Spokane

We started our exploration of Spokane with a 10K walk that took us along the lovely Riverwalk.

 
 We admired waterfalls, crossed bridges and wished we were children again so we could climb the gigantic American Flyer Wagon or ride the tiger on the carousel.

 We could not help thinking of Cheryl when we passed a depiction of a group of runners out for their morning exercise.

A book we had on board praised Frank’s Diner, located in a restored luxury private railcar, for the volume and quality of its food so having worked up our hunger on the walk, we decided to give it a try.

 It was good but did not live up to the Miss Albany that our son introduced us to in Troy, NY.

We then went to the Moore-Turner Gardens.  An excellent docent explained that the gardens were the backyard of a magnificent home owned by one of the major industrialists who made Spokane a rich mining, lumber and agricultural area.  We were too late in the season for much bloom but could appreciate how lovely the area must be in the spring.

The next morning our “wonderful wander” (a quote from the docent at Moore-Turner) was through the multi-hued gardens of Manito Park.  From the formal Duncan Gardens to the chromatic dahlias to the Nishinomiya Japanese Garden, this was a lovely morning destination.

Anna Lee’s friend Pat is from Spokane and offered some suggestions for our visit.  A delicious lunch at the Rockwood Café near the gardens extended to a purchase of muffins for breakfast the next morning.

Then it was off for an afternoon on the campus of Gonzaga University visiting the home of Harry Lillis Crosby, popularly known as Bing.  He was raised in Spokane and his family home is on the campus as is a room filled with records, plaques and his Oscar for “Going My Way.”

We enjoy finding art by Dale Chihuly on our travels.  The Jundt Art Center on campus has a large red chandelier as well as vases by this outstanding glass artist.

Following Pat’s recommendation, we dined well at Anthony’s overlooking the river.  We both enjoyed excellent seafood dinners and ended our time in Spokane with a “slump,” a yummy peach pastry dessert.

Our Last Day in Glacier

Glacier National Park

When we were last here, we spent eight wonderful days in the east, west and Canadian sections of the park yet never drove the Going-to-the-Sun Road due to snow. We have returned to rectify that omission.  Now instead of snow, we have encountered construction delays on the road but that has not diminished the pleasure and beauty of the drive.

On one side we are dwarfed by jagged mountain tops, waterfalls and weeping walls (caused by the continuous melting of the ice).  On the sheer drop-off side, flowers in multi-shades of blue, red, yellow and white grow midst the many hues of green. 

With clear blue sky above, no matter which way we gaze the sights are truly awesome.

 We stopped to stroll through Cedar Nature Trail then continued, stopping for photo ops ‘til the end, St. Mary’s.  There we enjoyed lunch at a café and ordered slices of peach and mixed berry pie for dessert later (they were really good).  We met a climate scientist at the café who reminded us that all this beauty we are enjoying is at risk.  There are only 1/6th the glaciers of 150 years ago and those are expected to melt by 2020.  His major concern is why Americans seem to care so little about what is happening.  His words lent gravity to this spectacular experience.

Turning north, we went to Many Glacier to walk along Swiftcurrent Nature Trail.  One nice thing about hikers is their eagerness to share information about the trail and things to see.  Several of them told us about moose in Fishcreek.  We took a short detour to where we got fairly close to two female adult and one young moose enjoying a meal of water vegetation. 

Question for wordsmiths: If the plural of mouse is mice, goose is geese, why isn’t there a plural form of moose (not the chocolate kind)?

The next day we to extended our hiking adventure to find waterfalls.  The angle of the sun brought out the glacial blue color of the frigid water.  Where the water flowed smoothly, it was easy to see trout swimming over the red, brown and grey stones.

Our campsite is nestled in a forest of fir and pine.

Crater Lake and Portland

 Our drive around Crater Lake included waterfalls and wild flowers.  Unfortunately, much of our view was obscured by haze and smoke from the fires in Oregon.

 

Anna Lee felt this tree resembled a damsel from some mythical story.


