Friday, May 2, 2008
     The first third of my flight out to Spokane was turbulent, setting my nerves on edge.  But the winds died down, and the rest of the flight was smooth.  The plane landed in Spokane a little after noon, and my friend, Ryan, met me in the baggage claim area with a bouquet of yellow tulips.  No one had every given me flowers at an airport before, so receiving them was incredibly touching.  Ryan was so ecstatic that I was visiting him; he had a grin permanently glued on his face the whole weekend.
     From the airport, Ryan drove me into Spokane, taking me to an overlook of the whole hilly city so I could take pictures.  Spokane is full of a mix of newer and historic buildings, and in the distance, you could see small mountains, like Mt. Spokane.  From the overlook, we headed over to Manito Park to walk around the gorgeous Japanese gardens.  The pond water was so clear, it was easy to see the weird-colored koi swimming.  Beautiful trees and plans surronded the water, as well as a few pagodas.  We also went to the conservatory, where I thoroughly enjoyed taking close-up photos of the unique flowers and plants.
     After we finished walking around the park, we headed to downtown Spokane.  Ryan and I stooped at the Spokane Convention Center to pick up our Bloomsday race packets, and then stuck around to browse the vendors at the Race Weekend Expo.  The featured guest this year was Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to legally enter and finish the Boston Marathon back in 1968.  She gained notoriety when a race official tried to forcibly remove her from the race.  Since then, she has been instrumental in creating running programs for women and girls.  Switzer was signing copies of her new book, Marathon Woman, so I bought a copy.  She signed my book with a personal message ("Richelle!  Here's to your 1st Bloomsday!  This is a victory forever!  Always run!  K. Switzer"), and I had the opportunity to chat with her.  She's so down-to-earth and friendly, and she even gave me a hug before I left.  What a fun memory for my first Bloomsday!  I used some of the birthday money I received from Mom & Dad to pay for the blook, as well as a "Tiger Tail" self-massaging stick, to be used to loosen up and warm up muscles and work out knots.  The woman demonstrating the device at the vendor booth enjoyed using the stick on slightly unsuspecting, yet willing, participants.
    Ryan and I ate a late lunch at The Elk Public House, a pub/restaurant Ryan frequents.  Afterwards, Ryan showed me the Bloomsday course.  It looked very manageable, even "Doomsday Hill" after mile 4.  Ryan then took me to his cozy and spacious apartment up in the north side of Spokane.  This area--where he lives--reminded me of St. Cloud: streets lined with chain stores and malls.  We hung out for a couple hours, listenening to music, chatting, and looking through his old photo albums.  He grew up with my cousin Dan in Royalton, and so I had fun looking at pictures of the two of them when they were younger.
    We planned to go out dancing the first night I was in Spokane, so we dressed up and went out.  First, we took at "Salsa 101" class at the Spokane Dance Company.  The class lasted about an hour, then a dance at the company was held afterwards for the people attending the class and any others that wanted to practice their salsa moves.  Ryan and I stuck around for the open dance part for another hour, then decided to grab a very late supper at a sushi bar.  We went to Ichiban Sushi Lounge, and split three rolls (Spider, the Bomb, and Tanoshi).  Their sushi rivaled Kikugawa's.  We were still in the mood to go dancing after supper, but not salsa, so we went to a dressy club called Studio 23 for some "club" (i.e. hip-hop and R&B) dancing.  We had a good time out on the dance floor.

Saturday, May 3, 2008
     Around 9:00 this morning, Ryan and I headed to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, for church.  Ryan's church, LifeSource Community Church, is affiliated with Seventh-Day Adventism, meaning that they celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday.  On our way out there, driving on I-90, we saw a car in front of us suddenly veer to the left and hit the meridian.  We think that the car blew out a tire.  I hope the driver was okay.  We stopped at the side of the road, debating whether we should go back to help, but the woman emerged from the car unscathed and a police car arrived shortly thereafter.  The whole thing happened so instantly that I couldn't help but think of how random life can be--how everything can change in the blink of an eye.
     I was quite excited when we crossed the Idaho border.  I'd never been to Idaho before, and now I only have two states left to visit (Alaska and Nevada) before I rack up all 50.  The upper part of Idaho, where Coeur d'Alene (CDA) is located, is much like Eastern Washington--rolling hills and small mountains.
     We stopped for breakfast at Java on Sherman, a cute little coffeeshop, before church.  They seriously have the best chai tea ever--very sweet and velvety.  A cute little girl, about 3-years-old, came in with her dad, and everyone turned to watch her because she was so adorable, walking around in curiosity at everything.
     Every year in May, LifeSource holds their worship service on Lake Coeur d'Alene on a ferry pontoon boat.  Luckily for me, I visited Ryan the weekend they were doing "Church on the Lake."  We walked along the lake's boardwalk before people started boarding the boat, taking pictures of the lake.  Everyone was so friendly and welcoming.  Ryan's church friends wanted to meet the "friend from Minnesota" he'd been talking about.  Soon after, the worship service started, with praise and worship music first, then a sermon by Pastor Phil.  Once worship ended, everyone enjoyed the cruise around Lake Coeur d'Alene.  I called Mom on my cell phone to say hi, tell her I was in Idaho, and was having a fun trip.  Ryan, Pastor Phil and I also conversed about faith and God's grace.
     After the cruise, Ryan and I walked around the city of CDA, population a little over 40,000.  CDA is a touristy town, and its business district contains lots of shops and art galleries.  We browsed in a few of the small galleries and stopped at a couple gift shops.  We ate lunch at The Iron Horse Bar & Grill, sitting at an outside table while eating.
     We headed back to Spokane mid-afternoon and drove to some nice lookout points of the Spokane River  so I could take pictures.  There were some gushing rapids at one point--perfect for adventurous whitewater rafting.  The late winter cause the snow to melt off the mountains later, creating the heavy rapids we saw which would have been less spectacular in normal years.  In the evening, Ryan took me to a Spokane Spiders soccer game.  The young team lost to the Yakima Reds 0-3.

