Category Archives: Travel Washington State

A Day in the Life

Joyce From This Side of the Pond made this announcement; “ I’m hosting a link up here for anyone interested in sharing a Day In The Life post. These are always fun to read and help us remember all the ways we’re connected as we go about the everyday ordinary business of living. Hope you’ll join us! 

Joyce’s plan going forward is to do these seasonally, so maybe four a year.  Watch for the next date sometime in the early part of 2026.

This is the first she’s hosting and my first endeavor. I chose to share the events of my day on Veterans Day, November 11, 2025 which was Tuesday. I took a couple of the morning photos on Wednesday which show accurately what happened on Tuesday, too.

Up at 5am and my dear hubby makes my coffee when he sees my groggy face walk in.

Our Bunn coffee maker excels at a fast brew time.

Coffee in hand this is my morning first stop. Yep it’s still o’dark’thirty outside.

The rest of these photos were taken on Tuesday, A Day in the Life. 🙂

I had an early eye appointment in Spokane and we set out from our home at 7am. It was a foggy drive. It takes roughly 1-1/2 hours for us to get to Spokane. We arrived a little early for my appointment and since Trader Joe’s is across the street from the office we did a little shopping.

Check in and wait times were over the top on this day because the offices are introducing a new computer system, ugh. We did have a nice chat with a man who was waiting with us. Come to find out he had a connection to a couple who are part of our church.

With eyes dilated we stopped at Hobby Lobby (no purchase), Home Goods (2 small items purchased), and Costco for gas and to order new glasses (big purchase$$). We also bought a King comforter and some real maple syrup that were both on sale.

This is Master’s Brewery in Deer Park. We usually stop here on our way home from Spokane for a meal. Deer Park is about 20 miles north of Spokane and on our route home.

Stroganoff Soup was the soup of the day and we enjoyed it with a salad and bread stick. The daily soups at this spot are always excellent!

I’m adding many views from the road home from our lunch stop. We had about 55 miles more to go to get home.

These shots are from us coming down into Chewelah.

Chewelah is about 20 miles from Colville and it has the only stoplight we encounter once we are on Highway 395 from Spokane and  before we reach Colville.

Coming into Colville. We love seeing the big C on the mountain along with the Cross.

Stopping to pick up mail even though it is Veterans Day and there is no mail delivery. LOL!  That’s our home in the distance. We made it home at about 3pm.

We had a delivery to our front door while we were gone. It was a very heavy box. We drug it in and then emptied the contents in our entry and brought all the parts into one of our spare rooms. Assemblie will commence on Wednesday. Mystery will be revealed soon.

Greg had a meeting at church that started at 4:30. While he was gone, I worked on this tough puzzle. I’m a glutton for punishment.

Time to put my feet up and enjoy a little ‘Escape to the Country’ until Greg came home. I noticed that people all across the states were posting photos of an ‘Aurora’ event in the night sky. When Greg got home at 8ish, we went on the deck to try to capture some of the images.

This is one of my favorites. What an end to the day!

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” Psalm 19:1-2

Thank you for coming along for this day in my life.

A Sunday Drive

After church and lunch on Sunday we headed north on Hwy 395 to State route 20 W and made a left onto Inchelium-Kettle Falls Road south along the Columbia River all the way to the Reservation town of Inchelium and then onto Gifford Ferry Road.

Along state route 20 we saw more of the fire devastation.

There are no towns along the twenty seven miles we drove along this route from Kettle Falls until we got to Inchelium.

Along the way we encountered rain showers.

Entering the small town of Inchilium on the Colville Indian Reservation and further on we hit the end of the road at the Inchilium-Gifford Ferry launch.

The ferry crossing is free and the small ferry holds approximately 8 vehicles.

It was a smooth ride.

Arriving in Gifford we headed north along Hwy 25 through Daisy and Rice and on to Kettle Falls and home. Daisy and Rice are very small communities.

Our neighbor’s tree greeted us in all it’s autumn glory. Soon all those leaves will fall.

We enjoyed our little Sunday drive even in the rain. We like to learn about the areas around us. It was fun to experience that little ferry across the Columbia river.

Feis Day Two

Day Two of the Feis was Deirdre Haran Abeid Day.

