Washington

Our final day of trans-continental traveling took us through the state of Washington. Mom has a habit of needing to stop at every Visitor's Center when we first cross into a new state. Most are pretty ho-hum potty stops (to Millie, at least), but the eastern Washington visitor's center near Spokane was much different--- they had a large dog park right next door! So, Millie got a special treat for having to been cooped up in the back seat of the Subaru for 2000 miles. Here, Millie found a stick and was playing "keep away" from the other hounds chasing her.

I didn't have great expectations about the city of Spokane, but it actually turned out to be a rather neat town (at least, the downtown area that we saw). I was fascinated by the roaring rapids that run right through town--

and their pretty clock tower:


The trip through eastern Washington was unusual. Couer d'Alene and Spokane are quite hilly and still near the mountains with lots of evergreens, but very soon after leaving Spokane, the terrain becomes rolling prairie similar to the vast green Flint Hills of southeastern Kansas. The rolling wheat fields then became a high desert plateau near George, Washington (yes, they even have a bust of their presidential namesake as you come into town!). After crossing the Columbia River, you then start moving into the Cascades and more familiar mountains and evergreens that one would expect to see in Washington.

One of the neatest little towns in the Cascades was Roslyn, the town where the TV show Northern Exposure was filmed. Here's it's main street, the Brick tavern, and the Roslyn Cafe sign



After leaving Roslyn, we were just one potty stop away from our final destination, and this one was a doozy-- all the way up at the top of the Snoqualmie Pass which still had snow piled a dozen or so feet high! Millie had lots of fun trying to find a good place to squat!

Finally, we arrived at our new home for the week-- the KOA in Kent, WA. While the sites were a bit small, the park was very well-maintained and spotless. It was also in a nice green valley that had a bird sanctuary next door and grazing horses down the street. This, just 10 miles from Sea-Tac airport!