Category Archives: Washington State

Spokane’s Torchlight Parade

During the Lilac Festival in Spokane there is a Torchlight Parade that honors all branches of the military and law enforcement. There are other entries in the parade, too. Many high school bands, drill teams and parade floats from cities around Washington State and Idaho participate. Many of the bands play military music like Anchors Aweigh and other songs.

This was Addy May’s first road trip. It’s about 70 miles from her house to Spokane.

We shared our parking space with some horse trailers and a few horses.

After we found our parking spot and the parade was about to begin Addy was tucked into her front carrier shielded from the sunshine and we headed for the downtown area. Before we crossed the Spokane River we got to see some floats that were lined up in order ready to proceed to the parade route.

Lots of water this year and the river was churning.

The Red Hot Mamas were very entertaining. They had some great moves and lively music. It was fun to see bands in kilts.

This was the most sobering part of the parade. Each one of the men and women pictured here lost their lives in the line of duty. After this board went by friends and family members carried large poster boards with a photo of their loved ones with their service dates and the date that they died. There were rows and rows and rows. Everyone stood and took their hats off to honor the fallen. May God comfort all the families who have lost their loved ones.

We left after the portion of the parade we came to see went past us. Addy slept the whole time and didn’t wake up when she was gently tucked into the car seat and then she slept all the way home! Woohoo! A very successful first long outing.

I am safe and sound in California at my sister Vera’s home. Tomorrow we will head over to our sister Kathy’s to celebrate our Pop’s 94th birthday. We will be celebrating again on Saturday with a dinner here at my sister Vera’s home in Huntington Beach. I’m happy to say that Southern California is not scorching on this visit of mine like the last few trips have been. On the airplane today I was reading a portion of Psalm 119 and had to write out these verses.

Psalm 119: 133  Keep steady my steps according to your promise and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
Psalm 119: 160  The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
Psalm 119: 175  Let my soul live and praise you and let your rules help me.
Hope all is well with your soul…

And Now I’m Headed South

We arrived home from northeastern Washington just after noon on Tuesday and now I’m packing to fly to Southern California early on Wednesday morning. But in the meantime I’m relishing all the time we had with little Addy May and her parents.

Mommy and Addy have lots to share with each other.

While the grown ups enjoy their dinner Addy sits and watches from this little baby lounger.

Some views from around our kid’s property. The lilac is such a rich beautiful color. The chicken coup got moved in a new position and cleaned out. The new position will make it easier to retrieve eggs in the winter and also make it easier for the chickens to get in and out. Speaking of chickens some animal has been killing them and only leaving a pile of feathers. They are down to only 2 chickens. Maybe this hawk that likes to circle above the chicken coup is to blame or a fox.

I take this shot every time we visit. This is taken from the drive down from the kid’s home to the main road. Above taken on May 20th and the photo below was taken in April.

Most of the water that you see in this shot from April has been absorbed and there will be lots of dry grass to deal with come summer. We plan to get back to visit our kids again in the latter part of June.

I’m hoping I will have more time while I’m in California to visit and see what you all have been up to.

Rest Stop

Last Friday on our journey from Western Washington to Northeastern Washington we stopped at a rest area we hadn’t stopped at before on our past trips.

The rest area in Sprague had some beautiful Spring views.

It was good to stretch our legs and enjoy the views before we drove into Spokane and then headed north to our destination.

I’ve been quite busy at our kids home holding sweet Addy May and helping out here and there so I haven’t been able to visit much if at all. Hope all is well in your corners of the world. Happy Victoria Day to our Canadian neighbors!

Here’s one of my great views with more to come.

Skagit Valley Barns

These photos were all taken on our way to Roozengaarde Garden on May 2nd to see the tulips.

I’m linking up to The Barn Collective with Tom the Backroads Traveler.

Dear pressure washed the deck and part of the drive and put up our patio covers on Friday. Now we are ready to bring the patio furniture down from the loft in the garage. That will happen once we have a dry spell again. We continue our quest to go through boxes of records to sort and shred. Our major Spring project is to let go of a lot of stuff! Our kids will reap the benefit of not having to do it for us! If you are a mother and are visiting here I hope you have a very grateful and peaceful Mother’s Day!

