Spiritual Grandeur: The Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist
In my last blog, I voted the Great Northern Clock Tower as Spokane’s most iconic structure. Among the runners-up was the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, without doubt one of the city’s great landmarks. The church doesn’t merely sit…Continue reading→
The Great Northern Clock Tower
When it comes to iconic structures, Manhattan has the Empire State Building. San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge. Rome, the Coliseum. Boston, Fenway Park. Well, that last one may be debatable, but it got me thinking. If I had to choose…Continue reading→
The Making of a Setting: Christmas Lights at the Coeur d’Alene Resort
When my husband and I arrived in Washington State from Puerto Rico, I took up finishing a long-abandoned novel, The Irony of Tree Ferns. Most of the novel takes place in Puerto Rico during World War II, but part of it…Continue reading→
The Story behind Vanishing Pacific Lake
Several months ago, Out There Outdoors published a call for short prose pieces for an outdoor/environmental writing contest hosted by Get Lit, Out There, and The Spokesman-Review. For a week or so I thought about what I would write if I…Continue reading→
In Search of Natatorium Park
I enjoy swimming, and my ears pick up at the mere mention of water. Shortly after arriving in Spokane, I heard snippets of conversation about a place called Natatorium Park. ‘Natatorium,’ with its Latin origins, is a fancy word for a…Continue reading→
Sacred Heart a.k.a. Cataldo Mission
The Sacred Heart Mission – its church the oldest building still standing in Idaho — is more commonly known as the Cataldo Mission, apparently for its proximity to the small town of Cataldo, population under 1,000, in Northern Idaho. For years…Continue reading→
The Good, the Bad, and the Hazardous: The Manhattan Project at Hanford
History is a funny thing. Though it seems it should be as set in stone as a mathematical equation, it actually quivers in a thousand interpretations. Take something as personal as family history: two siblings can have vastly different memories of…Continue reading→
Peonies, Those Toppling Beauties
Summer is almost officially over, and we’re reaching the end of a gaudy carnival of flowers that started in early spring—yellow daffodils, lilac lilacs, red-velvet roses, orange marigolds, pink geraniums, and white lilies atop lake pads, to name a few. Of…Continue reading→
Maryhill Winery
The first time I viewed the Maryhill Winery along the Columbia River Gorge, the last thing on my mind was wine. It was a summer of record-breaking heat, and I was determined to get to the Oregon coast, where (it turned out) the…Continue reading→
The Strange Case of Abert Lake
I like lakes, any kind of lake (to paraphrase an old childhood favorite, The Friendly Book)—big lakes, small lakes, deep lakes, shallow lakes, lakes surrounded by columnar cliffs, lakes encircled by forested mists—any kind of lake. On a trip, I tend…Continue reading→