Riverfront Park, Spokane, Washington

Sunday 10/7/2012

The next day we drove to the Browne's Addition of Spokane to have lunch at another of Guy Fieri's recommendations on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

The restaurant we went to is called the, "Elk Public House".

If you share a meal, they charge $1 or $2 extra. Joe and I like to share the meals because we do not know if they are going to be good, and don't want to get stuck with a lousy meal and a big bill, plus servings are too large anyway. To avoid the extra charge I order a cup of their soup of the day. So cute how they put their name in the soup.The soup was a lentil/ bean soup and was delicious.

Joe ordered the Ruben which was the featured dish. Neither one of us had any complaints. This Ruben was to die for. The potato salad was also superb. Most potato salads have a tang to them that we don't like and they leave out eggs. This potato salad was like how I make it at home. You will not be disappointed with this special feature of Guy Fieri at the Elk Public House. I just wish it wasn't so far away. Maybe it is a good thing it is so far away, I'd want to go there every week to have it.

A cute mural next to the Elk Public House.

After lunch we went to into Spokane to see the Spokane Falls. Joe didn't want to spend the money to ride the Skyride to see them because he said he saw a picture where you could see them from a bridge. The problem was that we didn't know where to go to do that. Joe had asked how to get to the falls at the Visitor Center and she gave us a map and circled the skyride. He should have asked how you saw them without doing the Skyride. I told him we were doing the Skyride because we didn't know where else to go.

All aboard the Skyride.

Once we got to the highest point, we could see that the Skyride was very short.

If we had just walked across the street and looked down we could have saved $15 and got some exercise to boot.

Sorry Joe, if you want to save money, get the specifics. I just didn't want to waste time wondering around trying to find it.We had a very full day planned and our we had paid for just 3 hours at the parking lot.

We saw the falls, but I am sure they are much better in the spring.

Joe pointed out the steer heads on the bridge above us.

The ride goes under this bridge and then back up. It is great for older people or children who can not handle all the stairs, but if you are able, heads up, the walkway is across the street from the parking lot for the Skyride.

After the Skyride, we wanted to walk around Spokane's Riverfront Park.

The park has the Spokane Sculpture Walk. This is the, "Runners in the Park Sculpture". These sculptures are also referred to as "The Joy of Running Together".

Spokane Riverfront Park walkway.

The Rotary Riverfront Fountain. I am sure this sculpture is very busy on a hot summer day.

Near the Rotary Riverfront Sculpture, we found this park map.

With the maps help, we found our way to the Upper Falls.

The Mountain Sheep Sculpture depicting it climbing the rocks near the river.

The Clock Tower that is in the center of the park.

We really couldn't figure out what this was in the park. It looked like some kind of auditorium with lights above it.

The Centennial Sculpture, an abstract aluminum sculpture that floats in the river.

View as we cross back over the river and then headed back toward our car. There were more sculptures if you continued up the river.

The Michael P. Anderson Memorial. At the base of the statue it says, " Keep The Dreams Alive" Micheal was a Spokane resident that perished along with the six other heroes in the Columbia Space Shuttle Tragedy in 2003.

Spokane River

A concrete sculpture in the form of a large scale Japanese Lantern. The description says that this sculptured is untitled, but has it named (lantern) in parenthesis.

" The Childhood Expression". Note Joe in the picture to see the size of the sculpture.

This sculpture was a 1989 Centennial for the state of Washington and a gift to the Spokane children. The Red Wagon slide was closed for repairs that week.

Next to the slide we found the City Spokane Blocks.

Down from the Red wagon and City Blocks was a Riverfront park's 1909 Looff Carrousel.

$2 for a ride.

We went back to our car and changed our sunglasses to regular glasses, then walked across the street to the Riverfront Park Mall. Joe got bored very quickly so we didn't stay long.

Our next stop was at the Garden Food Co-op in Spokane. I could have spent hours in that store, but I got want I needed and headed out the door. Joe stays in the car to hurry me along. ( one reason I am glad when we get places where I can ditch my husband for a few hours - Like Cedar Rapids, IA and Golf Shores, AL- were we both feel comfortable driving alone on roads we know)

The day was waning and we had one more stop before headed back to Cheney, our present home. We missed a road and we ended up taking a much longer route to the Riverside State Park.

We scurried up the path as the the sun was setting. If we had more time, we would have hike down to the bridge and crossed it.

Joe looking for the "Pitcher and Bowl".

We think the tall rock is the Pitcher, and the shorter rock is the Bowl. We drove many miles to see this. I will blame it on Joe. He picked this out as something to see.

The Pitcher might be the one with the flat top. I googled it and some picture showed the rock with the flat top, and others show the other two rocks. I think you get a better view of them also when you cross the swinging bridge to the other side of the river.