Out of the Desert – July 29, 2016

RV park in Spokane, WA

We left the desert of Kennewick, Washington and moved north to Spokane.  Actually, we are in North Spokane past all the city stuff and more in the country.  The weather is inflicting us with those 95-100 degree temperature but the humidity is 30% and it really doesn’t seem that hot.  According to the brochures, there is lots to do here so we made a plan.

At Frank’s Diner, the railroad car restaurant, the waitress told us we had to go to GreenBluff which is an unincorporated town sitting on a plateau.

Orchards in Green Bluff

The big claim to fame of this town is that over 50 family farms on this plateau have formed an affiliation and open to the public, local and travelers, to sell their produce either picked or u-pick.  There are farms specializing in every thing from Christmas trees to herbs.  Our first stop was a lavender farm called Fleur de Provence Lavender Farm.  The owner came to greet us and told us all about the culinery vs the oil types of lavender and even gave us a bundle to put in our RV.  Very gracious!

Lavender farm in Green Bluff, WA

We spent the next few hours traveling the two loops visiting farms.  We found out that cherries are all gone and the crop right now is peaches, apricots and blueberries.  We stopped at the Hansen Farm and decided to do some u-pick peaches and blueberries.

Large sweet blueberries

Jim picking peaches at Hanson’s Orchard – Green Bluff, WA

One farm, the Harvest House has actually turned into a destination with bakery goods, drinks and lunch items.

We took the fruit home and then headed to the Spokane Riverfront Park.  The first order of business had to be lunch or I was going to faint.  It was close to 2 pm.  Lucky us, we found a great restaurant with outdoor seating, (remember low humidity).  Jim ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with apple slices and onion which looked and sounded good to me.  No picture because we were so hungry, we just ate as soon as the food was delivered.

Just up the street from the restaurant was the park, well within walking distance.  This park is over 100 acres of urban park originally property owned by the Great Northern  Railroad and donated and converted in 1974 for Expo ’74.

Butterfly sculpture left over from Expo in 1974

 Clock Tower in Riverfront Park – Spokane, WA

This is a beautiful park with lots to do and see including a historic carrousel ride, IMAX theatre, a park tour train ride and a Skyride tram that takes you to a viewing point of the falls on the Spokane River.  We opted for the train ride which gave us  a general overview of the park and then we walked to the falls.

Water Falls in Riverfront Park – Spokane, WA

There were young people everywhere in the park and everyone of them had their cell phones out.  According to Fitbit, the walk to the base of the falls and back up was the equivalent of 15 fights of stairs.

Also in that general area is the Davenport Hotel once a 5 star hotel that had been allowed to fall into disrepair and in the last five years been totally restored as close to the original as possible.  We thought a coffee would be a good idea and we could see the hotel and relax for a few minutes at the same time.

Street view of Davenport Hotel originally opened in 1914

Lobby of Davenport Hotel – Downtown Spokane

On our way back to the RV we had to stop and get some vanilla ice cream to go with those peaches we picked earlier in the day.