Monday, 8/30:
We left Wilsonville, OR at 5:45 am and headed north through Portland and then east…
The Columbia River never disappoints…
Nor does the Columbia River Gorge…
We crossed over “Twin Bridges”… Indeed…
And then we were officially in Eastern Washington… Or, as the locals call it, “The East Side”…
Great suspension bridge…
And vineyards…
And more typical eastern Washington…
We stopped in Ritzville for lunch…
This lunch stop was ill-advised and clearly sub-optimal…
We arrived mid afternoon at Riverside State Park, outside Spokane. THis is the Equestrian campground, where my brother is a camp host… However, the campground was closed two weeks ago due to fire danger, so we were there alone…
John’s wife was off marking trails on her horse, so we three had lovely happy hours sitting around the picnic table, and turned in early…
Tuesday, 8/31:
My brother and his wife took us to breakfast at Wolfy’s…
They showed us around the area, then we returned to the campground for a walk. A long walk. A fast walk…
I think this is the last my brother and I saw of our wives until they stopped mid day…
We walked along the Spokane River…
After our walk we met the horsewomen as they prepared to ride and mark trails for an upcoming trail meet…
After the horse women left we drove toward Spokane…
We soon were downtown, where we found the Leatherbeard Brewery…
Here I am with the co-owner and father of the brewmaster…
We found a table and sampled some beer… these are folks we know from Irvine; they moved here a few years ago to open the brewery… They seem to be doing well…
We returned the State Park, where we had some visitors…
We had another lovely happy hours. It was good to catch up. We don’t see each other very often…
Wednesday, 9/1:
We have a long drive today. We left at 6:45 and heated west towards Seattle and points north…
An enjoyable time was had by all…
Adventures in the Villa 