WHAT UP PEOPLE???? I’m back!!! Leo and I returned to Seattle civilization tonight, following a 6 1/2-hour car ride, but we had the most amazing time on our vacation. I always dread not having Internet access, but it always turns out to be the best thing for me.
I drove out to Spokane on Sunday night with Leo, to meet my friend Stephen and his boyfriend Ryan (and their dog Hadley!) at Ryan’s parents’ house. I’d never been to Spokane before, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. When I arrived and started driving through the town, my first thought was, “Man, they smoke a lot of meth in this town.” (”We used to call it Spocaine,” one of my Seattle girlfriends told me. ) It’s not quite a small town and it’s not quite a big city, and you can tell it’s been hit hard by the recession — even down the main streets, storefronts look rapidly abandoned, their signs still mounted but their interiors bare. Many of the neighborhoods are lined with gorgeous, old-fashioned historic homes fallen into disrepair — we saw one with a turret and I fell in love, and I couldn’t believe how terribly its owners were treating it, its paint damn near worn off entirely, planks of wood falling off its sides.
Then I drove into the north part of town to Ryan’s parents’ house, and it was a very different story. Total suburbia. Total cuteness. Ryan moved to Arizona over 10 years ago, but he’s the only member of his family who’s ever left Spokane. His uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews all live within 10 minutes or so of each other still and see each other all the time. His parents — who married when they were 16 and 18 and are happily married to this day — still live across the street from the elementary school he attended. His mom has two crafts rooms, and when she gets home from work she spends hours creating the most amazing scrapbooks for their family photos. I was completely enthralled flipping through them in the living room. They’re so creative, artistic, beautiful and loving. I just put shit on Facebook. Sometimes I even take the time to tag it. Oh, and his mom also has, like, the past 100 issues of Creating Keepsakes magazines, stored chronologically. LOVE IT. Here’s a look at one of her crafts rooms:
On Monday we headed off to Manito Park, which is basically gorgeous garden after gorgeous garden: a rose garden, a Japanese garden, a tulip garden. The names of the plants were priceless. One rose was named “Henry Fonda” and another was named “Andie MacDowell.” We took a lot of photos.
After the gardens, we headed to the Spokane food festival, called Pig Out in the Park. I’ve been to the Seattle food festival a couple times, and, while I like it, it’s really way too crowded to be very enjoyable. The Spokane food festival was perfect. It was busy, but there were no lines, and they had plenty of tables for everyone to eat, and an adorable, down-home band playing on the stage. It’s what a food festival should be. Ryan and Stephen ordered corn dogs that turned out to be the size of Leo, and then we all chowed down on huckleberry ice cream, a specialty out there. It was beyond delicious. I want to eat huckleberry ice cream every day.
On the other side of the park, they have a giant Radio Flyer with a slide coming down from it. I think you can guess what happened next:
Yes, that. We were more than a little pleased with ourselves. The park also has an amusement park, and we wanted to go on one of those rides were they put you and 10 other people in a large vehicle with a big screen on the front, close the door, and then take you on a “virtual” ride via the screen, while the machine leans left, right and forward. We all had fond memories of those rides from childhood, so we went to buy tickets. “It’s not worth it,” said the girl at the ticket booth. “Totally not worth your money.”
“Ummm, we still want to go.”
“I can’t let you do that. I can’t let you pay for it.”
“We really want to go on the ride, please.”
“Shit. I can’t let you pay for that crap. Come on, I’ll get you on for free.”
And that’s what she did, and Ryan, Stephen and I screamed our asses off in a ride full of three-year-olds who couldn’t understand what we were making such a fuss about. But Ryan did a really good job of “oooh”ing and “ahhh”ing and generally making the ride a lot more fun both for us and the kids. He and Stephen have been together around five years, and they’re hoping to either adopt or use a surrogate in the next few years to have a child. Every time I see Ryan around children (or doggies!) I just think about how he most definitely needs to be a dad. Stephen is great with kids, too, but Ryan just has a way of connecting with children that’s head and shoulders above even most women. I can’t wait for them to have a kiddo.
Later that night, we drove east to their cabin on Priest Lake, Idaho (the town is technically called Coolin but everyone just calls it Priest Lake). We arrived pretty late at night, so we pretty much just unpacked, watched a movie and went to bed. But the cabin is phenomenal. It was built in the late ’40s by Ryan’s great-grandfather and grandfather. It has a small main living room, two little bedrooms, a tiny bathroom and a tiny kitchen. His great-grandfather worked for Rainier beer, so there are Rainier signs everywhere. The quilts on the beds look like they came from 50 years ago. It’s exactly what a family cabin in Idaho should look like. It’s hard to explain the adorableness, so I’ll just show you some pictures:
The kitchen has a wood-burning stove, which excited me to no end. A WOOD-BURNING STOVE! I took pictures of the wood burning in the wood-burning stove, so people would believe me:
I woke up the next morning and couldn’t believe how gorgeous it was outside. This is the view from their front porch:
I immediately insisted Ryan take us out on the boat, and he obliged. Riding on a motorboat through the Cavanaugh Bay portion of Priest Lake, on a weekday when the bay is deserted, is basically like ice skating through the water. There are no waves. The water is completely still. It was unlike any boat experience I’d ever had — no bumping around. I was amazed.
And the view — there’s no way to describe it really. It felt otherworldly, like a beautiful planet they might explore in a Star Trek episode. I couldn’t stop looking at the clouds. I’ll just show you pics again:
We motored around for a good three hours, driving by all the other cabins along the lake and stopping at the local grocery store, called Leonard Paul, where I bought huckleberry jam.
We came back to the cabin, and Ryan’s parents arrived shortly after. Ryan’s mom had done some of my laundry for me at her house, bringing it to the cabin clean and folded, because she is amazing like that. We went to dinner, then came home and built a campfire and made the most DELICIOUS s’mores ever. I shouldn’t say that “we” did those things. I should say that Ryan and his dad did those things, while Stephen and I sat around and chatted and waited to be handed our marshmallow sandwiches. Honestly these people were such great hosts, they took care of everything and were just so generous. I felt very fortunate to be there with them.
The next morning we were lazy babies, just lounging on the deck and occasionally eating. Stephen and Ryan are planning to do their commitment ceremony there in two summers, so we spent a lot of time talking about how they’d decorate the cabin and the dock and the yard for the ceremony and reception. Stephen is SO EXCITED about planning it, and I’m so happy for him, and I’m also bummed that his marriage won’t be recognized by the government. I feel like anyone who opposes gay marriage needs to spend a weekend with Stephen and Ryan, and see how kindly and respectfully they treat each other, what loving families they come from, how devoted to one another they are, and how perfectly they compliment one another. How in love with each other they are, and how very real and valid their union is.
But I haven’t told you guys the BEST part about the cabin. There’s a notebook there, and every time someone comes up, they leave a note in it, saying who was there, what they did and what the temperature was. The cabin is shared between several branches of Ryan’s family, so someone’s up there almost every weekend in the summer. It’s just fascinating to read, such a cool peek into rural, lakeside Idaho life. Ryan’s mom says she has one at home that goes back to the ’50s. I practically begged her to scan it so I could read it. Seriously, this shit is enthralling. You could write a book about it, and I just may do that.
Anyway. Leo and I are home and I am exhausted. But I was so excited to get to share my Idaho trip with all you guys, so I had to get this up. Off to bed now.
