Thursday was my final day in the Quincy area, because on Friday Alice and I headed to Spokane where we spent the night at the airport hotel for a very early flight home Saturday morning.  But my last day found all of us just as busy as ever!  First stop was a delightful little place in Moses Lake for breakfast and then on to Hastings Book Shop for a signing.............A huge thank you to Mallory and Nick, in the photo below.

Then Mary and Candace took us to the Health Food Shop so Alice and I could purchase bags of beans to take home and use to make soup.  We had a bit of down time in the afternoon to get all packed and then that evening we were invited to stop by Susan and Ken Lacey's home to share their incredible view!  Susan is the Activity Director at The Cambridge.  But before I even saw the view from their back yard, look what I discovered!  LILACS in full bloom!  My favorite flower and Ken clipped one from the bush for me to inhale the wonderful fragrance..............

Ken is a master gardener and look at this beautiful tree.....I can't remember the name, but it was "Weeping" something...........

And when we walked inside their home, THIS is the view that greeted us!  Isn't this just incredible?  It truly looks more like a painting than a scene out their window.  Imagine waking up to this every morning?  I'm sure if I lived there, most of my day would be spent on that sofa gazing out the window!

Ken is also a geologist and gave us a crash course on the formation of that area, complete with maps and diagrams about the ice age and flooding that caused this breathtaking scenery.  Then we went outside on the cliff to get a panoramic view...............

And from the Lacey home, we drove down the cliff into the valley to have our final dinner together at a wonderful restaurant.

And here's the group of us and in the photo below, FINALLY I managed to get a photo of the fellow that had been snapping ME all week...........here's Harry and his wonderful wife, Sandy..........

From the front, left to right:  Cliff and Mary Bates, Sandy Brink (Harry's wife, who is OF course taking the photo for me with my camera) Ken Lacey (Susan joined us later for a glass of wine as she had a previous engagement)Candace and Wally Newkirk, Alice and me.

After dinner, Alice and I went out on the deck of the restaurant to get our final photos of the area.  See the house at the top of the cliff on the right?  That's the Lacey home with that gorgeous view..............

So this will bring my Washington posts to an end.  I do hope that you have enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed putting it all together for you.  It gave me a chance to relive some great moments in slow motion.  I still cannot thank everyone enough for all that they did for me..........but I hope you know how much I appreciated it and also know that I've made some lifelong friends.  What could be better than that!

As for my other readers, although there won't be daily posts all the time,  do stay tuned to Island Writer because I'm here frequently with more book news and island stuff.  And DO check back tomorrow.........because if you're not on Facebook, then you haven't yet seen the new cover for SUNRISE ON CEDAR KEY, being released October 25.  So join me here tomorrow when I'll share that with you..................