Day Eleven - The Dalles (OR) - Hood River (OR) and back again

Plans changed as they sometimes (often) do. At some point, I had the idea that it would be good to go to Hood River early to scope out where the Wedding events were going to happen. When it finally sunk in that the Wedding started at 3, I realized that lunch needed to be accounted for. Which led me to wonder if there was a brewpub in Hood River. Which there was. So, that became the new plan. Brewpub for lunch and then scoping out, then changing clothes, etc...

Getting mom ready for the wedding wasn't the easiest task I have ever had. Started off with a shower - which was made easier by the walk-in shower we had in the room. We had purchased shampoo for her earlier and I think she got fairly clean! Yay! She did use both of the big towels, so I got them replaced by the motel staff. We ended up deciding that she would wear one outfit to start and then change into her fancier clothes before the wedding started.

We got out in a timely fashion and arrived at Full Sail just after they opened. We got a parking spot right in front of the door. We were allowed to self seat and sat in front of a huge window! We had two and half servers over the course of the afternoon. All charming and personable and helpful. Cameron got us a local map and drew directions to the Rose Garden on it as well as highlighting the Hood River Hotel. Michelle rescued us from mistakenly ordered tomato skewers. And Kenzie cleared the table a few times, which was much appreciated! We ended up staying for a couple of hours all together. The place went from empty to jam packed with a waiting line in no time at all. The servers and hostesses and bartenders kept up with it all very well. I had two beer tasters, the correct side and the wrong side of their list. I like the correct side better, all things considered, though all 14 beers were decent. I saw a sign outside of the pub saying they were the Brewers of the Original Henry Weinhardt's I remember having that back a few years ago. It was inexpensive and decent as I recall.

Along with the beer, we had some food. First we had three dishes - sort of tapas like - marinated mushrooms, an olive salad and the scary tomato skewers. Luckily we were saved from having to force those down and got Vietnamese meatballs in their place. Yippee! I was surprised that the meatballs were cold, but life is that way sometimes. Later, mom and I shared some yummy french fries that had been drizzled in garlic herb butter and had tartar sauce to dip them in. Also yummy!

Satisfactorily bolstered for the day, we went in search of the Rose Garden. I didn't follow Cameron's map, which was silly of me since it was perfect. Sigh. Instead I toodled around asking people until I got good directions - from a woman whose children were holding a "bike wash." I tried to convince her that my car was just a big bike, but she didn't fall for it. Oh well. We found the Garden, chatted with some people milling about, saw Daniel and headed off to the hotel to change clothes. Mom changed in the ladies room. I went into the men's room with my iPhone and a youtube video on "How to tie a bowtie." The video was well done, but in the end I just grabbed something and pulled and it seemed to work! I looked decent, if I must say so myself - though mom kept telling me I looked great. Moms. Sigh.

Back in the car, we drove to the Garden again for the wedding. Most people just walked up the stairs from the hotel, so parking was easy. The ceremony was great and well orchestrated. They had a hand fasting bit, a cool altar of memories, an articulate celebrator and a good crowd of supportive friends and family! And it didn't rain, which was awesome.

After the wedding, we headed back to the Hood River Hotel for the reception. They had good beer on tap - I had Total Domination from Ninkasi Brewing. I think that was the third or fourth beer from them I have had in Oregon. All good! Good food, good chatting, some dancing, etc. All great stuff!

The day was full of meeting interesting people. At Full Sail, we met Kelly and Chaya. Turns out that Kelly is a graphic designer and works for Crooked Fence Brewing - and might provide some beer artwork for Flippety. He is also doing graphics for an iPhone game that looked cool. When he gives me a link, I will post it! Later, at the wedding, we met Keith and Elise. Keith is also a designer and did some work on two apps (so far). Small app world. We also had Patricia and Maxine at the table who fun to get to know a bit. And Mary and Jean got the award for furthest travel to get to the wedding. They live in Wales - maybe mom and I will go there for a vacation at some point. I would love to learn Welsh! Jean seems like she would be a good teacher.

All in all, a great day. Gotta stop having these. I will get spoiled... :)

The taproom at Full Sail

Daniel reading his vows to Heidi

Mom and me at the Wedding

Dancing