1. Around 10 this morning, I hopped in the Sube and blasted up to the VFW Hall in Osburn where they serve a fund-raising breakfast on the fourth Saturday of every month. DJ and Eileen always work this breakfast, so I knew I'd see them and, upon arriving, I saw that Ginger was just finishing her breakfast. So, one of the women at the food counter served me a huckleberry pancake, a sausage, and some scrambled eggs. I poured myself a coffee and shot the breeze with Ginger. I'm going to Missoula for a concert on August 9th at the Wilma (I'll see Tommy Emmanuel and Jerry Douglas) and I know Ginger has been going to the Wilma for years so we talked about Missoula a bit and she reminded me to be sure to go to Butterfly Herbs and check out their herbs and spices for cooking. I'll do that.
2. From Osburn, I drove straight to Spokane. I'd never been to Spokane's REI store, so I popped in to check out hiking books and maps. I left, and for old time's sake, I parked in the old Parkade building, and walked down to Auntie's Bookstore and looked at more hiking books and purchased a couple.
If I'm going to go on more of these day trips, I've got to remember bring water. I was feeling a little sluggish today and realized that my breakfast had dehydrated me. I left Auntie's, walked over to the Interstate Performance Hall to possibly buy some concert tickets, but the box office was closed, so I went to the Onion at Riverside and Bernard and ordered a Caesar salad topped with fried oysters and I drank about two pints of water and another two pints of Coca-Cola with lemon.
I sat for quite a while in the Onion, rehydrading, enjoying my salad, and thinking about good times I'd had when I last lived in Spokane over thirty-five years ago. I remembered my first visits to the Onion, dinners just around the corner at the St. Regis restaurant, downtown record stores, the Inland Bookstore, the many concerts I attended at the Opera house, the walks I used to take through the skywalks, the (for me) grandeur of the Crescent department store and the Bon Marche, and all those movies at the Magic Lantern. Of course, the downtown Spokane living in my sweet memories is gone. I accept that. I found myself hoping that I'll come back to Spokane more often and come to enjoy the current eateries and taphouses, the music venues I've never been to, and go to a movie or two at the Magic Lantern in its new location.
3. Rehydrated and energized by my long nostalgic ponderings at the Onion, I returned to the Sube and headed out to Spokane Valley where I planned to see about buying some spices at Damas, a Middle Eastern grocer. I got there in no time. From the street, I could see it was empty. A "For Lease" sign streamed across the window. I am going to have to be patient and do more research, looking into other grocers to buy unsual spices -- or, of course, buy spices online. For Christmas (or was it my birthday?), Carol gave me a superb cookbook of vegetarian Middle East recipes. I want to use the spices some of these recipes call for and, ideally, I'd like to smell them before I buy them. For now, unless Penzeys or Silk Road or Amazon can program a click and sniff feature on their websites, I am going to continue to search for brick and mortar establishments that might carry these spices. (Eventually, I'll surrender, and buy online, but not right away!)
Leaving Spokane, I continued to listen to the cd, Dear Jerry: A Celebration of Jerry Garcia. It features performances by a variety of artists paying tribute to Jerry Garcia by covering a variety of Grateful Dead tunes. When this concert happened, on May 14, 2015, I lived only twenty miles away from where it took place, in Columbia, MD. I just looked it up on my blog. That night, I cooked dinner for Debbie, Molly, Olivia, David, and me and, the next day, Debbie and I drove up to Nyack, NY to see Adrienne and Jack. I loved that trip. I always loved fixing food in Greenbelt. But, I'm a little ticked off at myself that I didn't even know this concert was happening in Columbia and now, listening to this cd, I realize I missed an epic show.
Listening to Los Lobos, O.A.R., moe., Widespread Panic, and others filled me with road joy before I made a couple of stops in CdA to buy grains, tofu, and other groceries at Pilgrim's and Costco. At Pilgrim's, I had a wonderful conversation with MaryKay Hanson and learned that she is recovering splendidly from knee replacement surgery and that I might see her at St. Luke's at the 10:30 service.
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