Spokane on the cheap

or,

what we did last weekend.


i'm so thankful to be married to the kind of person that makes puzzle building for hours fun. thankful because one, it's great for the tight budget and two, well, because i'm sure i'd still pick doing that with him than just about anything else in world without him.  i like that kind of feeling.

being so easily entertained has it's advantages. it makes weekends way more exciting and less expensive, which as newlyweds is useful.

i''ll share here a bit of our last weekend, not because we're interesting, mainly to record and keep this as future reference for winter cheap weekends.

i say winter, seeing as we'll be sure to loose our heads and run outside like crazy people once the summer hits... summer (stop fantasizing!! it's too far still!) ((me, not you))

friday

we hit what's known around here as first friday. very artsy. a number of venues (restaurants, bars etc) host exhibitions or performances by mostly local artists (for free) , so it's a great way to explore downtown (for us newbies) and add a little culture and color to the week.

we started out at the MAC  the Northwest Museum of arts and culture, it's not exactly walking distance to downtown but not too far. the museum is currently hosting a special Smithsonian exhibition: “Buffalo Bill's Wild West Warriors”.   not being american and all i thought the exhibition  fascinating.

i would, being a history nerd and all.

plus,

the display had some awesome items:

...and i really really want these items in my closet.

further more, the MAC offers complimentary entry on first friday between 5-8 pm. score! (#sorryforsoundinglikeastudentthere)

 normal entrance costs 7usd per adult but includes a tour of Campbell house

 we had such great intentions of hitting a few more exhibitions of first friday but going to the Steam Plant for the first time was way too amusing to leave after only 15 minutes, so we stayed.

side note: the beer sampling they had with the glass art exhibition had nothing to do with it.

no really it's a fascinating building, were parts smell like dessert beer, true story. completely renovated and i'm sure a true downtown gem.

this was not a sampler (i wish), but probably the best beer i've had all year.

saturday

saturday moring teased with a wee bit of sunlight action, limited but much appreciated.

i recently learned that Manito Park is the number one attraction of Spokane according to tripadvisor. and i live a stone throw away, how awesome is that!
so pair that pleasant information with our love of taking long walks and there you have most of our saturday activity, best part, totally free.

we even saw a male dear prance about in the quieter parts of the park. so hello, it was like a safari...and i'm from Africa!

the evening ended with a 1.34 usd Redbox rental (Salmon fishing in the Yemen) and inexpensive red wine from Trader Joe's... because we think we're classy like that. fine the wine cost less than 3 dollars, not so classy after all.

sunday

i'll keep it short.

church

a quick drive to River state park, thanks to our Discovery Pass we can do things like that now. at 10 usd for a day pass and 30-35 usd for an annual pass, it made a great gift and might be abused once we hit the warmer months.

the grand finale of the lovely weekend, and plans to be for the next few weekends was of course the 2 hour season premier of Downton Abbey. yup, i'm one of those. ben not so much so he just read intelligent stuff.

photo found here

sigh, looking forward to next weekend already...