Sunday, May 4, 2008
     The 2008 Bloomsday Run was this morning.  Over 43,000 runners would complete the 12-kilometer (7.46 miles) course.  Bloomsday is one of the largest road races in the U.S.  The weather was perfect--sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and comfortable temperatures that would top out at 70-degrees in the afternoon.  It was a warm run, especially with all the runners present and the weather.
     Though the race didn't start until 9:00, we wanted to arrive downton early enough to find decent parking.  But even 7:30 was too early, so we walked around Riverside Park and the downtown area.  Pastor Phil and his wife, Debbie, met up with us.  Phil ran Bloomsday as a training run for the Coeur d'Alene Ironman Triathlon.  Eventually, the runners lined up on Riverside Avenue, filling in the streets, grouped according to bib color.  The race officially started at 9:00, but the color groups took off in waves, so ours didn't start moving until about 9:15.  With all the people running, our pace was slow for at least the first mile or two, but then we picked it up.  Ryan and I ran the same pace naturally--and he was worried he'd be too slow for me!
     The course wove through historic Browne's Addition neighborhood for the first couple of miles, then followed the Spokane River to Doomsday Hill. The Hill wasn't that bad; it reminded me of the second hill of the Omaha Half-Marathon, but not as long of a distance to run.  The "Doomsday Hill Vulture" (a guy wearing a bird costume) met runners at the top of the hill and gave high-fives to those who conquered it.  I had a bad side cramp after finishing the Hill, but I adjusted my breathing, and the side ache went away.
     There were a lot of people line along the course cheering on runners.  Spokane really knows how to provide good crowd support for its biggest race.  It seems like the whole city comes out in support one way or another.  Live music entertainment was located along the course at every one-fourth to one-third of a mile, which greatly motivated us runners.  There were some belly dancers and an Elvis impersonator playing the accordion!  A few runners wore costumes for the run.  I saw plenty of wigs, some '80s getup, two guys wearing 1970s-era polyester suits (with running shoes), and a man wearing a tight-fitting French maid outfit.
     Ryan and I both felt exhilirated after finishing the race on the Monroe Street Bridge--what an accomplishment!  Bloomsday was the biggest race I'd ever been a part of, and it was a lot of fun to run.  I enjoyed the scenery mix of city neighborhoods and nature, and the energy of the crowds and runners.  We finished the run in 1 hour, 9 minutes and 22 seconds (1:09:22), a 9:17/mile pace.  We made good time!  I was the 8th runner from MN to finish out of 22 fellow state attendees.
     After disposing of our timing chips in the bins, we picked up our red finisher shirts, which had a cool abstract design of stick-like runners running.  Most runners, including us, would wear them the rest of the day as a badge of honor.  Then, if we saw other runners in Spokane later in the day, we'd ask them how they did.
     We went back to Ryan's apartment after the race to showerand change into our finisher shirts and more comfy clothing.  Then, Ryan took me to his workplace, Cyan Worlds (a video game company), located on the outskirts of Spokane.  The company's two buildings were nestled amongst trees and rocks.  We went back into downtwon Spokane where there were still plenty of runners milling about post-race.  Ryan and I ate lunch at O'Doherty's Irish Grille, one of his favorite places, enjoying burgers and beer.  O'Doherty's also sponsors the running club Ryan is a part of (The Flying Irish).
     After lunch, we walked around Riverside Park, admiring the various sculptures, including a giant red Radio Flyer wagon, and a garbage-eating mechanical goat.  We took pictures of the gigantic Monroe Street Bridge and the Spokane Falls, which gushes underneath.  The Spokane River divides the city in two, and the spring runoff from the mountains made the Falls even more spectacular.  Gondolas go underneath the bridge to give viewers unafraid of heights the best view of the Falls.  Spokane has other beautiful bridges spanning the river.
     We also browsed in the various touristy/gift shops downtown.  At the Chocolate Apothecary, we sampled liquid chocolate, satisfying my sweet tooth.  We also stopped in a store called Boo Radley, where I picked up a button that says, "God knows when you don't tip."  I plan on wearing that when I'm bartending to see if my tips improve. ;-)  Later on, we played pool at Far West Billiards, and went to an underground restaurant called The Catacombs to split an order of s'mores.  With the s'mores fixings came a small cauldron set afire with kindling so you could roast the marshmallows at your table.  Sweet!  Ryan and I spent the evening back at his apartment relaxing from the morning's race and chatting.

Monday, May 5, 2008
     Ryan made us breakfast in the morning, and after I packed up all my stuff, we headed to the airport.  Before heading there, Ryan stopped at a Christian bookstore to buy me a Bible (NLT version), as I had been looking for a new one, and had grown to like the NLT version through church readings.  It meant a lot to me that he bought me a Bible; it will help me on my faith journey.  I found it difficult to leave Spokane; I had had an amazing weekend while I was out there, and really fell in love with the area.  But, I returned, back to the Land of 10,000 Lakes on an uneventful flight.