The plan in Spokane

The best made plans sometimes don't work out. : ( We had done our homework, figuring out what we wanted to see, even printing out a Yahoo map with all the places marked. First stop was Marvin Carr's Museum, where you could sit in a car owned by JFK, Elvis or Jackie Gleason. The doors were locked and no one was around. Strike one.

Our second destination was Bing Crosby's boyhood home and we were delighted that 1) it was open, 2) it was free and 3) there were parking spots! Most of you younger folks are not acquainted with Bing Crosby, but those of us in the "slightly older"generation (term used very loosely) can remember him in films and for his melodic voice. I loved his songs as a teenager, even though he was more my parent's generation.

A picture of Bing sits on the mantel in the living room.
Jerry, Sandy and Sherry tour the dining area. The home was built in 1910. It has two full baths, which are original to the house, very unusual for the 1930's and 40's. The house now backs right up to Gonzanga University, with only parking lots as separation.

Below is a picture of St. Aloysius Catholic Church. The steeples can be seen from Bing's boyhood home.

The next planned stop was to see Spokane Falls, located in downtown Spokane. The whole area by the falls was under construction and the river was low. The falls were not impressive at all, thus not worthy of a picture on the blog! Sherry had found a train that ran from this area, except that it only ran through the Labor Day weekend. We were one day late. Second strike.

I did get a few pictures of a fountain and....

a humongous Radio Flyer wagon! This could hold a lot of kids! The hardest part would be finding something to pull it. Maybe Clifford, the Big Red Dog!

I don't know whether these guys are howling or trying to sing. Maybe it is just a bad case of indigestion. I'll never know.
We tried to find a neighborhood with gardens indicative of Spokane in earlier times. It was also mentioned as a place to see in one of the visitor brochures. Strike three. By chance we found a perfect viewing spot of downtown Spokane.
Gary shuffled closer to the edge as Sherry warned him to be careful.
And then Jerry came along to give him a little nudge. That got his attention!
Lunch was at Picabu, one of the restaurants featured on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" earlier in the year. Did you ever notice that we have the time to track down these types of things?
After lunch we needed to walk off some of the calories we had consumed. Not far away was Manito Park that has many types of gardens. The Duncan Garden, built in 1912, was designed in a classical European Renaissance style. It covers 3 acres of manicured turf and annual bedding flowers. At this time of year there were beds of Cosmos, Snapdragons, Petunias, Marigolds, Geraniums and other various flowers. No wonder many weddings are held here.
Behind the Duncan Garden was the Gaiser Conservatory that houses a waterfall, pond and hundreds of beautiful tropical plants. Wish I could tell you what this flower is called, but I was so engrossed in getting a good picture that I forgot to look at the label. The blossom was huge.
From there we walked to the Rose Hill garden, developed in the late 1940s. It holds 150 varieties of roses, from miniature rose to old fashioned ones.
Jerry, Sandy and Don were ahead of me, smelling the fragrance as they sauntered through the gardens. It was in the low 100's that day, so we didn't stay very long.
The last garden we walked through was the Nishinomiya Japanese Garden. The garden was a cool respite from the hot sun's rays. In 2008, it was ranked 16th on the list of more than 300 public Japanese Gardens. The Red Japanese Maple was a stark contrast among all the other greenery.

All in all, we did have a good day. We knew a little more about Spokane than when we got here, had a great meal and got exercise in some lovely gardens. I never complained once about being surrounded by lots of flowers!

Idyllic Idaho

Wouldn't yah know it? The 4 days we are in the Spokane/Coeur d"Alene area were the hottest days all summer long! We have been searching for cooler weather, and everywhere we go, it is warmer than normal. Oh well, at least we can console ourselves that if we were home in Avondale, it would be much, much hotter!

On Labor Day we headed for the idyllic city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The best word that I can think of to describe this lake is a deep Cerulean blue. It grabs your attention the minute you can see even a small glimpse of the lake. This would be paradise to anyone who owned a boat.

I loved the way the blue tarps over the boats reflected in the water at the marina.
We enjoyed walking around the world's largest floating boardwalk, gazing out at the water and the numerous boats tied to the docks. It was a great morning for a lakeside stroll.
We came upon a bronze statue of Mudgy Moose as we walked along the Mudgy Moose trail in Coeur d'Alene. This is based on a children's book that takes place in this city.
I was content with just taking a picture of this cute moose, and then Jerry came along with his bright idea! Never under estimate the brain power of a senior citizen. I had already made the decision that if he asked for a Kleenex after this, it was not going to come from me!
We left Mudgy behind and traveled north to the town of Sandpoint for lunch. Gary said that Mark Furman lives there now, but we sure didn't see him at the beach that day. Maybe he was out sailing. But that is just a guess, I have no conclusive proof that he even owns a boat, or even lives in Sandpoint, for that matter.

We found a miniature Statue of Liberty on Lake Pend Oreille, which is pronounced "PAWN da RAY". Since we have never been to New York City, this was the next best thing.
Silly ladies that we are, we stopped to have our picture taken in front of one of the local shops in Sandpoint. I'm the Zany Zebra, Sandy looks like she is trying to "horn in" on me, and Sherry is just content to sit and smile!
On our way back to the campground, we did a stop at Albeni Falls dam, and Don took a spot on this comfy stone bench, while I did my usual thing of looking around for a view/plant/anything else that I could take a picture of.
I found it!!! The sign on the kiosk pretty much says it all!