We then headed off to Portland to enjoy books, food, and gardens. 

We started at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in the Pearl District.  We visited it last year and enjoyed taking Jeff to see this small treasure.  We each enjoyed a repast of tea and snacks in the tea house.

Our next stop was mandatory, Powell Books, one of the best independent book stores in the country.  We paid proper respect with our purchases.

Jeff stopped a woman on the street to get a dinner recommendation.  Jake’s Seafood was excellent.  The men enjoyed a luscious salmon stuffed with crab while Anna Lee had a huge crab Louis salad.  We ended dinner with a god bread pudding.

 Our Oregon friends, Anne and Jerry, joined us for a lovely, cool day in Portland.  We stoked up on brunch at Kenny and Zuke’s Deli.  Then we joined a tour of the Japanese Gardens, a commemoration of the sister-city of Sapporo.  We learned of the three levels of the gardens and the aesthetic values of the different spaces.

Across the road is the famous Portland International Rose test Garden.  We wandered by hundreds of bushes in hundreds of colors.

All this walking stirred up our appetites.  Following the recommendation of a lady in the gardens, we went to Salt ‘n’ Straw Ice Cream. 

More walking led to more appetite which we sated well at Bollywood Theater Indian Restaurant, a recommendation of a local food truck owner whose truck was out of food.

Our Son is Visiting

When Jeff was in high school, he took a summer class on Shakespeare that culminated in a camping trip to Ashland, Oregon for the Shakespeare Festival. Over the years, our whole family has come to enjoy this theater experience. For Jeff’s visit with us this year, we have returned to Ashland. Unlike past visits, we are experiencing a 100 degree heat wave in normally cool Oregon. After a beautifully presented dinner at Taroko,

we attended a delightful pre-theater lecture on The Very Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa. You may recall from an earlier entry, Jerry and Anna Lee saw the Merry Wives of Windsor on a trip to DC. The updated play, performed in the outdoor Elizabethan Theater, is a pun-filled satire on Iowa’s same sex marriage laws and the Iowa caucuses. While humorous, the play would have been better if it were shorter. The excellent acting did not make up for the overuse of the same jokes. The acting was still up to Ashland quality.

 The next morning we had the pleasure of visiting one of our regular haunts in southern Orego, the Butte Mill in Eagle Point.The mill makes great flour and this was the first time we actually saw the grinding process in action.

After spending time actually watching the machines work, we enjoyed shopping. From Eagle Point, we drove to Jacksonville for our next shopping adventure at Gary West where we sampled their famous jerky and did more purchasing.

 Both plays for Thursday were in the indoor Bowmar Theater. All the Way, is the story of the first eighteen months of Lyndon Johnson’s Presidency. This was an outstanding presentation of the political machinations Johnson used to get the Civil Rights Bill passed and to get elected. From major players like Martin Luther King and Hubert Humphrey through legislators George Eastman and Sam Rayburn to aides and wives, the performances were gripping and the story mesmerizing. The same cannot be said for our second play of the day, Medea, Macbeth and Cinderella. This was a too-long exercise in what Jeff said was an idea that should have been stopped in development. While many in the audience found it funny, we three were unimpressed. Fortunately, we had enjoyed an outstanding dinner at Amuse. We each ordered the caprese salad with peaches substituting for tomatoes. Our dinners of halibut, salmon, and hen were all delicious.

The cheese platter and bittersweet chocolate cake were yummy.

We started Jerry’s birthday with a 7K volksmarch around Ashland going past public art, through Lithia Park and the Japanese Garden and along neighborhoods. We admired the Native American statue and enjoyed the underside of an overpass decorated with art including playful penguins. After refreshing ourselves from the walk, we went to Rogue River Creamery for their award winning blue cheese and more. This evenings pre-play lecture on Henry V was excellent. The educator explained the family history and issues between Britain and France. We would enjoy taking a class from him. A friend of a friend of a friend recommended Smithfield Restaurant, a meat-centric eatery. We enjoyed steak, cod and chicken ending with a birthday creme brulee and chocolate torte. Henry V was excellent. Our only complaint was how hot it was in the outdoor theater. But the heat did not diminish the outstanding performances.

