fixed by burning a pumpkin spice candle purchased at Wal-Mart b/c by the time we realized there was an issue, we weren't sure the soy candle maker at harvest fest would still be open. So we woke at 5am, dressed (no reason at all to try the shower out, it wasn't welcoming) and got coffee at a java hut. So this broke my coffee budget pledge, but I knew 2 shots would do the trick and I feared lack of good coffee in the diner we planned to eat breakfast at. This fear, turned out to be warranted by the way.
Then we headed home. I guess we made a few more stops and tried out a few other places. Had ribs in a place in Cle Elum and drove through Thorpe and Bristol, WA neither of which seemed much interested in tourist attention...but it was a pretty drive. We arrived home, I napped and showered and cooked and watched TV and then went to bed. It was a great weekend.
Friday we spent a romantic evening in and finally settled on the fact that we didn't have to leave at the crack of dawn to get to Prosser, WA on Saturday.
Saturday we brewed coffee at home. I measured out 8oz and added milk to fill my cup. It was a bit 'sweet' but it worked and I suffered no headaches that I could tell from the smaller dose of coffee. We also showered, packed, took care of last minute kitten care instructions, and we left the house before 9am. So still early by normal human Saturday standards.
I drove, as a birthday treat for Matt! His b-day is coming up, he hates long drives, and he drives me around a lot...so since my car was fixed (tire patched, oil changed) I drove. I quickly learned that I have a minor alignment issue that I need to have looked at sooner rather than later and that wasn't fixed by the patched tire. It only got super noticeable at 70mph. So it's not a huge problem yet since I can't drive that fast on my normal routes...but better safe than sorry.
We stopped at a few wineries that weren't really all that exciting and then ate lunch in Yakima. When traveling we like to eat where the locals eat. this took us to the Old Train Stop (or something like that) in Yakima. Good lunch. We split a burger, fries and soup. Beef veggie. It was all tasty.
We got to Sunnyside, WA where our 'hotel' was and learned that it was really a 'motel'. No hallways, just rooms with doors to the outside that face the parking lot. I guess they had some kind of breakfast thing available, but we didn't stick around to find out. Our room wasn't ready - they didn't have any that were, and we would have to return in an hour or more to claim our key. I needed gas, and the station we stopped out didn't have pay at the pump. They did however have a cashier who couldn't figure out how to calculate the cost of 6 gallons of gas and who would have gladly sold me one of the 1/2 dozen or so water pipes that were behind the counter. Shady. In short, unless there are no other rooms available in the while area (and there were not, we checked) don't bother staying in or even going through Sunnyside, WA.
The harvest fest and night glow were perfect country community gatherings. Night Glow takes place at the highschool football stadium and the harvest fest is right in downtown Prosser. The artists and venders at the harvest fest were pretty good and while we didn't buy anything from them, we did find a punch bowl in an antique shop that we were able to bargain down to $25 even paid with a check and wrapped/packaged ourselves. The owner didn't want to get out of her easy chair. Night glow pictures are available on my FB page and via my Twitter feed.
Those links will also show you pictures of the Sunday morning launch at dawn at the Prosser airport (man is that tiny!)! Awesome and totally fun to watch these things inflate, heat up and take off! Sunday morning we woke after sleeping in our clothes on top of the covers. The room was a comfortably temperature and the bed could not be trusted. The head was 3 inches lower than the foot of it (so I slept with my head at the foot of the bed). Moreover the whole room smelled like urinal cake which we fixed by burning a pumpkin spice candle purchased at Wal-Mart b/c by the time we realized there was an issue, we weren't sure the soy candle maker at harvest fest would still be open. So we woke at 5am, dressed (no reason at all to try the shower out, it wasn't welcoming) and got coffee at a java hut. So this broke my coffee budget pledge, but I knew 2 shots would do the trick and I feared lack of good coffee in the diner we planned to eat breakfast at. This fear, turned out to be warranted by the way.
Then we headed home. I guess we made a few more stops and tried out a few other places. Had ribs in a place in Cle Elum and drove through Thorpe and Bristol, WA neither of which seemed much interested in tourist attention...but it was a pretty drive. We arrived home, I napped and showered and cooked and watched TV and then went to bed. It was a great weekend.