The Gorge rocked. It was better than I could have ever expected! Camping? Great! Phish? Awesome! New friends? Sweet! The Gorge? Amazing!
We flew into Seattle and met up with our friends Dani, Ryan and Graham. We rented a car and started the trip to George, Washington (where the Gorge is located.)
We stopped for a casual grocery store run on the way. Dani (that's her on the right with her phone) and I thought we had the car packed pretty well, right?
Clearly the boys didn't think so....
Ha ha ha. After they got it all fixed back the way they wanted we were back on the road.
We passed this beautiful windfarm on the way. I have never seen one this close before, and it was beautiful...
I took this photo on the way into the Gorge on my phone. I've never seen anything like this in my life. It was so cool to look out and see all the boats (not in this picture). I spend most of my time on Lake Lanier and Lake Blackshear, so this was very different :)
On the way in we stopped at this amazing hotel/winery. It was called Cave B and was breathtaking. It was about a mile and a half from our campsite. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the winery to the campsite.
This is a picture of the main building as we walked in from the parking lot. I was immediately drawn to the roof line. I did some research and found out that the hotel was designed by Olson Kundig Architects. Huge props to them. The hotel had a very modern yet organic feel to it.... as if it belonged in the side of the mountain, but was still cutting-edge.
I grabbed this image of the view walking in through the vineyard from their website. Do you love?
There were these very cool cliffside houses.
We of course walked up to the hotel to check it out.
I saw this very cool chandelier inside, which I would describe as industrial organic. Sorry for the terrible picture. I did not want to take all my camera equipment, but was impressed by how well my Canon Powershot preformed. This being the one exception.
Then we walked over to the winery for a wine tasting. Doesn't everyone do this before a Phish concert? Ha ha. I thought so. It was such a great deal... we got 10 tastes for $6. It was a great way to spend an hour.
Before we head over to the campsite I want to take a moment to tell you about Dani (as I always say... it's my blog so I can do that if I want. You thought you were coming here to look at houses? he he)
Dani is the girl on the right. She came with her awesome boyfriend Ryan, and we had a blast hanging out with them.
Dani has the best style ever! I was totally obsessed with the necklace she had on at the tasting. She owns an hip boutique in Boston called Flock. I really want to go to Boston just to shop there, but I am afraid I would come home with no money. I love her website and her style.
If you know about my bird obsession you may be able to figure out why I like her style and the name of her boutique. :) So if any of you guys are from Boston please go check out her store.... and then report back and make me jealous!
Back to the story of the Gorge :)
We went over and picked out our campsite, which was toward the back and fairly quiet (luckily)....
This was the view in front of us. Not bad, huh?
After we set up camp it was time to walk to the Gorge... which was actually a pretty far walk.... and after you just didn't want to walk anymore you crested this hill and saw this...
Can you believe the view? I have never seen anything like it. Ever. It's hard to get a sense of the scale because the stage is at the bottom of a huge hill, but the stage is massive.
This shows the perspective a little bit better. :)
I love this picture. For those of you who suffered with me through what to pack, what do you think? Good choice? It was a fairly painful packing process, but I was pretty happy with what I chose. I even rocked those feather earrings, which is a fairly bold choice for me, but I thought it was appropriate. :)
Saturday afternoon we hung out at the Cave B pool and just relaxed before the show Saturday night.
Both shows were absolutely amazing. If you are into Phish at all I highly recommend downloading the shows. Some of the best I've ever seen.
Thank you guys so much for putting up with my totally personal posts :) You won't regret it! I'll be back with an amazing house later this week. Until then you can occupy your time on the Flock website...