The Haran School of Irish Dance was founded in Kettle Falls by Deirdre Abeid over 45 years ago. Her daughters Caitlin Trusler and Claire Worley have continued in her footsteps, running the Kettle Falls and Spokane branches of Haran for the past 25 years.

All signed in and ready to dance

 

There are breaks between the soft shoe dances and hard shoe dances.

Both Addy and JJ appreciated Uncle and Auntie being at the Feis on Sunday. I appreciated it, too, as Laura could get up close and take photos and videos that I was not able to.

Soft shoe, hard shoe and then it was time for another soft shoe competition.

There is a trick to lacing the soft shoes!

When all the traditional jigs and reels and treble and Hornpipe were completed it was time for the creative water/sea dance. The dancers who wanted to participate in this dance had to come up with their own costume and dance.

This is the outfit conception that Addy came up with thinking about water, ‘under the sea’. Here was the completed outfit Addy and her Mom created.

It is so good to have the support team of mom and dad in the dancers corner.

Waiting for their solo performances. I wish I could share the video Auntie Lolo took of Addy’s dance but I’m unable to on my blog. It was a wonderful performance and we found out while we were out to lunch that Addy had received a 1st place for her outfit and dance!

We gathered for lunch before taking Uncle and Auntie back to the airport for their flight home.

After lunch on their way home Dan and Jamie stopped by the convention center to pick up Addy’s prize for her creative under the sea dance and costume.

Her 1st place trophy!

After getting home Addy donned all her awards from her first Feis!

Well done, Addy. Your hard work was rewarded. Hmmm, I wonder if she’ll want to sign up for another Feis?

Thanks for coming along and for all your kind comments.

The Road We Traveled

Our route for this one day road trip took us along Hwy 395 north across the Columbia River and then along the Kettle River to Boulder Creek Road. It was about 25 miles to Boulder Creek Road from home and then another 22 miles on Boulder Creek before we dropped into Curlew at Hwy 21. The Boulder Creek part of our trip took us over the Kettle River Range. In Curlew we crossed the highway and continued on Kettle Road along the Kettle River north to Customs Road crossing the Kettle river and continuing north to the Midway Border Crossing. This was another 16 miles.

There were warning signs along the road about range animals.

Approaching the highest elevation of our journey we met up with a slow full cement truck but luckily he pulled off a little after the pass and we were on the road alone again.

This section of the range was devastated by a fire in the recent past.

Back in lower elevations we dropped into Curlew.

We drove through the historical section of the little town.

It was very sleepy with no one about and few businesses still in operation.

Back along the Kettle River we continued up to the Border crossing.

We got to the tiny border crossing way too early so we circled back to try to find some spot that might include some restrooms.

Hooray for Beal Park and their humble offering.

The reflected views on the Kettle river were nice.

The Kettle River begins its journey to the Columbia River at Holmes Lake in British Columbia. It first enters the U.S. at Midway in Ferry County, Washington. It then loops down, south east, to Curlew, WA.; then heads north east to Danville, where it crosses back into Canada. The Kettle River then re-enters the U.S. at Laurier in Stevens County, where it proceeds south to join with the Columbia River, near Boyds, Washington. 

Back to the Border and we were the first crossing of the day. I wonder just how many crossings they encounter?

We enjoyed seven and a half hours with our friends at a campground about 1.4 Kilometers from the border crossing (that is under a mile) before we turned around and reversed our route home. (I shared our time with more photos here)  Those hours seemed to pass quickly. The campground was situated along the Kettle River. This road trip seemed centered on the Kettle River.

Our border crossings coming and going were both pleasant exchanges with the agents.

We saw more of the fire damage on our way home.

We were across the border by 4:30 pm and home by 6pm. It was a good full day.

Pend Oreille County Part 3

After leaving the Boundary Dam Vista House on Thursday June 12th we took a right turn off the National Development Road 3165 onto NF-325 to reach the Pee Wee Falls Overlook. It was a twisty primitive road and but before too long we were in another nice parking area with picnic tables, a nice restroom and well maintained trail to the Overlook.

We really enjoyed these beautiful views.

The wind was gusty at the overlook.

This next photo is from our son, Dan, that inspired our trip. He took this photo in May.

We traveled back the way we came and soon were on highway 31 and headed back south.

