The day of rest (and beer)

So I got into Spokane in time for dinner. I brought all my huckleberry products (chocolate and jam) and some fresh peaches I'd bought at a farmer's market in Coeur d'Alene. Mom was cooking up some pork chops and asked me to season them. I like to cook and hadn't done it for quite a while so it was kind of nice. I tried using cinnamon on the pork with garlic and ginger. It worked out pretty good. I also played with Shaun's cat, Lexi. Shaun lives in LA but until recently rented a room from some guy who didn't like pets so Lexi has been staying at our parent's house.


That's pretty much all that happened that night. I was pretty tired and went to bed early.

The next morning (after blissfully sleeping in) I rode my bike into downtown for lunch with Justin, my oldest brother. He's tipping the age scales at somewhere nearing 40 I think. He's really getting up there. (He told me that he hadn't been reading my blog so I figured I'd put this in there about him and see if he ever done read this. Expect some incendiary comment if he does, he's actually 32).





Lunch was and Jack and Dan's Tavern, the quintessential Padden hangout in Spokane. While waiting for the old guy to show up, I ordered a Mac and Jack's beer. This is an awesome beer that I've only ever seen in the North West. If you ever have the chance to try it, I'd highly recommend it. Their brewery is in Redmond, WA, near Seattle. www.mackandjacks.com.








After lunch, Justin and I went to his new office. He works for Gonzaga University in the finance department. They just moved their offices to a different location and earlier in the day had their safe moved to the new site. This thing is a classic. It was built sometime in the 1890s and still has all it's original parts. Gonzaga acquired thing thing in 1910. They're still building part of the safe room but I was lucky enough to get a few shots of the thing before it's all sealed up for good. Pretty cool, eh? A little bit of Spokane history.






I spent the afternoon having coffee with my dad and talking about the trip and the political situation in eastern Washington. Dad has always been very involved in local politics. Dad also told me that several post ago when talking about the West Virginia/Ohio Padden's I mentioned Jim Padden. I was actually talking about Dan Padden and just got the name mixed up with his brother. My sincere apologies, Dan.

Dinner was stir fry chicken (with cinnamon again, I'm really liking this stuff). While the chicken was cooking I got the chance to go talk to Ron who is my parent's neighbor. Ron and his wife Hope have always been very good family fiends and it was nice to see him again. We talked about my trip and Ron's riding days.

The evening was cool and there weren't any bugs out. It makes me very jealous when I think back to the summer nights in Maryland. It never cools down much at night, the air is so thick with humidity it's like trying to breath through soup and the mosquitoes are huge and numerous. Spokane (and the west in general) is so much different. Maybe it's just because I grew up there that I associate the climate there with what a climate "should be". Either way, I'm liking Spokane more and more the longer I stay.

After dinner I went up to Justin's house and then out for drinks with some friends. We were joined by Matt, Patti, Brook and Gina (and one of Gina's friends who's name I can't remember). These are people that I got to know over the years any time I was in Spokane. Sadly Jen, Matt's wife couldn't make it (some work thing). Neither could Dan and Missy. Dan was in Texas and Missy just had a kid and didn't want to bring her to the bar. Anyway, a good time was had by all. This video is Patti's reaction after she said something perfectly innocent but that sounded filthy dirty.

The next morning I plan on heading to Whidbey Island, on Washington's west coast to see Rory, Marcella and Ethan (my godson). I'm going to take the North Cascade Highway, one of my favorite roads. It's right up there with highway 14 along the Columbia River in southern Washington and the newer favorite of highways 71 and 385 through the Black Hills in South Dakota. I'll let you know how it goes.

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Location:Spokane, WA