This is a side by side of our daughter-in-law when she was a baby and our granddaughter a couple weeks ago. Addy’s mommy will be celebrating her first Mother’s Day tomorrow. Happy Mother’s Day Jamie! You are a great mommy for little Addy!

A Rare Sunny Morning…

My new header photo was taken at the Roozengaarde Gardens in Mt. Vernon in the state of Washington. When we heard we might have a few hours of sunshine on Tuesday, Dear and I zoomed up north about an hour from our home to see the very end of the tulip festival offerings. I’m first sharing the photos I took out in the few remaining fields of tulips.

 

The well planned garden and the borders of tulips in alphabetical order to help you know what you might want to order were still lovely to  enjoy. I’ll be sharing photos from those areas next.

We had a warming up today which is much appreciated. We even were able to throw open a few windows to enjoy the fresh air.

Highway 231

Our journey home from Colville via Highway 231 on Tuesday April 18th started just on the outskirts of Chewelah. We turned west off of Highway 395 and continued south on 231 all the way to Interstate I-90 in Sprague. All the photos were taken from the passenger seat of our car.

We traveled through the small town of Valley, stopped to have breakfast in Springdale. Continuing south we passed through Ford, Long Lake, Reardon, Edwall then connected to the interstate in Sprague. We enjoyed going on this unfamiliar road instead of our usual trek down Hwy 395. Not having to deal with Division St. through Spokane was a treat!

Linking up with Tom the Backroads Traveler for The Barn Collective.

April Showers…

We took a different route home from Eastern Washington to I-90 taking us through small towns on highway 231. All along the way we saw excess water on properties and water very close to spilling over the roadway.

We had breakfast in Springdale at the Kozy Korner. We knew it was a good choice when all the locals kept coming in while we enjoyed our meal. Instead of heading back to Highway 395 we continued on 231 south to I-90.

This steeple on this church caught our eye in the little town of Edwall. The steeple was the best feature of this church.

And earlier in March on our trip to Colville for our granddaughter’s birth I took a photo of this church in town without a steeple but with an interesting exterior.

Speaking of our granddaughter I will add a photo of her, too, just to show her later in her live what was happening in the towns around her at her birth and shortly after.

This is me saying goodbye to our little Addy before we headed home on April 18, 2017.

April showers and March showers and snow melt have caused a lot of headaches for everyday travel in the tri-counties in Northeastern Washington. This next photo is just one example of a travel nightmare for lots of folks. This is part of highway 395 north of Colville and north of Kettle Falls.

We enjoyed our “off the beaten path” route to get to Interstate 90 and were happy that the roads had held up on this route.

I’m linking up to InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally and

to The Barn Collective with Tom the Backroads Traveler.

On this Saturday I mowed the lawn while Dear weed wacked and we got the job done before another rain shower came through. We had glorious sunshine on Friday and in between rain showers today we have had some welcome sunshine.

We enjoy every minute of sunshine we get after so much rain and grey days! Hope you are enjoying sunshine in your neck of the woods.

Missing Little AMB

Friday March 24th I got some more cuddles in and while we made cookies little Miss was snug as a bug in her little portable cradle.

Rayna rested close to her, too.

Later in the evening we were all relaxing and Gramps and Addy had a little snooze time together. I really enjoy this photo. Too bad copying it from phone to computer gets a little grainy.

I have missed this close up view of her for a week now. Sigh.

On Saturday morning March 25th we packed up the car and sadly said our goodbyes.

Happy our kids thought to take a photo of the 3 of us before we hit the road for home. We said to the kids when we were heading out the door that we wished we lived around the corner from them.

Heading down their driveway…

Still on their driveway looking out at flooded areas of Colville.

Heading into town to connect to highway 395.

Looks like there were a few more newborns in the neighborhood of the animal variety.

Once we connected to highway 395 I took a lot of photos of the flooding in Stevens County as we drove south to Spokane to connect with Interstate 90.

There’s a little town south of Colville that is named after our granddaughter. 🙂

More flooding…

The city park in Chewelah was flooded and there was water over the roadway.

