Oh, Dam, that's Coulee

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Lenore Lake Caves

Grand Coulee Dam

Thursday's weather had me concerned for our chosen activity.  Caden purchased a book from Seattle Children's gift shop on the 17th of February of Useless Facts.  In it, he found that a dam here in Washington, The Grand Coulee Dam, was the world's largest concrete structure for a while.  Because we had just found another tumor, and because we're scared that he may not be able to see all that he wants to see in his lifetime, or childhood even, we told him that we'd go during Spring Break... so we did.  On the way, Randy found some caves that had a 1.5 mile round-trip hike.  I'm glad we didn't know what kind of hike it was, I would have tried to talk us out of it, since we didn't have a backpack carrier for both Everly and Aria.  Even 6-year old Austen kind of struggled.  But it turned out all right in the end, you'll see.  (Still can't get Beauty and the Beast out of my head.  I loved it!)

 Panoramic from our first ledge. 

 The group (minus me, of course) at the first cave.  I thought this was the one, excited that it was a mere walk.  Nope.  We had more hiking, with two more caves before we finished.

 Wayne and Rachelle Burrell.  Don't I have the cutest parents?!

It's hard to see, but Russ is the one in the turquoise shirt on the bottom right.  He's holding both Aria and Everly.  That was the last cave, but to get to it was quite the climb and drop.  He was Superman, in my eyes.

 I love us!

 The weather could not have been more perfect.  By the time we made it to the parking lot of Lenore Lake Caves, the wind had died down, the rain had stopped, and the clouds gave us the perfect amount of shade to make the hike bearable.  Especially since Russ had at least one child on him at all times.  It was a fun adventure.

Before we went to Grand Coulee visitor's center, we stopped off at the only eatery that looked family friendly and not packed.  It was a Mom and Pop kind of shop that served both burgers and pizza.  It was quite spendy, but the food was excellent-- it made it a little less difficult to hand her the credit card to sign away a second mortgage.  Just kidding, it wasn't that expensive.  But kind of.

I love the cool little facts that they had.  Read them-- you'll be as amazed as I was.

 It's difficult to read, but this box structure shows a Cubic Yard.  There are TWELVE MILLION of these very Cubic Yards that make up the Grand Coulee Dam.

 Because we live near the Columbia River, we are considered the Columbia Basin.  It makes it even neater knowing that this dam is 3 hours from our home.  The Dam that we went to because of it's "world renown" status, actually helps keep us above water.

Looking at the pictures above, seeing the great expanse of concrete, it stunned me that FORTY PERCENT is UNDERWATER!!!  Since some of us needed to stop off for gas, we all split up after touring the visitor's center, planning to meet back for dinner.  While driving up, we saw many cool waterfalls off the side of the road.  We all commented that it would be fun if we could hike to one of them.  On a whim, we did.

 There was a side road off of the street that eventually lead to a little 4x4 hill that basically took us right to the waterfall.  We were pleasantly surprised by how easy it was for us to get where we wanted to go, especially since it was a whim decision.

It's hard to see in the picture, but the design of the rocks was so incredible.  Nature is so magnificent!

 I captured this one one-second too late.  He was directly next to the waterfall when a big gust of wind pushed the wind over to drench Randy.  Look how close McKaylee got!!  We didn't know how her parents would feel about her driving home wet, so this was as close as we allowed her to get.

It's hard to see, since the sun made Mira basically glow, but she is soaked.  Our initial plan was to let her come, but not get wet.  Then we thought it would be ok for her to get her paws wet.  Then she was just swimming.  Love that she never left Caden's side.  Where he went, she went.  At one point, she was even ready to start climbing rocks, just to be near him.

 My Tyson making his strong arms!  He would have gone further into the falls, but we were all headed back.  He still got sprinkled from the over spray. 

This boy was SOAKED!!!  Even more than Randy was.  *Swoon* Look at that smile!

Because of this little detour, and the actual one we had because of a flooded road, we got home basically just as dinner was being served.  The rest of the night was spent just as all others had: resting, but having fun.  Fun fact: not only was Beauty and the Beast a first for my parents, but so was Moana.  Aria asked to watch the rest of it (we'd started it earlier in the week, but never finished it) but we ended up watching it from the first, since Grandma said she'd only seen bits and pieces.

The weather was good to us, the food was delicious, and the sites were breathtaking.  Day 4- doing things in nature- was another success.  This week is shaping up to be the best Spring Break ever!