{13oct2011: Eastern Washington}

Groupon and those other discount sites are a great way to get out to see and do things you may not have originally thought of doing. One item we recently bought was a white water rafting adventure. It took us to Eastern Washington, where I've never been, so we made a weekend out of it.
A month or so before our weekend get away I saw a post on a Washington tourism blog I follow about Cherry Wood Bed Breakfast & Barn in Zillah. They not only are a B&B but also rescue horses and lead winery tours by horseback. How cool is that?! So of course I show it to Jason and we decide to do it!
So early early one Friday morning we head out east. We booked a Friday horseback and winery tour so we needed to get there by 11. They offered to keep Darwin in a kennel, but we were worried about the heat (it was a 90+F weekend) so we decided to take her to a doggy day care instead. We picked Pomona Pet Services in Yakima and they were great, so friendly and totally in love with Darwin. They were a small facility with an indoor area and an outdoor enclosed yard with a little plastic kiddie pool (which Darwin loves to stand in). We only didn't take into consideration how out of the way it is from all the activities we had planned (45 min drive from horseback riding and water rafting spot), but other than that it was a great place.
So we hurried over east and dropped off Darwin then headed to Cherry Wood.
{hello mini horse!}



Besides the horses they had a few dogs on the property. This one followed me around a bit as we waited.

These were Jason and my horses, Nevada and Latago.
We had a few late comers (I hate tardy people!... maybe not hate, but am bugged by them) so we got a later start than planned, but then we were off.





We stopped at three wineries (had lunch at the second) and at the last stop I made friends with this guy. They rescued him as a stray and he's a total lover.
 
Since we started later than planned we were running behind and had to rush back to the B&B so we could head out to pick up Darwin from daycare. See the teepees... you can stay in them at the B&B!


We collected the wines we bought (if you buy wines along the tasting the wineries deliver them back to Cherry Wood so you don't have to carry them around) and hurried back to Yakima to pick up Darwin. We then stopped quickly at a market to get dinner supplies (steak and mashed potatoes of course) and then headed out towards RimRock lake near Tieton where we planned to camp (also near the rafting area). We found a free spot next to the river.



It was a great spot for the most part, right on the river, no one near us, but the highway was right across the river. Boo. It wasn't too bad, cars couldn't really see us, but the traffic noise freaked Darwin out. She kept thinking a car was pulling up to our site and barking. She had a pretty sleepless night (she was "on guard" all night watching the car lights pass and trying to hear for strange noises)... poor girl.

***I realized there are no Darwin pictures in this post! Don't worry she'll be in a lot in the next post!
***Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, if you haven't read it I highly recommend it, it's so good!