Looking for an affordable, quick getaway this summer that is close to Spokane? Check out the line-up at the 29th annual Festival at Sandpoint, which runs the evenings of August 4–14: Rickie Lee Jones, Brandi Carlile, Chris Isaak, Josh Ritter, Michael Franti, Rodney Crowell, and David Nail, plus a family concert by the Spokane Youth Orchestra and a Spokane Symphony grand finale with fireworks. Click here for a full schedule.
The non-profit Festival at Sandpoint brings big acts to the area for casual outdoor concerts at War Memorial Field (855 Ontario St., Sandpoint, ID) right on the shore of beautiful Lake Pend Oreille, the state’s largest and deepest lake. You can lounge in lawn chairs (bring your own or rent theirs), sit on a blanket, or sit in the grandstands. There are two areas where you can sit in lawn chairs. If you want to sit closer to the front, bring chairs with back legs that are four inches or less and backs that are shoulder height. Larger lawn chairs are allowed behind the blanket/short lawn chair section. There is also room to dance. Unlike most other outdoor music festivals, you are welcome to bring your own cooler and have a picnic, saving you a bundle, or you can try the food and drink for sale on “Festival Street.” Ticket prices are substantially less than typical concerts ($29.95–$49.95) at city venues, and the family concert (August 7), which features an instrument and animal petting zoo, face painting, and other activities for kids, is only $6. You can buy tickets online.
Sandpoint (population 6,800) is a 90-minute drive from Spokane, WA. There are plenty of things to do if you would like to make a mini vacation out of your trip, including golfing, Silverwood Theme Park/Boulder Beach Water Park, Lake Pend Oreille Cruises, and, of course, hiking and swimming (the lake warms up to temperatures in the 70s as summer progresses). Check out the Sandpoint Visitor Guide for more information.
The new venue is like nothing else in the Spokane area and will increase the number of national acts looking for mid-size venues stopping here. It can accommodate over 5,000 people. “We saw a great opportunity for a unique outdoor venue like this and hope it brings local and regional visitors alike together for fantastic events and concerts. In many cases, people will be able to see performers in Spokane they otherwise would have had to travel to Seattle or Portland to see,” said Phil Haugen, General Manager of Northern Quest.
Tickets start at $55; all seating is reserved. All concert tickets can be purchased by calling the Northern Quest box office at 1-877-777-5252 or by contacting TicketsWest at 1-800-325-7328 or www.ticketswest.com. Concert and hotel packages will also be available for each show by calling 1-877-871-6772 or online at www.northernquest.com. All concerts require guests 14 years or younger to be accompanied by an adult.
Save some money and stay in a luxurious suite at Stratford Suites Extended Stay Hotel (close to the airport and Northern Quest) when you see a show at Northern Quest this summer! Rates for concert nights start at just $124 for one- or two-bedroom suites with full kitchens, 50” HD-TV with DVD player, high-speed Internet, and a free shuttle. To reserve your room, call 509-321-1600 or 1-888-705-8877, or go to www.stratfordsuites.com.
Parking and driving around downtown can be a little challenging when Spokane is hosting 200,000 basketball players and fans, so you may want to consider taking the bus. On both days of Hoopfest, STA (Spokane’ bus system) is offering day passes for just $1.50, and there are two free park-and-ride lots. Check the website for more information on Hoopfest schedules—please note that the Plaza downtown will not be open to buses (to make room for Hoopfest!), so bus stops will be in alternate nearby locations.
In addition to loads of free live music and other entertainment at Hoopfest in downtown Spokane, including Hoopfest Saturday Night (DJ nightclub party) at the Lincoln Center (1316 N. Lincoln Street), here are some suggestions for making the most of your visit.
Catch a Live Show
Spokane has a thriving live music scene, with venues large and small, offering country, blues, rock, pop, and more. To pick out some good local live music, check out the Inlander’s live music calendar. There are also a couple of national acts in town on Hoopfest weekend. The infamous rock band KISS is performing at the Spokane Arena Friday night. Click here for tickets. The Judds play at Northern Quest Resort and Casino on Saturday night (see below).
Shopping with Local Flair
Riverpark Sqare in downtown Spokane is a great mall (and has a great movie theater with cushy couch-style seats), but think outside of the mall if you want a more uniquely Spokane shopping experience. If you are staying downtown or are downtown for the day during Hoopfest, walk east on Main Street to find a variety of locally owned businesses.
You’ll go by Auntie’s Bookstore, a large, wonderful, independent gem with a local gourmet café, Santé, in the same building. Closer to Division Street is Finders Keepers, a designer dress boutique, and Kizuri, a fair trade clothing and gift store, and more. Along the way, you’ll be tempted by local purveyors of food and drink.
