Natalie Vartanian's Blog: Hooked on Hood River

Monday, July 18, 2011

Hooked on Hood River

Tuesday, July 12 – After being in the Portland area for a couple of days, we were ready for a mini-road trip. It’s surprising how we’ve come to really crave the movement and change of locale. I was really looking forward to venturing out to Hood River and exploring something new, especially because it was a recommendation. My good friend/twin brother Aaron had mentioned that his childhood friend Ryan lived in Hood River and was pretty convinced that we would have a really good time with his buddies. Long story short, he was RIGHT! There was definitely a bit of the unknown since we had never met these guys, and obviously they had never met us, but we rolled right on up to their house in our 34 foot RV with our big ol’ dog and made ourselves right at home. They were all so welcoming and it was easy to fit right in. That first day we played some Frisbee Golf at the course right across from their house, drank, played ping pong and ventured over to the local Pub (in the back of a pick up truck ... YES!) where some of the guys had, and still, worked. Deciding we needed food before the next part of the evening, we climbed in to the RV and I drove us over the narrowest bridge to Lyle, Washington. We ate at Everybody’s then popped in at their other friend's place. He owned a small winery, Cor Cellars, and part of the distilling and aging operation is on the property. I even got to taste some wine right out of the barrels.

Ryan, Coach and I in the back of John's pick up truck ... awww yeah!

Ryan, Sally and I at Everybody's

Wednesday, July 13 – The next morning we go tot see the property in the daylight. I keep witnessing these places where I can envision myself there or in a place just like that: A cool house with amazing views of the countryside with grapes growing out back and another building for the winemaking operation. Later in the day, after some work was done and walks were had, we accompanied the guys out to the river to watch a kiteboarding competition. Apparently that’s a BIG thing out in Hood River. Who knew? It was definitely a beautiful day for it: clear skies, warm and windy! Next thing on the agenda was GOLF! Sally decided to pass on that activity, but I was all about it! Played my best game in a long time, I attribute it partly to the fact that I was playing with guys’ clubs. The course was tough (literally carved out in the forest) and we had some winds yet so fun. I got pretty good at skidding the golf cart around the corners of the bumpy dirt cart paths. We played until almost dark then headed to Ho Ho’s, the bar right down the street. Chinese food, pool, dancing, beer and listening to John speak fluent Chinese with the owner equaled a pretty fantastic evening.

Kiteboarding competition

The line of Liquid Cocaine shots at Ho Ho's

Thursday, July 14 – We actually were supposed to go back to Portland on Wednesday but since we extended our trip we go to experience the debauchery from the night before. There was a part of us that didn’t want to leave, especially with the boys enticing us with the upcoming ‘epic’ party that was being thrown on Friday. It was a tough choice actually. We had plans in Lake Oswego for Thursday afternoon, yet we were having so much fun in Hood River. Ultimately Sally and I decided it was time to go, that we had an amazing time but that feeling of not wanting to go was how we felt in Costa Rica. John showed us how to dump our shit at the local RV dump site (Did I mention it was free? YES!), we did some grocery shopping and headed back to the Portland area with one of our new friends who needed a ride to the city. Thank goodness we did because our next stop was amazing in its own right, especially for me since I met some more super interesting people, one especially cool one. (To be continued in the next post!)