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! 

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!