We stopped at this roadside sign after we enjoyed the Falls. It’s a nice map with places to enjoy along the North Pend Oreille Scenic Byway. We met two gals from Florida and were just finishing their drive on the Selkirk International Loop that runs through parts of Idaho,  Canada and Washington. We enjoyed a nice conversation. They were hungry and I could wholeheartedly recommend the Farmhouse Cafe in Metaline Falls. They were the only two other travelers we saw at any of our stops!

Before we hit the road to go home we made this last stop at another overlook of the Pend Oreille River very close to the downtown of Metaline Falls with a good view of the bridge we crossed at the beginning of our trip. This was another well maintained spot with restrooms, parking and lovely trails along the river.

The Pend Oreille River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately 130 miles long, in northern Idaho and northeastern Washington in the United States, as well as southeastern British Columbia in Canada. In its passage through British Columbia its name is spelled Pend-d’Oreille River.

This was a great day from beginning to end and we were thankful for safe travels and beautiful scenery to see and praise God for.

Pend Oreille County Part 2

We were so surprised at the lack of vehicles and people on our little road trip to our neighboring county. We took this drive on Thursday June 12th, 2025. After our breakfast and shopping in Metaline Falls we continued North on Highway 31.

It didn’t take us long to get to our next stop. We took a left turn off of Highway 31 onto National Development Road 3165, also called East Side Road. Crescent Lake was a good marker for the road and guaranteed you couldn’t miss it.

It was a short drive to the parking area for Boundary Dam Vista House. Again we were pleasantly surprised with the nice restroom facilities and parking and well maintained trail to an overlook.

There was an indoor viewing house with windows all around and some great information posted. We were surprised to learn that Seattle City Light owns and operates the dam that is 390 miles from the city of Seattle. What surprised us even more is the fact that the electrical current leaves Boundary Powerhouse crosses Washington State and reaches Seattle IN LESS THAN A SECOND!

We took some photos of the dam from the Vista House before we walked the 750 steps to an outdoor overlook.

Looking north towards Canada.

This was another sign inside the Vista House. I’m glad we planned and left the house instead of just wishing on this day. One more display caught our eye. It was hard to photo with the glare but I took it anyway.

Great information and nice historical tribute.

Looking south…

We exited the Vista House that we had all to ourselves and started our 750 foot walk to the outdoor overlook.

Looking South on the Pend Oreille River.

Looking North to Canada.

Back up the 750 Feet to the parking lot. We enjoyed a few wildflowers.

We were inspired to take this trip because of the next photos our son sent when he had to work out in this area for several hours. His photos were taken in May with different cloud cover.

I’m saving our next stop for another post.

Thanks for coming along.

Pend Oreille County Road Trip

 

On Thursday June 12th we left our home bright and early to travel to the Metaline Falls area of our state. Instead of traveling highway 20 to Highway 31, we chose a back road that looked simple enough to navigate. The map showed that Aladdin Road would get us to an alternate route to the town of Ione. After a while we knew we had missed the turnoff. We turned around and saw a gentleman on his morning walk so we stopped to ask him if he knew where we went wrong and if he knew an alternate route to Ione. He said he did and he had just driven it the day before and if we didn’t mind getting our car dirty we could drive Smackout Creek Road for 14 miles and get to Ione. We found the primitive road and set out slow and easy. After several miles the road changed names to Smackout Pass Road. It was a pretty but very remote road.

We did not see another vehicle until we got to about mile 12. We were relieved to finally reach the small town of Ione.

Our first stop once we reached highway 31 was Box Canyon Viewpoint in Ione.

We were happy to see a nice parking area with a clean restroom.

We saw eagles besides the nice views up and down the Pend Oreille river. Pend Oreille is pronounced ‘Pond Array’.

We made a quick stop at Eagle Nest Viewpoint but we were only entertained by swallows.

Continuing on Highway 31 we crossed the bridge over the river into the little town of Metaline Falls.

The Farmhouse Cafe was the spot we picked for our breakfast. Since it was the only choice for food we were happy the food and service was good.

After breakfast we stopped at a Mercantile for a little shopping. We bought a puzzle for me and a hat for Greg.

We got some extra information about the area from the owners of the shop and set off north again on Highway 31. We had two planned stops that were about 1 mile from the U.S. – Canadian Border.

We knew the next two stops were something we’d enjoy seeing in person because our son, Dan, had been in this area last month and had sent photos via text of what he saw.

