Kelowna, British Columbia (Day 52)

It's been a very busy, exciting, fun, and exhausting couple of days!

Our first stop yesterday took us to Yellowstone National Park, which was nice all on its own, but we specifically went through there to visit with this amazing young lady right here.

Seren & Porter with their "sister"

This is Mary-Gray Mahoney and we think she's pretty neat. She was one of our very first advisees at Orme, but she has just finished her BA in English at Willamette University in Oregon. Rather than sitting around, wishing that she had a clue what to do with her life, she is working for Xanterra and seeing some really spectacular places while working the front desk at the Lake Lodge Cabins in Yellowstone. She hopes to see a little bit of the world before settling down and we approve. In fact, we couldn't be prouder of her approach to life and hope her travels will lead her to enormous success and fulfillment.

After spending our lunchtime with MG, she had to get ready for work and we needed to get back on the road, but we decided to take in some scenery along the way. This is an easy task to perform in Yellowstone.

And surely, we couldn't leave without seeing Old Faithful.

The kids had some time to run around, too.

Later on, after we left the park, our poor Nissan Pathfinder reached a landmark of its own.

That night, as reported in yesterday's post, we stayed in Missoula, Montana.


..................................................................


This morning we drove straight to Spokane, where we met up with some more of my relatives, Robert & Joy Ruiz.

Sitting at Olive Garden with Uncle Robert & Aunt Joy

Aunt Joy is my mother's youngest sister and Robert is a licensed orthodontist. They have two children, Brandon and Heather, who were sadly out of town during our visit. After lunch, we walked around a park in Spokane and took in the scenery and there were plenty of water attractions to keep the kids cool on such a warm day.

Playing in the fountain

Waterfalls

Crossing the bridge with Uncle Robert

Playing in the sprinklers

Aunt Joy was sweet enough to bring us fresh-picked cherries from the orchard near their house. So after we said our goodbyes and drove our separate ways, we had a very refreshing (if not messy) snack in the car. Somewhere during this time, we made a wrong turn and, instead of heading North, we wound up heading further West. This navigational error took us a bit out of our way, but we ended up seeing some pretty cool stuff at the Grand Coulee Dam.

Back of the dam  (Lake Roosevelt)

Back of the dam

Front of the dam

Spillway

As seen crossing the bridge

 So that was our day. We are holing up for the night at a Canada's Best Value Inn in Kelowna, British Columbia and I must say, it feels good to be so close to home.