Travelblog episode 13: Walla Walla and home

The final day of our monster road-trip dawned sunny and warm with a good touch of humidity (humidity for Spokane, mind you, not for places with real humidity. We hit the Super 8 continental breakfast (which wasn't nearly as good as the one at the Ramada in Black Hawk...the biscuits were dry, the donut selection was weak, and the cereal options were limited), loaded the cars, and hit the road. Our goal: lunch in Walla Walla.

Why Walla Walla, when it was plainly several hundred miles out of our way? Well, three reasons. First, we wanted to show Megan, Molly and Matthew around Whitman College, 'cause their Mom went there. Second, their Mom wanted us to introduce them to her friend (ex-boyfriend, actually) Douglas. Third, we wanted to see our old friend (my ex-girlfriend, actually) Sarah and her husband. Oh, and fourth we were going to stop at the Ice Berg for a shake, 'cause when my sister went there (and somewhat when we went there) it was the only game in town shake-wise.

We made pretty good time, taking I-90 west to US 395, that down to the Tri-Cities, and US 12 out to Walla². I called Sarah and we agreed to meet at some outdoor tables on campus with our lunches, which in our case meant another stop at Subway. One thing I'd forgotten about summer in Walla² was how dang hot it gets. OK, I hadn't so much forgotten as I had smoothed the memory...it couldn't have been that hot, could it? Yes, yes it could. But hey, at least we were sitting in the shade...

After lunch we met up with Douglas who gave us a brief walking tour of the campus, showing the kids the new media center (which in my day was an underused building with overflow offices for professors) and the fancy-pants new campus center (the former Student Union Building, or SUB, which had been housed in an old carpet store). He let us in the bookstore (which he manages), and the kids got some souveniers (or, in Maya's case, some tiny tape dispensers). And finally it was time to get back on the road.

The trip home was as uneventful as alway. The boy car stopped in the Tri-Cities to pick up some fireworks, the girl car drove pretty much straight through. The only excitement came as we crossed Snoqualmie Pass and drove in to yet another set of thunderstorms. At least these ones had mildly normal Northwest rain...We pulled in to Grandma Chicken's drive way around 7 or so, had some spaghetti, unloaded the various pieces of luggage, and went home to sleep, finally, in our own beds.

Whew!