I could share a lot more but this post is getting long.

I’m itching to get back over the mountains to see our sweet little Addy and her folks! We just might have to invite ourselves over for Easter with the promise to cook! I can now really empathize with all you grandparents out there who live a long way from your grands.

We had a dry day yesterday! The weather people said things like…”today you will experience dry pavement for the first time in weeks”. We didn’t get our paws wet yesterday and it was quite a treat! Thursday Katie and I did manage to walk the grounds of Bonhoeffer Botanical Gardens and the University of Washington Quad missing the rain showers. I will share a lot of those photos soon. Here’s a preview of one from the Cherry Blossoms in the Quad.

APRIL FOOLS Y’All! Hope this is the mildest prank you have all day!

Bonhoeffer Botanical Gardens

A couple weeks ago Dear and I headed north to the Bonhoeffer Botanical Gardens on the grounds of Freeborn Lutheran Church.

Found on 20+ acres located on Exit 215 off the I-5 freeway, 45 minutes north of Seattle. The Gardens contain all of Western Washington’s indigenous trees, shrubs, vines and  ferns along with most grass, moss, mushroom, pond, flower and ground cover species.

We had a one hour walk without getting rained on which is a treat these days.

On Thursday I hope to go back with our daughter and see the daffodils that should finally be blooming.

I also want to go back in late Spring to see all the other plants that will be blooming.

Speaking of Bonhoeffer this is a great book about his life…

Taken from the jacket of the book: “Bonhoeffer gives witness to one man’s extraordinary faith and to the tortured fate of the nation he sought to deliver from the curse of Naziism. It brings the reader face to face with a man determined to do the will of God radically, courageously, and joyfully – even to the point of death. Bonhoeffer is the story of a life framed by a passion for truth and a commitment to justice on behalf of those who face implacable evil.”

And here are some quotes from Bonhoeffer:

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

” Only if we will venture to enter into the words of the Bible, as though in them this God were speaking to us who loves us and does not will to leave us alone with our questions, only so shall we learn to rejoice in the Bible…”

“The church has only one altar, the altar of the Almighty…before which all creatures must kneel. Whoever seeks something other than this must keep away, he cannot join us in the house of God…the church has only one pulpit, and from that pulpit, faith in God will be preached, and no other faith, and no other will than the will of God, however well-intentioned”

These quotes of course are more powerful to read in context and with consideration of the time period that Bonhoeffer lived in Germany. Bonhoeffer is eventually executed just weeks before the end of WWII.

We in the Pacific Northwest are longing for the sunshine and a string of days without rain. Our February and March have had historical rainfall and will go into the books. Our vitamin D3 is depleted for sure. As I type I see a little brightness outside and it makes me smile. I read an interesting article on grumbling a couple weeks ago and I don’t want to go there. I’m just stating the facts of our weather pattern right now. The weather forecasters say that we will have sunshine about noon tomorrow and that’s a good time to shoot for arriving at Bonhoeffer gardens. After Bonhoeffer since our daughter lives very close to the University of Washington campus we are going to stop there before I drop her off at home to see the Cherry blossoms on the quad. If for any chance the forecast is wrong we’ll just try on another day.

In the Meantime…

…here are a few photos showing what this part of Washington is experiencing because of their heavy snow that is melting and has no where to go since the ground is saturated or frozen. The folk around here are saying this is worse than the flooding in 1996.

The photos I’m showing you are areas that are usually fields not lakes.

This wasn’t a waterfront property before.

Highway 395 had to post detours north of here because of water on the roadway. Hopefully heavy rains will not be in the forecast and the ground will be able to absorb all this excess water. We are glad our kids and their extended family here live on higher ground.

We enjoyed the homecoming of our kids with their little one. While we were waiting for them to be discharged we saw these visitors just outside our granddaughter’s nursery.

Here’s a little sneak peak of our little granddaughter. One wee foot!

Soon I’ll be able to share more. We are getting lots of good cuddle time before we head back home.

So grateful to God for keeping our daughter-in-law and granddaughter safe during pregnancy and delivery.