Before we headed out of Calgary, we had one stop to make... the house where Adam was a baby. We had the address from his Mom loaded into the GPS, and off we went. It wasn't too hard to find, and I was impressed to see a "history plaque" in front of the house. (I have kind of an obsession with them, and usually photograph them (so I can remember the details) before I even read them. Which is what I did this time. And then I read it.
The first paragraph contained the usual stuff about this being a Heritage House that was over 100 years old... blah blah blah. But the second paragraph was all about these two architects who bought and renovated the house in the late 70s or early 80s "in keeping with their young, affluent, urban lifestyle." The architects in question? James Jones and Sarah Garrett Jones (Yes, that's right, the history plaque was all about Adam's parents! I was so jealous! So of course we took a bunch of photos (the house is beautiful, with cedar shingles all over the outside, a cute porch... sort of my dream house, really). Then, fancy coffees in hand, we turned the car towards the Crowsnest Pass.
We'd had some trepidation about taking a route that went through the mountains for such a long time, but we needn't have been. I'm sure the Pass is no fun during the winter, but it's probably still better than the Coquihalla. At this time of year, it's a dream - it's really almost all a natural mountain pass, with quite a bit of room at the edge of the highway before you see any cliffs or anything, and there seem to be hardly any places where they actually had to blast away bits of mountain.
It was a delightful drive, and we made excellent time, which combined with the fact that we gained another hour as we entered Idaho, meant that we had time to stop for a snack in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho, and still got to Spokane in time for a slightly late dinner. We checked into our hotel and then sought out one of the Spokane restaurants that have been featured on one of our favourite tv shows, "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives." The place was called Waddell's - named after Rube Waddell, a southpaw (or as his detractors called him in reference to his heavy drinking) "sousepaw" pitcher in the early days of professional baseball in the US. I don't know what other connection he had to Spokane or anything related to the restaurant business, but he does seem like the kind of guy you'd want to party with, so that's probably enough! (example fact: in the off season, he wrestled alligators.)
The food was amazing. Adam had some pretty impressive mac and cheese with sausage, and their signature cilantro coleslaw, and I had what was essentially a beef dip, but with lamb. OMFG it was delicious! Of course, it was also a near-ludicrous amount of food, so we gently drove ourselves home to the hotel, trying not to go over too many bumps, and watched some television while moaning quietly on the kingsize bed.
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