Padma Ling Day 3

Woke up with a headache... ate oatmeal... did Chod practice...

Sitting for long periods of time, playing a drum in one hand and a bell in the other, and concentrating, is not easy.  My body was glad today was the last day of the retreat. I do plan on doing the practice regularly at home. It's a good fit for me. I made recordings of Lama Inge singing all the different songs so that I can play/practice along at home.

Ruben didn't fall asleep during the morning practice today,

He fell asleep during the noon practice. I woke him up taking his picture. We had lunch with Lama Inge and Katya (the German woman from Costa Rica) and we had an interesting discussion about thinking in different languages. Both Katya and Lama Inge speak at least three languages, and they think and dream in all of them, at various times. 

While Ru caught up on his napping I went outside and played guitar for a bit. It was strange to play my old Epiphone, it is so much harder to play, but Marty is way to valuable to take on a road trip. 

Notice the statue in the top right corner. 

It was another beautiful day in Spokane. Cloudy in the morning, clearing up in the afternoon with a high of 85, and low humidity. 

Lama Inge's outside cats. 

No problem. 

We finished up the retreat, and I thanked Lama Inge for the teaching at about 5:15pm. Lama Inge gave out safety knots for traveling, and I gratefully accepted. 

Ruben had received a coupon for a free Red Robin burger for his birthday, so I checked google maps to see if one was nearby. There was one 0.7 miles away, down on the waterfront. We walked down the (steep and long) hill and found it easily in a mall type area. We were impressed with downtown Spokane overall. Nice murals, clean, smiling people enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon. 

Ru and I ate our burgers and fries, and he had a bottomless root beer float. Although the server said the record was nine, Ruben was only able to finish two, and that was with a little of my help. 

After we ate we walked down to the riverfront park. It was WAY bigger and nicer than I expected. I expected something like Salem. There were so many waterfalls, and old brick buildings, and very few homeless people. 

We walked a loop over some bridges, and I took a picture for a young couple in love kissing on the bridge. Ru chastised me for stopping at the visitor center, but the map they gave me came in handy. Everywhere were people riding on the rental scooters, and we would have too except Ru had left his phone at Padma Ling, and you have to have the app to ride. 

So altogether we walked about three miles, and had a lovely evening. 

The first of two

Pictures of downtown Spokane:

It didn't land on explore waterfront park, but that's what we did. 

The little girl in the pink suit was having so much fun!

Pity we couldn't see the front side of this waterfall.

The plan is to pack up most of our things tonight, and leave tomorrow morning for Fish Creek Campground on the west side of Glacier. I checked the weather and it's mostly sunny, high of 80 degrees, and 20% chance of rain. Not too shabby. It will be about a five hour drive from here to there.