4. Up at the dam. Down on the farm.

Sourdough, basil, red onion, heirloom tomatoes,
and Dubliner cheese. Dam in the background.

After our fossil excursion, Mom and I stopped at the Grand Coulee Dam (throw your hands up for the second largest concrete structure in the world!), where we received dining advice from one of the volunteers, but ultimately decided against Grand Coulee Thai food (in my book, a sketchy prospect) and ate some open face sandwiches in the parking lot. Those swell sandwiches were courtesy of me. We didn't stay for the laser show (again, against the volunteer's advice) mostly because I thought it sounded way lame. I mean, I've been wrong before but never about lasers.

From the GCD Visitor Center. Dam workers went down to the depths with these helmets.
The back is open--I assume for photo ops. Did I stick my head in there? No I did not. 

Here's my rundown of the Grand Coulee Dam. Yes, it's amazing. But you want to go on the tour. It's not as amazing if you just look at the spillway from the parking lot, or if you drive up to the tour station above the Third Power Plant expecting there to be a 5PM tour (like it said on the website) but find out that the last tour was at 4PM.  OK, so the website does have a small caveat about calling in advance to check the tour times. It's a volunteer-staffed deal, I get that. Still, going inside the Third Power Plant is like being inside The X-Files movie (which I didn't realize until my dear friend {ABBIE!} saw the connection). What diabolical scheme is being hatched beneath those turbine covers? And what exactly is the use of the world's largest crane? Something to do with alien-human-hybrid-worker-bee-clone-children? I have my suspicions. Yeah, the Grand Coulee Dam is exactly like that movie. (While we're on the subject of The X-Files: never ever watch the 2nd X-Files movie, X-Files: I Want to Believe, because it is exactly like stupid.) OK, now that that's taken care of...

The next morning, Mom and I headed to Green Bluff for apple and blackberry picking and to eat pie. Always pie. The morning was breezy. There was a slight drizzle. The cricket population was very vocal. Mom listened for a bit and then said, "Do you hear that?" 

The berries and boots were shiny.

Me: "The crickets?"  And then she said something to the effect of the hazy morning cricket activity reminding her of being on the farm as a child. Um...the moment was much sweeter than I've rendered it here. Yet more terrible evidence of my MFA credentials.

The entrance to all things apple.

Mom picked a bag-full.

Mom said these little flowers used to grow along the fields on the farm in Minnesota. It was a morning for memories.

This Gala is a twofer.

The flags fly over Walter's Fruit Ranch.

All in all it was a good visit.