Blue skies on Wednesday morning, so sick of the rain! We drove into Spokane (210.000 people) and parked in the city center, at River Park Square. From there we explored the city by walking and it was a packed day full of new experiences! We didn't expect the city to be so interesting and diverse, green and interesting!
Main draw of the city and our first stop were the Spokane Falls - the second longest urban waterfalls, consisting of Lower and Upper Falls. From Monroe Street Bridge (see pic) the larger Lower Fall looks really impressive. Air gondolas connect the Riverfront Park with Kendall Yards - a new neighborhood, which we explored later in the afternoon.
Spokane was founded as a mill town (thanks to the Spokane River) in 1872, a little later the railroad arrived in town and dominated furtheron. In 1889 the city burned down and therefore many buildings in downtown were constructed afterwards. From 1901 on, the railroad built bridges and viaducts, stations, depots and warehouses and Spokane became an important railroad hub. In 1974, when the Expo '74, the World Fair, took place, the former railroad area along the river and on the island in the river was revamped and the Riverfront Park Island developed. Only historic relict from railroad times is an old clocktower from 1902 in the park.
We strolled through the park with its former world fair pavilion and admired the artwork along Sculpture Walk. The "lake", originally part of the river, is very pitturesque, and the Convention Center couldn't have a more prominent location (see pic above).
Spokane's downtown is easily walkable and architecturally interesting with many intact buildings from the beginning of the 20th century, partly Romanesque-revival, partly Art-déco style. One real gem is the Davenport Hotel, which opened in 1914 and was completely renovated in 2002. At the time it was the center of social life, with big events, concerts and balls, gorgeous ballrooms and popular restaurants. Nowadays the lobby (pic), the ballrooms and especially the Hall of the Doges (see pic) - decorated in very eclectic European styles - are worth a visit in the hotel even if not staying there.
Spokane offers an amazing variety of things, especially along Main Street: Auntie's bookstore – an independant bookstore with café and beauty shop (!) in the historic Liberty Building (see pic) -, many coffee shops and eclectic boutiques and shops as Bo Radley's or Atticus. There are over a dozen of breweries (we checked out River City Brewing later in the day) and many wine tasting rooms.
After our downtown stroll we drove out to a neighborhood called "Browne's Addition", an area with many eclectic, mostly victorian (private) homes.. The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture offers changing exhibitions, we expecially liked the one about the 50th Anniversary of the Nez Perce National Historical Park - comprising 38 sites located throughout the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, including clothing, artifacts, and ephemera from the Nez Perce tribe.
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