March Madness will storm into Spokane on Friday, March 19 with the first and second rounds of the NCAA 72nd annual Division 1 Men’s Basketball Championship, hosted by Washington State University. Two sessions will be held on Friday and one session on Sunday, March 21, 2010 (six games total) at the Spokane Arena. If you are traveling to Spokane, WA to be a part of the excitement, Stratford Suites Extended Stay Hotel is accepting reservations for the weekend of the event now and has some great shop-and-stay packages.
copyright 2010 NCAA.com
Pairings will be announced Sunday, March 14, 2010, at 6 pm Eastern time on CBS.
After the first and second rounds, regionals will take place at the end of March, leading to the Final Four on April 3rd and 5th for the championship in Indianapolis.
Stratford Suites’ luxurious rooms all include kitchenettes and 50” hi-definition televisions so you can kick back on our comfortable leather furniture and keep up on the results of the other March Madness games happening across the country.
The 1st and 2nd Rounds of March Madness will be in Spokane on March 19th and 21st, 2010. Be sure to book your stay at Stratford Suites early to get your room. In-between Spokane games, keep up with games across the country on a 50″ HDTV in your room while enjoying leather furniture, and kitchens.
Book your suite today by calling 509-321-1600 or 888-705-8877
The 34th annual Lilac Bloomsday Run will be held in Spokane, WA on Sunday, May 2, 2010. This huge road race, which is open to all runners, walkers, wheelchairs, assisted wheelchairs, and strollers, consists of a scenic 12 km (7.46 miles) loop that begins in downtown Spokane and travels northwest along the far west end of town. The course passes by Mukogowa Ft. Wright Institute and Spokane Falls Community College before heading up Doomsday Hill and back downtown. The deadline for registration is April 13; you can register online at the official website. The cost is $15, which includes a t-shirt for all finishers.
Bloomsday has been a member of the ARRA and PRRO Circuits of major U.S. running events, and in 1996 Bloomsday hosted the first PRRO World Road Running Championships. Over the years, the race has been featured in Runner’s World and The Runner magazines, as well as on television on ESPN, Fox Sports Northwest, and the Outdoor Life Network. The first race took place in 1977 with over a thousand runners, and 112 “perennials” have been in the race every single year.
First Bloomsday poster, designed by Bob Runkle.
Last year, Bloomsday counted 51,259 participants. Over 20,000 of these racers were from out-of-town, so it is a good idea to book your Spokane hotel room early. Stratford Suites has beautiful one- and two-bedroom suites available to comfortably accommodate Bloomsday travelers. Our pillow-top mattresses and down feather pillows feel great after the big run!
In addition to the famous road race, Spokane’s Bloomsday hosts one of the nation’s largest free trade shows devoted to fitness, health, and running. It is free to the public and open Friday, April 30 and Saturday, May 1, next to Bloomsday Check-In at the Spokane Convention Center (Group Health Exhibition Hall), 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd (just east of the DoubleTree Hotel Downtown City Center). Business travelers enjoy Stratford Suites Extended Stay Hotel’s many amenities, including high-speed internet, executive style shuttle service, video conference room, all-leather furniture, and fine kitchenettes. Our hotel is located just five minutes from the airport, with easy access to downtown Spokane.
In case you were wondering, the name “Bloomsday” was given to the race by founder Don Kardong, a local runner who competed in several national class road races before and after his participation in the 1976 Olympic Marathon. The name joins Spokane’s favorite flower to the word used by author James Joyce scholars to describe the day of events in the novel Ulysses. According to Kardong, a road race is an odyssey, not unlike the one Ulysses endured in his return to Ithaca after the Trojan War, a journey described in great detail by the Greek poet Homer. In 1917, James Joyce wrote Ulysses about one day in the life of a man (Leopold Bloom) in Dublin, Ireland. Bloom spends the day wandering through the streets of Dublin in a rough parallel of his Greek counterpart Ulysses, and that day (June 16) is celebrated worldwide by Joyce fans as “Bloomsday.”
