We ate the stash of bananas, protein bars and whatever else we had just to get us by because we weren't going to have time to sit and eat breakfast. We had to be at the museum by 9ish so we could get a good spot in line and it was going to take a half hour to get to Spokane from where we were. I chose the 10 a.m. time so we could get our museum time done in the morning and have the afternoon to just do without a time limit. We made sure we had everything because we weren't coming back until we were done with out day and hopped into the Escape. I plugged in the address to the museum because I had no idea where to go.
It took us to the west side of Spokane where the old houses were. We found a parking spot near the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and discovered that we got there way too early. Trish and Ben walked to the nearest coffee shop while mom and I stayed behind and walked around the museum's campus, we weren't coffee drinkers.
We saw some really interesting statues that really seemed out of place for a museum like this and some that did belong here. One of them looked like a Goldfish cracker with legs.
We also walked down the street to see some of the old houses. Several of them were pretty cool.
About a half hour later, Ben and Trish come walking up finishing the last few sips of their coffee. They walk around a bit while I stand near the doorway. I wanted to be the first group in just because I was that excited. The museum crew told us it would be just a few minutes and then we could go in. They all had to get into their spots and make sure everything was covered before they let the herd in. Once the doors were unlocked we went to the check-in counter of people who pre-paid online. She handed us a booklet and gave us replica boarding passes similar to the ones the actual passengers got when they boarded the Titanic.
I was given the boarding passes and so I handed them out. We were suppose to check which actual passenger we got to experience their journey while on the Titanic and to see if we survived or not. We flipped our passes over and I knew exactly who I was and I knew I went down with the ship. I was Thomas Andrews, the ship's builder. Trish, my mom and Ben were passengers ranging anywhere between first class and third class. Out of the four of us, two of us survived and two of us didn't. The layout was in chronological order.
- The ideas, ship's layout, the building of the Titanic, the workers, hardships and the materials
- Getting it fitted, the trials, the changes, the actual launch and the deadlines
- Preparations for the journey across the Atlantic, the passengers, the coal, the ship's crew
- When the Titanic left the Southampton shipyard and the two stops it made, Cherbourg and Queenstown to pick up more passengers and supplies
- The four days it spent at sea towards New York
- The events leading up to the iceberg and the sinking
- The sinking and those events that took place via artifacts and people's eye witness testimonies
- People's actual belongings and pieces of the ship from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean that has been down there for over 80+ years...this was the surreal part for me
- Events that took place after the sinking including the lifeboats, the survivors, New York, gathering evidence and the people who didn't survive
- Trials and figuring out what happened along with the dedications to those who didn't survive
- Quotes from the passengers, pictures and scale models of the Titanic
When I was in the artifact room it literally blew my mind that I was looking at actual pieces of materials that belonged to actual people who were passengers on the Titanic. Growing up and learning about it, the Titanic just seemed like a story because it happened so long ago which makes it almost one of those urban legends you hear about. Looking at these items behind these temperature controlled boxes made it absolutely real to me. It's really hard to explain because it's something that you feel.
I was so happy I finally got to see this exhibit. When we exited Trish wanted to take the museum's pictures with a few Titanic backgrounds. We decided on two backgrounds and the lady taking the picture positioned us correctly. We did a lot of laughing but I thought the pictures turned out great! They were on Trish since she wanted to contribute to the weekend. She said she would send us the digital copies through email.
We all decided we needed lunch so I put Ben on top of that to find something in Spokane that was good, people raved about it and that we could sit down and relax while we ate it. Out of all the possibilities he found this sandwich shop in downtown called Domini Sandwiches. We found a parking spot literally right in front of the shop and we walked in. Right from the get-go they were friendly, sat us down and asked what we would like for drinks. We all got water and I got a Pepsi. She served us popcorn for snacking. We all looked at the menus and appreciated how simple they were. You chose your bread, meat and cheese and that's it and I loved it. You could also pick a full or a half a sandwich as well. Everything was local and the bread was made in the restaurant. Our waitress came back and we all ordered our sandwiches. I got homemade white bread, turkey and cheddar, it was also served with mayo and a pickle. I decided to get a whole sandwich so I could eat part of it later and so did Ben. Mom and Trish got the half sandwiches with their preferred ingredients.
