Stirred

What is this inside me that marvels at yellow with green and open and sounds of the a waterfall so? I don't care to explain it, I only care to appreciate and nurture it.
What ever it is, it's grand, and the Northwest sure knows how to stir it in me.

***forgive the dirty wind shield, but road trips can not be done any other way ***

"spring" but I'm still freezing

Rumor has it that things are looking up this week. By up I mean hot, and by hot I mean the weather not sucking.

So far I am still pretty darn cold. Spokane Spring and Jo'burg Spring is not the same thing, Spokane Winter being pretty different from Jo'burg winter was my main clue here.

Driving by people wearing shorts and sandals confuse me. Turns me into those crazy old ladies that yell at people in public "waar is jou skoene kind! weet jou ma jy's hier?"

Luckily they don't really understand, luckily I don't really do this.

Still, crappy cold weekend or not we had to get out of town, just for a few hours, just to keep telling ourselves 'it's only going to get warmer and better'.

So we drove up to Mt Spokane to say goodbye to the snow and then found a river to go calm down by:

 

I do however have to say, the city of Spokane, even though a little chilly for me, is breathtakingly beautiful so far. Overload of blossom pictures post to follow.

Spokane, so far

i've never heard of Spokane before Ben's parents moved here a few short years ago. we were still living in Hanoi at the time.

sorry to say but the first thing i've ever been told about Spokane had something to do with the Meth problem. (thanks for that Mitchell)

soooo, that was weird.

fast forward a year or so and i'm packing my warmest jacket to go meet the parents, America and well yes Spokane for the first time. a rather momentous event in any person's life i'd imagine.

my first actual impression of Spokane was also sadly formed while mostly driving up and down Division street.  the longest most over populated chain store and fast food joint after fast food joint i've ever seen. not the ideal first date of the city that was to become my new home honestly.

but over the visits i was granted during 2012 i slowly but surely fell in love with the place.  despite hearing such opposing views from people i've met. 

i've heard people declare it the best place to live in the world and others wanting to get out at first opportunity.

i really don't know much but either of these views or the real problems of the city, but i do know i like getting to know you Spokane. 

this is what i love about you so far: (in no particular order)

turns out i rather enjoy basketball, so naturally i'm a new little Zags fan, Go Gonzaga (nobody is more surprised than me)

the MAC, the Northwest art museum, especially on the first friday of every month when you're free

the outdoors, how close nature is... and just how gorgeous it is.

it's pretty safe, well much safer than my previous home town. you wouldn't find us walking about town at night like this.

you have snow, and that's still pretty awesome to me.

i've thanked you for this before, but thanks for your simply heavenly parks around.

i think the downtown vibe thing you've got going is pretty cool

i'm a big fan of your river, i've never had a river before.

sincerely yours xoxo