After a sumptuous breakfast and a meeting with the German-speaking, Bavaria-loving hotel manager of the Sleeping Lady, we left Leavenworth in pouring rain and took Hwy. 2 East to the Columbia River, over Badger Mountain to the Columbia River Plateau. Would have been a beautiful drive, but, unfortunately, clouds were hanging very low, almost laying on the surface, and it was rather a "white soup" we were driving through than "wide open space" as expected. Landscape changed on the East side of the Cascades: high desert now, with sagebrush and low vegetation instead of forest and mountains. The region - called "Inland Empire" - is predominantly used agriculturally, with fields of lentils, beans and wheat.
Even in the rain the route along the Grand Coulee - a canyon from the last ice age (see pic) - along Banks Lake, the water reservoir for the Columbia Plateau agricultural area, was impressive. At Grand Coulee Dam, we visited the visitor center; dam tours are only offered in summer. Nevertheless, we saw the humongous dam and got information about its construction and function. The dam was built 1933-41 under Roosevelt's administration - approximately at the same time as Hoover Dam. Coulee Dam is about 550 ft. high, Hoover dam is higher (726 ft.), but Coulee is about four times broader than Hoover and produces three times more electricity. It's considered the largest manmade concrete construction in the world and it's really impressive!
After not quite 200 driven miles in total this day, we arrived at Northern Quest Resort & Casino, a little west of Spokane. The casino opened in 2000, the hotel was added a little later. It is operated by the Kalispel tribe - a group of plateau indians with only about 450 members. This hotel has nothing in common with your general idea of a casino hotel - very elegant, very restrained, separate from the casino building, with a spa, pool, fitness center and top restaurant. We were fortunate and got a suite in the top floors, almost larger than our apartment at home. Living room, kitchenette, bedroom with wrap-around windows, two bathrooms (one with a top-notch shower with computer screen to switch on different shower heads, a whirlpool tub and it's own TV), three flatscreen TVs, a walkable closet for our luggage/clothing and a really comfortable bed.
After meeting with Payton from Spokane Tourism to get helpful instructions for our visit to town and after a hosted dinner in the star-rated steakhouse in the hotel (we had smoked salmon chowder, filet mignon and salmon and deserts) we enjoyed our large suite and slept 6 hours at a stretch.
Our view from the room:
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