On Tuesday, I left Mt Rainier and Stewart’s remains and drove to Spokane, WA. A few days earlier, I had found out that my great grandmother grew up in Tenino, WA and used to get her Christmas trees from Mt Rainier. I decided to take a short detour on my way to Spokane to check out Tenino.

Tenino is tiny. Google says it has a population of 2,025. It has a main street and a park and the rest is residential. I wanted to buy a souvenir there, but it’s so tiny that they don’t have any. It was still nice to see where my great grandmother grew up.

In Spokane, I stayed with my friend Stephanie, her husband, Daniel, and her kids, Katie and Ethan. Steph is another Runkeeper alum. I was joking about living with Alicia in Squamish and being her nanny, but there’s a real job opportunity for me in Spokane. Steph’s live-in nanny is leaving soon and she’ll need to find a new one. She kept trying to convince me that winters in Spokane are mild so that I’d stay as her nanny. It’s actually a pretty good deal since I’d also get free housing. I don’t want to live that far from family, but I did really like Spokane, so who knows.

I arrived at Steph’s house in the evening and immediately got in her car to head to trivia at a brewery with some of her friends. I’m terrible at trivia and didn’t know almost any of the answers, but I was able to contribute with the name of a Jonas Brothers song. My high school obsession came in handy. We ended up tying for 4th place.

On Wednesday, I spent the morning between Steph’s beautiful patio and figuring out car stuff. In case you’ve forgotten, the fender liner over one of my tires fell off on my drive to Yellowstone. I had ordered the replacement part and sent it to Steph’s house, but it didn’t come with the clips I needed to attach it to the car. They didn’t have the clips at an auto parts store nearby, so I ordered them on Amazon. The clips didn’t arrive until my last day in Spokane, so I haven’t been able to attach the new part yet.

In the afternoon, Steph, Katie, Ethan, and I went downtown to the Riverfront Park. I was impressed by the lack of traffic in Spokane at peak rush hour times. At the park, Steph asked us if we wanted to feed the goat. None of us knew what goat she was talking about, but we all wanted to feed it. She made the kids eat some snacks. I thought it was so that they wouldn’t get hangry, but then I realized that they were necessary for the goat feeding because it was a garbage goat. There’s a button that you press for the suction to start and then you literally feed the goat your trash and it suctions it up into the trash can. It was pretty fun.

After feeding the goat, we went to the carousel. This carousel has a twist that makes it a little more fun. There’s a metal bar that extends towards the carousel and it has small rings at the end. If you’re tall enough to reach the rings, you can grab one and toss it at the garbage goat on the other side of the carousel. Katie isn’t tall enough to reach the rings yet, so I sat behind her and passed her the rings I got. I also got some for myself, but they never made it into the goat’s bucket. It’s a lot harder than it looks to toss a ring into a bucket while you’re on a moving carousel. After the carousel, the kids got ice cream and played at the park. Then we went to Steph’s church group and I got to meet more of her friends.

On Thursday, I woke up mentally and physically exhausted. I didn’t even have the energy to read or watch a show. When that happens, I know it’s really bad. So after breakfast, I took a 2 hour nap and then I had enough energy to watch a show. When Steph was done with work, we did an easy hike in Riverside State Park. I was glad that I didn’t do much earlier in the day because I had enough energy to be able to enjoy the hike and feel good after it.

After the hike, we went to dinner. Steph mentioned a place that has great burgers and then mentioned sushi as an option. I couldn’t decide between them since I really like both burgers and sushi, so we decided to get both because we’re adults and can do whatever we want. Steph only ordered an appetizer at the burger place, but I ordered the burger and ate only half of it and saved the rest for lunch the next day. Then we went to get sushi. At that point, it was starting to storm. There was lighting and the wind was starting to pick up. The sushi place was close to the Spokane Falls so we looked at those on our way there. Then we sat on the patio of the restaurant so we could enjoy the storm.

A few minutes later, the wind really picked up and it was blowing the rain towards us, so we went inside. It was good that we did because a few minutes later, the wind was so strong that it blew tables, chairs, and plant pots over. The sushi was great, but getting back to the car was not. The storm had mostly passed over us by the time we left, but it was still raining and we had parked about a 3 minute walk away, so we had to run to the car to avoid getting soaked. Steph trains for marathons, but I hadn’t run in years. Between running and the cooler air making it harder to breathe, I felt like I was dying. Fine, I’m exaggerating a bit, but it was very hard and I didn’t like it. I had to catch my breath for a few minutes once we got to the car.

On Friday, I walked a small part of the Centennial Trail, a 40 mile path that goes through Spokane and all the way to Idaho. In the evening, we drove to Steph’s family’s cabin in Coeur d’Alene, ID where I spent one night before continuing on to my next destination.