S 178 1/2 Howard Street, Spokane Washington

It is because of Jackie's Uncle Howard, an exceptional person who could at times appear quite terrestial , that we tend to gravitate to all things Howard or in this case fractionally Howard somewhere in the middle of downtown Spokane Washington, a city that did not totally avoid the wrecking ball when they were wreaking havoc on inner cities in the 70's and 80's, so that it does have enough of an interesting  mix of old buildings, new buildings, sensibly built elevated parking lots and re-purposed power plants etc to make it worth a look see.

This is a room with a view photo that does give you a fairly good macro idea of what you might see if you spend a day.

On the micro level, there are some interesting surprises like Boot Girl on 1st Ave in the Angel Vintage Shop. 

First Ave in the rain, which is how we saw most of Spokane, unfortunately.  Mostly overcast of drizzly for most of the 36 hours we were there, so I ended up with a bad case of wet shoes that seemed to respond well to happy hours,  resulting in a lot of time spent at the bar at the Davenport Hotel where we were staying.  A grand hotel of indescribable beauty built in 1914 by a guy named Davenport.  It was almost torn down as so much of America is,  but was saved... bought and lovingly restored by Mr. and Mrs. Worthy in 2002 

This is just the lobby.  Breath takingly beautifully restored.   In addition, there are 3 or 4 grand ballrooms recreating imperial Russia, the grandeur of Victorian England, and Renaissance Florence that needs to be seen to be believed.  No pictures because I couldn't do them justice.  

Further down First Avenue is the Montvale, a great place to stay if you haven't reached 5 star hobo status.

Spokane, worthy of a two day lay over.  Lots to see.

PS...

We are now in Washington state and have completed the mission we promised ourselves, to see all of the lower 48 states.  So a subtext of this blog is about a guy who retired to pursue a goal and was fortunate enough to fulfill that promise.  

                                                                      Pablo