Cherry Days

It is July and although the cherry's are "late" this year, but we still enjoyed a day under the VERY hot sun (temps in the high 90's) picking this beloved fruit out in Hood River.

We started the day meeting up with the Hagen's at Cherry Karma's Purple Pit stop where we did some kid crafts, drank delicious cherry smoothies, admiring some glass jewelry/crafts, and ate some little cherry brownies.

Next, we headed over to Lavender Valley lavender farm to learn how to make lavender wands. The smell of the acres of lavender fields was intoxicating.

I love this smell, it reminds me of all of my home births. It was so fun to watch how our personalities emerged while attending to this craft. Some of us had fierce determination to keep at the complicated task of weaving, while others frustration gave up to abandon the wand or put it on the back burner for a later attempt at home w/o the 90 degree heat fueling their impatience :).

After the lavender farm visit we headed over to Alices Orchard where we got our buckets and headed out to the fields of cherry picking and eating bliss. The Rainer cherries were not ready yet so we couldn't pick those. We picked Lapin cherries that grow on very small trees so the kids can reach them.
Time for a break under the shade of the cherry trees to eat some of that hard work. Little cherry pickers sweat fiercely under the pounding rays of the sun and shove mouthfuls of cherries before calling it quits.I think we walked out of that field with over 40 lbs of cherries amongst our 2 families. Satori became over heated and looked like she was dizzy, so I took her back to the car and cooled her off with some ice to suck on and a break in the shade.

She seemed to recover alright and I coaxed us on to our last stop...the winery. The the older kids came up with a plan to end us at Sushi Hana for dinner. We didn't argue with this idea.

We headed over to Cathedral Ridge Winery where Mara and I enjoyed a little taste test of some of their wines which was nice. The kids were not allowed in the building which they were disgruntle about; however, there was a huge and beautiful garden outside to explore, so they did and found an injured butterfly which gave them plenty of entertainment.

After a fun day, we headed back to town to enjoy a feast of Sushi at Sushi Hana. They were having a special "all plates $1.50 so we just filled up on some delicious food. Yummy. I tried a few new varieties that I had never seen before. One was called the Vegas and I have no idea what was in it, but it was so sinfully delicious. Somehow they fry the whole roll which leaves the outside just a bit crispy. Strangely delightful. Everyone was stuffed to the gills as we now rolled out of the restaurant and headed to our homes.

A fantastic summer day with great company.