Sun, Fun, and Wine Tasting

In a slump?? Need a break?? Looking for a good time with a girlfriend (or a boyfriend)?? I HIGHLY recommend you head about 3 hours east of Seattle to beautiful Lake Chelan. This far but not-too-far-away destination was the perfect mix of excitement and relaxation for a few days off of work. The lovely Brittany Smith and I trekked over last week for a 2 day, 1 night whirlwind, including almost more than two girls can handle in two days. Such a blast! Here are some highlights.

Hotel: Grandview on the Lake. Views-- beautiful! Service-- good. Rooms-- clean and affordable. Cafe-- cute Australian guy making your americano and pina colada... okay ;) Soooo not too shabby of a place to stay. Check out some pics:

Jet Skiing: Location-- Jet Skis Ahoy. I melt for corny names. Weather conditions-- 20 kts of wind (windy!!) and a choppy lake. Driver-- Kati to begin, massively failing driving without drenching us and almost losing my contact lenses. Brittany took over and held us at a steady 30mph for a trip up and down the lake (I didn't know I was such a chicken... good thing I had Britty). Here is an awesomely posed photo, before I even buckled my PFD.

Now we are starving and need some good food. We walked into downtown and foud this great little place, Tin Lilly, which had some really unique dishes and a beautiful lime green painted exterior. I created my own veggie, jalepeno, onion, cheesy concoction with and enjoyable Dos Equis amber beer and some fries, while Brittany stuck with the orginal Corona and some mac 'n' cheese. We filled up, that's for sure. Outdoor seating-- absolutely and necessary (we were both pretty white and in need of some serious Vitamin D).

Final stop for the evening-- a great little Mexican Cantina in town, supposedly one of the only good places to go on a weekday evening in Chelan. We enjoyed some nachos and hand-created beverages from the bartender and chatted a bit with a few locals. The coolest part of this bar? The walls and ceilings are lined with dollar bills, each written on, drawn on, and decoration to represent the person that came to enjoy the fun atmosphere. Of course, we had to create our own dollar bill, and naturally went with our obsession-- Latinos. Obsession is a strong word, I have to admit, but in honor of Brittany's boyfriend Miguel (from Mexico) and my boyfriend Juan Carlos (from Peru), we created this dollar bill:

LAS GRINGAS QUE LES GUSTAN LOS LATINOS (the white girls that like the latinos).

A great addition to their bar mural? We think so! Photo evidence:

Day two, day two, what to do? We kept our plans open for a reason. However, it wasn't a hard decision to land on wine tasting for the early afternoon. Another sunny day, less windy, and a chance for more beautiful lake and mountain views. We first headed to Benson winery in Manson, on the east side of the lake. This photo below shows us after some tasting there... not my favorite wines but gorgeous views!

The next place we hit up was more than anything we had hoped for in wine tasting. Hard Row to Hoe vineyards, also located just outside of Manson, was delicious wine with an amazing story, an outstanding host, and a scandalous story to make it all a bit more exciting. A few photos with commentary below.

Awesome signage!! Why not paint your logo on a boat?? This was just outside the wine tasting room in a grassy field with flowers. Beautiful and classy:

Our first couple sips were all our host Rudy needed to read each of our pallates perfectly. I was so impressed at his ability to listen to us, have us taste, and decide what we needed to try and learn more about. Here is me and Brittany trying one of their wines, Naughty Buoy:

So I mentioned the word "scandalous" and if you're as excitable as me, you probably want that story... NOW. Okay, so the history that goes along with this fabulous winery is as follows: Some miners about 12 miles outside of Lake Chelan were some lonely, lonely men. They worked all day in silver mines, a physically and surely mentally exhausting career. And there were no ladies to take care of some of their... other.. needs. But then they heard about some lovely women just across the lake that provided certain... services... that they may desire. Hookers! Prostitutes! Wenches! Harsh, but true. The men begain making the long and trecherous 12 mile hike to the lake, where they got in a small row boat and rowed all the way across the lake, at night, in any conditions, just to get to these women. One they got there... well you can use your imagination for the rest. I'm sure the miners' hard earned dollars were well spent ;) Here is Brittany with some of the ladies in photos on the wall:

Our purchases ended up being quite different from one another, as we have very different tastes in wine. I purchased a Barbera red wine, quite dry and bold, very flavorful and just the slightest bit smokey. Brittany purchased that Naughty Buoy wine, as she prefers the sweeter whites. At the end of our Hard Row to Hoe adventure, we stepped behind the bar for a photo with our host, Rudy. Here we are:

He also suggested that we run over to a local cheese place, Lake Chelan Cheese, and get some pairing wines. I love cheese and try quite a bit, but learning about cheese was new for Brittany. We tasted many cheeses and purchased 2 types each, so delicious!!

So now, slightly buzzed and needing to recover before the drive home, we enjoyed some delicious Umpqua ice cream, chocolate flavor for me, which I thoroughly enjoyed (below)... very reminiscent of my "ice cream eyes" photo from Salamanca, if you recall :)

Next adventure? I HOPE it's backpacking next weekend here in the mountains. BUT if not, I'll have an excellent NYC blog coming this August. Until then...

...catch me later :)