Be sure to check out the wonderful, interactive da Vinci exhibit at the MAC Museum of Arts and Culture, which just opened this month. A big bonus is seeing the huge old houses of historic Browne’s Addition neighborhood, just west of downtown Spokane, where the MAC is located. For more information, check out our blog post on it.
Garland District
The Garland District is a quick drive or bus ride from downtown Spokane, and it is a great place to hang out and escape the crowds downtown during Hoopfest for awhile. Right away you’ll see the historic Garland Theatre at Maple and Garland, Spokane’s only independent “encore” theater, which runs second-run movies for just $3.50 all the time, so you can catch a flick in a beautiful old theatre for very little money. Stroll up and down Garland for great little locally owned shops and cafes, including the 1950s-style Ferguson’s Café and the Milk Bottle, a former ice cream parlor turned café that features a two-story milk bottle for a store-front. Other quirky local gems include the Blue Door Theatre, a family friendly improv. comedy group that performs every Friday and Saturday night, and Drop Your Drawers, a unique clothing consignment shop with everything from old sweaters to outrageous costume platform shoes. For nightlife, you can enjoy an old-fashioned drink at Bon Bon, the hippest bar on Garland, located inside the Garland Theatre building with an old-fashioned soda fountain/candy store feel and fixtures made from old movie reels.
This large resort near the airport has a lot more than just 46,000 square feet of gaming space. It also boasts the Inland Northwest’s only cigar room, several restaurants with casual to fine dining (if you’re vegetarian, try Fatburger’s veggie burger), a night club with entertainment seven nights a week, a sports bar with a 30’ x 10’ HD screen, and a full-service spa. The Judds are playing at Northern Quest’s new outdoor concert venue on June 25 at 7:30 p.m. Click here for ticket information.
Japanese Gardens at Manito Park. Copyright City of Spokane Parks and Recreation.
Find out Why We Say Spokane Is “Near Nature, Near Perfect”
Leonardo da Vinci was unquestionably a genius. Nearly everyone knows his name and the images of his most famous paintings, including the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. Less people are familiar with his other works of genius, including his many inventions, which were so far ahead of his time that few could be produced with existing materials and manufacturing methods. His inventions are still up-to-date 500 years after his death and are currently used in the aviation, war, maritime, and automobile industries. He was proficient in all areas of art, science, engineering, and music. The major traveling exhibit that opens at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC) in the gorgeous Browne’s Addition neighborhood in Spokane on June 3 aims to show how da Vinci mastered diverse subjects and fused them together through observation, insight, and inspiration. This unique exhibit includes sixty of da Vinci’s invention models with the same craftsmanship and beauty of the materials that the artist used in the 15th century.
Visitors can view twenty-three made-to-scale replicas of da Vinci’s artistic masterpieces, watch videos about his life, hear music composed by the artist, and check out interactive inventions and machines from the four codices: flight, civil machines, hydraulics and engineering, and military machines. This is a rare opportunity to consider all of his artistic masterpieces together along with many of his other creations.
The exhibition has been hosted by major museums including the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois; The Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington; Exhibition Hall of the Eaton Centre, Montreal, Quebec, and the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History in Texas. It will run June 3 through September 5 at the MAC in Spokane, WA. The museum expects visitors from all over the region; if you are travelling here for the exhibit, Stratford Suites Spokane area extended stay hotel is close by and offers beautiful suites at affordable prices.
Tickets are available now through TicketsWest for Leonardo da Vinci: Man–Inventor–Genius, reserved by date and time. MAC members can buy tickets at a discount at the museum admissions counter (not restricted by date and time). If you are not a MAC member, this might be a good time to support the arts in Spokane and become one! Non-member exhibit prices are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors, and $8 for students.
On select Sundays, you can further explore the world of da Vinci at Renaissance Mix events at the MAC. These afternoon events include a cash bar with Italian wines, renaissance music performances, and lectures about the Age of Discovery. Suggested donation for Renaissance Mix afternoons is $8. I’ll see you there!
While you are in the Browne’s Addition neighborhood, it is worth your time to take a walking tour and see some of the incredible historic houses that Spokane’s oldest neighborhood is known for. The MAC has just released a Browne’s Addition walking tour e-book that works on Apple and Android smartphones, portable media players, and tablet computers. The route takes about an hour to walk. The tour e-book includes photos, architectural descriptions, and brief stories of fifty-four properties. This great new guide is free! Just download it and you will be on your way.
There is no event like Spokane Hoopfest. At this hugely popular annual 3-on-3 street basketball tournament, players of all experience levels and all ages (minimum age requirement for kids is to be entering the third grade in fall of 2011) can compete for the chance to win prizes while experiencing the exhilaration of playing with new people and being a part of a famously fun weekend that includes 14,000 basketball games and over 20,000 players from all over the country. Anyone who wants to play basketball is welcome, from beginners to those who qualify for the 3BA Elite Division, which often features former CBA and European professionals. Prizes are given to winners in each bracket. Games are played on courts set up across forty downtown city blocks.
