Day 5 Western Adventure

Day 5

Last night, we had dinner at the Rusty Moose in Spokane……on the plus side, the Hampton has a shuttle there, so no worries about alcohol consumption, on the negative side, food was only mediocre. We each ordered a starter Caesar Salad – incredibly watery and lacking in flavour; then we ordered a Chef’s Special Ribeye dinner to split – limited grilled zucchini for the veggies, not enough of the mashed potatoes (the best part of the meal), and although the steak was done perfectly, flavour was not up to our standards……..on a plus side, service was excellent. On the shuttle back, another couple going to the Hampton joined us. When I mentioned we were from Ontario, he said that it was a great city (now, I do hope he was referring to Ontario California and not ON Canada…). Dinner was such a disappointment, we ordered nachos when we got back to the room to go with our wine; but Todd forgot to order the black olives on the side, and they were very generous with them….

We relaxed for a bit this morning because we knew it would be short drive today –at only about 5 hours. We got on the road at 9:30. Our first Rest Room stop was a surprise as we met up with the couple from yesterday in the yellow corvette that had been hit. We compared notes on our stays….ours was much better than theirs for a much better price. We wished them well as they continued on their way to Seattle to begin an Alaskan Cruise.

On our way to Seattle on the I90 at mile marker 135, we stopped for some amazing views. Here, the Wanapum Indians lived. They were a religious and peaceful people living on fish, venison, berries, and roots. The Wanapums had never fought the White Man and as a result they never signed any treaties. They are now virtually extinct.

The scenery on the drive went from miles of rolling hills with plantings of wheat, potatoes, and alfalfa to mountains of evergreens, to snow-covered areas the closer we got to Seattle. We continued west towards Seattle until about 10 miles out, where we headed north, about 30 miles to our destination for the next three days, Willows Lodge in Woodinville.

We arrived in Woodinville at 3:15, a bit too early to check into the Willows Lodge, so we went for a drive to scope out the town. We found the restaurants where we want to have dinner over the next 3 nights, then drove to find some wine tastings, over 80 in the area…. We saw a huge number of cars in one spot, so we pulled in. Turns out Forgeron Cellars was having an opening celebration with free wine tastings and hors d’oeurves – SCORE! We bought one bottle of their 2010 Chardonnay (now empty as I write this….) for $27.10 – a little pricey, but definitely tasty…lightly oaked with pear and melon flavours.

We are off to the Purple Café and Wine Bar for dinner…..will report tomorrow….