A Sentimental Journey to Moses Lake, Washington

Kent and Eileen Gale, my brother and his wife, gave Darrell and me and Marsha and Nelson, our sister and her husband a wonderful Christmas gift last year. The gift turned out to be a trip to Moses Lake, where we lived over fifty years ago. We flew to Spokane, Washington and rented an SUV. On our way out of Spokane, we passed the Deaconess Hospital where our father, Bruce Gale passed away in 1953. Kent showed us a fun mall, where we ate lunch at Edo (Japanese)fast food place. We traveled to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, just a few minutes from Spokane. Eileen had rented a house near the lake, where we dropped off our bags and then walked the few blocks to town. It's a beautiful quaint, tourist town with a large lake that has a huge perimeter because of all the inlets, bays and peninsulas. It was a hot day, but we enjoyed being together and seeing the buildings, lake front and swimmers. Kent rented a boat for the following day and we walked to a great restaurant called Scratch. The gourmet food was absolutely delicious, all made from scratch. Each of us chose a different dish and Kent shared some of his Chinese black rice. It was tasty! We topped our meal off with brownies and ice cream.

When we returned to the house, we found that it felt quite warm and explored it to find the air conditioner and tried to set the thermostat, but it didn't work. The only air conditioner was in one of the two upstairs bedrooms! The bedroom downstairs had windows that wouldn't open for the evening breeze, a double bed and a half bath, with no shower!

The master bedroom upstairs had a fan, a king bed and a walk in bathroom that was spacious and seemed to be newly remodeled with beautiful stone floor and shower walls.

The other bedroom upstairs had the air conditioner, a large flat screen tv, and a king bed, but the bathroom was across the hall.

Eileen graciously chose the downstairs bedroom and I chose the room with the fan, because it had an outlet close to the bed for the CPAP I use every night. I thought Nelson would enjoy the TV. Come to find out the TV had no outlet and the wire cable had no connection to a TV cable service! The next day, when Nelson got in the shower, there was no soap, but he did find the laundry detergent there in the bathroom next to the washer and dryer, so he became the new blue cheer guy!

On Thursday evening, we relaxed in the living room, visiting and enjoying each other's company. We talked of memories of our parents stories about our relatives and ancestors.

Friday morning, everyone except Nelson took a walk for an hour few blocks near the house we rented. We really enjoyed seeing the tallest trees we have ever seen outside of the redwoods, no kidding! The houses and yards were old, small houses all well kept and some were for sale for like $250,000?

We enjoyed eating a delicious breakfast at a cute little, tiny restaurant run by the owner, operator, chef and waitress, all the same person, who said she was quite befuddled because something strange had occurred the previous night, but she wouldn't disclose what it was. Her husband, it seems, usually was there helping her, but not today.

About 11:00 am we drove to the boat rental office and secured the motor boat. Fifteen minutes after the arrangements were completed, we had walked to the pier and were boarding the boat. Kent steered and the rest of us enjoyed the beautiful sights around the blue lake. Pine trees covered the hills surrounding the lake and actually grew right down to the shore. Beautiful mansions and estates and small cabins nestled in the trees. We saw many private docks and boats waiting for a trip on the lake. The sun shone bright in bright blue the sky while puffy white clouds sailed over our heads. The breezes fanned our faces and it was a classic "Lazy Day."

After a great lunch, we found ourselves on a pontoon airplane. Kent and Eileen paid for the excursion, but remained on land. Darrell and Nelson positioned themselves behind the pilot, and Marsha and I sat in the way back, but each of us wore a headset so we could hear the pilot give us his tour of the lake. We took off in the water and curved around the other boats until we had a straight shot and then left the water for the air. It was a glorious sight from the air! For twenty minutes we sailed over the lake and some of the land near it. The pilot pointed out the homes of the rich and famous and taught us some of the history of the plane and the land it flew over. What a fun time!

We were all worn out from the great walks and exhilerating excursions, so we napped. Darrell and Nelson enjoyed reading some books. Eileen and Kent shopped for a fan at Walmart and soap for the bathrooms. Eileen and Marsha also bought some fun fingernail polish at a Del Sol shop. It's clear with sparkles, but turns bright pink in the sunlight.

After a super dinner, we walked to the mall and bought ice cream cones. What a glorious day!

Saturday morning, we walked again, and watched the swim part of a triathlon. We returned home while the first ones out of the water started on the biking part of the race. We wanted to eat breakfast at the same cute little restaurant where we had eaten breakfast the day before, but it was closed. Maybe the woman wouldn't do it by herself two days in a row!

I will add the rest of the trip later.