Yakima and Spokane, February 2025
Since orchestra performances were scheduled in Spokane for Melody's nephew and niece, we decided to make a trip of it. We stopped by Yakima to spend some time with her mom, too. We also did a bit of snowshoeing in each direction.
Yakima, 12–14 February
We weren't sure what Snoqualmie Pass was going to be like with the winter weather, so we planned on going to Yakima first; if the pass wasn't good, we would instead wait to go directly to Spokane,then stop by Yakima on the way back. Fortunately, the pass was fine, so we stuck with our original schedule.
On the way over, we stopped by Franklin Falls to see how frozen they were. The trail was pretty well packed down, so we decided to use microspikes instead of snowshoes. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot, so we weren't surprised to see several people on the trail and a lot more at the falls themselves.
The last part of the trail to the base of the falls is steep in parts, and we weren't surprised that there were patches of ice, but we were able to go around those. The falls were indeed mostly frozen (more than the year before when we went), but there was a narrow path in the middle that was still running. Some people had ropes set up to climb up the side of the falls in the ice, which always attracts a lot of spectators.
Returning to the car, we decided to go on a different path where there were far fewer people. We ate our lunch when we got back to the car, then got back on the road. We made a quick stop in Ellensburg for some ice cream, then headed down to Yakima.
We knew we would likely arrive when Melody's mom, Jean, would be holding a lesson, so we just unloaded the car, and Melody popped her head in to let Jean know we were there.
The next day, we went on a walk along the Yakima Greenway next to the Yakima River. The trail had a little bit of slush here and there, so we had no problems walking along it. The wind was quite brisk, so we needed to keep moving to not get too cold.
That night we went to Jean's church to hear the organ as well as a trumpeter and a soprano. The singer was a last-minute replacement for her husband who was sick and couldn't sing. The organ console was right behind the altar, so we got a pretty good view. The theme of the evening was Van Gogh's Starry Night, and at a reception after the concert, there was a cake that was decorated to match, blue icing and all.
The next morning we packed up the car and started out to Spokane. We decided to do a different route which took us more directly east, getting us to I-90 at Ritzville where we had lunch.
Spokane, 14–18 February
We arrived in Spokane and checked into our motel, then let Melody’s sister-in-law Bev know we had arrived. She was by herself since Carmen was in rehearsal with the All-State Concert Band and Kenny was hanging out with Western Washington University’s Western Symphony Orchestra, so we went over to their rental home, and the three of us went walking around the neighborhood. We headed to the Spokane River and walked along there for a while, seeing several turkeys on the way.
Back at Bev’s rental, we went to the grocery store to pick up some food and then had dinner back at the house. After that, we went to visit with Neal, Melody’s uncle. We chatted for quite a while, then made plans to meet him for breakfast.
The next morning, Carmen joined all of us for breakfast, and she had just enough time to eat before she needed to get to the Convention Center for more rehearsals. After the rest of us finished, Melody and I headed back to our room, walked through the Davenport Hotel, then headed to Spokane Falls. We got a good look at the lower falls, then headed over to Riverfront Park so we could see the various upper falls. The water was flowing strongly, and there was still a lot of snow surrounding them. On the way back we took a quick look at the Looff Carousel; the building was completely new since the last time we were there.
We then went downtown to meet Melody’s friend Shelley (who happens to live less than a mile from us) for lunch. Her son Joey was in the All-Northwest Symphony Orchestra. His concert was at the same time as Carmen’s, so we weren’t sure if the timing would work to see his concert, too. It was good to at least touch base with Shelley.
After lunch, we walked over to the Convention Center to find the room where Kenny was playing. We happened to go into the far west side, but the concerts were on the far east side, so we wandered all the way through as we got close. Kenny found us.
When the time came, Melody and I wandered downstairs to find the room where Kenny’s girlfriend Zoie saw us, so we went to sit with her. The orchestra sounded great and had a good variety of pieces.
After the concert, Bev, Kenny, Zoie, Melody, and I went out to walk around for a bit. We ended up covering a bit of the same route that Melody and I had done earlier, but it was nice to get out to stretch our legs for a bit. As we got back to the Convention Center to go to Carmen’s concert, we noticed a line. Unlike before, there we had to go through security screening, but it didn’t take us too long to get through that. When we got closer to the performance room, we saw a very long line. Our first instinct was to join the line, and as it turned out, it was the correct line for the All-State concerts.
Not long before the concert began, we noticed that tickets were no longer being scanned. We weren't sure if that was the case for Joey's concert, too, or if they were scanning outside the door. We decided to just stay put, had a great time listening to the three All-State performances (choir, orchestra, and band).
After we were done, we were ready for some quiet time, so we walked by a store to pick up something for dinner, then we headed back to our room.
The next day, Melody and I went to Bev's rental where we had breakfast. After that, Melody joined Bev, Kenny, and Carmen to do some cross-country skiing at Mt. Spokane while I hung out around downtown. After skiing, everyone came to our room. We swapped luggage (we put some of theirs into our car to make room for Melody and her ski gear). The rest of them started heading home. We wandered around downtown a bit to get some snacks, then went to have dinner with Neal.
The next day was Presidents' Day, and we had planned to stay one more night to avoid traffic going back home for the holiday. Since we had a free breakfast from where we were staying, we used that, then headed back to Mt. Spokane to do some snowshoeing. While we didn't head to the summit, we did make it to a Civilian Conservation Corps cabin. There was a wood-burning stove to help warm up the cabin, and we ate our lunch. We then made our way back, noticing that fog had rolled in. We headed back to our room, then once again joined Neal for dinner.
For our travel day, we went back to have breakfast with Neal. We had originally thought about going over Stevens Pass instead of Snoqualmie Pass to do some snowshoeing up there, but it seemed more prudent to take the direct route. We did a quick snowshoe hike at Cabin Creek before heading back home.