While we waited and ate our food, the waitress and the host came by at different times to ask how the food was and why we were in town. We told them that we were in town for the Titanic exhibit and to go geocaching. They both asked what geocaching was and we explained it to them. They said it sounded like a lot of fun and you get to see a lot. We thanked them, paid for our meals and headed out to our next adventure. I gave them a great review on Facebook and recommended the place to people who love simple sandwiches.
Our first stop was the White Elephant store off of Division. Whenever I am in Spokane I try to make an effort to come here. It's some weird family tradition we have. My first time here was many years ago when our family came over here to meet our great uncle Bert, who lived near Loon Lake, just north of Spokane. Since then every time I am in town I visit. I took Ben here a few years ago for the first time and this time around we took Trish here for the first time. She said she had always wanted to stop in but never could find the time or ran out of time while visiting. We wandered around the store for a while. Mom found some cap gun caps for dad and I bought dad a White Elephant had for Father's Day and a stuffed animal chicken because I thought it was cool. I even played on the elephant outside before we left.
We all got back into the Escape and I plugged our first set of coordinates into the Nuvi. I was two caches from finishing all the counties in Washington. I needed Pend Oreille and Stevens county and they both were within reach this weekend. Let's go!
We followed Division all the way up to the junction of Hwy 2 towards Newport. I haven't been up this was since college when I went with Bri to visit her family in Chewelah for Easter one year. Luckily, Pend Orielle county wasn't too far from the Spokane county border. The cache, Pend Oreille County Park Entrance (GC6EAVJ) was just right outside the county park. When we got there, there was still some snow in places and the gate was closed.
It probably wouldn't open until Memorial Day weekend. We walked around the gate and I zeroed in on the cache while everyone else walked ahead of me. It was a container hanging from one of the smaller trees.
I signed everyone's name, put it back and then jogged to catch up with everyone. I guess everyone wanted to walk around and see at least part of the park. We enjoyed the area around the small creek for a bit before using the restroom and heading to our next county. I got me my Pend Oreille county!!
It actually started raining for a bit and stopped as we got lower in elevation into Deer Park. As the Nuvi navigated us to my last county so I could finish the counties of Washington state. I was super excited. Terra Cotta Eagle (GC5V1HE) was out in Clayton, basically the middle of nowhere off of Hwy 395. We pulled in and noticed a small drive in restaurant, a large gravel parking lot and a tiny military memorial with an eagle. It's got to be near the eagle. I didn't even need the coordinates or my phone to know where it was. I grabbed it and signed our names on it while Ben, Trish and mom waited in the Escape. I got my Stevens county and I am now down with all 39 counties in Washington state! I was so excited. I've been waiting to do this for at least four years but never had the time, money or transportation to get it done.
I had also set aside a lot of virtuals and earthcaches to go grab while we were here. On the way back down to Spokane we made a few stops. We headed back towards Hwy 2 via Deer Park. I told everyone, we had to get a cache in Deer Park since we were here. My great grandparents lived somewhere near Deer Park so it was a must to find one here. One with the most favorite points was at a roundabout near the high school. The bonus part to that was the cache was located off of Crawford Avenue. We parked at the grocery store kitty corner from where the cache, Dizzy Deer Park (GC25N8F) was suppose to be. After a few minutes of looking where a "magnetic" cache would be I ran out of spots to look. Trish walked up to an area I'd checked and she asked what this was. It was the cache, haha. I told her good job because both Ben and I overlooked it. It started sprinkling.
We had to get a picture of them next to the Crawford sign because it's their last name and why not? We put the cache back and headed back towards Spokane. I had a few more on my list that I wanted to get before it got dark. The first one, was a virtual, was way outside of Spokane almost on your way to Mount Spokane, down a dirt road. I wasn't really sure what or really where we were going to get this one. When we got there, we had to park the Escape near someone's driveway and walk to the location. Treaty Tree (GC8D8F) was basically a tree that you took a picture in front of. We had to post our picture to our log. Quick and easy. We got back into the Escape and headed to the next one.
