Columbia River Cruise 2.0
Thursday/Friday: September 27 - 28
We're back! Fifteen months ago Kim and I joined our great friends Sue & Dan Reynolds to adventure through the Pacific Northwest on American Cruise Lines "Columbia River Cruise" adventure. That time we flew into Portland and stayed for two nights and then sailed east on the Columbia River, then the Snake River before concluding the trip in Spokane, Washington. We loved the cruise adventure so much that we convinced Kim's twin sister Karrie, and her husband Randy, and the twins' parents Ed & Peggy Woods to join us for a "reboot" of the adventure. So on Thursday September 27th we all flew to Spokane to begin the adventure, in reverse order from our previous trip.
Happy Birthday Girls!
Ironically, September 27 is the twins' birthday and so how special was it that they awoke today knowing that they would be meeting each other out west to begin a great adventure! Kim and I were the first to arrive and I happened to mention to the girl at the desk that we had hoped to go next door to the Rusty Moose restaurant to get ice cream to celebrate Kim's birthday. Her eyes lit up and she said, "Wait a minute" and she grabbed what looked like a birthday card. She filled it out and told me that if we went over to their restaurant here in the lobby, in the next twenty minutes before they closed for the night, Kim would be entitled to a free birthday ice cream sundae! And so we did!
As we sat outside it was a bit "coolish" - but of course us Florida "kids" were loving it because we've had 90 degree temperatures with "feel like" temps in the triple digits for more than a month, making this evening's sixty-two degrees (those of you who truly know me, know how very ironic this is!) feel just awesome.
At about 9:35 Karrie and the rest of the family arrived and Kim called them to ask if she could take their order so we could get them some late dinner before the restaurant closed. The Hilton Garden Inn located right near the Spokane Airport had been so great the last time we were here, and again proved how awesome they were as the girl working the restaurant offered to get the order in before closing and keep it warm until everyone arrived. They all got here around 10 pm and we enjoyed a late night light dinner as we kicked off the adventure while celebrating the birthday girls.
Surprisingly we were able to sleep until nearly 7 am local time so it appears like we won't have a too difficult time adjusting to west coast time. By about 8:15 we were in the lobby having coffee with Randy and Karrie and we set up an 11:30 am meet time for the entire group to grab an early lunch at the Rusty Moose next door. When we were here before we loved this place and had gone back twice. I in particular had really enjoyed the spaghetti with bison meat balls, so that was on my mind. We had a great lunch and headed back to the hotel for a short period of time before calling an Uber for our winery visit to Arbor Crest Vineyards.
At 2 pm we reconvened in the lobby and called for our ride. It was about twenty-five minutes to get to and climb the winding road up the cliff to the Arbor Crest Winery. My contact here, Ashley, met us shortly and arranged for our guide to set us up for the afternoon. First we were all offered a glass of wine and then we toured the gorgeous facility which had once been a private estate. The turning leaves just added to what Kim and I had fondly remembered as one of the BEST winery visits we'd ever had......
After the tour of the estate we settled in and sampled a wide variety of wines and had plenty of time to roam around and take some photos of not only the grounds but of the family.
About 4:30 we called for our Uber ride which eventually arrived - it's a long and arduous story, which has become our "Uber Saga" - nothing is ever easy, let's leave it at that. And before 5:30 we'd arrived at Clinkerdaggers Restaurant which overlooks the Spokane River for what was a great dinner to top off the initial day of the adventure.
Tomorrow breakfast at the hotel is courtesy of American Cruise Lines and then our bus picks us up around 10:30 to transport us the nearly two hours to Clarkson where we will be boarding the Queen of the West to begin the river cruise!
