I could definitely tell I slept in a different bed when I woke up. I did hear Zuri go outside earlier that morning when she needed to use the bathroom. The dog door to the backyard is through the guest room's closet. I rolled out of bed around 7:15 and got in a quick shower. I got dressed and Ray and Brenda were getting ready to make breakfast and didn't have bagels. I told them I would run over to Walmart really quick and get some for them.
I hopped in the Escape and made my way to the Walmart, which wasn't that far away from their house. I went inside primarily for bagels and couldn't find the ones I wanted. Apparently, they didn't carry the blueberry version of Dave's Killer Bread. Bummer. I settled on a bag of mini blueberry ones instead. I grabbed a couple Pepsi Zero's and had a heck of a time finding my Milky Ways. I grabbed a Gonzaga visor for Mom, for a Christmas gift. I used self-checkout and went back to their house.
I got back just in time for breakfast to be done. We added the mini bagels to it. We had scrambled eggs, bacon and milk. It hit the spot and would keep us going until lunch time. We got ready for a day of geocaching. Brenda made some meat, pickle and cream cheese wraps and cut up strawberries for lunch. We made sure we had all of our caching tech and hopped into Ray's new truck.
Our first stop was the Adventure Lab, Welcome to Spokane! It had five waypoints and was super easy. You could literally do it from anywhere near the airport by answering multiple choice questions. After completing that, we drove over to the Spokane International: Travel Bug Air Terminal (GC39FYZ) which we had both found already several years ago. Ray wanted to drop off some trackables and this one was safe to do so.
We got onto W Government Way to do their Adventure Lab, Fort George Wright History Tour. This one was a five-waypoint adventure that took you to various buildings and signs around the old fort. One of the stops was at a totem pole.
We stopped by Riverside Memorial Park for two reasons. One, was to find the cool multicache that Ray wanted me to do so we stopped by the memorial to get the answers to figure out the coords but apparently did the math wrong. I would have to come back and do it again another time. The other reason was that Ray and Brenda wanted to show me their headstone and where they were going to be buried. The cemetery didn't follow directions and carved the headstone and placed it way too prematurely. They will still have to change the last names on it because it says Harrison instead of McGuire. It was kinda funny that we could go and visit their final resting place yet also weird at the same time.
We started their second Adventure Lab, Who Let the Dogs Out? This Adventure Lab took us to five different locations around Spokane and Spokane Valley.
While we were downtown, I wanted to stop by WSU Spokane since that was the only WSU extension I have never been to. To Ray and Brenda's surprise, the bookie had moved to another location and had to figure out where it was on Google Maps. We made our way there, parked and went into the Bookie. I wanted to see if they had a particular sweatshirt. It was such a tiny campus; they really didn't have what I was looking for, so I just bought a Nalgene and some stickers. I took a picture with the Cougar statue out in front before we moved on with our day.
They wanted to check on it because one of the dog parks was going to be changed soon and would have to alter their lab once the change had been made. While we were letting the dogs out, we tried looking for one over by the cemetery near the dog park in question. We looked everywhere and couldn't find it. We assumed it was missing. Ray and Brenda said they would go look for it another time.
We drove to Manito Park to do some of the virtual caches. I told them the last time I was in Spokane, in spring of 2018, we found a lot of the caches here. We did Helen Keller Silver Linden Tree (GC9P67V) and then walked to the Japanese Garden.
While we walked, Doug called me to complain about work and the current state of the ongoing problem he was dealing with. The Japanese Garden was very pretty in the summertime rather than the spring, when everything was still dead and trying to grow. They took me to It's in the Details (GCX74E) which had a lot of favorite points and I saw why. It was very clever but didn't trick me. We walked back to the truck. It was getting warm.
I needed a cache in Liberty Lake, so they drove out that way, stopping at the dog parks along the way. Brenda had a cache in mind at the library from the 2017 Spokane GeoTour. The letterbox, SOS: Liberty Lake Municipal Library (GC77NB6) had a lot of favorite points. We parked and got out. I could not figure out the "virtual stage" part of the cache for some reason. I gave it a good fifteen minutes or so before asking the library employee for some guidance. She was happy to steer me to the right direction. We went inside and found the correct book section the employee hinted us to.
I pulled it down, signed my name and Ray took a couple pictures of me. That is one more town I can cross off my list. We jumped back into the truck and drove east towards our last dog park waypoint we needed to get to complete the Adventure Lab. The Laughing Dog Park was near the defunct Spokane River Rest Area. I was so happy to see the restroom was open because we all had to pee. We ate the meat pickle wraps and strawberries in the back of Ray's truck. They were delicious.
Since we were over in the Spokane Valley area, Ray and Brenda wanted to take me to Mirabeau Park, to show me where they got married in 2007. They just got back from Europe after celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. They technically got married for the first time as McGuire's. We parked the truck and walked down to the waterfall and landing. Ray explained how he had everything set up and that it was the best day of his life.
We drove to the Hillyard area of the Spokane Valley to do three Adventure Labs, Hill Yard, Hillyard Murals and Cluedo, all were five waypoints each. All were unique but the Cluedo one had a bonus cache, and we didn't quite understand how to get the coords for it, so it was put on the list of caches to do later.
It was getting late, and we didn't want to get stuck in the rush hour traffic so around 4 p.m. we headed back to Airway Heights. Along the way, we noticed that Government Road was on fire--we were just on that road this morning and it was covered in helicopters and fire trucks. They were trying to contain it, so it didn't spread. It was so dry and there were tons of isolated thunder storms the previous night.
We got back to the house, packed up the rest of my stuff and took it out to the Escape. Ray and Brenda wanted to give me one of their many Abbotsford geocoins they got a few weeks back, but they had to adopt it to me. I took a few minutes to show him how to adopt out a geocoin. I thanked them for the coin, their hospitality and hoped that it wouldn't be a long time before I would be able to come to Spokane to hang out again.
I texted Fitzy to let her know I was on my way. I left Airway Heights around 5:30 and drove east to Spokane Valley. Traffic actually wasn't that bad on I-90. I followed Nuvi's directions to their house and arrived with ease. I parked in the driveway, grabbed some of my stuff and knocked on the door. Both her dogs went nuts and had to be put in the back yard for now. Chaise wasn't feeling all that well, so he was pretty scarce. She gave me a quick tour of the house and showed me where I was going to sleep and where the bathroom was. I got a face full of her greyhound, Seamus.
She asked if I ate dinner, and I answered not yet. She knew of a place down the road called Caruso's Sandwiches and Artisan Pizza. We rolled in, found a parking spot and went inside to view our choices. She said both the pizzas and sandwiches were good. I got a pizza, and she had one as well. She treated me to dinner. We sat outside, enjoying the late warm summer evening while catching up with what's been going on over the past year or so, talked about how busy the summer was and the upcoming wedding plans. It was a nice, overdue chat.
Afterwards, we stopped at the Coke machines off of E. Montgomery Drive on the way home. She said she's driven past here over the last few weeks and wanted to stop. I knew there was a cache here, but it wasn't the right time to look for it. Maybe next time. We grabbed about four or five different canned Coke products because they were 25 cents each and I had a buttload of change in the Escape. I guess there used to be one of these in Spanaway but had closed down to the public.
We went home, watched TV for a little bit, I got a shower in and went to bed around midnight. It was a long day but very thankful to have friends to visit with I haven't gotten to spend that much time around over the past couple years. It was nice to finally lay down and sleep.
Next Adventure: Spokane Trip: Hanging Out with Fitzy, Farmer's Market, Rollerblading and Breweries
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