The Lilac Bloomsday Run is right around the corner on Sunday, May 2, 2010. The 12 kilometer (7.46 miles) race had 51,259 registrants last year, 42,477 of those finished and got their exclusive finishers t-shirt. The 34th annual Bloomsday Run is expected to be even larger and more fun.
Book your room at Stratford Suites today for the best rates and to make sure there is still room available. Our suites feature 1 or 2 bedrooms, kitchens, 50″ HDTV, Leather furniture and more. Book online or by calling 509-321-1600 or 888-705-8877.
On April 7–11, 2010, giant, life-size dinosaurs will once again roam the earth, taking over the Spokane Arena. Based on the award-winning BBC television show, this incredible spectacle features “a whole menagerie of creatures, many of which have never been seen outside the pages of scientific journals,” according to Tim Haines, creator and BBC series producer of Walking with Dinosaurs. If you enjoyed the blockbuster film Jurassic Park or have ever marveled at dinosaur fossils in a museum or illustrations of dinosaurs in a magazine, then you will be blown away by this realistic sensory experience of being transported 65 million years back in time. Seventeen dinosaurs, representing ten different species, move, roar, and look just like the originals in this live performance.
The thrilling display even replicates the earthquakes, volcanoes, and comet impacts of the Triassic and Cetaceous periods (208–144 and 144–65 million years ago, respectively), but this show is suitable for all ages. Adults and children alike will be enthralled. Book your family’s adventure soon—when the show came to Spokane in 2007, shows sold out! An ideal Spokane area hotel to stay at, especially if you are bringing children to the show, is Stratford Suites. The two-bedroom suites provide privacy for families, and a fully equipped kitchen in every suite gives you the convenience and affordability of eating in.
Come watch the Ornithocheirus, the largest creature to ever fly, the Allosaurus, known as the lion of the Jurassic, the T-Rex, king of prehistoric predators, and other amazing favorites come to life this April. Get ready for the show by designing your own virtual dinosaur, piecing together a dinosaur from skeleton pieces, and playing a game of digging for dinosaurs at the Walking with Dinosaurs website.
Walking with Dinosaurs tickets are available through TicketsWest, or just go to the Spokane Arena website. When you book your luxurious, fully-furnished suite at Stratford Suites hotel, be sure to check out our shop and stay packages for a weekend of Spokane shopping and fun.
Copyright 2008 Gonzaga University School of Law / Copyright 2008 Tomato Street
If you are staying at Stratford Suites extended stay hotel or another Spokane area hotel during the week and looking for a local insider sports hangout, check out Tomato Street Italian restaurant on Tuesday nights for a Zags radio show. As the friendly bartender who recently served me there explained, the “GU Coaches Show” is a radio show featuring interviews with the Gonzaga University Bulldogs men’s and women’s basketball coaching staff, with occasional appearances by head coach Mark Few and team players. It originates from Tomato Street and is broadcast on Sports Radio 1510 KGA every Tuesday from 7–8 p.m. Tom Hudson, the radio voice of the Zags, hosts.
Tomato Street is a 9,000 square foot family Italian restaurant with a full bar, located at 6220 North Division Street,
Spokane, WA. Kids are kept happy with fun and quirky touches like clay to shape and crayons to color the paper table coverings. Bonus: This is one of the few restaurants in Spokane to offer whole wheat pasta, and special requests seem to be no problem: a few people in our thirty-five person group (yes, they can accommodate large groups, call 509-484-4500 for reservations) needed dairy-free, and the server happily honored our requests for unbuttered bread and an off-the-menu pasta creation.
Travel Spokane is a website built to inform Spokane visitors about the latest news, events, and opportunities in Spokane. The information is provided free courtesy of Stratford Suites. If you are looking for a Spokane Hotel be sure to check out our website at www.stratfordsuites.com
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On April 7–11, 2010, giant, life-size dinosaurs will once again roam the earth, taking over the 
Come watch the Ornithocheirus, the largest creature to ever fly, the Allosaurus, known as the lion of the Jurassic, the T-Rex, king of prehistoric predators, and other amazing favorites come to life this April. Get ready for the show by designing your own virtual dinosaur, piecing together a dinosaur from skeleton pieces, and playing a game of digging for dinosaurs at the 
