The tattered remains of our tree welcome us home

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The Last Full Day

We decided to have a very relaxed last full day in Spokane.  For us, that included a visit to the Northwest Museum of Society and Culture and a decadent dinner. 

We got to the museum just in time to take the last tour of the day of the Campbell House!  It was really interesting and fun.  

These young men were not able to stay for the whole tour.  They had ridden on bikes from Baltimore, MD and were on their way to Seattle with 4 K for Cancer. They dedicate each leg of their ride to someone who had died of cancer.  Our tour guide had lost her husband Tom to cancer, so they are going to dedicate the next leg of their ride to him. 

The basement had a room for Mr. Campbell and his friends to play cards and drink brandy- the only room in the house where alcohol was allowed, as Mrs. Campbell was a temperance woman. 

They also had electric lights.  They were charged for electricity per lightbulb in those early days of electric in houses.  They also had indoor plumbing, which was nice for the family and the servants alike!

We did not take many pictures today.

Coolest kids in the Carriage House

The front door.

The museum had everything set up as storytelling, which really pleased Cathy.  Stop by if you're in the area- totally worth the visit!

After the museum, we went back to our apartment to get ready for dinner.  We decided to have our last dinner in Spokane at Clickerdaggers, which is housed in an old flour factory. We loved everything we ate!

The flour mill.

Oysters Rockefeller

Cathy had lobster bisque. 

x

Kirk had French Onion Soup

Kirk had salmon.

Cathy had prawns and crab.

After our huge (and really, REALLY good!) dinner, we walked through Riverside Park and stopped by the Davenport Hotel to see the historical pictures on the second floor. Another place worth a stop if you have a moment! 

On our way back to our awesome rental car, the mini banana mobile, we stopped at Inspiration Point, which is dedicated to Christian pioneers.

Kirk at Inspiration Point at Riverside Park.

Cathy liked this sculpture. 

One last river selfie. 

We've had a great time and really recommend Spokane! 

Bing Crosby Lived Here, and Other Activities (Featuring the FLOTUS!)

Tuesday was a relaxed day!  We were going to go to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, but they are apparently closed on Tuesdays, we we had to revise our plan.  Luckily, our awesome tour guide Google was there for us.

Did you know that Bing Crosby's childhood home is in Spokane?  We sure didn't, but Google did and we headed out to check it out!  (Bonus: it was free!)  

It is now part of the Gonzaga University campus.  Bing (we're pals now that I've totally been to his house) went to Gonzaga to study law, although he quit to pursue music for some reason.  I wonder how that worked out for him? 

It was open!

Some award or something. :)  (It was a duplicate- not the real one)

There were both gold and platinum records on display

 We were a little nervous taking pictures.  We did not see anything that specifically said we couldn't, but it seemed wrong somehow.  He had an interesting life and seemed like an all around nice guy.

The house was owned by a family and then by a woman who rented out rooms to Gonzaga students for many years.  Just think- your college crash pad could have been Bing Crosby's childhood bedroom!

After we hung out at Bing's house, we dropped by the Jundt Art Museum, which was also free!   We really enjoyed the Close-In exhibit.  This was another place that we were not sure about taking pictures in, but we could not resist a few.

Not art related, but Cathy can never resist improperly used quotation marks. 

Cathy and her new BFF, the Close-In lady.

One of the pieces. 

Kirk reading the short story that went with the artwork.

There was also a Rodin sculpture.

After the art, we went back to Atticus Coffee, which has been one of our favorite little places to hang out here.  Cathy got a few more shots of the neat things. It's a fun location- stop by if you are ever in Spokane!

Beautifully displayed teas.

I love this mural. 

The rest of the day was spent relaxing until it was time to go hang out with Maja and her husband Adam, plus their three adorable, hilarious children! Cathy met Maja in 2007 (ish) through a mutual friend, and they've been friends ever since.  We talked about how soooo much time has passed since we had last seen each other, but it still somehow felt like yesterday that we saw each other.  Time is so weird.  Anyway, Maja and her family are awesome!  

Cathy, Maja, and little Calvin.

They were kind enough to host us even though Maja had *just* had a baby!  Little Calvin was sweet and slept nearly the entire visit.

Cathy loves holding brand new babies.

We caught up with each other, played some really fun games with the kids, (Luci is 7 and Sam is 2 and a half) and generally had a really good time.

Luci told Cathy that she looked exactly like First Lady Michelle Obama, causing general hilarity all around.  Cathy was not sure why- she gets compared to her all the time. Either way, Mrs. Obama is an interesting, educated, and gracious woman, so there are worse comparisons out there. :) 

Clearly Michelle Obama. 

We hope that we see Maja and Adam again soon.  You and your brood are always welcome in fabulous Wichita, KS! 

We plan to relax on Wednesday and check out the museum that was closed today.  We'll keep you posted! 

Couer d'Alaine Part II: Ziplining with Timerline Adventures

We decided to try ziplining after a quick Google search of things to do in Couer d'Alaine led us to Timberline Adventures. We were fortunate to get the last two spots on the tour- they advise you to book a week in advance.

We were not really sure what to expect.  Neither of us is great at heights, but zipping through the trees just sounded like so much fun!

When you get there, they fit you for your harness and helmet.  They have weight limits, and yes, they do weigh you when you check in! Eeeep!

