Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
On Friday morning we packed up and Tim & Yuka dropped us off to our car rental in downtown seattle - we've got a Chevvy (?) Impala - Karl was a little disappointed that it's basically just a commodore, but anyways, she spacious and economical on the highway and has treated us well thus far!
So Karl decided that I should drive - being that I have driven (once!) in countries where they drive on the 'wrong' (right-hand) side of the road. So i *expertly* navigated us through downtown seattle and onto the high-way - without incident!!! I must say, it's much much harder to get used to driving on the right-hand side than i thought it would be! The turning's not so bad, if you're thinking about it, but i have a lot of problems keeping the car in a good spot in the lane - i found it really stressful - so about 90mins into the trip Karl took over the driving - and seems to be handling it much better than me!
The drive from Seattle to Spokane (Eastern Washington) is fairly pretty and the highways are in great condition so it was all fairly uneventful - we stopped for lunch at the Red Horse Diner in a town called Ellensborough - great food, seems like a bit of a favourite spot for bikers and old car fans. Great whitewashed building and very popular for such a small town.
About 5pm we got into Spokane (again, with Jane driving in the city!) and found Maggie!! Maggie was one of my besties from my year in Orofino, and we still (sporadically) keep in touch - it was so good to catch up *in the flesh*
Friday night, Maggie and her partner, David, made us some yummy enchiladas and margaritas for dinner and Leah (another Orofino friend) popped over with her partner, Gabe. We all ate out on the front porch (as it's much more summery here than Seattle) with Neil (our gracious landlord/host) and had a yummy ice-cream social :)
Saturday brought a great spectacle - Hoopfest! We have timed our visit perfectly to coincide with the *biggest* basketball competition in Washington. Okay, disclaimer, i haven't searched this, i'm not sure it is the biggest in the North-West, or Washington or the USA. they have 3-a-side teams playing off in a number of divisions. It was CRAZY downtown - to give you an idea, there's 200,000 residents in Spokane and there were approximately 7000 teams registered, with 3 or 4 players on each team that's approximately 28.000 players! They were playing everywhere - they'd shut off the streets down town and were playing in parking lots, on the streets, on a bridge that'd been shut off to traffic! They had a 'centre court' that had the 'elite' players (like college players etc) that was good to watch - we saw Gabe play in the afternoon - he was in over 30, over 6foot division - it was a rough (physical) game, but they ended up winning (go Jags!) and ended up 3rd overall in their div. They have so many types of divisions too - over 30s, from 8 years of age, girls teams, coed teams, womens teams, a wheelchair players division - it was just game after game after game!
Maggie took us on a long walk through Spokane - it seems like a really nice place - not too big or small, lots of parks and fairly flat (where we were at least). There's a river through downtown with rapids/waterfalls and a chairlift over it all so you can (pay to) see it better - we went up intothe public library to get a better view!
After such a long day in the sun (all three of us burnt to varying degrees) we had a nice quiet night in - made dinner and watched some IT crowd (TV) and had some more quiet 'catch-up' time.
This morning we had a legitimate sleep in - no alarms and a lazy Sunday morning breakfast (thanks Maggie!). Then we headed over to Coeur d'Alene which is technically Idaho but only 30mins from here. They have a great big lake so while Maggie stayed at home to study, Karl and I went on a bush walk through "tubs hill". it's beautiful - the big lake surrounded by Pines and when we got there the weather was great - had a picnic lunch. About half way through the walk I mentioned to Karl that i thought it was about to rain (Karl being an expert in American weather said nah that ages away) - and 20seconds later it was pouring! We finished the rest of the walk in the rain and then headed back to Spokane.
This evening we went to Scout's bar in Spokane and had a few beers and played a few rounds of pool - America vs. The World. We're proud to report that The World came out best - 2 to 1! Go team us! Then we went to Taco Bell for dinner. Well. that as an experience. Firstly - it is CHEAP! you can get a bean burrito for 99c (plus tax) but even with the consideration of the different wages here vs home, it seems really cheap! Karl had fun - he literally couldn't decide what to eat (there's a lot on the menu) so he ordered 5 different types of food - burritos, quesadillas, tacos, some random circle thing, a potato burrito..... it was a lot of food - we all tried some and we have the pleasure of an entire left over burrito for breakfast tomorrow morning. I tried nachos - they were.... interesting - I'd forgotten about 'nacho' cheese, which ex-fast food employee David informed us comes in liquid form in a gallon (4litre) container!!!!
Afterwards we went to the grocery store and came home - i wouldn't even mention this, 'cept it was a bit of an experience in itself. Last time I was in the states i was gobsmacked about spray can cheese (which is, literally, cheese in a container like whipped cream that you can 'spray' out) - but this time we found pancake mix in these packets - so you can not only get pancake mix that you add water to and shake up but if that's too much effort for $4 (plus tax) you can get a spray bottle of pancake batter already made up!! There was lots of other interesting different things in the grocery store (bacon flavoured popcorn) but the spray can pancakes made me giggle!
Tomorrow we end our time here in Spokane and head back to Orofino!! Excited to head back and see the people there too!!
- comments
Bruce G Have you seen the eggs that come in a carton i liquid form ready to pour into a frying pan? Also hash browns that come similarly. And by the way, I had troubles keeping the car in the lanes owing to sitting on the "wrong" side of the car.
Rebecca W Nice work on the driving! Had quite the giggle about Karl in Taco Bell... you're in the US for awhile, right? Pace yourself Karl! Safe travels guys!
John H Great to read about your trip - keep up the good work on the blog! Sounds like you are having a blast. How far do you take the Impala through the US? Take care with the driving and looking forward to reading about more of your adventures soon!
Dan nice! - enjoy it while you can... once you have little mini-Karls running around causing havoc it's going to change things a lot! :-)