Current Happenings 2002
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Vacation to Washington State -- Seattle and Spokane
August 1 - 13, 2002

Seattle, Washington (See Full Size image from PBase.com)

Spokane, Washington (Picture from MurrayCo)

I spent the first half of August visiting friends in Seattle and relatives north of the Spokane area. It was a great trip, I had a lot of fun.

Summary: I flew one-way to Seattle via Las Vegas, then spent the weekend visiting friends in Seattle.  Monday, I drove to the Spokane area (Newport, Pend Oreille County), spent the week visiting extended family, drove back to Seattle Friday, then spend another weekend visiting friends, then spent Monday and Tuesday driving back to LA.

August 1,2 L.A. to Seattle

I planned to start my trip on the Metro Green line to the airport, but I found out that Ruthie Wright was picking up her sister right when I needed to go to LAX, so she gave me a ride. I flew from Los Angeles to Seattle with a 19-hour layover in Las Vegas.  I spent the time looking around the town, riding the free monorails, and enjoying the glitzy architecture of the place. I was especially impressed with the Luxor pyramid.  It's mostly hollow inside.

Upon arrival at the SeaTac airport, I took a shuttle down to Olympia, because that's where I wanted to turn in a rental car, and it was almost twice as much to rent a car at SeaTac and turn it in at the Olympia office.  The driver of the shuttle van told me all about the different landmarks along the way, and kind of gave me a driving tour of downtown Olympia as we dropped of the other passenger. Then I drove up to Tyson Trautmann's house in Mill Creek, a suburb on the far north side of Seattle.

August 3,4,10, and 11 - Visiting Seattle

I spent both weekends staying with the Trautmann family in Mill Creek, visiting downtown, and going out in the evenings. Both Sundays, I went to Ben Wright's church, Crossroads Bible Church in Bellevue.  His dad preached on the 4th.  One day, we went downtown Seattle to look around.  Another day I spent with the Wright family. Another night, we spent several hours sitting outside in the hot tub, watching shooting stars (there was a meteor shower, but we didn't see a whole lot).

I also got to have lunch with Tracie Gillespie, an old college friend, and her fiancée John. I won't be able to go to their wedding later this month, but I'm glad I got a chance to meet John and hang out with them for a little while (and probably spent more time with them than I would have at the wedding anyway).

August 5, 9 - Driving across Washington State

(Click picture for full-size detail)

I drove from Mill Creek to Spokane on Monday the 5th, along Interstate 90 (Southern route, above). When I got there, I spent a few hours with my friend Jim Haendiges, who just moved there, setting out on his own, away from Los Angeles for the first time. Later that night, I went on up to Newport.

I liked the drive across Washington. The Potholes Reservoir area is especially interesting.  Also, there were a lot of wheat fields ready for harvest. But suddenly, as you approach Spokane county, the fields end, and there are pine trees again.
	On the way back, I took Highway 2 at the suggestion of my uncle and cousins. It was worth it. I took a little detour to see the Grand Coulee Dam (see left). It was quite impressive. I also enjoyed the drive through the mountains.

However, my favorite part of the drive on Highway 2 was the part of the road that goes along Banks Lake. It's a nice, blue lake in the middle of these big, dark, dry rock formations. The two-lane highway was fairly deserted, maybe only one car every 3 miles. I'd love to go camping there some day.

August 5 - 9 -- Newport, visiting family

I went to Newport to see Uncle Dale, Aunt Sue, Nathan, & Daniel.  I stayed at their house for the week. My Aunt Jan lives near there, too, and my cousins Jolene and John (plus Tara and kids) were there visiting the same week. Those four cousins aren't always in Newport, and all of them being there at the same time was the main reason for the timing of this whole trip. I had a great time hanging out with my extended family. We spent one day driving to see some ancient cedar trees. Another day, we did the "Selkirk Loop". I always enjoy the good, healthy, fresh food they have during the summers. We had freshly picked raspberries in a cobbler one night. Tuesday evening, we went to a Bible study in Idaho at Chuck Missler's Koinonia House.

The International Selkirk Loop A scenic drive that circles the Selkirk mountains See a bigger map and the official website.

We had a digital camera along for some of those outings, but I don't have those images yet. I'll post those pictures eventually.

Conclusion

Sunday, the 11th, I drove down to Olympia, turned in the rental car, stayed with a friend's family, then we spent the next two days driving a rented minivan back down to L.A. with a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old in the back seat. The ride was uneventful, but it was fun to drive the nice new van. It came with the Hertz NeverLost GPS mapping system, which was fun to play with.

So I had a great vacation. Thanks to all of you who I was able to visit on this trip. Now I feel more ready to get back to work on some projects before school starts in two weeks.

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Created and maintained by Matthew Weathers. Last updated Apr 20, 2006.