Once everyone is fitted, they zoom you away in a van.  Then, when the road gets too rough, you change to a UTV.  After a bumpy ride up the mountain, we were at the first line.  However, we had to wait for it to stop hailing.  Yep- we got caught outside in a hailstorm! We were pretty thankful for our helmets.  All the pictures were taken by Timberline employees.  We did not want to risk losing our phones or camera, so we left them at the main office.  If you have a GoPro camera, this would be an excellent place to play with it! 

Our tour guides- Luke and Mallory 

Our entire group

Cathy and Kirk in our finery

There were seven zip lines and two sky bridges. The zips were pretty fun and not as scary as we thought they were going to be.  They really hook you to the line, and you're strapped in well.  They also told us all the weight that everything was rated to hold. (Spoiler alert: a lot!) The only really scary part for us were the sky bridges!

Here we are on a sky bridge.  We don't want to look down, but we also don't want to step off the side.  We were hooked on, so we were fine...but creepy! 

On the second to last line, we went backwards so we could get pictures of us zipping.  Cathy was not a fan of backward zipping.

She managed to smile long enough for this picture, but was shaking when she got off. 

Kirk did not mind as much.

 The last line was the longest- 1600 feet and 300 feet in the air.  It was a pretty epic finish to a great zip course. It took about two and a half hours, and was time well spent. We'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Coeur d'Alene (Part I)

Years ago, Kirk drove to Spokane to visit a friend.  On his way in, he drove through Coeur d'Alene and was so impressed with how beautiful it was that he wanted to come back to visit.  We decided to spend the day there on Monday.  We spent the morning exploring downtown and taking a mini-hike on Tubbs Hill, then went ziplining in the afternoon.

This dandelion sculpture was neat!

We watched the para sail on the lake.

And enjoyed the beach.

This was a nice view from Tubbs.

Kirk went up the bridge while Cathy did some shopping.

Love locks are a thing here.

Another love lock.

The bridge Kirk went on. 

Boats, boats, boats!

Sculpture downtown

Cathy stopped here and bought a magic sari skirt. 

I, for one, believe this highly convincing claim. 

We did not have long to hang out, because we had to get to our next adventure!

Next up: Our Zip Line Adventure!

Riverfront Park

We did not have many set in stone plans for this trip, so we've been enjoying just finding things in our area to check out.  First up was COFFEE!  Several people had told us that we *had* to go to Atticus, and we are so glad we listened!  Cathy considers To Kill a Mockingbird  one of her favorite books of all time, so it was fun to see a coffee shop shaped around that text. 

Cathy loves the simple design of this sign.

Pretty chalk art!

They have a mockingbird and and the pocket watch imagery here.

They had an entire wall with all the books pages as wallpaper.

Kirk got a latte and they made a pretty design in it.

Next door is their shop, Boo Radley's!  That was a fun place to poke around in. :)

Hey, Boo...

Cool sculpture on the edge of the Boo Building. 

Boo Radley artwork.

They sell sno-cones everywhere in the park.

After coffee, we stopped by the nearby Riverfront Park.  It was much bigger than we expected it to be!  It was used as a location for the 1974 World's Fair Expo, and many of the locations are still intact.

The fountain at the entrance near Atticus Coffee. 

We walked around a bit on the trails and bridges that they had available, and admired the river and general beauty of the place.

Rapids!

Great sculpture 

The clock tower/river area.

Our river selfie.

We decided to go crazyyyy and go on the gondola AND the train tour!  (Actually priced at a reasonable $10 per person for both.)

A good shot of Kirk with bonus Gondola action.

I think we took this shot from the Gondola. 

Interesting sculptures.

Getting her Gondola on.

The train tour was about half an hour long. Our guide told us about the World Fair Expo that was held in the '70's and pointed out the many features of the park. It was a fun way to get an overview of the many wonders of Riverside.

Train selfie.  This is apparently the trip of selfies.

 We also walked the perimeter of the park so we could go over the Monroe Street Bridge, and came across this spiral piece of poetry by Sherman Alexie.  We literally got dizzy reading it.  As Kirk described it- first it made you dizzy, then it made you sad. It was an excellent poem and a good reminder of history, and how it is not always pretty.

"...tell me that concrete ever equals love, Coyote,
these white men sometimes forget to love their own mothers
so how could they love this river which gave birth
to a thousand lifetimes of salmon? How could they love
these Falls, which have fallen farther, which sit dry
and quiet as a graveyard now? These Falls are that place
where ghosts of salmon jump..."

Maybe my new hairstyle will cheer everyone.  The flowers here are stunning!  This is one of the flower baskets that dotted the bridge back to the park.  So pretty!

So bright!  So pretty!

After all the walking, we stopped at Stealhead Bar and Grille for lunch!  We were too hungry to really photograph anything we ate, but I will say that it was all delicious!

We did manage to stop gorging ourselves for ten seconds to take a picture of this steelhead fish appetizer.  Get it when you there- so good!

Served with cream cheese and bread. 

Then we headed back to our apartment to rest before we headed out to our evening activity- the ballet symphony fireworks extravaganza! 

We are staying in this charming neighborhood!

The also have sculptures.

We found out about our evening activity in the independent newspaper we were reading at lunch the day before.  It was a good time, and even in walking distance, which was a total bonus!

Kirk took a brief video.

It was a nice way to end the day!