From Starbucks to Hoopfest

Day 25, states 11, miles 5311



Pike's Place Fish Market in Seattle

The fourth major city we spent any significant time in was Seattle.  We considered renting a car at Fort Lewis and driving there, but decided to take our chances in the RV.  Fortunately, we were able find a parking lot within walking distance of the harbor that could accomodate our 32' beast.  It was just good luck that we arrived on a weekend day when most of the downtown lots had plenty of room.  We walked the few blocks to the harbor area, and Alex and I enjoyed a coffee and frappuccino from the original Starbucks shop.  Then we all checked out the famous Pike's Place Fish Market and enjoyed some awesome sandwiches at Three Girls Cafe.  Natalie and I both had a Pacific Northwestern, which consisted of fresh salmon on sourdough with red onions, fresh cucumbers, and dressing.  The kids weren't up for the salmon, but they enjoyed some more traditional sandwiches that were also excellent.  After Natalie and Andi did a little more shopping from the vendors in the harbor, we walked to the Hard Rock Cafe for an addition to Alex's t-shirt collection (but not for any food, thankfully).  Then we bought a couple of jackets at the Patagonia store before walking back to the RV and heading out for Mount Rainier.

George and Alex at the Original Starbucks's in Seattle

Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier is famous for hiding behind the gloomy Seattle area weather, but we were able to get a family snapshot with the peak in the background as we drove in on the 410 scenic route.  We rolled in to the park around 7pm.  This was our first actual overnight stay in a national park.  These parks are more for the nature lovers, and don't offer much in the way of creature comforts--not even the electric and water hookups that most of the state parks have.  Some have showers, but there were none at Mount Rainier.  There are also restrictions on running the generator.  So we all enjoyed a game of cards in the RV before calling it an early night and heading out for Spokane first thing in the morning.

Hoopfest in Spokane

Spokane was an easy drive across the state.  After crawling the RV up and down so many winding mountain roads along the coast, it was nice to get back on a smooth, 4-lane interstate for a little while.  And this one (I-90) even offered a pretty view.  For some inexplicable reason, Kirk had been dying to see the movie "Cars 2".  The poor kid has been miserable with his allergies during all of our outings, so Natalie wanted to let him see his movie in a climate controlled theater and let the family spend an afternoon "back in civilization".  We arrived in Spokane to find the entire downtown area closed off to traffic for the annual "Hoopfest" event, where thousands of kids come from all over the country to compete in 3-player basketball matches.  There were backboards set up in the middle of all the streets with thousands of kids shooting hoops.  The atmosphere was quite festive.  Even with all of this going on, Natalie was able to scope out a great parking spot just across the bridge that spanned the gorgeous Spokane River.  We walked across the bridge to movie theater, which was in a three-level shopping mall, and bought tickets for our movies.  Andi went with Kirk to see "Cars 2", while Alex, Natalie and I opted for "Super 8".  By the time our movies ended, the Hoopfest was done, and whole city had been nearly completely cleaned up as if the "Cat in the Hat" had come through with his picker upper machine and magically put everything away.  We had dinner at Red Robbin, walked back to the RV and drove to our camp, which is about four miles outside of town.  I think we were all impressed with Spokane.  It's a pretty town with friendly people.  We also found something here that we have been missing for the past couple of weeks:  plenty of sunshine and warm weather.

Spokane River