August 16

Swim at noon, listening to Frank Sinatra. Water, sun and Frank: sensory overload.
Walked to post office to mail a postcard order around 4. Sweating on the way back:) It was hot!
This date used to mean something to me. It was the day Elvis died. It was the day my (ex) mother-in-law died. It was the day I got fired from The Victoria Advocate. Long ago. In another life.

Miscellaneous Leftovers

Drive-by Shooting Restored Thunderbird. Hot, hot, hot!

U.F.O. Sighting
Boo Radley shop near Riverfront Square. Have no clue what they sell, but I liked their little Martian man.
I'm not going to say I was bored en route by the miles and miles of harvested wheat fields, but ...
Here's Lookin' at You, Kid
Peach Pit-stop

Riverfront Park: Part II

Another highlight of our Riverfront Park experience was riding the gondola to get a bird's eye view of Spokane Falls. The ride was not fast nor all that high. It was move a little and then stop. Move some more, dangle in the air, move again, dangle over the water. Perfect for picture taking.

Riverfront Park, Part III

The sun sets on Riverfront Park ...

Sunday, August 14: Riverfront Park, Part 1

In Your Face! Round and round the Riverfront Park.
Maybe it's not fair to compare Spokane's Riverfront Park to Seattle and Portland's waterfront since Spokane is a much smaller city. But ... it's easier to get to. No winos. Only saw one homeless lady making camp. Easy to navigate. Not too crowded. LUVed it!
A visit to the Loof Carrousel is a must. Oh, let me rephrase that. Don't just visit it. RIDE it!
Each carving is different and unique. Different jewels. Different designs. Which one? Which one?! I had my heart set on the tiger ... with the monkey on his back.
But so did a father with his little girl. After boarding the carousel, I realized the tiger doesn't move. The giraffe is also stationary as are the benches with the dragon side-arms. SO, I opted for a goat. The only thing better than getting to ride a carousel when you're (almost) 55 is being joined by your husband! Neither one of us had happy childhoods. Maybe that's why we are still so in touch with our inner child ... He tried to grab the brass ring. He got a lot of them, but not the brass one. But that was OK. So what if we didnt' get a free ride? We just paid for two more:) I rode a beautiful horse that time around. After walking around the park*, we raced back to the carousel with hopes of one more ride, but the girls closed shop 5 minutes early. Back in our hotel room, Rod tossed me one of the plastic rings.

How Many Rings?
Our plastic rings are supposed to be returned after each ride is over. However, a few rings do leave the building. How many? According to the Dana Saad company (who provide the rings for our carousel), our carousel requires 50,000 rings each year. This means that there's about one ring taken for every 6 riders. So it's likely that about 3,500,000 rings have disappeared from our carousel since 1909! Occasionally when a concerned mother or father finds out that their children have borrowed a ring or two, they put the rings into an envelope (with no return address) and mail them back to the park.

Sorry, but I'm keeping my ring .... One last parting shot of the interior as we pull ourselves away ...

Carrousel. It's French you know! The English spelling leaves out one of the R's.

We walked around the park abit. Passed a wedding party celebration. The DJ was playing Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling."
'that tonight's gonna be a good night....
It was. We finished with dinner at Olive Garden. Eggplant parmesan with spaghetti. Salad. Red wine. Rod raised his glass to mine. "Salut," he said. "Salut."

Saturday, August 13: North!

You Lookin' at Me?!
En route to Spokane, we stopped at a rest area just this side of Boardman, Oregon, to stretch our legs. Came across these sweeties (barn swallows) in a corner on the outside of the bathroom walls. Momma bird was busy flying back and forth, bringing bugs.
Thought we would never get to Spokane. Driving alongside the Columbia River was beautiful as always, but soon the terrain changed to desert. That alternated with corn fields and wheat. It seemed to go as far as the eye could see. Close to Pasco we did see orchards and grapes. But mostly, after the corn fields, it was mile after mile of tilled dirt and wheat stubble so bright, it was almost white. Not a good place for someone who's agoraphobic [afraid of open spaces]. Not that I am literally. But I do love my mountains ... I was so relieved to learn that we didn't have to go into Spokane proper to get to our hotel. I was anxious about being in downtown traffic. But as it was, we took the Medical Lake exit this side of Spokane and drove backroads to the Airway Heights area.
I fell in love with our hotel room! It was an Art Deco delight all about shapes and geometry (least, that's how I think of Art Deco). There was such attention to detail in the design and decorating all throughout the hotel. Most impressive.
I love hotel linens. I love the crispness of the sheets, all that white on white, the layering. Pillows stacked like dominoes. I should dress our bed hotel-style:) Even our wall art was special. Not a Made-in-China print of some still life theme that's been printed a zillion times, but a real piece of art, numbered and signed. The fact that it was a mixed media collage is no doubt one reason I was especially impressed with it. The bathroom was extra special, too. A display holding the soap and shampoo samples doubled as a night light. It was motion sensitive and came on when you walked by. The purple light has distorted the color somewhat. The walls weren't yellow, but white. This was my first time to use a shower with extra shower heads. The bottom one tickled my butt. Is that too much information? Spacious, clear glass walls. Loved it. And the towels had a popcorn design. Luxurious. His and her bathrobes in the closet. A nice touch but not used. I'm not a lounging around sort of person if I'm at a casino:) The games were calling me...