We ventured back into old town mainly because we were told by a local to not miss the old hardware store.  The kids were told that they had “old fashioned” toys that were out in the open to play with and also available for purchase. 

I must say it was a cool looking hardware store, far different than your local Home Depot.

As for the toys, I liked the fact that most were made out of wood.  Many were the standard puzzle type games/toys that can be found just about anywhere.  They were super expensive and the kids did not want to use their money here.  It is funny how they think twice about their purchasing when it is their money involved, not mine.  

Freya spent more time playing on this box (pictures behind her) than she did in the hardware store.

 

We had some fun taking photos in a little park we found at the bottom of these stairs.  This was the street level at some point in time, although the sign at the park didn’t explain when or why… or at least I can’t remember if it did.

 

                

 

How could we leave the heart of the 1848 California Gold Rush without sifting for a little gold ourselves… well, fools gold.  And if anybody was going to find it, it was going to be this guy.

 

11/18/2014

Three reasons why I loved this science center:

1.  It was empty.  Which was great for us, but I assume not good for the science center.

2.  There was something for all 4 kids 6 of us.

3.  We saw things here that we hadn’t yet seen elsewhere.  After stopping at so many science/discovery museums things are all starting to look the same… this wasn’t the case here.

 

The main exhibit here is a T-Rex named Sue.  This particular T-Rex is about 90% complete, the most complete T-Rex ever.  We aren’t much into dinosaurs, so as impressive as this dinosaur was, my kids didn’t stop for a second to check it out, especially when they spotted exhibits that involved water.

As a side note,  you may notice that the quality of some of these pictures are superb.  That is because the day we were here there was also a photography student here.  He was taking lots of pictures of Sue and then he asked if he could take some pictures of us and the kids.  I said sure and the next day he sent us some of the pictures he took.

Meet Sue.

 

I have to be honest, I’m not sure what they are looking at here but it must have been interesting.

 

Listening to the radio by biting on the straw.

 

Jeff and Korben spent a lot of time at this tube wall, creating the prefect path for a traveling ball. Between the water exhibits and this wall, it was like Korben had died and went to heaven. 

 

My personal favorite, the paper airplane shooter.

Airplane Construction.

And shoot…

 

While Jeff and the girls were shooting paper airplanes Koah was creating his own flying object with a paper cup and a fan.

 

But even better than the airplane shooter was watching Koah’s hair stand on its end.  For some reason this struck us all as very very funny.  Koah placed his hands on this large silver ball while Kenzie turned a crank, creating static electricity.   I know I know… it’s not nearly as funny for you as it was for us.  But you gotta love Koah’s face here.

 

A few other highlights.

 

As you can see here we had the place to ourselves, which always helps to make for a stress free day (mostly).

 

I highly recommend this science center.  We spend a good portion of our day here and it was well worth the stop.  It is in the heart of downtown Spokane, just steps away from the Spokane public library and only a few blocks to Riverfront Park.

We found it.

 

This is located in Riverfront Park at the heart of the city of Spokane.  We didn’t spend too much time at Riverfront Park since by the time we arrived there, there was little daylight left.  From what we saw the park seemed to have a nice variety of activities, even though some of the main attractions were closed for the season.

We were disappointed when the gondola ride was closed.  But that didn’t stop us from creating our own fun, like we have grown accustomed to doing.  The city blocks were a big hit for Freya.

 

In this area of the park the rides were closed and ice rink wasn’t quite ready for skating yet.  It was a neat little area that we unintentionally wound up exploring in search for a bathroom for the big K.  We never did find that bathroom.  So next time you are in Spokane stay clear of the  wet stop next to the little brown building by the…. oh never mind.

 

This park is well known for its beautiful waterfalls/rapids and its amazing bridges.  By the time we reached the falls we were only able to capture this one bridge by this one small area of the falls.  Not far from this bridge was another bridge that was super pretty.  We stood on it just as dusk fell and listened to the falling water although we couldn’t really see it.

 

This sign couldn’t have come into view at a more perfect time.  Freya was having a tantrum in the van about… well, that part is not important nor can I even remember.  It was one of those “take cover your life depends on it” kind of tantrums.  We had all made an effort to calm her with results ending in scratches and/or random van junk getting hurled at us.  But then I saw this sign…pointed it out to her and it was like a switched turned off inside her.  Instant joy!  I have thought about this sign often since this day and have even considered investing in one for those dire need situations but we all know it never works as good the second time around.

 

And then we went for ice cream but that is not too note worthy since it seems to be a nightly event.  Now there’s idea,  I travel the country testing out all the ice cream shops I can find.  No, all the bakeries I find…yeah that’s it!

I’m gonna stop now.  Good night!

This is the big M on the hill at Montana University.

After 11 tough switchbacks we did manage to make it to the top to realize just how big the M really is.  The short answer, it’s really big.  It was about 75 degrees and sunny which made for a spectacular view as well as a whole lot of sweat, and a little bit of complaining.  I never really imagined that we would be complaining about heat in Montana in mid October.

And as per usual this guy was the first to the top. Man o man this kid can move!  It’s one of the things I admire about him, his determination to finish what he has started, no looking back.

 

 

And here are the girls, we made it, in our time, closing in at the end.

 

I believe this was the point in time where Jeff felt the need to explain to the boys the importance of not throwing rocks down a mountain where many people are hiking.  It was also the same point in time when I was hit by a rock.   Lesson learned!

 

Even with this beautiful view the most impressive part of the hike for Korben was the aerial view of the Montana University football stadium, which I found quite impressive too.

 

Here is Jeff trying to make a plug for Twilio, if you can read his t-shirt.

 

But what goes up…… and going down is always harder.

 

Till next time Missoula, it’s been fun!