Our Visit to Gonzaga

We've gotten down to the point where we have to start visiting our top 3 schools to determine "This is the Place" So...our first visit was to Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA. Our trip started out somewhat tumultuous. Our flight from Salt Lake City left at 9:18PM, We got there we thought in plenty of time. We parked in long term parking and ran to the shuttle pick up just as the bus was pulling away. So we waited 20 minutes for the next bus. By that time it's 8:15PM, it takes 15 minutes to get around the parking lot and back to the terminal....8:35PM....we run to the kiosk to check out bags, 8:40PM...and up the escalator to the TSA Security Check....WHAT?? the line is wrapped around all the blockades and back about 20 people to the parking lot hall way. So we wait, and wait and wait some more....8:45, 8:55, 9:05....We have 15 minutes to get down to our terminal. We finally get up to the scanner and the person in front of me get stopped. All I can do is start sweating, tap my foot, tap my boarding pass on my fingernails and PRAY that they hurry...I finally get thru and I yell to Erick...I'LL RUN TO THE GATE AND HAVE THEM HOLD THE PLANE....HURRY!! Full well knowing he's going to have to practically get undressed and strip searched. So I start running as fast as I can..me belt is flapping out in back of me, I lose a shoe in the process and have to turn around and go back...by the time I get to the gate I'm huffing and puffing and can barely talk...the poor lady at the gate just looks at me as I'm bent over gasping for air and all I can do is put 1 finger up. After I finally catch my breath I say, my husband is somewhere back there, security was horrendous. She just looks and smiles "I guess that's why I only have 1/2 my manifest here, huh?" So I stand and wait for Erick hoping he gets there in time....5 minutes later he comes rolling up on a golf cart...RUDE!! I HAD TO RUN!!


Saturday morning we had a tour scheduled with one of the 2nd year law students at Gonzaga. We got up a little early to drive around. The campus is beautiful, very old and Catholic-like. The main entrance to the school is still enscribed "Gonzaga College" there is also a picture of St. Aloysius Cathedral (Every year one of the priests holds a special mass just for the law students to bless their efforts.) The Law school building is fairly new, within the last few years. It's very beautiful, it seems awfully small when you first walk in, but everything is very centralized. The law school sits right on the river, there are trails that run from Coeur D' Alene ID all the way to North Spokane. You can see in one of the pictures the bridge that houses the trail. Jefferson Boswell was our guide for the tour. He's a 2nd year student studying construction law. He's LDS also, he has 2 little kids and is from American Fork, UT. Another one of the pictures is the 1st year lecture hall. It has about 100 seats, Jefferson says there's only about 60 students in the class. This is where most of the classes are held. There are only about a dozen class rooms in the whole building.

The next day was our "Spokane Exploration Day" it was alot of fun. We had printed out a few houses for sale to see what the neighborhoods were like and what Spokane was like. The houses around the school are all pretty old...all built around the 1900's. Some were pretty cute, but the house next to it was totally run down. Jefferson told us about Riverfront Park which is just west of the University. We went down and walked around hte park. Spokane Falls were AWESOME.

He had also told us about a Mini Donut Vendor in the park....when we finally found him we thought, what the heck, let's give it a shot. They were the cutest and yummiest donuts EVER! We walked around a little more and headed out for Spokane Valley. The temple is out there and everyone says that's the best place to live.

After a really full weekend we headed back home early Monday morning....Next stop....Nebraska!