My Summer Vacation, Part 3

Well the rest of the pictures are ready, so I can now continue my recap of this great trip. Let's see, when last I left you, we were in Park City, Utah.

From Park City, we headed to Craters of the Moon National Monument. This park is small and can be completely discovered in a few hours. Here are some pictures:

 It is really interesting that the landscape is all green rolling hills until you get to the park area.

 These giant lava rock are everywhere!

Here's Brenda walking on the moon. Hehehe











After we finished up in the park, we headed over to our motel room in Arco, ID. The motel, the DK Motel, was cute. It is a small mom and pop place that had some charm.

 The room had a small kitchenette and the bed was made with real sheets. They were pink.

 Brenda is sitting at the desk checking her emails. The drawer pulls on the desk were little horse shoes. How quaint.

The ceiling was really pretty wood and beam construction.











We were in our room and settled by 3:00 in the afternoon. We took this time to relax and play catch up on the computer since the room had wifi.

We went to a really cute place for dinner called Pickle's Place. They had great food and it was a short walk from the motel. After dinner, we came back to the room and did some more relaxing because we were getting up early the next morning to head to Spokane.

The area around Arco is very, dare I say, boring scenery-wise. It is a very agricultural area and reminded me of Kansas except that there were hills.

Two hours from Arco is Challis. Here the scenery really changed and started getting into the northwest look, mountains, pine trees and fast moving streams. If I had known all this ahead of time, I probably would have driven another two hours the day before and stayed in Challis. But it was good to have some rest and relaxation time the day before.

Once we got back on the Interstate in Misoula, MT, those bad tires were given me a workout. I-90 is very mountainous and curvy and it was all I could do to keep the car up to speed and in control. I knew that we were going to get tires as soon as we got to Spokane.

We arrived in Spokane about 4:00 on Thursday afternoon. My parents had already arrived and were out with my aunt and uncle when we got in so we got settled in our room. About an hour or so later they all got back to the hotel and we went out to dinner at a local Mexican dinner located across the street from our hotel.

Friday morning, my dad and I went to Discount Tire and replaced my two front tires. I was so glad we had made it this far and could tell a difference immediately. And, my dad insisted on paying for the tires. Dad's rock!

After we got back, Mom and Dad and Brenda and I went and explored downtown Spokane. We walked around a beautiful mall then went over to the park and checked out the river.

 Did I mention I am not fond of heights or suspension bridges? Dad held my hand as I bravely crossed the bridge!

 Brenda looking marvelous!

That night, the whole family got together and we had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. This was the first time in over 35 years we were all together. We had a great time reconnecting and eating good food.

I give kudos to the staff at Old Spaghetti Factory. We had a huge party (I am thinking around 30) and yet they were so efficient and got everybody their food and drinks in a timely fashion. They even let us pay individually. I was extremely impressed!

Stayed tuned for my next post: the wedding and Glacier National Park. You won't want to miss it!