Saturday, June 25, 2011

SPO~KAN~E


Find me another city with class V rapids smack dab in the downtown of the city. Our two week adventure began with a 4 day visit to Spokane to catch up with good friends and relive some good memories.


Our Spokane "parents" Bill and Coleen let us stay at their place (they would be mad if we stayed anywhere else! :) ) We enjoyed dinner at the Downriver Grill before taking a stroll downtown to see the water.



Friday morning we drove two hours to the Idaho/Montana border and took on the Route of the Hiawatha trail. I've blogged about it before about two years ago but this time Katie was able to go and it was early summer before the leaves change. There was even snow still on the mountains!
We joined up with our Califriends Jeff and Rae who were in town for Ironman. Jeff was competing. Yes, he is crazy and loves his wife enough to go on a 14 mile mountain bike ride before the ironman race.
The trail contains 10 tunnels and 7 trestle bridges in the 14 mile stretch. One tunnel is 1.6 miles long and requires headlamps.
Coming out of a tunnel.
The water was running heavy due to the increase in rain this year.
I have some video from the Hiawatha Railroad that I'll post later. This post comes from a coffee shop in Ohio. Those pictures will be posted early next week from Outer Banks North Carolina. Oh, and i've gotten plenty of requests for a Leila update. Seriously, people she's a dog! She agreed but will have to wait until we return. Those paws don't handle the keyboard well.