I <3 TD!

I just spent a great and whirlwind of a weekend in The Dalles (TD), Oregon with my roommate Polly in her hometown, celebrating the annual cherry festival. Here is the timeline of shenanigans that occurred:

Saturday:

5:30 am: Leave Seattle. Make a 10-cup pot of coffee for the road. Uh oh.
10 am: Arrive in downtown of The Dalles, OR.
10:30 am: Find Polly’s parents and watch the Cherry Festival Parade.
Parade #1

Parade #2

Parade #3

Parade #4

Parade #5
11:30 am: Walk the vendors. Try some Shari’s cherry pie and maraschino cherries.
12:30 pm: Meet up with other roommate, Mikayla and her boyfriend Nate from Portland.
1:00 pm: Polly and I get lunch at a Mexican restaurant in town.
2:00 pm: Drive to Polly’s house and cherry farm. Walk the grounds, see their pigeon coupe and bees boxes.
Driving up Polly’s driveway.

Checking out all of the pigeons.

Pigeons…don’t serve a purpose.

Bee boxes…for honey and pollination.

The view walking down to the orchards.

Her mom’s gorgeous garden.

One of the farm cats.
4:00 pm: Drive across the river back into Washington to do a wine tasting at Maryhill Winery. Polly and I split the classic and vintage wine tasting to get to try them all. All were very good. Bought the Grenache off the reserve list ($$).
The winery.

Purchased wine.
5:00 pm: Sit outside a the winery’s deck in the 70 degree sunshine taking in the beautiful views.
Grapes!

Gorgeous.
5:30 pm: Drive through Polly’s friend Carolina’s petting zoo farm and see some exotic animals.
Camels are mangy.

Giraffes are cool.

Zebras are pretty.
6:00 pm: Finally kick up our feet for a bit, instantly falling for the HBO hit show Girls. Must get.
Polly and her dog Pucci.
7:00 pm: Go out to dinner at Clock Tower Ales in the city with Polly’s parents. Split a beer sampler with her dad and noshed on a good caesar and awesome sweet potato fries.
My three were the dark ones: Black cherry stout, Young’s Double Chocolate, and Sinister Black. Black Cherry Stout was the definite favorite.

Caesar with awesome sweet potato fries.
9:00 pm: Say goodnight to the parents. Listen to a few songs by Tango Alpha Tango band from Portland playing at the alehouse that night. Really liked their sound!!
10:00 pm: Walk through town to another tap house to meet up with a few of Polly’s high school and college friends in town.
Midnight: Finally get to crawl in bed exhausted.

Sunday:

8:30 am: Wake up to go to a Catholic mass with Polly’s family. Interesting.
10:30 am: Skip out after Communion to have a brunch back at the house with Polly’s sister and kids. Breakfast quiche, a banana jello, fresh oranges, and mini muffins with homemade cherry marmalade to eat.
11:00 am: Hop in the car for the four hour drive back to Seattle.
12:30 pm: Stop in Portland to pick up a Voodoo dozen of donuts from the legendary Voodoo donuts.
Oh man oh man oh man.

“All good things come in pink boxes.”
4:00 pm: Get back to Seattle.
5:00 pm: Guests arrive for Mad Men dinner. Asian themed night with an Asian-inspired chicken thighs with glaze, spicy broccoli and shitake mushrooms, fried rice, Tsingtao beer and sake.
Asian marinated drumsticks.

Spicy broccoli and shitakes.

Fried rice.
6:30 pm: Sit down to episodes 3 and 4 of Mad Men. Dig into the assortment of Voodoo doughnuts with glasses of milk for dessert. Demolished and enjoyed by all.
My favorite was definitely this glazed donut topped with chocolate frosting, oreos, and peanut butter. YUMMY!!!!!!!!!

Our Voodoo dozen included cocopuffs, fruit loops, tang, grape koolaid, maple bacon bar, and a lot of other delicious donuts.
8:30 pm: Guests leave.
9:30 pm: Polly and Bryan decide they are too tired to go to Smash Putt 😦 I didn’t attest.