If you want to play but missed the official deadline, it’s not too late! Registration will remain open as space allows, so go to the Spokane Hoopfest website to sign up before all the spots are taken. If you are not playing, odds are good that you know someone who is. In addition to cheering on your friends and family, you can see concerts and other entertainment, shop, browse booths from local organizations and businesses, watch the Marine Air Slam Dunk Contest, play games for prizes at the kid-friendly Safeco Zone, and enjoy delicious food and drink at the Washington Dental Service Foodfest in the west meadow of Riverfront Park.
Hoopfest is able to run so smoothly because hundreds of volunteer court monitors and other volunteers make it happen. If you are interested in volunteering, submit an application to earn the right to say “I helped run Spokane Hoopfest 2011.”
Spokane Hoopfest is an enormous festival and one of the city’s largest events, so parking downtown will not be easy. A better option is to take the Spokane Transit Hoop Loop. Every ten minutes during the festival, a bus will arrive at each park-and-ride lot to transport people to and from downtown Spokane. At only $1.50 per day to use the system and free parking at the park-and-ride lots, it’s a bargain. Go to the STA website for more information about times and locations.
Coming to Hoopfest from out of town? Watch this blog in the next few weeks for tips on making the most of your stay and saving some time and money!
If you only see one parade this year, make it the Spokane Lilac Festival’s Armed Forces Torchlight Parade on Saturday, May 21, the largest armed forces torchlight parade in the nation. You will see glittering, creative floats, the Lilac Queen and Princesses, cheerleaders, dance teams, and bands performing through the streets, as well as active and reserve military units. This year’s theme is “Ignite the Spirit of America.” Groups come from all over the Northwest and even Canada to participate. The parade begins at 7:45 p.m. and runs until 11:00 p.m.
Starting at 10:00 a.m., you can see some beautiful classic cars plus free music and entertainment all day at the Cruzin’ the Falls Car Show on Spokane Falls Boulevard. If you are one of the lucky owners of a classic or otherwise remarkable car that you want to show off, arrive at 9:00 a.m. for check-in, and you will also gain entry to the drive through of the parade route at 6:00 p.m. There will also be vendors in the park all day with a variety of merchandise as well as plenty of food. Kids of all ages who want to see the floats close up can view them on Fourth Ave. at Jefferson (under the freeway) all day while participants set up.
This is a very popular event, so if you want good seats, it is best to arrive as early as possible and stake your claim. Alternatively, you can purchase tickets for bleacher seats for $15. The bleachers will give you a fine view from the east side of Washington between Spokane Falls Boulevard and Main. Bleacher seat tickets can be purchased through the website.
Carbo-loading will take on a whole new meaning at the Booze Day 2011 pub crawl. The night before Bloomsday, hundreds of people hit the streets of downtown Spokane to race to numerous locally owned bars. Finishers who fill their official Booze Day cards with stamps from all participating pubs receive a commemorative T-shirt. Just like in the big event on Sunday, each racer receives a number card to wear, but, unlike Bloomsday, there really is no reason to hurry, as this event is not timed. Don’t worry, you needn’t have a drink at each location (or any location); it’s enough to just show up. Running shoes are optional, but you might want to wear a costume, as many teams of revelers dress up. Last year, Booze Day costumes included the Village People and wild 80s-themed running outfits.
The fun starts at the Baby Bar (corner of 1st and Lincoln, behind Neato Burrito) at 5:00 p.m. Saturday, April 30. The cost is $15 and includes a T-shirt if you hit all the participating pubs, all located in reasonable walking distance from the start point: Far West Billiards, Dempsey’s Brass Rail, The A-Club, Irv’s, Mootsey’s, and the Baby Bar.
Copyright Lilac Bloomsday Association.
If you haven’t signed up for Bloomsday 2011 yet and wish to do so, you can still register at Bloomsday check-in on Friday, April 29 from 11:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, April 30, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Spokane Convention Center (334 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard) for $30. The huge trade show at Bloomsday check-in is an event in and of itself, and it is free and open to the public. This is a great opportunity to check out the latest in all things fitness and running, from nutrition and wellness to shoes and clothing. Bloomsday participants must stop by to check in and pick up their numbers.
It may not feel like it with recent snow flurries and hail in parts of Spokane, but spring really is here. There are always plenty of beautiful, sunny days in the spring to get outside, and there are plenty of indoor great spring events for the not-so-pleasant days. Here are a few fun things to do in the Spokane area this season.