Everything was just "Peachy"

Sunday afternoon the six of us took a drive to the Green Bluff area, just north of Spokane. This area is filled with dozens of different orchards that offer fresh peaches, apples and all kinds of fruits and vegetables. If I were a vegetarian, this would be pure heaven for me! We headed to the first orchard that was having a peach festival, hoping to replenish the dwindling supply of fresh peaches that we had bought in Columbia Falls.

Gary looked pretty chipper as he stepped out of his jeep. Little did he know that this first stop was one of MANY! Each fruit/vegetable stop had something else to offer.
Sandy waited patiently as Jerry paid for their peaches. At least she knows where he is at this point. All of us know that he has a unique ability of disappearing where ever we go! One minute he is there....and the next minute he is gone! He's not a fast mover, but somehow he seems to blend in where he's at. Maybe he was a chameleon in some other life......
At the second stop, all of us wound our way to the wine tasting section. It was at the back of the store, way in the corner, yet we all managed to wind up at this spot. Here we are, gathered around the young lady who was dispensing "fruit of the vine"! She was a very popular person that day. We all wound up buying a bottle. It is our civic duty to support the local economy in every place we go.
At our next stop we could go out and pick our own vegetables. These zucchinis were only $1.00 each! I should have gotten one. Two of them could have made a meal for all six of us! We would have been eating zucchini for a week. I like them, but NOT that much!
Somehow, someone in our group decided they wanted rhubarb pie. I told them if they would pick it, I would make the pie. Yep, it wasn't long before all of us were out in the field, looking for stalks of rhubarb under the huge leaves.
This is where Sherry said, "Here's a good one!"
I was the official collector of rhubarb stalks. They just kept picking and picking. I guess at 89 cents a pound, it was a real good deal.
Two days later, this is where the rhubarb wound up (along with some fresh cherries). This was the first time I had made a pie in the 5th wheel trailer. There isn't much room to roll out dough, that's for sure!
Another view, only part of the Cherry Rhubarb pie is missing.....what happened?
Guess you know by now!

Our mission: see St. Ignatius Mission

There were 61 reasons for us to deviate a bit from our route to Spokane on Saturday. Right off of Highway 93 in Montana and about 40 miles north of Missoula, is the beautiful mission church of St. Ignatius. Inside this church, built in 1891, are 61 awe inspiring frescos painted on the walls and ceiling by Brother Joseph Carignano, S.J.

This is the beautiful view that meets your eyes as you enter through the large doors at the rear of the church.
None of these paintings were done by a professional artist. They were done by the cook, who had no formal art training! He painted when he had time between his other jobs at the church.
The views below are of the main altar.

This church is dedicated to St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. There were 4 different tribes in the area that called a priest in 1854 to start the mission. At one time the mission included a school, sawmill, flour mill, printing press, hospital and a farm in addition to the present church. Sandy and I had a chance to talk about our half hour tour as we left the church.
Then it was time to get back in our trucks and head west first to Idaho and then cross into Spokane, Washington. History lessons are not only for those who head east to Boston or Washington, D.C. The west has an interesting history of its own. Sometimes you just have to get off the interstates to find gems like this!

Trail of the Cedars, GNP

When you get to Glacier, you should do more than just ride through the park. Take time to stop along the way at the overlooks and many pullouts. There are so many interesting areas waiting for you!

Can you see how excited Don is as we start our hike on Trail of the Cedars? You can almost hear him say, "Do we have to do this?" as we start out. Reminds me of our children when they were young. He has the same exact stance as they did, only he is more vocal. Too bad, you can go with us or go back to the truck and pout....

We passed plants with large green leaves and brilliant red berries. Sandy picked one, but didn't bite into it. It's a good thing she didn't try it. After researching it on the internet, I found out it is a Red Baneberry, which is highly poisonous. A healthy adult will experience poisoning from as few as 6 berries. Two berries can kill a child! Glad we both resisted tasting one of those.
Trail of the Cedars leads you into a dense cedar-hemlock forest. I stopped to take a picture of this huge cedar tree trunk, wondering what made the huge "knot" in the bottom.
Jerry was looking at all the roots around the trees. There were a lot of huge trees along the path that were downed. Information signs along the way said this was because the roots on these gigantic trees were very shallow since they don't have to go very far down to find water.
Farther down the path we came across the Avalanche Falls, not very big at all but still worthy of a picture. This was where we decided to hike further towards Avalanche Lake
and were greeted with this sign! Okay, more bears. At least there were a lot of hikers here, so the bear would have lots of choices! I'm hoping no one in our group would be that appealing.
We trudge up the hill, Don leading the way. We hope to get to Avalanche Lake at the end of the trail, but it will depend on how his knee holds up.
The path intersected quite often with Avalanche Creek, giving us many views of different water falls along the way.
Don and Sandy are still smiles as we continue on our way.
Don found a large walking stick. If it doesn't help him with hiking, maybe it will at least come in handy if we come across a bear. In both Yellowstone and Glacier, they advise you to wear bells and carry bear spray while you are hiking. We saw a funny t-shirt in the store here about how to tell black bear scat from grizzly scat: black bear scat contains berries. Grizzly bear scat contains jingle bells and smells like bear spray!
Okay, it's official.....I'm a tree hugger!
Here we are, heading back down the trail. Didn't make it all the way to the lake. But that's okay. We still got our exercise and enjoyed hiking in the woods under the huge cedar tree canopy.