Starting our last full week in Spokane, we went for another stroll through James T. Slavin Park. Fairly early in the morning, it was a beautiful start for the week.
Long ago there were homesteaders here, and there are a couple of remnants visible. If you look carefully at the pictures below, you can see a post with a bit of door attached by a hinge. Was this the site of an old timers home?
We got a chance to fly with Loren again in the beautiful Cirrus. The hanger where the owner keeps it is gorgeous itself, and one piece of art made me smile…
This time we flew over Grand Coulee Dam. The dam was created to provide water for agriculture, by flowing it into a natural channel called the Grand Coulee. The dam was started in 1933 as part of the Public Works Administration (A depression era program where the government gave jobs to unemployed persons and had them build wonderful parks and dams and such, instead of just giving them money…) and took 9 years to complete. It was claimed to be the largest man-made structure in the world, and still is the largest concrete structure and biggest hydro-electric producer in the country.
Notice how perfectly parked the Cirrus is, to be reflected in the tower window! I didn’t photoshop this! (Actually it never would have occurred to me!)
Karen and Bryan were out of town (more on that in a minute), Loren was at work, and so we got to host good friends of theirs and ours – Ken and Crystal, with their daughters Shylah, Ava, Layah, and Brynlee. I met them while Loren and Karen were working in Guam. Ken & gang were working in Saipan, and hosted us warmly while we visited that beautiful island. Ken is also credited with getting me a couple months to work in Saipan while I was supposedly retired. [See start of Saipan time here] A beautiful family, they are going to spend a month in Africa, so they drove from California and will leave their car at Loren and Karen’s house. When they return from Africa they will attend the Med/Dent Retreat at Mivoden (on Hayden Lake where all our boating lately was done.) Since the others were gone, we got to host them (with Ashlyn) for lunch and drive them to the airport. Lots of Fun!
Ashlyn felt the need to arm wrestle Ken. She did well, but he still beat her…
The girls seemed to enjoy Ashlyn’s harp skills!
Jake Shimabukuro is an incredible Ukulele master, and one of Bryan’s favorites. He presented a 5 day Ukulele workshop in Nashville, with several of his musical buddies. Bryan was able to attend, and Karen went along as a good mom should. The workshop was fantastic, Bryan learned a lot and had a good time, and got to hang a little bit with famous Jake!
