Articles in category "life":
Thanksgiving in Spokane
· Posted Tuesday November 27, 2007 by jamie
For our holiday weekend we made the trip across the mountains to Spokane. My mom grew up in Spokane, so we’ve always had many relatives to visit on that side of the mountains, but since my sister and her husband moved there a few years back, there’s been that much more reason to hit that neck of the woods every so often. And with the recent birth of our second nephew, all the more reason to plan a Thanksgiving trip, even with the associated travel headaches–heavy traffic, potential mountain weather problems, etc.
We stayed at the recently-renovated Montvale Hotel downtown in order to avoid the new baby chaos and to be able to have our “own space” to retreat to. Built as a miners hotel, and at points in its life serving as a bordello, apartments, hardware store, and dormitory for Expo 74 workers, the Montvale opened in 2005 as a boutique hotel that boasts status as “oldest hotel in Spokane”.
The hotel itself was charming, but unfortunately after our late arrival on Wednesday we discovered that our room was directly above Spokane’s newest raw food hot spot, Scratch. We were tired from work and the trip, but apparently the patrons of said establishment were not, as we had the honor of being kept awake by thumping bass until after they closed at 2am. Joy. (As an aside, when we made the reservation, we mentioned TripAdvisor reviews complaining about sound bleed-through. These must have been referring to the pool hall also in the building, because we were assured that our room in the back should only have some noise from the train tracks. We can handle some train noise.) Amidst the grogginess of Thanksgiving morning we managed to get transferred to a different room for the remainder of the stay. We’re still holding out hope that we can get them to comp the miserable first night…this might have bearing on whether we’d be willing to visit again, so fingers crossed on that…
Thursday morning we took the opportunity to sleep in a bit, given the forced lateness of the previous night. Unfortunately this caused us to miss the hotel’s Continental breakfast, and as I soon discovered on a walk around a nearly abandoned downtown Spokane, nothing is open on Thanksgiving. But I did get a good dose of Thanksgiving perspective when I realized that just about everyone who I saw while out-and-about appeared to be homeless. I may not have been able to find food just then, but I could rest assured that later that day I would be feasting like a king in a warm home, surrounded by loving relatives.
I’ve gotta say, though, that Spokane’s downtown has a lot on Tacoma. For starters, it has some geographic advantage in that the flatness of the valley has allowed for a downtown core that exists as a “clump” instead of a long narrow strip like Tacoma’s. As such, Spokane has a more impressive group of large buildings. Riverfront Park, the site of the aforementioned Expo 74, is a wonderful riverside promenade immediately adjacent to the downtown shopping area. And speaking of the shopping area, yes, Spokane has a legitimate downtown shopping area. (I don’t mean to de-legitimize Tacoma’s downtown merchants, because there are some awesome stores in Tacoma, but there isn’t a retail core, per se.) Spokane has a several block area of department stores, a multi-level mall with 20 screen theater (River Park Square), skybridges, and dedicated parking structures for shoppers. Really quite impressive. I’m not sure there is anything specifically that Tacoma can learn from this, but it is something to consider before we make fun of Spokane. (However, we can make fun of their residential recycling program. It really sucks.)
(Photo credit: Remi Olsen)
One last awesome thing to mention about Spokane: Rocket Market. I guess this place would be best described as a “gourmet mini-mart”. The Rocket Bakery chain, of which the Rocket Market is a part, includes a bakery and several coffee shops around town, but the Market location on the South Hill takes it to a whole new level. While there is a full service gas station on-site, for all intents and purposes this is a standalone gourmet market, with a huge wine and beer selection, cheeses, fancy chocolate, organic produce, delicious snack food, cooking supplies, etc.–in the end, essentially the sort of store that you could do all of your shopping at, as long as you don’t want to buy anything for cheap. All in a space about the size of your average 7-11. I would kill to have this place in my neighborhood, and I think it would be a great model for walkable grocery stores all over the city. If you’re ever in Spokane, check it out: 726 E. 43rd Ave.
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categories: beyond-tacoma life
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My Cat's Breath Smells Like Catfood
· Posted Tuesday July 31, 2007 by jamie
Well, everyone appears to be Simpsonizing themselves. Andrew Fry started it last week when he created himself and TNT columnist Dan Voelpel’s Springfield alter-egos. Then Erik Hanberg came in with his contribution on Sunday. So I decided it was time I post me, Simpsonized. I would guess the majority of people reading this wouldn’t recognize me if I was standing next to them at a bus stop, so I guess you can look at this as a clue…
And as a bonus, here’s me as a South Park character, thanks to South Park Studio:
No, I don’t always wear green shirts. Just an interesting coincidence; I did these months apart…
Who’s next?
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Um, Sorry. Everything Working Okay Now?
· Posted Friday November 3, 2006 by jamie
So at some point I apparently seriously screwed up my site configuration. I have no idea how, but it involved a file getting deleted, or rather emptied, on the server. My front page came up fine, but clicking through to any of the articles 404’d. That was no good. Presumably none of you could have even have gotten to my contact page to inform me of the problem. And I have no idea how long ago I did it…
Anyway, in the effort to replace my lost .htaccess file (at which point all of the geeks gasp), I went ahead and upgraded the hosting software to the newest version. Hopefully we are free and clear now.
If you have any problems on the site, please let me know. Please continue reading…
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categories: life
Busy Independence Day Weekend
· Posted Wednesday July 5, 2006 by jamie
Things kept busy over the quasi-long weekend here at Thrice All American Headquarters (“quasi” as in the fact that we both went to work on Monday…)
In addition to the smokestack demolition excursion, we:
- Checked out the small ships. I actually went twice. Lots of cool boats, and I found out that my across-the-alley neighbor has a 40-foot sailboat that he races in the bay every Wednesday evening. Interesting…
- Went to the last day of the Taste of Tacoma. It was hot, crowded, and the park was starting to look pretty trashed. But we had a good time anyway. Next year we’ll go on the first day…
- Checked out some bikes. I need a new bike. I hate to spend money. Ugh. But at the same time, fun.
- Caught up with a lot of friends, new and old. We’re talking high school friends, college friends, etc. We are impressed with even ourselves for this feat.
- Decided to avoid Independence Day activities completely and went to bed early to the soft lullaby of bottle rockets and the occasional M-80.
Hope everybody out there had a safe and sane weekend.
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Sorry For The Silence
· Posted Wednesday June 21, 2006 by jamie
Quiet week here at Thrice All American. We have some guests in from out of town and we’re having a great time showing them some of the sights (and tastes) of Tacoma and the surrounding area…
E9, Katie Downs, Gari of Sushi, the downtown waterfront, trails at Point Defiance, etc. Good times in a great city!
We should be back in force next week.
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