It's a Dam Sorta Day!

We had a leisurely morning: coffee, shower, coffee and a bagel in the room, pack up a bit, then pack up for real, and we were off.  Ruby was pretty dirty, as in dustry and dirt on the windows, so we found a place for her to get a bath, then we were really off!  Gonna be a short trip today, less than two hours. 

The view on the way consisted of lots of fields with lots of wheat… at least I think it was wheat!  In the distance we could see the big Electrical Grid carrying power to the East.  We were headed west to where that power originates:  Grand Coulee Dam! 

We’re staying in the small town of Coulee Dam, and we are less than a mile from the dam by the way the crows fly!  Our place is cute, a throw back to the old ways of travel, meaning, motel… not hotel nor the suites as in Hampton or Marriott.  The room is quite nice, there’s air conditioning (temp outside at 5:30pm is 103) and we are enjoying this mom-and-pop sort of place!

Tonight, we hope to see the Laser show on the dam!  We have heard they open the spillways, so the background is white for the show to commence.  Interestingly, here where we are, with all the power around us… the local internet and the cellular phone lines are down currently in this little place.  We’ve heard a line is down…. Duh…. We drove to the city of Grand Coulee and had an early dinner at a great little Mexican place.  They had no phone service, but their modem/wireless was working, so we could notify the fam that we were out of range for a while!  Oh, did I mention that means no TV also as it’s on the internet.  So, I’m typing this offline, will post it when things are working again!  Not minding the respite from the online world!

Came back online sometime in the middle of the night… so, here it is! 

They open the spillways for the Laser Show

Bowl and Pitcher Hike... Excessive Heat Warning So We Hit the Road at 8AM... So Worth It!

 I don't need to fill this in with a lot of words... the pictures show how great our day was!  The area is less than 10 miles from Spokane yet worlds away from the city!  We even managed to get a bridge pic (a swinging bridge no less)  that starts the trail out.  The official 'easy' trail is a two mile loop.  We managed to turn it into four miles, still not strenuous, but careful walking on rocky paths, some near the river). We ended up finding a geocache which we hadn't planned on.  Unknown to us, there was even a portion of the Centennial Trail running above us.  We walked it for just a bit, then got back in the woods and closer to the water!  We were home by 11:15 and had our brekky... which ended up being lunch!

Spokane Riverfront Park - a Bit Warm Even at 9:30 in the Morning!

Walked some more today along the Spokane River in Riverfront Park, which was developed for the Expo '74.  Pretty nice area that the city can be very proud of! They built up a section next to the river, owned by the Railroad who deeded it over to the city, into a real gem!  

The Centennial Trail was located parallel with part of the park.  This trail goes all the way into Idaho... over 60 miles long.  We only walked on a few miles of it... all the way to Gonzaga University and we passed the WSU campus.  Everything was so pristine, clean and green.  Water shortage... I guess not here!  We continued on and even got a bridge picture!  We've been fortunate to have people help us by taking our pic on the bridges!

So, long day, yet not a long day... the heat just did us in, even though we were through by noon.  We took advantage of the pool here at the hotel... too bad it's an indoor pool, but hey, it's a pool!  We kinda giggled cuz the room had Mediterranean Fresco's painted on the wall... Sure, I feel just like I'm on the Mediterranean Coast!  We turned on our iTunes and play Hawaiian music and imagined we were on Maui!  Doesn't take much to entertain us!