Just before we left Seattle, to return our rental car in Portland, Oregon, and fly back to Tennessee, our dear friends, George and Mary-Pat from Florida, called to see if we were OK after the recent flooding in Chattanooga. Our answer, “We’re in Seattle, but our home is fine.” Turns out George and Mary Pat were in Bend, Oregon. We had one travel day with nothing planned to get back to Portland, so we agreed to meet up and spend the night in Quenett, Oregon. None of us had ever been to Quenett, but the location was central to us, and we all enjoyed exploring new places.
We met for lunch and a wine tasting at Sunshine Mill, which is now owned by Copa Di Vino-Winery. “Copa Di Vino” means wine by the glass, and the winery is the world’s leading producer of single-serve premium wines.
The Sunshine Mill processed wheat for 130 years, is the only designated skyscraper in the Columbia River Gorge, and once made Cheez-It crackers. Much of the eclectically decorated mill’s inner machinery is still there, and it was the first structure in The Dalles to have electricity powered by the Thomas Edison Motor, which is still on display.
Quenett is a very small town, but there are lots of wineries in the area. We took a short drive to Maryhill Winery for a second wine tasting.
The views of the lush valley along the Columbia River from the Maryhill Winery’s deck were breathtaking.
The perfect combination of soil, climate, and topography for growing wine grapes, known as terroir, was the result of the Great Missoula floods caused by catastrophic outbursts from glacial lakes in eastern Washington, thundering into the Columbia River Gorge.
The view from our room at Celilo Inn, perched above the Dalles Lock and Dam, was perfect for an impromptu potluck dinner of foods we’d picked up along the way that could not fly home with us. Celilo is a Native American word meaning “echo of water on rocks.”
We spent a gorgeous evening on the Celilo Inn’s patio catching up with George and Mary-Pat before we all returned to our homes from the amazing Pacific Northwest.