Labor Day '08

We've spent a lot of time in Pendleton this summer and every weekend has been a blast. This one was no different. Have you ever driven through Pendleton? These are the cows that you see from the freeway:

John talking to one of the cowboys:

We came to Pendleton to pick up a pair of boots that I ordered a few weeks ago. I fell in love with them in the window, but they didn't have any my size... "Haven't had to get too many small sizes lately.. The girls 'round here are havin' 10 and 11 size feet" (my grandma would've said they were poorly bred) Well, we stopped to try the boots on and then went to shop for a few hours and then go pick them up. John got a new belt buckle:

In our travels, we passed a cute little store with an outside table with a sign "Belts $1.00." I dare any woman to ever walk by that sign. I found three belts. When we went in to pay, we found ourselves in the coolest little western re-sale store ever. I wound up with pink cowgirl boots to match the new belt:

As we were having lunch, (lunch was a roast beef sandwich with sprouts and nice hot horseradish) John asks me "are those press one nails on the buckle?" We investigated closely and they are not. However, this belt will forever be know as the Lee press-on belt.

Parched from shopping, we headed to The Rainbow, a fantastic little bar that has been in business in the same location for 125 years. Its one of the best bars we've ever been to:

On the wall is Bill the Buffalo. The first time we came in here, we felt his omnipresent gaze and dubbed him "Disapproving Buffalo." It seems that every time we're in there, he's very disappointed that we've fallen victim to the booze......

After an afternoon of shopping, exploring, drinks, and some quality time spent at the pool, it was time for dinner. We go to dinner at Hamley's. Its this amazing building in the middle of town and the food is fantastic. I had the best salmon dinner ever. Also, both our dinners came with different kinds of mashed potatoes and they both were worthy of a meal unto themselves. I can't even describe how cool this place is. Everywhere you turn there is some fantastic piece of western history to greet you.

After dinner, we went upstairs to walk through all the cool little extra rooms, perfectly decorated in old western style.... We're pretty sure the room with this chair is haunted...

Also, there is another complete bar upstairs that they use for events.. luckily for our picture taking goals, its not locked.

After dinner, we went back to The Rainbow, where we met up with Red, who I bought my boots from, and with him were Jason and Bill. We had a super fun night until I finally had to lead John, stumbling all the way, back to our cozy littel hotel...


After a delicious start of greasy breakfast, we headed home. It was colder than we had planned and by the time we got back to Portland, we were wet and freezing. This was probably the last trip of the year we get to take with no jackets. But we have gotten lots of very warm miles over the past couple months and couldn't be happier...

And every time I wear these bad boys (um, which is going to be about every day), I will be reminded of one of the best summers that we've ever had.