4 of the 5 of us were sick, one was at the Dr. the morning we left, 2 stayed home from school…but we decided to go! Sage had tried out for All State Choir earlier in the school year and was selected! Friday morning, when everyone was so miserable, we were unsure about going. But Sage still wanted to try, so off we went.
Our first stop was Ellensburg. It was FREEZING, but we needed to get out of the car for a few minutes, so we walked around. Sage is OBSESSED with the camera on Tom’s phone which blurs the background of pictures. So of course we stopped a few times to take pictures for her Instagram feed!
This building in downtown Ellensburg is beautiful!
Next stop was our home for 4 days. I completely forgot about getting a hotel room for us until about a month ago and EVERYTHING was booked. I’m so glad though, because I found a beautiful 3 bedroom house to rent through VRBO. We brought some food with us and were able to relax and get better Friday night and Saturday while Sage was away at practice.
Sage was in the Mixed Choir and they did a great job. They leanred 5 songs ahead of time, practiced during the day on Saturday and then had a concert Saturday late afternoon.
While Sage was at practice, Tom rested as he was really sick. Molly, Ashley and I went out to see if there was anything interesting in downtown Yakima. Well…there’s not. But we did get some good burgers for lunch!
On Sunday, everyone was feeling a little better, so we decided to go exploring. We started out at a petrified forest….never really found the forest, only a few trees and some rocks with writing on them. It was snowing and SO COLD!!
We did find some petrified trees (definitely not a forest) outside a small gem and rock shop in the town of Vantage, WA, with the population of 78. Did I mention that it was freezing????
And a few dinosaurs…I think I forgot to mention how windy it was on top of being FREEZING!!
Our next stop was Wild Horses Monument….basically some iron horses up high on a hill. We parked on the side of the road and hiked up a steep hill. Ashley and I didn’t make it all the way to the top, but Tom, Sage and Molly did.
It was super windy up there!!
We were so misearably cold, but everyone agreed to take a selfie on the way back to the car! The smiles are totally fake, but I love the picture!
Next, we drove a little farther to Kennewick, WA and ate lunch at Texas Roadhouse. Tom has eaten at a few of these and really liked it, so since we were so close, we had to try it. It was the best part of our day!
Next we drove to Toppenish, which is known as the City of Murals. There were amazing murals painted on buildings all over the little town.
Part of our drive that day was by a few wineries…not much on the vines this time of year, but still beautiful. This picture was outside the one winery we stopped at for a few minutes.
Our last stop was frozen yogurt, because when it’s 29 degrees, snowing and very windy, why wouldn’t you eat frozen yogurt? We did a lot of driving that day and really didn’t enjoy any of the stops except for lunch. We all decided we were glad we did it, but that Yakima and the surrounding area wouldn’t be a place we choose to visit again. Eventhough most of us were feeling sick, the disappointing stops and the horrible weather, surprisingly we had a good day as a family and made some fun memories!
The home we stayed at and Sage’s concert were the highlights of the trip. We were the first guests to stay in this newly fixed up home. It was just perfect for our family! This is the view I walked out to on our last morning. 🙂