| This is the garden behind the Red Lion River Inn on the Spokane River. We spent our first night, October 25, here. |
 |
Road Scholar Lewis & Clark Expedition
on the Snake and Columbia Rivers
Day 1, Page 1 -- Quick Tour of Spokane, WA, Our Arrival City
October 26, 2013
This page updated April 16, 2020
Posted February 20, 2014
© 2014, Herbert E. LindbergThis page is part of the following multi-day Expedition. The page numbers are links to jump to the page. Also, when you are marching through all the pages you can use links at the bottom of each page to jump to the logically following page to view the entire trip in chronological order.
1. Downtown Spokane, Bus to Clarkston and Lewiston Page 1 Page 2
2. Snake River into Hell's Canyon Page 1
3. Palouse River -- Too Windy; tour Sea Bird instead
Page 1
4. The Dalles, Maryhill Museum, Bike Ride Page 1
5. Columbia River Gorge, Rasmussan's Farm, Multnomah Falls Page 1 Page 2 Page 3
6. Fort Clatsop, Columbia River Maritime Museum Page 1
|
We had heard nothing but good things about Road Scholar tours (expeditions) and I finally signed up for a trip on the Snake and Columbia rivers near and on the Oregon-Washington border. My criteria were that it was a short flight from and to Sacramento airport, there wasn't any strenuous hiking (Mary and I are both 83), but yet we would see a lot from a ship on a river. It turned out to be an excellent choice, except perhaps for the windy wet weather on a couple of days this late in the year. Before I go further into this multi-page summary of the fun we had, I must give you two links, one to the Road Scholar Generic Video of the trip, and the other to summary information about our specific trip produced by Road Scholar: Voyage Portfolio. Heather Taylor (heather.taylor@roadscholar.org) is Program Coordinator for their "Adventures Afloat." and supplied this link to all participants. I also recommend that you take a few minutes to trace our entire adventure on a detailed Google Map which I prepared to trace out our color-coded journeys by bus, jet boat and Sea Bird river ship. Then return here to begin the story of our adventure. Without this you will have only a vague idea of where this story takes place. Finally,
I recently prepared video slide shows that cover most of what is in
these web pages but with action and music. There are two 8.5-minute
shows plus an equal length talk about the crucial part of the Lewis and
Clark journey played by an air rifle, all tied together in a playlist on my YouTube channel. Most of the expedition was on the National Geographic ship Sea Bird, a perfect three-deck 64-passenger ship with a crew of 26 plus 5 professional leaders/teachers selected by Road Scholar. We flew from Sacramento airport into SeaTac airport and then to Spokane on a smaller turbojet. |
| This is the garden behind the Red Lion River Inn on the Spokane River. We spent our first night, October 25, here. |
|
| The next morning we boarded two motor
coaches for a quick tour of Spokane, a nice little city. We paused here at Gonzaga University. The home of Bing Crosby, an illustrious alumnus, is preserved about a block away. |
 |
| They were having an alumni reunion during our short stay -- we met a few at the Red Lion River Inn. |
 |
| The motor coach continued on toward
Riverfront Park, which had metal-plate statues of 50 to 100 runners at the southwest corner of the park. |
 |
| We entered the park at the northeast
corner where this "you are here" map is displayed. (Right click on the map to open a larger version in a separate tab.) |
 |
| All 59 of us headed toward the Post Street bridge over the Upper Falls of the Spokane River. |
 |
| The
falls, facing up river from the bridge. (Right click on picture for a larger version in a separate tab.) |
 |
| Another view from the center of the
bridge. (Right click on picture for a larger version in a separate tab.) |
 |
| Chet Caskey, one of six guides on the tour but the only one on this short motor coach trip. |
 |
| Proceeding along Post Street bridge, power station on right. |
 |
| Another view of the falls
from just off the bridge. (Right click on picture for a larger version in a separate tab.) |
 |
| I snapped as many of our group as I could as we walked back to our motor coaches. |
 |
 |
| These are
just representative pictures from what I took that day. All of this series are in the video slide show. |
 |
| We got to know everyone in the expedition before the week was out, but not all by name. |
 |
| 1. Downtown Spokane, Bus to Clarkston and Lewiston | Page
1
Page 2 |
| 2. Snake River into Hell's Canyon | Page 1 |
| 3. Palouse River -- Too Windy | Page
1 |
| 4. The Dalles, Maryhill Museum, Bike Ride | Page
1 |
| 5. Columbia River Gorge, Rasmussan's Farm, Multnomah Falls | Page
1 Page 2
Page 3 |
| 6. Fort Clatsop, Columbia River Maritime Museum | Page 1 |