DOWN WITH PANTS!

One last post about our trip to Eastern Washington...

After Dayton we headed into Walla Walla for some lunch and to start doing some wine tasting. The weather was crappy and all of the lunch spots that Lonely Planet recommended were closed and the place we went to was just ok, nothing special. We weren't really sure if any of the wineries we wanted to go to were even open so the day really wasn't looking very good.

We finally found a listing of area wineries and found out that most of them were open, so we headed around town stopping at a handful of wineries. Death? does all the drinking and decides to let me try something if she thinks I'll like it. I'm not really a wine person, I like beer. Death?'s favorite winery of the day was Canoe Ridge. They let you taste a ton of really good wine and they were incredibly friendly without being annoying like some winery people can be.

After that we started the five hour trip back to Seattle. As we passed the Tri-Cities the weather cleared up and was beautiful and I began to realize that we might have time to stop at the Bonair Winery in Zillah and pick up another bottle of their amazing Mead. So with only about 10 minutes to spare we rolled into the Bonair Winery and grabbed a couple of bottles and headed back out. It was on our way back out that something at a local church caught our attention...

What the hell is that dinosaur covered in Christmas lights doing holding a cross and a Jesus saves sign? I had to pull over and take some pictures of this. Death? kept asking why they would use a dinosaur when they probably don't even believe in them. Then I walked around to the side and I finally got an explanation...

The Church of God-Zillah! Of course! How come I didn't think of that in the first place? I just started laughing my ass off while Death? watched from the car. When I finally got back in the car I couldn't stop laughing and I finally tried to get her to guess why I was laughing so hard. "This is the Church of...GOD! In ZILLAH!...Washington." I would really like to see it all lit up. I bet it is really impressive.

After that we got back on the road and tried to have dinner at Grant's in Yakima but it was closed (what is it with Eastern Washington's restaurants and Sundays?). Instead we headed to Ellensburg and ate at the Rodeo City Barbeque, which is my favorite restaurant between Seattle and Spokane on I-90 and worth a stop every time.

All in all it was a great trip and a really fun time. Anybody who knocks Eastern Washington is dead wrong. We always have fun when we go east. Seriously, where else can you see an old man totem pole, a 310 foot Jolly Green Giant and God-Zillah in the same day?