Our Sweet Trip con't!

One of the reasons that I really wanted to make this trip is that I had two high school friends who I had connected with over Facebook that past 10 years or so who live in the area. I reached out to them and they were both excited to make the trip into town to meet up.  We settled on brunch on Monday morning.

Karen and Laurie were part of my extended friend group in Richland.  We became friends in junior high and continued through our high school years.  Of course, I moved when I was a junior in high school and I have not seen them since I was 16 years old.  Karen and I wrote letters off and on for a few years, Laurie and I wrote less than that and then we lost touch as we were in college.  While I did reconnect with a number of my Richland friends at BYU, those were my Church friends.  Karen and Laurie were not members of the Church nor was anyone else in that group of girls which hung out together. We were mostly involved in school sports and were in college prep type classes together.  They were all great people and most were involved in some type of religious life then and still are now.  They all went to different colleges out of high school and lost touch with each other for the most part.  They too have reconnected with a couple of old friends through Facebook.  This group of friends gave me a going away party right before we moved in July of 1971.  As part of that, they gave me a charm bracelet where they had each chosen a charm to represent our friendship.  I still have it but it is packed away.  It was sad that I could not have shared it with them and talked about how much they all meant to me.  Maybe next time....Instead, I was able to give them each the book Gift of the Sea and talk about the importance of their friendship during that period of my life.  Oh, how important these good women were to me as a teenager and what a gift to share a meal with them.

Karen picked the place--Skyway Cafe at Felt's Field, a private air field in Spokane.  It was perfect with airplanes taking off and landing right outside the windows.

The clock tower at Felt's Field

Austen wanted me to grab this guy and bring him home.

The restaurant....

Our after meal pictures    

me, Laurie, Karen-sitting and her husband Bob.
Laurie's husband had to stay up to manage
a new puppy who couldn't be left for long. They live about an hour north
of Spokane.

Gary and Jena enjoyed their meal and were good sports for our conversations about the past and catching up.

The whole restaurant is a tribute to flight, planes, airports, and other related things.  If you like planes, this is the place to go.  Both Karen and Laurie said that it is a big favorite with their grandchildren.

Laurie had to head off to do her "in-town" errands, but I got this photo of Karen and Bob at the Clock Tower.  I left wishing that they both lived down the street and we could visit frequently. How I love them--then and now.  They are great women and it is a privilege to be their friends.

As we left Spokane, I had wanted to walk across a cool bridge we had spotted from the freeway that was a walking trail.  Gary dropped me off at where we thought would take me to it, but no luck.  I did get some cool pictures of the fall colors......

These are small locks for controlling the flow of the Spokane River.

More old locks and remnants of irrigation canals.

There is small electrical plant at the end of the trail, but no bridge.

The carpet of leaves at the edge of the park...

You have to love the color schemes of the fall 

Our original plan was to take a slower drive home and stop at some of the historical markers that we had zoomed past on Saturday.  Then we would spend the night some place before Rexburg and drive to Archer, Idaho, to meet our friends, the Yeamans (from the Headquarters Mission) to have breakfast and check out their ranch.

HOWEVER---the weather report changed and a winter storm was moving into the area early Tuesday morning in southern Idaho.  As our goal for the trip was to avoid winter weather, we checked in with the Yeamans and decided to drive straight though to home.  They assured us that we could come and visit them anytime. And other than some rain when we first left Spokane for about an hour, we were able to get home on dry roads.

We stopped for gas south of Idaho Falls and were amazed to find this whole row of chargers for Teslas at the the gas station.  It seemed unlikely that there were that many Teslas in the whole surrounding county.  Odd.

We made it home about 11 pm, safe and dry which was our goal.  Besides missing our visit with Yeamans, it was a perfect trip. It was fun to connect with a variety of people in a short amount of time.  I had been so excited about our plans and it did not disappoint. Wish we could be there next weekend to welcome Sister Holding and Sister Cherrington home, but this was the best second option.

We are having our own "homecoming" of sorts as all of our kids and grandkids will be here next weekend for our Hall Family Reunion.  More fun times ahead!!  And we hope to catch Sister Witt's homecoming in American Fork if possible on Sunday.  Waiting for details about that.