Day 1
The
trip began well. I was relaxed and ready when Dominique came to pick
me up and she was on time, so no worrying like I do with Super
Shuttle. We traded information on our new iPhones on the way to the
airport. I like her comment on her Facebook page today: how is it a
smart phone can make you feel so stupid? More on that later.
Stopped
to get a sandwich as Surdyk's and there was Alia working at the
counter. She used to do our hair at Horst long ago. Second time
we've seen her at the airport.
Plane
was late taking off because they held it for a connecting passenger
in a wheelchair who would have otherwise had to wait until 9:00 p.m.
for the next flight to Spokane. Uneventful flight and we still
arrived on time. We had an empty middle seat which makes things SO
much more pleasant. I passed the time reading my old Smithsonians on
my iPad (reading puts me to sleep on planes). Switched to playing
solitare—that really seems to make the time fly. It's only a 2 1/2
hour flight to Spokane.
Speedy
luggage delivery in Spokane—love those smaller airports! Sometimes
it seems to take as long as the flight to get your luggage in
Minneapolis. Proceeded to Hertz where they offered me some sort of
Chevrolet. We had reserved a Corolla. Decided to upgrade to a
Camry. Went out to get the car and found it needed to be washed, so
they ran it through the car wash and I was off.
First
stop was the Visitor Information place downtown. What a pleasant and
helpful bunch of women there! Said I was looking for a place to buy
a styrofoam cooler as I had flown in and we were going on a road
trip. The woman actually looked up potential places and called them
to see if they had them! In the meantime, I was chatting with the
other woman and discovered that part of our trip will be on the
“famous” Selkirk Loop. She gave me a map. They were both
interested to hear about our trip and it was so wonderful to have an
actual address of a place which would have what I needed so I could
plug it into the GPS and head right there.
Arrived
at Fred Meyer's shortly and was greeted by a pleasant woman at the
door who pointed me in the direction of coolers because this is a
HUGE store. Got the cooler and headed back to the car. Tried to
call Heidi because I couldn't remember exactly what she had specified
about the wine she wanted me to get. Technology snafu! Somehow my
new iPhone5 erased her cell number while I was trying to call her.
Called her home phone and left a message.
Decided
to head on to Costco to pick up a case of water and the wine and
called Dominique to ask her what I had done to cause the phone to
erase Heidi. She didn't know either, but asked if I had my iPad with
me—she would be in my contacts on that. Never would have thought
of that. Worked great, I got her cell number again (turns out they
were on their way to the airport, so she would never have got the
message at home). So we consulted through the wine aisles at Costco
and I got her wine and headed for the hotel.
Staying
at the Oxford Suites which is right on the river. You walk out the
door and hit the Riverfront Trail.
The
whole Riverfront Park is fabulous—lots of bridges from one side to
the other, great places for viewing the river rushing down, lots of
historical information. You could leave the hotel and walk across
the river to downtown Spokane to shop or dine of whatever. I just
looked and went back to the park. Love this picture of the river—the
color is caused by the sun setting on the rocks.
The
hotel has a happy hour with free drinks and appetizers, so I had some
and then came back to the room as I had only eaten half my sandwich
on the plane.
So far
so good with hotels, all picked off the internet. Heidi doesn't get
in until very late tonight. Tomorrow we head for Nelson, B. C.,
Canada on part of the famous Selkirk Loop.
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