Washington Recharge

Mary and I spent this past weekend in Spokane, Washington for the highly anticipated wedding of Linda (Mary's cousin) to Pedro.  We'd been looking forward to the trip for months for many reasons.  It gave us a chance for a nice break from all the hectic activities that are wedding planning.  It also gave us a chance to spend some time with Mary's parents and extended family.  There are too many great pictures from this trip to include in my already-long post, so I created a separate page just for them here.

We flew from Chicago to Seattle last Thursday night, a four hour flight.  We then drove a rental car from Seattle to Spokane, a four and half hour drive.  Needless to say, it took a little while to get there!  We also had the pleasure of sharing the weekend with several thousand basketball players and fans.  Considering their numbers, though, it was only a minor inconvenience on our weekend.

On Friday, we met Mary's parents for a late breakfast at their hotel, which was very nice by the way and where the reception was to occur.  First on the agenda was a winery tour and tasting at Arbor Crest, just 15 minutes from downtown Spokane.  The grounds were really amazing.  I think we spent more time looking around and taking pictures than we did during the actual tasting!

After buying a few bottles of wine, we headed back downtown.  We drove around looking for good views of the Spokane Falls and ended up at Anthony's restaurant for dinner with a spectacular view of the falls!  Although we took several pictures, here we spent more time inside than out.

After dinner, Mary and I went back to our hotel to relax.  All the eating and drinking wore us out!  Later that night, we met up with some of the bridal party for post-rehearsal-dinner drinks for more catch-up time.  It was at this point that Mary discovered the Huckleberry Riesling.  More on that in a bit.

Saturday was the wedding.  The ceremony was really nice at the church right on Gonzaga's campus.  To kill some time after the ceremony, we went with Mary's parents to one of the restaurants at their hotel.  This is when I discovered the Huckleberry Riesling!  This wine was really good.  We kept saying that we had to find out where to get it.  A couple of glasses later it was time for the reception.  I'll let Mary talk more about the wedding ceremony and the reception, but I can say that it was a really good time.

Sunday morning, we met up with some of Mary's family for breakfast at the hotel.  Afterwards, Mary and I walked around town for a bit, stopping occassionally to watch a basketball game.  We eventually found ourselves on the Riverfront Park Skyride going right over Spokane Falls.  As you can see from the pictures, this could have been the best $7/each we spent in a long time!

After walking around for a bit, we went back to the hotel to meet up with Mary's parents.  Mary was able to find out that the Huckleberry Riesling was from a winery called Latah Creek, which was only 10 miles away from downtown Spokane!  With that new discovery, the four of us were off again.  The scenery wasn't nearly as impressive as Arbor Crest, but the wine was great.  So great, in fact, that Mary and I bought a whole case of wine :)

We closed out Sunday evening with one last dinner at the hotel, went to Sunday evening mass, then had a last drink and dessert with some of the family.  Monday morning we checked out of the hotel and began the four and half hour drive back to Seattle, not without stopping at Snoqualmie Falls, though.  Another four hour flight from Seattle and a short cab ride, and we made it back to the city around 10:30pm last night.

It was one of the best trips I've had in a long time.  The scenery was amazing, the time with Mary's family was great, and wine was awesome!