Sunday, November 05, 2006

vacation recap, installment three



Tuesday, October 17th
Up at a decent hour, ate maple doughnuts and peeled an orange with my bare hands. I managed to seperate my nail from my finger. That HURTS, and it smarted for the rest of the day. Of course Opa followed this up with a story of a woman he knew who got a terrible, hospital-stay-inducing infection from peeling an orange with her fingers. Lovely!

We headed out and called every Enterprise in Spokane. NO CARS. Finally I told Adam to call the regional office, this was just ridiculous! So, he did, and the regional office lit a fire under the branche's asses to get them moving on securing a new car for us.

We used a REAL MAP the entire time we were in Spokane. It was fun--normally I rely on MapQuest to get me places, but they inevitably let me down. I felt like a grownup using a real map to figure out where we were going! We went to Bowl & Pitcher. It's at a pretty park in Spokane.






We walked on the swinging bridge, which I remember vividly from childhood vacations.









The planks on the bridge are not very close together. You couldn't ride a bike on it or wear any sort of heeled shoe there (like my favorite boots). You get to watch the water rushing under your feet if you glance down, and that's pretty creepy, especially since I'm not a fan of water. Adam (of course) had to shake and jump on the bridge to make us rock and jump all over the place. OF COURSE.

While we were there we got a call from Enterprise saying they had a car for us, thank GOD. We went to "Francois Ave"--the Enterprise list had it listed as that but it was really Francis Ave. Francois doesn't really fit the Spokane image, so we were puzzled as to how to get there. When we got there, they traded us for a 2007 Dodge Caliber with something like 1800 miles. Now that's more like it!!

We were hungry, so we headed in the general direction of Mt. Spokane and ate at Cinola's in Mead. We had really yummy calzones. I'm craving one now; it was made out of phyllo dough or something similar and very flaky and cheesy and delicious. Mmmm. It was a clear day, so we went to Mt. Spokane. Growing up we always drove to the top of the mountain but we always went in July/August. I've never been out west in the fall, and the road was closed halfway up the mountain!! We parked the car and got out and walked. I had brought my walking shoes so I changed into those.



(our rental car from a ways up)










A ski path/route/whatever you call it. I can't imagine skiing down this slope! Yikes.


We live in the wrong region.


While we were trekking up the mountain we encountered two Church of Latterday Saints elders in suits (one was wearing a name tag that said "Elder Winters") and we took their pictures for them and they took one of us.


We all shook hands and wished each other a good day. It was really odd. I mean, we were the only people on the side of a mountain.

We kept trekking along. Finally I said "Two hundred steps more, and then we stop!" Well, we both counted silently and here's where Adam stopped in relation to where I stopped. It's funny:



Why the road was closed:





We tried to walk all the way to the top, but once we encountered snow and huge paw prints we turned back! This is ADAM'S foot for size comparison (size 13 extra wide):



 We walked for about an hour up the road on the mountain, but then decided to walk down the SIDE of the mountain on the way back. This was because we could see our rental car quite clearly from where we were on the road, so it must be pretty close, right? Well, it was, time-wise; it took us about 15 minutes to walk down the side of the mountain back to the car. BUT I was slipping and sliding and avoiding boulders left and right. It's tall mountain grass covered in snow, for heaven's sake. STUPID. A view up about 1/4 of the way down:



Adam trekking down the mountain:


It was much steeper than it looks. I got muddy but it was worth it. I fell asleep on the way home (of course).

We chatted with Mala and Opa and then went to Tony Roma's. The waitress recognized Mala from her being a teacher. That was pretty neat and random. She hasn't taught since the 70s. We had maple bars at home for dessert and then we sat around watching the World Series and chatting.

Mala:


Opa:



Adam read a book about Mayans. :)


Mala makes baby hats just like my mom does:




Can you tell Mala's favorite color is blue? The exterior of their house is blue as well. I told Adam he's lucky I don't take my love of green to this extreme.

2 comments:

Staci said...

Your vacation looks amazing! I have never been to Spokane, but from the looks of all those mountains, I would feel right at home!

Anonymous said...

Yay! More pretty pictures.... lovin' it!