March has been a busy month so far. Kelly's Dad, sister Amy, and brother-in-law Bill came for a winter visit to experience snow on the Palouse. And the weather didn't disappoint! After a late-night pickup on Thursday at the Spokane airport, everyone went to bed. On a bright and sunny Friday, the gang hit the town, checking out the Moscow Food Co-op, the downtown area, WSU (the grizzly bears were surprisingly already awake), Ferdinand's ice cream, and Camas Prairie Winery. Friday night was quiet, as John and Kelly mentally prepared themselves for the Snake River Canyon Half Marathon on Saturday. Up early the next day, J and K headed down to the race, which started at 10am. It was a cold, windy morning, but the temps got a bit warmer and the wind behaved itself as race time neared. Both Doroshenks dominated the race along the Snake River: Kelly finished in 2:05 and John pulled in at 2:15. Tired but happy to be done, the kids headed home to see what their guests had been up to.
The family had grabbed some breakfast at the famous Breakfast Club and run some errands in preparation for our weekend getaway: Joseph Oregon, Kelly and John's personal playground. We headed out on the 3 hr drive Saturday afternoon. The weather was a bit unnerving with wind, snow, and low visibility at times, but John the awesome driver got us there safely. Of course, John and Kelly stopped by Terminal Gravity Brewery in Enterprise, Oregon, to fill up their growlers with the best IPA in the world--their post-race reward! Everyone had a relaxing evening in the rental cabin and prepped for the next day's activities.
Sunday morning, the vegetarian prepped some bacon pancakes (which got good reviews) and the gang bundled up and headed out to the lake.
The day was sunny and bright and we had almost clear views of the surrounding Wallowa Mountains. There was a fresh layer of bright snow on the ground and it was picture perfect! We even saw a bald eagle flying overhead. After lunch, we decided to go on a snowshoe expedition, which of course was extreme. We climbed to the top of a ridge and had awesome views of Lake Wallowa below, as well as Hell's Canyon to the other side. It was such a great day for it!
After an extreme hike, we headed into Joseph for some extreme pizza and Terminal Gravity beer. We closed out the night with some Wii, of course! We left for Moscow the next day and the weather turned out to be pretty nice. Until Moscow. Apparently it had snowed and another storm was on the way. We drove our guests to Spokane where they would spend the night before an early Tuesday morning flight, grabbed some dinner at Red Robin, and said our goodbyes. John and Kelly survived a hairy drive home in ice, fog, and snow. We were glad to finally get home, but already missed our guests. Who's coming next?!