Spokane WA, Gonzaga U. and Manito Park…

As Sharon mentioned in our last blog we planned to revisit another spot we only spent one night at before, Spokane Washington. So our next stop was a mere 40 miles west and we would  be spending one more night in Spokane boondocking at the Northern Quest Casino. We pulled in and parked in the RV marked spaces in the far end of the south lot.

Even though it was only 40 miles of traveling this day we got to the casino a little late since we took advantage of the park in Coeur d’Alene to do our laundry before we left. When we got all set up in the casino we went over to the hotel part of it and checked in as they had requested when I contacted them. This was simply to provide us with rules of the parking lot for RV’s overnighting.

After a fairly late lunch we headed off to town to visit Gonzaga University a private Roman Catholic university. Gonzaga’s official mascot is the Bulldog yet they are mostly known as Zags and have had a really good men’s basketball team over the years so we stopped by to check out their facility. It is a pretty nice stadium for such a small campus. Interestingly their most notable alumnus is s Bing Crosby!

Since we visited the Riverside Park in Spokane last year we just drove through it this year and headed over to the Manito Park. We parked and walked around a duck pond and thought to ourselves “What was so special about this park?” So we got back to the CRV and drove a little further and discovered we were just on the edge of the park so we parked again and discovered the annual garden in all of its colorful glory.

We also visited the Conservatorium, the rose garden and  the perennial garden. What a nice park and a great day to be outside in the nice weather visiting it. After taking in all the floral sights we decided to check out the “Reader’s Choice Award for Best Brewery” the No-Li Brewery. They had some nicely crafter beers and we enjoyed our craft beer and toasted to another successful da on the road of retirement…

NOTE: We are now in Umatilla, Washington at the COE Plymouth Park until the 22nd when we start heading towards Portland Oregon as we trek down the Columbia River Gorge.