Category: Family Time

This was our home location while helping our kids move from Kennewick to Spokane.  A very pretty park – quiet, clean, green and HOT!

Most of the move went as you’d expect moving to go… the movers did very well, and it was fun to hear them joking around with each other.  My grandson turned this from a grandfather clock to a grandson clock!

After the movers packed everything up, we moved to the new house – on some mountain property outside of Spokane.  Here’s our home outside of theirs.

For privacy reasons, you don’t get to see their home.  Blame it on COVID… everything else is blamed on that!

Below are pictures from a picnic in a park in town.

Bryan and Ashlyn made a fort in a depression in a secret location in their new yard. 😉

They have a neighbor who has built some really cool hot rods.

Spokane Walking Tour

There are several walking tours of old Spokane, and we walked the east end of downtown.  As in lots of cities, there is an interesting juxtaposition of old and new.  See if you can guess when this building was erected!

The City Ramp Garage, built in 1928, was Spokane’s first parking garage, and is a beauty of Art Deco design.

I believe this is a slightly newer parking garage…

The train station moved to this location in 1891, after a fire burned the previous 3 year old station.  In front of the station is a fascinating sculpture : “Bringing Home The Wishing Rock”. A huge stone, connected by heavy cables to pillars, all leaning in an apparent effort to drag the stone along.

This cute Italian Kitchen caught my eye… but not my dinner.  Blame that on COVID too.

The Davenport Hotel

Fire destroyed a lot of Spokane in 1889.  Young Lewis Davenport had been working in his uncle’s restaurant, and when the city burned down he opened “Davenport’s Waffle Foundry” in a tent.  He soon bought a block of the burned city, and built a real restaurant.  Then bought the building next door, and remodeled to made it look like all one structure.  On the second floor, he created the “Hall of the Doges”, a very opulent dance floor.

The current hotel was built in 1914, replacing most of the old structure, but saving the “Hall of the Doges”. The Davenport Hotel claims to be the first hotel in the country with air conditioning, a central vacuum system, pipe organ, and dividing doors in the ballrooms.  Maybe the first with ALL these attributes…

This is the “Hall of the Doges”, an elegant room that was the scene of high society soirees a century ago.

Here is a photo of the room in use many decades ago. (I did not take this photo…)

The Davenport Hotel Tower was the home of Spokane’s first commercially licensed radio station, with broadcasts starting in 1922. KHQ played music from many local groups, including one called “The Musicaladers”. The drummer from that group dropped out of college… and became somewhat famous as a singer. His name was Harry Crosby… better known later as “Bing”.

The grand lobby:

In the 1920’s, you could just say “Meet me at the fireplace”, and it was understood you’d see them at the beautiful fireplace in the Davenport’s lobby.  It is kept burning all year, in accordance with founder Davenport’s wishes to create an hospitable atmosphere.

I include a masked self portrait…

When you’d show up to meet at the fireplace, you’d be greeted by a friendly doorman.  I just got a cardboard guy with a mask.

Ashlyn’s Harp Recital

Ashlyn has accomplished something awesome – finished Suzuki Book One for harp!  This obviously demands a recital, and she should play all the songs of this repertoire.  She kindly let some friends and family members play with her on a few songs.  This recital took place in Washington State, under quite strict Covid rules, so it was held outside, in the back yard, with attending family groups properly social distancing.  It was a perfect day for it… please ignore the occasional car sounds in the background.

Click here for Ashlyn’s Harp Recital Highlights

Baptism!

The crowning event of the weekend was Ashlyn’s baptism!  She is publicly declaring her love of Jesus and commitment to serving Him.  The baptism took place in the Columbia River, adjacent to a nice park.  A great number of church members were there to celebrate with lots of heaven’s angels!

