Fourth of July weekend with warm weather, quaint shops, restaurants, cafes and literally hundreds of wineries, Napa you say? No. Sonoma? Nope. Santa Barbara. Guess again. Walla Walla. That’s right, Walla Walla. Our journey to the southeastern corner town began Friday morning. Contrary to numerous reports that the 270 mile journey would be in excess of 5 hours, it took well under 4.5 hours.
We arrived into town around lunch time and our first stop was the Ice-Berg Drive In. The Ice-Berg is a Walla Walla institution located just outside the downtown corridor. The burgers are made to order and hot off the grill. Sunny got the cheeseburger and I opted for the double, no cheese. The small order of fries is a meal in itself and I could go on and on about the onion rings, but all you need to know – breaded Walla Walla sweets.
We checked into our motel (Best Western, the Ritz Carlton of Walla Walla – the Whitman Hotel is the Four Seasons of Walla Walla – we will stay there next time babY), hopped on our bikes and toured downtown. The light traffic and wide streets allows for a great way to check out the town. After a brief stop at the Whitman College campus, we eventually made it to Pioneer Park. Pioneer Park is the site of the town’s 4th of July festivities – live music, food and trinket vendors.
The remainder of our stay included eating, running, shopping, eating, visiting a handful of wineries, and did I mention eating? All in all it was a great extended weekend. Thank you babY and Walla Walla for the fun weekend!
Walking into 26brix you would think that you were in an eatery located in No. California or Santa Barbara wine country, but rather you are in one of the many fine eateries in Walla Walla. Chef-Owner Mike Davies was the exe. chef at Salish Lodge before coming out to Walla Walla and opening up 26brix. In addition to the free range chicken and the gumbo we had the crabcakes as a starter and as a side to our meal we both enjoyed the grilled Walla Walla sweets.
Another place that we enjoyed was lunch at the Homestead (http://www.homesteadwallawalla.com/), good ole fashion home cooking in an inviting atmosphere. Sunny had the grilled vegetable sandwich and I had the fresh roasted turkey sandwich with fries and soup n’ salad buffet bar. Good stuff!
The fish & chips, baked onion and garden vegetable sandwich at the Marc Restaurant (http://www.marcuswhitmanhotel.com/index.cfm?page=nav3&psub=1#) were also very good.
Safe to say our favorite of the bunch...
As for the wineries, L’Ecole was on the list before we left Seattle, but as it turns out our favorite was Woodward Canyon. We brought back the most from Woodward. The 2005 Artist Series, a 100% cabernet, was very tasty.
We definitely plan on going back if for no other reason than to eat at Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen (didn’t go, but got lots of mention and apparenly you can only have one lunch and one dinner per day), Luscious by Nature, Creek Town Cafe (they were closed all weekend), and of course Ice-Berg Drive In.
Nice trip…