Yakima and Spokane, September 2024
Melody’s sister Celeste made her almost annual trip here from New York, and one of the things we always do is a road trip to visit their family. This trip was no exception.
Before the trip
Celeste arrived on Saturday, so we went to the airport to pick her up. We normally take the light rail train to the airport, and since she had her Orca card from previous trips, we also took transit back. One thing we did differently, however, is to get off at a different stop, The Huskies game got out as we were riding north, and a lot of people piled onto the train, as well as there being a lot of people in the station. Melody and I saw a lot of officials directing traffic and barriers set up to direct people, so we thought it would be easier to get off at U District. Other than needing to squeeze through people to get off the train, the strategy worked out well.
After we got to the house, we took a walk down to the Wedgwood Neighborhood Picnic where there were food trucks and music. The band was setting up as we got our food, and things were starting as we sat down to eat. The band had a QR code that people could scan to see the set list and lyrics, and several people went to the open mics to sing along with each song.
On Sunday, I did quite a bit of cooking since we were hosting a large dinner. Not only did my kids and spouses come, but Melody’s brother and his family also came over. There was a lot of food (we never want to run out of food) and ended up sending a lot of food home with people, since we were heading out the next day.
Yakima
Our first stop was Yakima to see Melody and Celeste’s mom, Jean. On the way, we made a quick stop to do a quick hike along Denny Creek. We made it to the Slide, which is a big rock that you can slide down when the river is high enough.
After we got back to the car, it was lunchtime, so we went to the nearby espresso kiosk which sells hand-dipped corn dogs. They were quite good, with a flavorful sausage coated in a very crispy dough. Since the kiosk also sold ice cream, we got some before heading out again.
It didn't take us too long to make it the rest of the way to Yakima, and we arrived at Jean's house. We had plenty of time to unpack things and relax a bit before dinner. Since there's a piano in the basement, Melody and I did our usual evening playing before calling it a night.
The next day, we drove out to Cowiche Canyon to do a short hike. It followed the Cowiche Creek, and we went out a while into the canyon, seeing basalt cliffs to the south and anthracite cliffs to the north.
Since the canyon was so close, we made it back in time for lunch. When we drove up, we saw an ambulance taking someone into the house next door. We weren't sure what was going on, but apparently one of the people living there had been having health problems.
In the afternoon, Melody and I went out to find a café. We drove to the same place we had gone the last time we were in Yakima, which is located in the old Yakima train station. Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations because of a fire, but one of the people hanging out at the outside tables pointed us to a café a block away. We went there and took advantage of the pretty speedy network there.
We got back to Jean's house well before dinner, so had time to take it easy. After dinner, we all went out to the cemetery to see the grave of Jean's husband, Ron. As we got back, we started chatting with Jean's other neighbor who also didn't know what was happening with the ambulance. Before too long, the son came out and explained what was going on, and we all gave him our best wishes for his dad who was returned home for hospice care.
As we were settling down for the night, it ended up there was a garter snake in the basement where we were staying. It got spooked and slithered into a utility closet and we couldn't see it, so we just blocked the gap under the door and called it a night.
After breakfast the next morning we packed things up, said our goodbyes to Jean, and started driving east.
Spokane
Once we got to Spokane, we took a slight detour to go to Palisades Park and did yet another short hike, this time doing the outer loop. The hike started quite level, taking us through dry grasses which at times required quite a bit of way-finding to make sure we were going the right way. We then started going down into a canyon, ending up at a small creek which we needed to ford. We then climbed back up and saw what would be the waterfall at the end of the canyon, but there wasn't enough water to see it in action.
After finishing the loop, we drove to where we were staying, a motel near the old Spokane Steam Plant. It's located right next to the rail line, but even though many freight trains were using the tracks, the noise was much lower than we expected.
We headed over to Rockwood Manor to have dinner with Melody and Celeste's uncle, Neal. Their cousin Kevin was also there from Illinois, and their brother Keith and his wife Bev showed up at the same time as their dad's widow, Barbara. Afterward, we went to the lounge where Melody and I played some duets, as well as tried to accompany Bev (the sight reading was tricky for us, but we muddled along).
On the next day, we joined Neal and Kevin for breakfast. Keith and Bev showed up after they ate at their B&B, and then they joined Kevin, Celeste, Melody, and me to walk around Antoine Peak, after which we all went to a deli for lunch.
Having our energy back after the walk, we went to pick up Neal and went to the cemetery to visit Keith and Irene (Melody's grandparents) and Lyle (Melody's dad). It had been quite a while since we'd been there, so it was good to make sure we knew how to get there; I dropped pins so I would be able to find the sites again.
We then split up, with Melody and me going to the clinic to get our flu and COVID immunizations so we would have that done before going to Vietnam in a week. We then went back to the room to get some computing in, then went back to the manor to join everyone (including Barbara, and a few of Neal's friends) for dinner.
The last morning, Celeste, Melody, and I once again joined Neal and Kevin for breakfast, and then we hit the road toward Seattle, bringing the road trip to an end.