An Interesting Sail

I was told we could go to a park and see the top half of a submarine!  I figured it would be buried halfway up the hull… but no, it’s just the “sail” of a submarine.  And not just any submarine – This is the USS Triton, the first sub to circle the earth submerged.  In April of 1960 she set off following the route Ferdinand Magellan used circumnavigating the globe 440 years earlier.  Converted to an attack sub in 1964, she was decommissioned in 1969, and eventually “beheaded” with her sail planted in this park in Richland, WA.  I wonder where her other parts ended up?

Bryan and Ashlyn at the BMX track

The most exciting part of riding this bumpy track is “Catching Some Air!”  Here is conclusive proof both kids were very successful!  There is even evidence that Karen did a  lap or two!

Tiny Campsite in  Bozeman, Montana

We spent a few days crossing Montana… and did fun things like get new tires on the Suburban, and a wiper arm adjusted which was a bit off after the motorhome’s new windshield installation.  We had forgotten how breathtakingly beautiful much of Montana is!

On a morning run, I saw this beautiful blonde and had to take a shot!

50,000 Silver dollars

This place was listed as having a free campground, ten sites with electric hookups.  We were a bit skeptical, but we got there about 5pm and got a nice site with power!

The bar really seems to have 50,000 silver dollars on display!  Every wall covered with mounted coins.  We spent very little time with these two dummies.

The best thing about the campground is the location was a perfect staging for our ride of the Hiawatha.  They even have water available – here we are filling up after a two day stay.

Ride the Hiawatha

This trail follows an old rail line.  Fantastic scenery, lots of tunnels, even more super high trestles, and it’s all downhill!  At the bottom of the 15 mile ride, you can catch a bus back to the top.  My kind of ride!

Here is a little collage of most of the tunnels.  The ride starts with a 1.8 mile long tunnel… water drips from above, and therefore the trail is very muddy.  It is 44 degrees inside, so you emerge with numb fingers and if you don’t have fenders, you have a wide mud stripe up your back instead.  I mentioned the bus ride back to the top… It’s really not all the way to the top.  You have the privilege of riding back through the long tunnel to get back to your vehicle.

The first view exiting the tunnel is a small but beautiful waterfall.

I wondered if our funny little folding bikes would do well on this route, with so much of it gravel, but they did fine.

Some of the trestles are extremely high!

We packed a lunch, and we were very popular with the wildlife where we stopped.  This beautiful little deer wandered all around us, and didn’t seem at all afraid.

Here she seemed to stick out her tongue, then have a good laugh!

We were surrounded with the cutest little chipmunks… and maybe they got a bit of our lunch…

I didn’t realize how muddy we’d gotten the bikes till we folded them up… A great time!!

Savenac Nursery Historic District

We just happened to see the sign for this place near the 50,000 Silver $ camp.  We decided it looked like a good place for a morning run.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  There was a nursery here, founded in 1907.   It was severely damaged in the Great Fire of 1910,  and then rebuilt by the CCC in the 1930’s.  If you are not familiar with the CCC, look it up!  The Civilian Conservation Corps was a federal program to give work to young men in the 30’s and a bit into the 40’s.  It not only supported a lot of families, but it taught many men valuable trades, and created lots of beautiful buildings and bridges.  Many of these are in our National Parks, and the quality and style of the CCC structures is still a pleasure to see.

Here is all you see from the road…

But on the grounds the view gets better…

Here’s a monument to the men of the CCC, who designed this whole tree seedling nursery.

This is the “Yellowstone Bridge”, a remnant of the Yellowstone Trail.  Built before the Lincoln Highway, the trail was to be a way for people from the east could get to Yellowstone by car instead of the train.  It was then extended west to lure tourists to the Pacific.  I think this bridge was built in 1913… not car worthy now, but still cool!

So the CCC laid out the plans for the buildings, roads and other infrastructure for this tree nursery.  At its peak production, it was sending millions of tree seedlings around the country annually.

This foundation was for a three story tall “Extract the seeds from the pine cones” building.  There were apparently many levels like shelves, where pine cones were dried, then crushed, and seeds sorted out.

Many of the seeds were then stored in this concrete vault.  Others went to be planted and nurtured into shippable seedlings.