The first couple days are damp and gray so we hang out pretty close to home. We walk a bit along a forest stream. Check out the beach and lake access.  Search out the visitor center in Spokane Valley to plan out the rest of the visit.

We fit in our first campfire that brings us hotdogs cooked on a stick and s’mores over the open fire. It is relaxing and a chance to catch up.

We wake early to break camp. We drive motor home, car, and boat trailer down to the overflow ramp lot.  We hook up the trailer.  Unload the extra stuff in the trailer.  Load the boat.  Repack the extra stuff in the trailer.  Lash it all down.  Load the car.  Lash it down. Grab a quick breakfast.  Whew.  We are ready to head out.  Destination Spokane.

It is a fairly short drive across endless rolling wheat fields. Green and gold wave in the breeze for as far as the eye can see.

Stop to buy groceries. The pantry is about empty.

Get haircuts. We are pretty scruffy looking.

Stop to buy propane.

Move into our new site in Spokane.  Unload the car.  Unload the extra stuff from the trailer.  Unlash the boat.  Unload the boat.  Reload the stuff.  Park and unhitch the trailer.  Move the motor home, car and boat to the site.  Level it all, well mostly. Even now dishwater stands a bit deeper in the font of the kitchen sink bowl.

Do laundry. It has been a month and we either do wash or buy more clothes.  It is a particularly trying experience today.  It took over an hour to just find a coin laundry.

Pick up the kids at the airport.

Now we are all set for a relaxing fun week with our company.

It is a cool morning and perfect for sleeping in. The sky is clear with scattered puffy clouds.  It seems fitting that we get out on the lake one last time before we head out. Kent has been suggesting that I relearn how to drive the boat.  I must concede that I let him handle that pretty much all the time.  Today I practiced a bit.  I started it, idled along, brought it up on plane (I hate that I can’t see over the bow when it is coming up), ran an imaginary slalom, and made a couple nice turns.  The throttle makes my hand tired.  I return the controls to our capable captain and return to my bow seat to enjoy the wind in my hair.

Thickening clouds run us back to camp by early afternoon. By late afternoon heavy showers are appearing to the east and the west.  Spurts of big cold drops urge us to pack up what we can and get busy with dinner. Kent grills.  We enjoy our last dinner here on Lake Roosevelt just as the heavy showers reach us.  We even had time for s’mores.  Perfect timing makes for a restful end to our stay here.  This is a place to return to one day.  (Probably not over a Holiday weekend though.  This place was a bit of a zoo for a few days.)  Tomorrow we head for Spokane.

Fireworks over Grand Coulee Dam: what a cool way to celebrate

Funny thing

We hear that they didn’t have the laser light show at the dam last night because they lost power at the visitor center. Think of that, they lost power to a facility that sits just a couple hundred feet from the largest hydropower plant in the country.  How embarrassing.

Today’s forecast is wonderful and we are on the trail by 8AM. We retrace our steps of two days ago and reach the base of the enormous basalt mesa.  It is going to take some serious rock scrambling on steep paths to get to the top of this thing.  This is not our favorite type of trail.  We pick our way up and reach the flat tabletop about 800 feet above the lake surface.  A three mile trail loops the top of the formation.  Views go from fantastic to amazing. Banks Lake is framed by the lichen painted coulee cliffs, dotted with rocky islands, and crisscrossed with rugged peninsulas graced with dozens of isolated bays.  We can see forever – probably really 100 miles.  We are reminded of the scale of it all when powerboats on the lake are just dots below us.

A peregrine falcon appears out of nowhere when he rises straight up on thermals off the shoreline cliffs at our feet. He eyes us but stays with the updraft until he goes out of sight.  A bald eagle passes below us.  It is pretty amazing to see them in flight from above.

We linger and take in the view.

Down was as un-fun as up but the view was worth it

The Festival of America at Coulee Dam is part craft fair and part carnival. We cruised the stuff booths but found nothing I just had to have.  I was not as successful passing by all the food booths.  An elephant ear and a bit of huckleberry ice cream made for a fun afternoon treat.