I was trying to rack up as many points as I could for the Planetary Pursuit challenge that Groundspeak had us doing this spring. I stopped in Mead at a letterbox called, Mead Forest "Get a Smiley"-LBH (GC2C2JC). For some reason it took me a little bit to zero in on it. Everyone else stayed inside the Escape. If the cache is big enough I will use our stamps on the logbook.
As we entered town mom wanted to stop at Frank's Diner because it was a train restaurant and it looked really cool. We stopped while mom took pictures. I saw there was a cache nearby so we grabbed it and then came back for mom. It was one of those dumb lamp skirt caches but it added to my total for the weekend.
I plugged the coordinates to the next earthcache, The Centennial Trail: The Aquifer (GC6826) which took us along the Spokane River northeast of downtown. I would love to come back over here with my bike at some point and get a lot of the caches along this trail. But for now, we were here for a limited amount of time so we did what we could do. We parked at a small designated parking area for the trail and walked to the earthcache. There was a sign that we got to pull answers off of so I wrote them down and took a picture of the signs just in case we needed them later. We took our picture and got back into the Escape.
Our next virtual was Duncan's Delight (GC7B77Y) which took us over to Manito Park. This was the first time I had ever been here but I've heard a lot about it over the years. We headed towards south hill and made our way through the neighborhoods to the park. We found Duncan's Garden, parked and walked around for a bit. I wish this was later on in the spring when the flowers were out.
In 1904, ninety-five acres of land was donated to the City of Spokane. On May 19, 1904, Montrose Park had a new owner, the City of Spokane. At that time, the park was renamed "Manito," a Native American word meaning "a supernatural force that pervades nature."
For many years, Manito's main attractions were its exhibition gardens and small zoo. In 1912, a conservatory was added, followed by a three acre "sunken garden" in 1913.
By its Centennial Celebration in 2004, numerous additions and improvements have been made. Additional signage was introduced through the park; pergolas in the Rose Garden, changes in the Japanese Garden and the gazebo in Duncan Gardens all enhance the beautiful gardens.
Today the park is one of the few in the nation with such a diverse horticultural display. Manito Park has a reputation as the primary garden showplace in Spokane and is toured by over 150,000 visitors.
We made sure we got our picture at the fountain before we walked over to the other easy cache in the park by the gazebo. SHGT: Down by Duncan Gardens (GCMD96) had us looking all over the place because the coords would not settle down and the hint sucked. Eventually we found it after just looking in the right place. We also hung out at the Japanese Garden for a while. It would have been better once the flowers bloomed but we were here at the wrong time of year to see the flowers.
It was getting to be late in the day and we needed to start thinking about heading back to Coeur d'Alene. But first I wanted to see if there were any good things at the Goodwill. I Googled to see where the closest Goodwill was at we hit it up. There really wasn't anything that great so we moved on to the one closest to downtown. There was actually a cache nearby, Goodwill to All (GC2M25R) and I decided to grab it on the way out. I found a Lite Brite and a really cool sugar skull thing for Connie. We grabbed the cache and headed out back towards Idaho since it was getting dark.
Everyone was getting hungry so I had planned on using April's date night at Buffalo Wild Wings tonight in Idaho. I made sure to find the closest one to where we were staying and there was one just down the street. This was my first Idaho Buffalo and the place was set up differently than the ones I've been to in Washington and Oregon. We went in and sat down. I ordered my usual, Ben got his usual and mom and Trish ordered burgers. It was delicious and I always look forward to Buffalo night.I was so happy I finally got to see this exhibit. When we exited Trish wanted to take the museum's pictures with a few Titanic backgrounds. We decided on two backgrounds and the lady taking the picture positioned us correctly. We did a lot of laughing but I thought the pictures turned out great! They were on Trish since she wanted to contribute to the weekend. She said she would send us the digital copies through email.
