This year, though, February has been filled with parties and lovely dinners and travel. It is rather nice that on February 15, I have so much left in the rest of this month to look forward to, and so much from the first 14 days that I'm still excited about.
This past weekend, we drove through misty valleys, across the river, over the border and into my home state. We landed in Wallace, Idaho. It was a work assignment for Joel, so we were on a mission, but it was one I could totally get behind: figuring out what the heck people in a small town do on a Friday night.
Wallace is old mining town, with lots of mines still in operation. And like most small towns, everyone is connected to each other. It didn't take us long to figure out our own connection to our hosts through May Hutton, the woman whose turn-of-the-century Wallace home is now their home, and whose building in Spokane houses Joel's office.
We stayed at the Hercules Inn, which was basically an apartment with too many nice amenities for just two people. The perk I loved most was a hot tub in the backyard that was ready for us whenever we wanted it. At 1 a.m. on Saturday morning, it was sublime.
Another favorite moment was in The Metals Bar. We made conversation with the bartender, a young miner who who made my night the moment he pointed out a giant bin of dill-pickle pretzels. World-famous. Two things I love most in this world, together. Even though I was stuffed from dinner, I jumped off my bar stool as soon as he told me to help myself. (Upon hearing this, I'm sure my facial expression looked like that of a giddy little girl who just rediscovered her secret Halloween candy stash in February.) They were basically mini pretzels, the kind you buy in giant bags from Costco, coated in a tangy seasoning. So. Good. We loved this bar. When we first sat down it was relatively quiet, but someone started up the jukebox with Ray Charles' "I've Got a Woman." Ray Charles! Around us, people started hooting and hollering about someone's birthday, and suddenly everything was buzzing in a way it hadn't been before. I felt like I was in a movie. Maybe this is what brought the directors of Dante's Peak here.
Everyone we met was friendly and drank Bud Light. We went across the street and Joel got looped in on a game of pool with three other guys. One of them decided I needed to meet his girl, Miranda, probably figuring we womenfolk could talk while the men played. She laughed (like everyone else) when I told her what brought us to town. I ordered a Rainier and took pictures.
Our time there felt too short, though I'm not sure what else we could have done (the Bordello Museum is still on our list - it's closed for the season). At breakfast we thought how nice it would be to continue on to the next town, as though this were just one stop on a cross-country journey. But we headed back to Spokane with a quick stop at the Cataldo mission. It was far more beautiful than what I remembered learning in my 4th grade Idaho history class.
This weekend will find me back in Idaho, visiting my family in Boise. It's no small town, though it feels that way each time I go back.
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