The city of Spokane

This is Lloyd again.

OK, who turned on the lights? Oh, that's just the sun coming up at 5 a.m. Nice. I'm never going to get my clock straightened out. Oh well, nothing a lot of coffee won't cure -- and that's one thing they have here in Spokane: coffee. There is a coffee shop on nearly every street corner. A java junkie paradise. (I'm doomed.)

After getting some of that aforementioned coffee, we spent much of the day yesterday at the Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane. Probably a nice urban departure for the kids after weeks on the road and in the wilderness. The park had a lot of fun old amusement rides -- tilt-a-whirl, the spider, bumper cars, etc. -- an IMAX theater (we watched a spectacular film about the Grand Canyon) and a gondola ride over the Spokane River. We capped it off with a ride on a crazy old carousel, replete with the opportunity to grab the brass ring as you whirled by on your horse. Garrett won the prize as he grabbed 5 brass (plastic actually) rings.

All in all not a bad way to spend a few hours. It looked like heavy prep for the Fourth of July was underway and we were thankful to be there a day or two ahead of the throngs.