We all decided we needed lunch so I put Ben on top of that to find something in Spokane that was good, people raved about it and that we could sit down and relax while we ate it. Out of all the possibilities he found this sandwich shop in downtown called Domini Sandwiches. We found a parking spot literally right in front of the shop and we walked in. Right from the get-go they were friendly, sat us down and asked what we would like for drinks. We all got water and I got a Pepsi. She served us popcorn for snacking. We all looked at the menus and appreciated how simple they were. You chose your bread, meat and cheese and that's it and I loved it. You could also pick a full or a half a sandwich as well. Everything was local and the bread was made in the restaurant. Our waitress came back and we all ordered our sandwiches. I got homemade white bread, turkey and cheddar, it was also served with mayo and a pickle. I decided to get a whole sandwich so I could eat part of it later and so did Ben. Mom and Trish got the half sandwiches with their preferred ingredients.
While we waited and ate our food, the waitress and the host came by at different times to ask how the food was and why we were in town. We told them that we were in town for the Titanic exhibit and to go geocaching. They both asked what geocaching was and we explained it to them. They said it sounded like a lot of fun and you get to see a lot. We thanked them, paid for our meals and headed out to our next adventure. I gave them a great review on Facebook and recommended the place to people who love simple sandwiches.
Our first stop was the White Elephant store off of Division. Whenever I am in Spokane I try to make an effort to come here. It's some weird family tradition we have. My first time here was many years ago when our family came over here to meet our great uncle Bert, who lived near Loon Lake, just north of Spokane. Since then every time I am in town I visit. I took Ben here a few years ago for the first time and this time around we took Trish here for the first time. She said she had always wanted to stop in but never could find the time or ran out of time while visiting. We wandered around the store for a while. Mom found some cap gun caps for dad and I bought dad a White Elephant had for Father's Day and a stuffed animal chicken because I thought it was cool. I even played on the elephant outside before we left.
We all got back into the Escape and I plugged our first set of coordinates into the Nuvi. I was two caches from finishing all the counties in Washington. I needed Pend Oreille and Stevens county and they both were within reach this weekend. Let's go!
We followed Division all the way up to the junction of Hwy 2 towards Newport. I haven't been up this was since college when I went with Bri to visit her family in Chewelah for Easter one year. Luckily, Pend Orielle county wasn't too far from the Spokane county border. The cache, Pend Oreille County Park Entrance (GC6EAVJ) was just right outside the county park. When we got there, there was still some snow in places and the gate was closed.
It probably wouldn't open until Memorial Day weekend. We walked around the gate and I zeroed in on the cache while everyone else walked ahead of me. It was a container hanging from one of the smaller trees.
I signed everyone's name, put it back and then jogged to catch up with everyone. I guess everyone wanted to walk around and see at least part of the park. We enjoyed the area around the small creek for a bit before using the restroom and heading to our next county. I got me my Pend Oreille county!!
It actually started raining for a bit and stopped as we got lower in elevation into Deer Park. As the Nuvi navigated us to my last county so I could finish the counties of Washington state. I was super excited. Terra Cotta Eagle (GC5V1HE) was out in Clayton, basically the middle of nowhere off of Hwy 395. We pulled in and noticed a small drive in restaurant, a large gravel parking lot and a tiny military memorial with an eagle. It's got to be near the eagle. I didn't even need the coordinates or my phone to know where it was. I grabbed it and signed our names on it while Ben, Trish and mom waited in the Escape. I got my Stevens county and I am now down with all 39 counties in Washington state! I was so excited. I've been waiting to do this for at least four years but never had the time, money or transportation to get it done.
I had also set aside a lot of virtuals and earthcaches to go grab while we were here. On the way back down to Spokane we made a few stops. We headed back towards Hwy 2 via Deer Park. I told everyone, we had to get a cache in Deer Park since we were here. My great grandparents lived somewhere near Deer Park so it was a must to find one here. One with the most favorite points was at a roundabout near the high school. The bonus part to that was the cache was located off of Crawford Avenue. We parked at the grocery store kitty corner from where the cache, Dizzy Deer Park (GC25N8F) was suppose to be. After a few minutes of looking where a "magnetic" cache would be I ran out of spots to look. Trish walked up to an area I'd checked and she asked what this was. It was the cache, haha. I told her good job because both Ben and I overlooked it. It started sprinkling.
