1. Debbie and I often say to each other, "One of these days, we ought to just go to Spokane" -- do some shopping, visit a brewery, maybe have a meal, but just bounce around and have some fun.
But, we never do it.
Until today!
Debbie wanted to buy better shoes to teach in and so we went to this place in Kendall Yards, but once we got into the store, we realized it wasn't the right place. Neither of us wanted to be served by an outfitter, have our feet scanned, or be a part of the upscale vibe of this place. The store had a coffee shop, though, and I bought a Cafe Mocha and we left the store and departed from Kendall Yard.
2. Our next move was up in the air. We decided to buzz up on the South Hill and go to Trader Joe's and to buy some bread products at Great Harvest. For me, it's fun going to Trader Joe's with Debbie -- not only does it bring back some fun memories of visiting the Eugene store, but Debbie thinks of buying products that don't cross my mind. So I bought dried fruit and some cookies and Debbie loaded up on sauces and other products that we will use to make rice and pasta dinners with.
At Great Harvest (another place I enjoyed in Eugene), we were happy to see that today the store sold cinnamon bread as well as Dakota bread so we bought a loaf of each and a couple other items.
3. I wanted to take Debbie to Ya Ya Brewing in Spokane Valley. Back in September, I had brought home a couple of cans of their Fluffy Puffy Sunshine, a New England style IPA we both enjoyed. Today, Fluffy Puffy Sunshine was on tap, but it was not the same beer we had drunk at home. As breweries will do, Ya Ya brewed an experimental Fluffy Puffy Sunshine as more of a West Coast IPA, more hop forward, less, well, fluffy.
We agreed that as we got deeper into our 13 oz pour, we enjoyed the experimental Fluffy Puffy Sunshine more and more. Ya Ya also had another variation of Fluffy Puffy Sunshine in cans: a fresh hop Fluffy Puffy Sunshine. I bought a couple of four packs and I hope we enjoy this variation.
Sometime, though, I want to return to Spokane and whether it's at Huckleberries or a bottle shop or back at the Ya Ya tasting room, I'd like to buy cans of the original Fluffy Puffy Sunshine we enjoyed back in September.
Not far from Ya Ya sits Homestead Birkenstock and we stopped in at this shop so Debbie could continue her search for better shoes to wear at work.
Success! Debbie found a couple of pairs she liked and we rode this wave of success on into Coeur d'Alene and made a quick stop at Costco for fuel and Debbie bought a box of popcorn packets to give her students on Halloween.
We decided to have dinner at home, so we blasted back to Kellogg and Debbie fixed a pot of jasmine rice, cooked us each a salmon patty, opened a Trader Joe's bag of salad, and opened a jar of Trader Joe's Aioli Garlic Mustard Sauce, a sauce with a unique blend of potent flavors that perfectly enhanced the rice and fish.
I don't remember the last time Debbie and I spent an afternoon just bouncing around like this, going wherever we decided on the spot to go, and it made for a fun day of shopping, drinking a beer, and getting in some superb yakkin'.
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