My family moved to Spokane when I was in the fourth grade.
We were in Florida originally because that’s where my grandfather’s pharmacy was located.
He employed both of my parents until he retired and sold the business to one of his longest running employees. Eager to find work northward, my parents were talked into moving to Spokane by my aunt and uncle who are residents of the city. Our visits were always fun, because we would go skiing or fishing depending on the time of the year. I also remember being dazzled by the Spokane Falls which is a huge waterfall at the very heart of Spokane. There is apparently only one larger urban waterfall in the country and that is the Niagra Falls in New York. We settled in the university district which is home to five separate colleges all in one compact area. The Spokane university district includes the University of Washington, Eastern Washington University, Washington State University, Whitworth, and Gonzaga. But it was the climate in Spokane that caught my attention more than anything else. First of all, despite being surrounded by mountains, the winters in Spokane aren’t nearly as intense as they get in other areas in the northern United States. Aside from warmer winters on average, the summers are comfortably warm and dry. I assumed that we would eventually get humidity, but most of my summers down here have been comfortably dry. This last summer was great because it lasted longer than usual. Typically temperatures start to drop in September, but this year we still had 70 degree afternoons in early October. That’s one more month that we don’t have to run a furnace to stay comfortable inside.