Posted by ayersian
, July 13, 2009 03:51
The Dog Bark Park Inn in Cottonwood, Idaho is the home of the World’s Biggest Beagle, and we slept in the beautifully furnished room inside Sweet Willy, the wooden dog/B&B. Canine themes abound here—dogs carved into the headboard, a bookshelf full of dog tomes, even the Dog-opoly board game—but the food really had us howling! Homemade granola (from a family recipe), peach-huckleberry bread, rhubarb-raisin muffins, and hot coffee broke our fast, and we took lots of photos of the curious carvings in the yard. Chainsaw artists Frances & Dennis were truly charming hosts who were thrilled to be a part of our roadtrip, and we vowed to return to “the Dog” on our next trip to Idaho. Following Route 12 into Washington, we stopped for lunch at Ray’s Drive-In in Dayton. Not only did the A-frame building resemble an isosceles triangle, but we also found further geometric shapes inside. The fried halibut planks were shaped like parallelograms, but the Cougar Burger with ham and bacon was a stacked disk of cheese and meat. In this corner of the state, the wild cherry milkshake won out over the huckleberry version. Venturing through the lush Walla Walla Valley vineyards, we made a pitstop at L’Ecole No 41 (their main building is an actual former schoolhouse) to pick up bottles of their award-winning Chardonnay and Semillon wines. We then crossed the Oregon line and picked up the interstates in Umatilla.
Having never visited eastern Oregon, we were astonished at how similar the landscape was to the scrub-brush deserts of southern California. The Columbia River Gorge is an unbelievable sight, as I-84 snakes through it with the colossal Mount Hood looming in the distance. We sped by the Dalles and Hood River to meet Portland Roadfood legend Mr. Chips and family for dinner. We decided on Dan & Louis Oyster Bar, and Jim, Trudy, and son Sam snagged a curbside parking space in front of the restaurant. It was a 20-minute wait for a table, so Sam suggested that we indulge around the corner at Voodoo Doughnut for a pre-dinner snack. We can honestly report that their famous Maple Bacon Bar is one of the best doughnuts we’ve ever inhaled! Back in the restaurant, we ordered a dozen raw oysters (2 each) from Washington beds in Evening Cove, Quilcene, Samish, Totten Inlet, Tillamook (OR), and Kumamoto (OR). A cup of their famous oyster stew and their more famous Crab Louis salad followed, as the Chips clan regaled us with stories of Portland’s electrifying culinary scene. After a fabulous dinner, we bid them adieu and drove to Berkley Park to stay with Amy’s cousin Becky. Tune in tomorrow for a whirlwind tour of Portland, grilled cheese sandwiches, and blue-ribbon cupcakes!