I’ll save those stops for another post.

Yesterday we had a nice Father’s Day starting with church and then we enjoyed a quiche for brunch.

Our Colville kids brought us a wonderful homemade Curry for dinner along with a Strawberry/Rhubarb Pie that Addy and JJ helped bake.

They forgot to bring a strawberry for the top so they improvised with the fresh cherries we were enjoying.

It was high time to take a fresh generations photo of the guys.

Enjoy the last days of Spring!

Pend Oreille County

On Thursday June 12th, we hit the road early in the morning to explore a part of the state we’ve never been to before. We were on paved roads and primitive roads. We were in and out of ‘service’. I’m gathering my photos and thoughts and will post soon.

We are following world events right now and the tensions in the Middle East.

Yesterday Jan shared this verse for Truth for Today. It is a good encouragement.

In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.

Psalms 4:8.

Tea ~ George Washington Inn

Welcome to Tea Time 2025. These posts will be about Tea Rooms we’ve been to, Teas we’ve given for friends and family, Church Tea events, and High Tea in restaurants from 2008 to the present. Tea in the U.S.A., Tea in England and Tea in Canada. Many of the Tea Rooms are no longer in business, which is sad.

This post was from February 22nd, 23rd and 24th of 2012

Between Sequim and Port Angeles on a bluff above the Strait of Juan de Fuca is a beautiful Inn dedicated to reflect the spiritual legacy that was the foundation of our country. Here’s a little recap of our journey for High Tea at the George Washington Inn.

We woke up to a significant wind storm on the morning of George Washington’s Birthday. We were hoping our ferry crossing on the Puget Sound would go well. We crossed with rocking and rolling and white caps in view.

We picked up Beth in the historic little town of Port Gamble and crossed the Hood Canal bridge without incident. When we turned the bend into Sequim we were hit head on with some gale force winds that made me keep a tight grip on the steering wheel. We were visually impressed when we turned up the driveway to the George Washington Inn.

How fun to have to be squinting in the bright sunshine! Despite the wind the weather treated us kindly.

What a wonderful surprise when we walked into the front door and George Washington greeted us!

He was kind enough to take a photo with us.

We were early so we toured the Inn before our tea time.

The Inn has great comfortable spaces and we enjoyed this sitting area before we headed into Tea.

The tables were set on the ocean front piazza, also known as a veranda.

First course included Black Forest and Lavender Cheddar Scones, Dried Cherry and Orange Biscuits, Fresh Lavender Biscuits and assorted flavored Butters and Jams. Beth reads my blog and she’s a real fast learner. After the first course she knew to pass me the service plate for photos before any of us took a bite. The drawback to eating with a blogger!!

Second Course included Petite Spinach and Swiss Quiche, Smoked Salmon Mousse-Filled Cucumber Cups, and Lavender Cream Cheese Turkey Finger Sandwiches.

Third Course included Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, Assorted Petits Fours, and Rasberry/Lemon Lavender Cheesecake.

Tea served with each course was raspberry lavender black tea.

George Washington spoke to us during tea, sharing many interesting stories of his life leading up to his presidency.

President George Washington in portrayal is available for events and can be reached at vfrykholm@olypen.com

Katie won a bar of soap from Mt. Vernon for asking the president the best question of the day.

We were blessed during our tea time with views of more than one rainbow over the Strait of Juan De Fuca.

A stop at the gift shop on our way out for some lavender goodies to take home.

We also couldn’t resist sitting in the great rockers and squinting in the sunshine before we headed to our ferry crossing home.

It was a lovely day for High Tea at the George Washington Inn with Katie and Beth and of course with our first President.

Alas, this Inn is also temporarily closed as per their website.

Over the River…

We drove to Bothell last Tuesday early and spent several days with our Westside kids and we had a bonus visit with our Niece and our Grandniece. We were able to see our Grandnephew, too, at a choral performance. We drove back home on Saturday. I’ll post soon about our time away.

The photo collage is from our drive home on Saturday as the sun was rising and as we crossed the Vantage bridge over the mighty Columbia River.

On Saturday after we got home and unpacked this beauty entertained us.

Then during our relaxing afternoon after church this hawk paid a visit probably looking for that chubby quail!

Happy Victoria Day to our neighbors to the north in British Columbia.