Spokane
Hiya! The journey is going well so far. I'm still a little weak and disoriented, but that's a normal function of travel. Spokane is just as wonderful as I remember, and my current vantage point allows me to see enough of the city to see it's not ALL downtown like it seemed when Star and I drove in from the other side a few weeks ago. As much as I hate cities (and other concentrated bodies of people), I kind of like Spokane. If I ever had to live in a city, it would be Spokane. It has exactly the population of Boise itself (that is, Boise if you were to remove Garden City and all the surrounding communities), but Spokane is much more...vertical. The downtown is full of high-rise buildings that would dwarf anything in Boise, and the whole city seems crammed full of incredible old cathedrals, and even the non-cathedral architecture is amazing. It's like Boise was trying for practicality when it was being built, and Spokane had beauty in mind from the very start. I saw what had obviously been a manufacturing plant from the very start, but even it was crammed full of spires and those castle wall-top thingies that I can't remember the name of but starts with a "c" (I think?). But despite all this urbanization, the downtown is wonderfully pedestrian friendly. Every building has a parking garage underneath it, and many do also on top of them. The stop lights, like, let you walk for more than 2 seconds before flicking back to the flashing "Don't Walk" symbol, and automatically even, without you having to push the stupid button. There are entire streets that are cobbled for pedestrians only, and a beautiful park right in the heart of downtown built right on/over the Spokane River.