Race with 50,000 of Your Closest Friends at Bloomsday, May 1
If you want to register for the huge footrace/festival in downtown Spokane known as Bloomsday, which winds through some beautiful scenery, you can register online through April 17 ($15 plus an online processing fee of $1.49) or you can register by mail by April 12 using a Bloomsday form, available at numerous locations. If you miss those deadlines, you still have the opportunity to register late for $30 at Bloomsday check-in on Friday, April 29 from 11:30 a.m.–8:00 p.m. and Saturday, April 30 from 9:00 a.m.–6:30 p.m. at the Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. The race is open to runners, walkers, strollers, wheelchairs, and assisted wheelchairs. If you’d rather get in on the fun without actually walking or running 7.46 miles, stake out a place to watch early in the morning, or just go walk around and hang out downtown and in Riverfront Park, soaking up the festive atmosphere and enjoying the on-site entertainment.
Visit the River in Full Glory
Spokane River during the very high water spring of 2008. Posted by John Davies on ADVrider.com.
A simple pleasure for Spokane residents, the river that runs through the heart of our city never fails to impress visitors. During the spring, the Spokane River swells with runoff, and water rises to its highest point all year, creating an incredible sight of roaring, rushing water. Photographers are frequently seen with tripods at various viewing points, trying to catch the perfect Spokane River shot. Riverside State Park, especially around the Bowl and Pitcher area, is a beautiful natural environment to view the river in. Although many hiking areas are still muddy during the spring, there are plenty of great places to walk along and view the river that are paved. Riverfront Park downtown offers plenty of paved trails and walking bridges to view the falls area, and you can easily make a day out of it with an IMAX movie, a ride on the Spokane Falls Skyride, and a go–around on the historic Looff Carousel. The paved Spokane River Centennial Trail follows the river from the Idaho state line to Nine Mile Falls and also makes for a scenic spring bike ride. Or, you can pack a picnic lunch and head to one of the many Spokane parks that are right on the river. Click here for a map of the city park system.
If you like browsing antique shops, here is a show that is the equivalent of dozens of antique shops put together, with over 300 dealers from all over the U.S. to answer your questions and chat with you about the joy of collecting really old stuff. The 75,000 square feet of merchandise will be on display at the Spokane Fair & Expo Center (corner of Broadway & Havana) Friday through Sunday, April 29–May 1. Admission is $6 for the entire weekend, and parking is free. Appraisers will be on hand Saturday and Sunday to put a price on your treasures; the $5 per item fee benefits the MAC Museum.
Spring Barrel Tasting, May 6–8 On Mother’s Day weekend, all 17 of the Spokane Winery Association wineries open their doors to the public to celebrate the traditional end of one winemaking season and the beginning of another. You can sample new and current vintages, talk to the winemakers, and enjoy the company of other wine lovers at this fun and popular event. Some of the wineries will even offer samples of wine still in the wine-making process, directly from barrels or tanks. The wineries will offer snacks, and many will be featuring food and wine specials. Reasonable tasting fees may apply; tasting fees are usually credited to a wine bottle purchase. Plan your trip with a map of the wineries. Tasting hours are Friday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The Northwest’s largest theme park, located on Highway 95 just minutes north of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, opens May 7. While the Boulder Beach Water Park does not open until June 4, spring is a great time to experience the rides and attractions of Silverwood with less crowds and less time spent waiting in line. The rainy season usually clears up in May, and there will be plenty of sunny, warm days that are perfect for screaming on roller coasters. General admission is $41.99 for adults and $21.99 for ages 3–7 and 65+, so if you pay general admission and plan on going to the park at least four times this year, you will save by purchasing a season pass for $139.99, which also gives you free parking, additional discounts, and the ability to load up your card with money and use it anywhere in the park. A tip for spring Silverwood visits: as the weather can be unpredictable, bring an extra change of clothes in the car so you have something to change into if being soaked by Thunder Canyon leaves you cold.
Gardening is a favorite spring activity for many Spokane area residents, and this is your chance to meet other gardeners, check out the newest and coolest plants, and learn tips and techniques for all kinds of gardening, including indoor gardens and organic practices. The Inland Empire Gardeners host the fair, which has over 250 booths, a lecture series, door prizes, and children’s activities. If you are new or just interested in starting to grow plants at all, don’t be intimidated, as this show focuses on “real gardens, by real people” and “down-to-earth ideas that inspire rather than intimidate.” The Spokane Garden Expo is May 14, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Spokane Community College Lair, 1810 N. Green St. Admission and parking are free!
Travel Spokane is a website built to inform Spokane visitors about the latest news, events, and opportunities in Spokane. This information is provided free courtesy of Stratford Suites. If you are looking for Spokane hotels be sure to check out our website at www.stratfordsuites.com
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