spokane and our first rain

We headed out for Spokane today after a brisk 6am walk to downtown Hood River (we did the trip five times yesterday for a total of about 15 miles). It's a great walk taking you through the garden like homes to the downtown which overlooks the Columbia river. This early in the am, however, we don't see any of the kites but it's still beautiful if a bit overcast today.
We head to Maryhill museum, a mixture of Kitsch and kind of sort of high brow art: think Hudson river school meets the Simpsons, or Russian royalty meets American Indians. So, we got to see a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. I'll have to say that my favorite part of it was the outside sculpture gardens and the peacocks which yelled at us continuously and the views of the Columbia river. the sculptures were those created by Northwest Artists invited to submit their creations and they ran the gamut from a wood shingled "privy" like thing to a beautiful colored steel flower.
I wasn't so enamored with the inside.
Next, we attemtped to stop at a monastery that promised Greek pastries, but they were closed (Hello, it's sunday!). then we were going to have a traditional native American meal at the yakama Cultural Center in Toppenish, WA. However, they were serving a pancake breakfast which I am not too keen on. People were lined up outside the door, however. We left and had a picnic at the Vernita Bridge overlooking Hanover Reach. Mom had peanut butter and pickles, Asha had slices of salami and a pound of fresh Hood river raspberries, I had the best! I had a slice of bread (the heel which is my favorite cause it's so tasty) topped with sweet hot mustard (lots of it) and hot and sweet pickles and salami and after each bite a few hot fries. Yum. My favorite picnic food. i also had some fantastic Hood river sweet cherries. We stopped yeserday at the apple Market, a farmers market like stand where Mom had the best huckleberry shake.
About 10 miles out of Spokane, we hit the rain.