About Umatilla County, OR

Believe it or not, I do eat in other places than casinos. This particular trip, included an overnight at the Wildhorse Casino, operated by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, is located just east of Pendleton Oregon.

I didn't try their dinner restaurant; instead we went to the buffet. What is it about casinos; they all seem to have a buffet? Is there something that says gambling about a buffet? Are you taking chances? Anyway, the food for dinner was acceptable. I can't grade it any higher than that. We actually got to the buffet during the few minutes that it was closed and waited across the hall in one of the bar areas. My sister ordered a margarita and got one with the worst tasting tequila drinks I have ever tasted. Their bar tequila made it very "interesting" tasting. So, if you order a margarita, I advise asking for specific tequila.

The next morning we left fairly early so we had the breakfast buffet, not wanting to wait for the brunch buffet. (See, there are the buffets again.) It was more than acceptable. They had a very good selection with warm cinnamon rolls, eggs and omelets to order and several side items. Overall, a very pleasant experience. Being old, they even gave 3 of the 4 of us discounts. I thought they should average our ages and give us all discounts, but couldn't get that by the cashier.

I recommend the breakfast but not the dinner. They have a seafood and sushi buffet on Thursday but can't say about the quality of that. Hopefully, it will be well done. The view from the dining room is outstanding. You can look over the wheat fields to Cabbage Hill, one of the most famous pieces of road in the nation. This time of year it is a pussy cat, but come winter, it becomes a puma.

You can access their website here.

From there we headed north and then east over Tollgate on our way to Elgin. From the top of Tollgate, you can see the Blue Mountains where the stretch south before becoming the Elkhorns or north and east some more and become the Wallowas. Great country.

During the past few weeks interest rates have fallen and then risen slightly. Although predicting interest rates is very difficult it appears that fairly low rates are here to stay for awhile. If your planning on buying a home within the foreseeable future you should be able to take advantage of these historically low rates

22 years Matt has taught math and consumer finance in the public school system. Additionally, he has many years of real estate investing experience and knowledge regarding low or no money down financing options. If you are considering buying or selling a home, please give him a call at 541-377-9470, or contact his assistant, Barbara Mortela, at (541) 310-8960. My company website is http://www.johnjhoward.com/