We had to get a picture of them next to the Crawford sign because it's their last name and why not? We put the cache back and headed back towards Spokane. I had a few more on my list that I wanted to get before it got dark. The first one, was a virtual, was way outside of Spokane almost on your way to Mount Spokane, down a dirt road. I wasn't really sure what or really where we were going to get this one. When we got there, we had to park the Escape near someone's driveway and walk to the location. Treaty Tree (GC8D8F) was basically a tree that you took a picture in front of. We had to post our picture to our log. Quick and easy. We got back into the Escape and headed to the next one.
I was trying to rack up as many points as I could for the Planetary Pursuit challenge that Groundspeak had us doing this spring. I stopped in Mead at a letterbox called, Mead Forest "Get a Smiley"-LBH (GC2C2JC). For some reason it took me a little bit to zero in on it. Everyone else stayed inside the Escape. If the cache is big enough I will use our stamps on the logbook.
As we entered town mom wanted to stop at Frank's Diner because it was a train restaurant and it looked really cool. We stopped while mom took pictures. I saw there was a cache nearby so we grabbed it and then came back for mom. It was one of those dumb lamp skirt caches but it added to my total for the weekend.
I plugged the coordinates to the next earthcache, The Centennial Trail: The Aquifer (GC6826) which took us along the Spokane River northeast of downtown. I would love to come back over here with my bike at some point and get a lot of the caches along this trail. But for now, we were here for a limited amount of time so we did what we could do. We parked at a small designated parking area for the trail and walked to the earthcache. There was a sign that we got to pull answers off of so I wrote them down and took a picture of the signs just in case we needed them later. We took our picture and got back into the Escape.
Our next virtual was Duncan's Delight (GC7B77Y) which took us over to Manito Park. This was the first time I had ever been here but I've heard a lot about it over the years. We headed towards south hill and made our way through the neighborhoods to the park. We found Duncan's Garden, parked and walked around for a bit. I wish this was later on in the spring when the flowers were out.
In 1904, ninety-five acres of land was donated to the City of Spokane. On May 19, 1904, Montrose Park had a new owner, the City of Spokane. At that time, the park was renamed "Manito," a Native American word meaning "a supernatural force that pervades nature."
For many years, Manito's main attractions were its exhibition gardens and small zoo. In 1912, a conservatory was added, followed by a three acre "sunken garden" in 1913.
By its Centennial Celebration in 2004, numerous additions and improvements have been made. Additional signage was introduced through the park; pergolas in the Rose Garden, changes in the Japanese Garden and the gazebo in Duncan Gardens all enhance the beautiful gardens.
Today the park is one of the few in the nation with such a diverse horticultural display. Manito Park has a reputation as the primary garden showplace in Spokane and is toured by over 150,000 visitors.
We made sure we got our picture at the fountain before we walked over to the other easy cache in the park by the gazebo. SHGT: Down by Duncan Gardens (GCMD96) had us looking all over the place because the coords would not settle down and the hint sucked. Eventually we found it after just looking in the right place. We also hung out at the Japanese Garden for a while. It would have been better once the flowers bloomed but we were here at the wrong time of year to see the flowers.
It was getting to be late in the day and we needed to start thinking about heading back to Coeur d'Alene. But first I wanted to see if there were any good things at the Goodwill. I Googled to see where the closest Goodwill was at we hit it up. There really wasn't anything that great so we moved on to the one closest to downtown. There was actually a cache nearby, Goodwill to All (GC2M25R) and I decided to grab it on the way out. I found a Lite Brite and a really cool sugar skull thing for Connie. We grabbed the cache and headed out back towards Idaho since it was getting dark.
We grabbed one more letterbox cache on the way back to the hotel. Some of us got cleaned up before getting ready for bed while the Mariners played on the TV. I got on the computer to figure out what we were going to do tomorrow on our way back to the west side. Around 10 p.m. we all passed out. Today was fun but tiring. I was glad to have finally seen the Titanic artifacts that I've waited a few years to finally see.
Next Adventure: Old European, Aliens Among us and Heading Back to the West Side
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