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| Bowl and Pitcher Bridge, Riverside State Park, Spokane, WA |
This past weekend the fam and I headed up to Spokane, WA to visit my sister for fall family weekend. We headed out in two waves, with my mom heading up earlier with some friends and the rest of us leaving later. After the beautiful drive up the Columbia River Gorge, we hit the desolation of eastern Oregon and Southern Washington. We pulled into Spokane around 11:30pm and I promptly headed down to C.I. Shenanigan’s in hopes of finding their seasonal Dunkel on tap. Unfortunately, the dunkel isn’t released until Nov 1st. Damn! Ive had some good times with that dunkel as my liquid partner. I was hoping to take a growler home with me to Portland as growler fills are only $5 on Wed and Sundays. From there, I met my parents at Steelhead Bar and Grill and after only one beer we were prompted to join friends at Jack and Dan’s, a favorite Gonzaga bar and owned by John Stockton’s family, located right off of campus. My college roommates spent many nights there during our time at GU. After closing down the bar at 2am, we headed back to the hotel for some well deserved rest.
I awoke the following morning to the sound of driving rain and wind. My father and I were planning to head to Riverside State Park and do some of my favorite mtb trails. We decided to wait until the weather let up a bit before heading out. Once we got to the Wilbur Road Trailhead, we saddled up and headed out. We brought our pup Rylee along for his first formal mountain bike adventure. After sitting in the car the previous day and all morning, he was raring to go. After about 15 minutes, my dad’s rear tire went flat. Thanks P Moran! Rather than taking the time to patch the tube or risk popping another tire (the rim is a little chipped), he decided to bail and go for a trail run instead. Rylee and I continued on. While the weather was cool, but wet, the trail was nice and tacky with the occasional puddle. Throughout the ride, Rylee never let up. He was bombing down the trails and climbing just as well. Clearly, there is a future for him in mountain biking, just have to get his endurance up. The ride took around 2hrs, but when I got back to the car, my dad graciously informed me that somehow the keys locked themselves in the car. Luckily, I had thrown my phone in my pack before I left so I called my mother to arrange a rescue. It was a cold 20mins waiting for her arrival.
The rest of the day was spend at Green Bluff, which has now become a family tradition, and I hope to continue it into the future. We ate fresh pickles, homemade huckleberry ice cream, apple pie, fresh apple cider, and pumpkin cheesecake. After picking out our pumpkins and watching the pumpkin chunking, we headed back to the Steamplant Grill for Lauren’s birthday dinner. I had been looking forward to this as the steamplant has a very good pumpkin ale! While not as good as I remembered, the Wasatch pumpkin may take the cake, I brought home two growlers.
The following morning we ate breky at Frank’s Diner after a 1.5hr wait. Yes, it is very popular and delicious. I was planning to do a trail run with my sister, Megan on the Goat Trails on the South Hill, but time constraints prohibited that. There is always next time. Overall, I had a great weekend with my family. It was really nice to see Lauren and her collegiate living conditions. Brings back good memories. Hoping to get a gang together in Portland for Halloween and maybe and finally get Andrew out on the Wildwood trail….
UNT
Bryan
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