Panda Garden: Takeout!

Twelve years ago, a weary and tired Jones family rolled into Ellensburg a day before the moving truck would arrive. Hungry and roaming a foriegn land, the Joneses stumbled across The Panda Garden. Ever since that fateful night, we've been loyal customers, ordering family style at least once every other month. No special order is too weird or difficult for Lily, who has served us absolutely every time we've visited day or night. Sure there are other Chineese food resturaunts in town, and sure there is a good variety of other Asian foods to choose from, but Panda Garden is by far the most consistent ethnic resturaunt in all of Ellensburg. They're fast, hot, and the mongolian beef tastes exactly how the mongolian beef tasted twelve years ago! I give the Panda Garden 7 I-think-I'm-good-with-chopstics-until-I-actually-try-to-use-them-and-give-up-when-I-get-to-the-rice-and-afterwards-i'm-still-hungrys out of 7!

Dakota Cafe

Today me and better half Lynz went out to lunch at the Dakota Cafe in Downtown Ellensburg. It was a wonderful experience filled with whimsy and sandwiches to say the least. The lunch began with the two of us strolling into the Cafe and being met with pleasant music and decor. Wonderful leather chairs and short glass top tables (very comfortable might I add) and wooden/metal chairs with wooden tables (also comfortable). The music was a pleasant mix of the current hits at a pleasant volume. Next came the food ordering, the staff was awesome very helpful and nice. The menu was a little slim a few types of sandwiches 2 soups (of the day) and different types of salad. There was also an assortment of coffees, wines, beer, and teas if memory serves me right. I ordered what was called the "Peter Pig," on sour dough which was awesome except for the sprouts is a personal preference thing so if you like sprouts go for it.

Death incarnate

I also had a strawberry Italian soda (look, its bright pink but its super yummy so shut up) the sandwich came with Tim's chips, which are some of my favorites so that's a plus. The only other down side to the Dakota Cafe was that it was a little pricey lunch for two was over twenty dollars and for a couple of sandwiches it is a little much. Over all I would recommend this to anybody wanting a nice lite lunch or a date it would be great (if you like sprouts).

I give the Dakota Cafe 8.5 Sprout sandwiches out of 10

BIASED LOCAL ADDITION TO FOLLOW:

This is DCJ weighing in on the Dakota. Listen, the Dakota cafe (formerly sweet memories where my besty in high school who now sells wine stuff, and his little brother who is now a jetsetting gay journalist, worked!) is pretty rad, if you have the dough. I'm not keen on the lunch. If you gotta eat lunch in Ellensburg, hit up the Tav, or a Taco cart, or Jack in the Box, or Super 1 Pizza. My favourite part about Dakota is breakfast and dinner. Gets youself a scone, cinnamon roll, and coffee. Wait a tic, I take back the lunch comment, I needs me a cheese roll and some chowda' in my life. Dinner @ the Dakota is straight grubbin'. They don't serve dinner every night so check the hours. I recommends the Chipotle Pulled Pork. Quality beer selection. Bomb wine selection as well as kickin' wine deals by the bottle.

I gives Dakota 6 self aware gangsta' references about a borderline snobby resturaunt out of 6!

Manashtash Ridge Hike

So me and my buddy Kyle. Well we were walking up a steep and dusty ridge...

Today Kyle texted me telling about some comedian to look up on youtube and I decided to text him back with an exercise proposition:

Hey man, what are you doing right now? do you wanna hike the ridge?

What ridge?

the manashtash ridge, on the way to the Lazy F ranch

what time will we be back by?

330

I'm in

So I picked up Kyle and we hiked it. What Kyle, being an Ellensburg Newb, didn't know is that 'The Ridge' as it is effectionately called, is the premere workout in Ellensburg. People hike it when they want to get whipped into shape in a hurry! Everyone who hikes the ridge knows the stats like, it's this long, and this much altitude gained, but all I know is that it's freaking hard and it takes me like an hour to hike up it.

There are absolutely always people hiking the ridge. I have never been to the ridge without seeing another human. Sometimes I see wildlife as well like bugs, deer, squirells, and Kyle one time saw a rattle snake in his childhood.

As much as I like hiking up The Ridge, my favorite thing to do is jog down the ridge. Gravity is a beautiful thing. The best way to jog down the steeps is to lean back, widen the stance, and take little fast steps. This technique allows me to cover a lot of ground and the distance from butt to ground is minimised saving my rear end whenever I slip and fall.

There are several trail options to choose from. My favorite is to follow the irrigation canal along the road to the right until the very steep trail. My favorite option remains nameless, but the other options are the "boyscout trail" and the "Westberg Trail"

I give The Ridge Hike 5 Mac 'n Cheese and Mountain Dew dry heaves out of 5!

-Devin Colby Jones