Fresh Starts

Confession time…Despite all of its wonderful features, Spokane wasn’t our favorite assignment. Sure, the city had a lot going for it.  The terrain was beautiful, the parks were excellent, we both ran some fun races, and the people were really friendly.  But as a whole, our time there never really came together.

The hospital that Chrysa worked at was understaffed so she would only get a schedule a week in advance. This wouldn’t ordinarily be a problem for us.  We are both very flexible in how we deal with things (you have to be in our line of work) but we had unique challenges this time around.  Everything would have come together just fine if I ended up working part time as expected.  That didn’t happen.  I was supposed to be a part time employee working 25-30 hours a week.  It ended up being 40 to 50 hours a week.  The result was that our schedules never clicked and we didn’t get time together to really explore the town properly.  Additionally, we had just plain bad luck.  When we did have a day off they never corresponded, the weather was occasionally uncooperative, the cat passed away, and I got into a car accident.

Despite my crabbing above, we did have a nice time, and I would recommend to anyone to pay Spokane a visit. In fact, here’s a partial list of must see and do’s while you are there.

• Riverside Park
• Riverfront Park
• Run the Centennial Trail
• Arbor Crest Winery
• Gonzaga Campus
• Iron Goat Brewing
• Max at Mirabeau
• Visit Coeur d’Alene
• Visit Green Bluff
• Run with the Flying Irish
• Do the Bloomsday Run
• Eat-in or get take-out from Bangkok Thai (valley location)
• Get pizza from Lalo’s in the valley (located in a train!)

It’s interesting how our luck started to change as soon as we left Washington State. As soon as we entered Idaho I felt a different vibe in the air.  Both Chrysa and I were very pumped to arrive in Iowa and see what our newest location was like.  We were looking forward to get back small town life.  In fact, we got a sneak peak of small town life as we drove through the really rural states of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Minnesota.

One of our stops was in Bozeman Montana, a place Chrysa described as “freaking adorable”. We were actually there on my birthday and we got a chance to have a real sit down dinner in a swanky bar/restaurant.  The place is called Cooper Whiskey Bar & Grill, and it was shockingly good.  I decided to go with the BBQ sampler platter (because vegetables are an afterthought in Montana) and it quite frankly blew my mind.  The brisket was delicious with an amazing sauce, the chicken was hyper smokey and wonderfully tender, and the smoked kielbasa was wonderful served with a creamy mustard sauce.  I followed the meal with a flight of Montana Whiskeys and was in heaven.  A special shout out to the Montana rye whiskey, I should have bought a bottle.

I kinda hate my birthday (turning 40 doesn’t help) but the awesome dinner spot Chrysa picked, and the positive vibes of the road trip, really made the day extraordinary. We arrived in Iowa after great food, great whiskey, and a great road trip.  If this is a sign of things to come, then Iowa may end up being our favorite assignment.

Who knows…

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