This weekend Emily and I headed out to Hood River for our 1yr Wedding Anniversary! It's hard to believe it has already been a year! In the morning Emily gave me a wonderful anniversary gift. It was an amazing house with heart balloons coming out of it but the house and balloons were map cut-outs of significance in our lives together. The hearts were Saratoga Springs where we met, Hawaii where we got Engaged, and Hood River where we got married while the house was Portland, OR where we now have our first house together! I didn't have anything to give her but I did inform her I had finished a well thought out wine box letter that we were supposed to put in there before our wedding!!! Shhhh don't tell anyone we didn't! I think Em still needs to finish hers as I didn't see another one in there.... hehe. Read on to hear about the rest of our anniversary.
We left Leo with friends again as we planned to bike on Sunday and knew the ride would be too much for him and too hot to be left in a car. As usual on lazy summer Saturdays lately we got a late start and didn't get to Hood River until mid afternoon. We wanted to do a wine tasting and head into the "Fruit Loop" Hood River Valley to pick berries and fruit. We took both my truck and the Prius for bike shuttling on Sunday and dropped the car off at a Viento campground off I-84 before continuing on to Hood River. We first headed to the beautiful Gorge White House just outside of town where we grabbed some buckets and picked an assortment of red raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. It had been years since I had done this and although we didn't get much because it had been mostly picked out we promised ourselves to come back earlier next year to pick a lot more! Not only did I gorge myself on berries while picking but we also had wonderful views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood from the valley the entire day as well. Before we left we stopped inside to try out some of their hard ciders before heading down the road to our next stop. 
Our next stop was a Lavendar Farm where there was also a crafts fair going on. It was "Cherries Festival" weekend in the Hood River Valley so I think there was more going on than usual but oddly we didn't see many cherries or where to pick them.... maybe we were just oblivous... The lavender farm was neat but it paled in comparison to the lavender farm we visited on San Juan Island two years ago. 
We then jetted over to a local store that was supposed to be having a bbq with ribs but got there just after all the ribs were gone and ended up just getting a yummy pulled pork sandwich instead that we shared as we didn't want to spoil our dinner in Hood River later that night. From there we had just enough time to make it back to the Mt. Hood Winery which we had gone to the day after our wedding with Emily's parents and Chris and Julia. We grabbed a couple glasses of wine and headed out to the back patio to enjoy the views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood in the distance. 
After the winery closed up we headed back to Hood River to the waterfront to cool our feet off in the water and watch all the kiteboarders whipping around on the water and flying into the air. There had to be nearly a hundred of them and it was fascinating to watch them steer the kites into shore and land them smoothly on the sand spit created from the Hood River entering the Columbia. Emily and I made a promise that next summer we would learn hot to kite board an make an effort to do more water sports as the summers in Oregon seem to just be getting hotter and hotter with climate change.
For dinner we went to 3 Rivers Grill in Hood River. It was one of the few restaurants that I hadn't been to during our wedding preparation in town. Being a fancy restaurant I assumed the t-bone would be a great choice but was sadly mistaken as it came out pretty much well done instead of medium rare. If it had been Ruby Tuesday's I would have eaten it but for nearly $30 I sent it back for them to get it right. A new one came to me shortly after that I'm pretty sure was still moo'ing.... This being yet again a disappointment at a fancy restaurant Emily and I decided that until we are filthy rich we are just going to stay clear of them from now on as the food and service isn't doesn't ever seem to warrant the double ticket price....
We had tried to find a room at the Best Western again but with short notice they didn't have any and the whole town was booked everywhere so we ended up camping a few miles west on I-84 at a free little campground along the Columbia. It was probably free because of the super loud freight trains that nearly rolled right through the center of it! Regardless, we had a nice sunset over the river and enjoyed some box wine at our campsite before climbing into our tent next to the car. I love the fact that my wife is adventurous and doesn't mind roughing it at all when we need to, especially when we can save $250 instead of getting a hotel room.. :) It was a wonderful and relaxing anniversary in a town we truly love.
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