D. C. Continues

Bennett is enjoying several firsts with this visit of his grandparents. One was a delicious sushi dinner at Taz, an excellent restaurant in DC after which we went to another concert, a combined performance by military chorals at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. The soloist from the U.S. Army Chorus had a voice so deep it was subterranean. His rendition of John Henry gave us chills. On Monday Jerry spent time at the National Archives researching family history. He has been able to ascertain the exact date when his grandparents arrived from Russia and was trying to find further information about where they came from. Our National Archives only has US information so the search did not yield much. Anna Lee keeps hitting a blank wall on her search but she keeps trying. We then enjoyed lunch at a popular DC eatery, the Pot Belly. Good sandwiches and an amusing picture of a shirtless Jason Alexander posing ala Playboy in the ladies room.

Jerry’s favorite store in the whole wide world is Costco. He is like a kid in a candy store and loved taking Ben for his first shopping spree.

Hillwood Gardens was the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the sole heir of the Post foods fortune which company evolved into General Foods. She built her home in DC with the intent of it becoming a museum. A movie giving her background and training as a art collector is narrated, in part, by her daughter Dina Merrill. Even in this heat the gardens were lovely but it was the home that was magnificent. Though a skilled collector of fine furniture, her greatest love was pre-Soviet china, icons, and Faberge eggs. The two floors open to the public are filled with the beautiful pieces she rescued from destruction when her ex-husband, Davies, was ambassador to Russia.

A special exhibit of Pret a Papier by Isabelle de Borchgrave featured over a dozen dresses and accessories made solely of paper. It was hard not to touch them to prove they were not fabric.

Jerry and Anna Lee spent the morning of the 4th of July at an organ recital at the National Cathedral. What a magnificent building it is and the acoustics are phenomenal. The duet of piano and organ performing Rhapsody in Blue was almost tactual. Our skin seemed to tingle while our ears were filled with one of the best rendition we have heard. The duet of two organists presenting Concert Variations on “The Star Spangled Banner” was also outstanding. With the threat of another storm hitting D.C. (we have had wind, thunder, lightning and driving rain), we chose to avoid the Mall and enjoy the Independence Day celebrations on television. Before kissing Ben farewell until the fall, Cheryl and Anna Lee went through Anna Lee’s mother’s cedar chest. Among the treasures rediscovered were afghans and sweaters knit in 30s and 40s as well as some for Cheryl in 1970s. These treasured heirlooms will be part of Ben’s possessions and history.

This trip and blog has had a new twist and we appreciate your willingness to follow this new journey of ours. Thanks for all the warm comments.

Belated 49th Anniversary

We took a 10K walk through the historic African-American neighborhood of Adams-Morgan. This is the birthplace of Duke Ellington and where many early black musicians performed for black audiences. This statue is in tribute to African-American Civil War veterans.

And this is just a fun piece crawling on a store wall.

We feasted on a wonderful belated anniversary dinner. Cheryl and Dave’s friend Jeff had recommended 1789 Restaurant when we were here for Valentine’s Day a few years ago. The restaurant defines itself as “the quintessential DC dining experience.” There are six dining rooms in a centuries-old Federal house. We were delighted with a personalize menu congratulating us on our anniversary. We shared an apple pecan salad. Jerry had Point Pleasant, NJ, Diver scallops and Anna Lee had lamb shoulder cooked with hay and lavender. Our shared 1789 Chocolate Coin dessert of whiskey, chocolate and caramel mousse, whiskey dark chocolate ice cream and a gold and chocolate coin was scrumptious. With no photos to show how good the service, food and ambiance were, please trust our rating of 5 stars on this lovely evening. As stated, our celebration was delayed five days so the souvenir menu has the wrong date but the right sentiment