Person: Shellie of the Weinhard Hotel in Dayton, Washington
As with all of us, Shellie has a wonderful story. Shellie and her husband Gary own and operate the historic Weinhard Hotel. It is a gem tucked away for safe keeping in rural Dayton, Washington. If you find yourself in the area, stop in, say hi, stay the night, you will be in great hands.
Thank you Shellie for a glimpse into your life and a few more details about you and your lovely hotel.
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If you were stuck in a moment which would you choose?
I had to really think about this one, because I have experienced some fantastic "moments" that have given me goosebumps or butterflies or both. But if I was going to be STUCK there, I would have to pick a lingering, beautiful moment. So, I choose this one: On vacation with Gary in Honduras, Jungle River Lodge, near Pico Bonito National Park. Morning. Sitting in the rustic, open air dining room, looking across giant boulders and the Rio Cangrejal at the fantastic jungle mountainside. One of the guests at the lodge is practicing yoga on one of the ginormous warm rocks, others are quietly enjoying their morning coffee, like me. Beautiful. Breath-giving. I could stay there forever.
Would you tell me a story from childhood?
My brother, Keith, is 18 months older than me. When we were little, he was my number one playmate. We would wander all over the farm and find things to entertain us. One of the outbuildings on the farm was called “the machine shed”. It had an enclosed room on one end of the building, and open garage type stalls along the side, so that farm equipment could be parked there. Sometimes we had these areas penned off for animals, or stacked with hay. One of the stalls was used for milking our cow, Josie. If my brother and I went into the room on the end, we could climb up the built-in shelves on the inside wall, and reach the rafters. From there, we could walk from rafter to rafter across the length of the building. This could provide hours of fun. There was a flatbed trailer near this building that we would climb onto and walk across, back and forth, making it teeter-totter on its axle. A great game to play was to walk to one end of the trailer, making it tip in that direction. Then just before it hit the ground, run to the other end, and see how many times we could go back and forth before the trailer touched the ground on either side. There was also a huge piece of left-over corrugated steel that was used for making “Quonset Huts”, or shelters for the pigs. This large piece of metal was lying in a cone shape, near the creek. My brother and I would climb up over the edge, being careful not to scrape our legs on the sharp metal, and then shimmy down to the center where we could echo and shout. It was like being inside of a humongous megaphone!
Other fun stuff to do with a brother on a farm:
1. Use a stick to stir the hot tar that’s patching the road in front of the house.
2. Examine dead frogs on the hot pavement.
3. Find abandoned periwinkle shells stuck to river rocks and peel them off.
4. Build a stick dam in the creek to fortify the swimming hole.
5. Make a miniature town out of scrap wood from the lumber mill.
6. Built a snow fort, hay fort or tree fort!
7. Hang a hammock in your tree fort, using a blanket and some rope.
What is your favorite item to bake for your guests?
Muffins! Since fruit baskets are provided for each guest, we always have left-over fruit. The kind of muffins I make depends on the type of fruit I have in abundance. I have a very adaptable recipe that works well with bananas, pears, apples, you name it! I have fun experimenting with this. I think my favorite so far is pumpkin-orange-pecan. YUM!
What flourishes on your rooftop garden and are you planting anything new this year?
Anything that likes a lot of SUN thrives on the rooftop garden. Cosmos, Honeysuckle, Salvia, Yellow Daisies, Wisteria... I keep a variety of things up there. It has kind of a random order to it, which I like.
This year, I planted ALIUM! They look like purple fireworks on sticks to me. I planted them for something tall around the gazing ball. I am SOOOO excited to see them when they come up. I think they are going to be fun and bea-U-tiful!
What provides comfort in your everyday?
There is a thing I call "The Delicious Sleepiness". It's that wonderful warm feeling that if I laid my head down RIGHT NOW I would have no trouble at all drifting off to sleep. It usually happens to me
around 2:00 in the afternoon. It makes me so happy. I love The Delicious Sleepiness. Sometimes, if I tell Gary that I am going to take a nap he will say, "Oh, you're going to bed! Shall I join you?" And I say, "NO! You are just trying to steal my nap!" because, If I don't cozy up and go to SLEEP when The Delicious Sleepiness hits, I will miss it altogether. This is definitely one of my everyday comforts.
Thanks again Shellie, you are a wonderful lady!
The Weinhard Hotel
235 E. Main Street
Dayton WA, 99328
tel. 509.382.4032
fax 509.382.2640
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