[Adapted from email sent 6:07 pm]

Wallace, Idaho: Day One

For the last six visits I had in Wallace, Idaho—between December 2017 and June 2021, so for the past five years—I've stayed at the quite-comfortable Hercules Inn; I even got Dad and Sherri to book one of the other rooms while I stayed in one of my own when we went there for Father's Day weekend last year. Unfortunately, although we fully intended to stay there again for this visit, they were booked up for the needed weekend once we called. So, for the first time in several years, we had to come up with a new place to stay, and Dad and Sherri found this two-bedroom house vacation rental called the "Wallace Church House," which kind of redefined the word "quirky." Apparently built originally in 1905 as a church, it was later also "once a coffee shop and art studio," which also explains the very odd kitchen, which was one element that was much worse than the standard full kitchens in the Hercules Inn units—but, at least the Church House has this great outdoor courtyard, not to mention a large communal living room and dining space, both of which were very useful for hosting my brother's family for his 50th birthday.

That said, after I posted a video walkthrough of the house, my niece responded with "I'm scared for you guys."

Maybe the best "quirk" of the Wallace Church House: the "Bubblegum Jesus" hanging on the wall, courtesy of the property owners, apparently chewed by a family of three that included a 4-year-old. It was like the Pike Place Market Gum Wall had a literal "come to Jesus moment."

Wallace, Idaho: Day Two

Wallace is an entire town on the National Register of Historic Places (that is broadly its own story), but its rich history that still largely feeds its local tourism industry is focused largely on mining and prostitution: you can still tour one of its old brothels. Shobhit and I did the tour a decade and a half ago; Dad and Sherri did the same many years ago on their own. Still, Sherri wanted a picture in front of the Oasis Bordello so I could post it and say "Putting Grandma to work!" I told her to give me a "sexy pose" and this was what she gave me.

Saturday the 24th was my brother's 50th birthday—I am the youngest of four, now the only one still left in his forties (three and a half years to go!). After we had big birthday parties for both my sisters in Olympia for their 50th birthdays in 2019 and 2021, my dad called me up to say maybe we should go see Christopher for his 50th as that's only fair . . . I was like: you've got a point.

Christopher has five children, most of them grown, and all but one of them made it to join for the brunch my dad had planned for Saturday. His oldest, who now has two children of her own, came over from Spokane. Dad made eggs benedict for all of us. My brother and his three boys all had two helpings. They don't likely get meals like this often, so it was actually special.

My brother ordered this shirt special to wear on his birthday.

The requisite family portrait: four generations.

Generation 1: Dad and Sherri; easy to spot—they're the two old people.
Generation 2: Me, and my brother Christopher: opposite ends of the front row.
Generation 3: Four of my brother's five kids: Nikki (30), to the left of my dad; then the three boys in the back, from left to right: Christian (19), Tristen (22) and Braeden (16).
Generation 4: Nikki's kids, in center-front: Cheyanna and Elijah (7 and 1 by the end of the year). This was the first time Dad and Sherri and I met Elijah, now the ninth of my grandnieces and grandnephews, with two more currently on the way.

This huge cage was in the Church House courtyard. Of course I had to get a picture with me in it. Dad wanted to get in with me but he recently strained his back and couldn't do it.

Wallace, Idaho: Day Three

So Mom and Bill, who died in 2020 and 2021 respectively, moved to Wallace in 2002, and I visited there one to two times a year starting in 2003, making this the 20th year in which I've consistently been there—and only now, due to Sherri's interest, have I finally gone inside the local Northern Pacific Railway Depot Museum.

It should be noted that although at last count Wallace has a population of only 784, the region's local mining history had its population peak at nearly 4,000 in 1940. Then-President Theodore Roosevelt visited Wallace in 1903 (when the population was around 2,300—still way more than today) and that is what the American flag seen in the photo above is from. The museum guide told us there were 45 states in the union at the time, but the flag had 46 stars in anticipation of Oklahoma (even though I just discovered Oklahoma wasn't actually admitted until 1907, four years later).

The Depot building itself was physically moved and restored in 1986 (Wallace population ~1,400), to make way for the construction of the I-90 viaduct overpass that was used as an alternative to demolishing the town after it was successfully added to the National Historic Register. We asked what used to be at its current location, and unsurprisingly, it was another brothel.

Moses Lake

Two nights in Wallace is enough for me, and Dad and Sherri felt the same way; we had to head to Leavenworth on Monday, but instead of staying a third night in Wallace on Sunday, we drove first to Moses Lake instead. Until now Moses Lake had only ever been a town I drove straight through, so this was my first time staying overnight there. Dad wanted to go back to this restaurant called Michael's on the Lake that he and Sherri had been to before, so we went there for a late lunch/early dinner. I really wanted to sit out in the outdoor seating but we were told there were no available tables (even though a bunch of them were empty) so we wound up sitting in the bar. The menu was overwhelmingly meat-centric but I must say, they accommodated me by swapping out the meat for zucchini in their "Street Tacos" and they were delicious.

We all stayed at a pretty nondescript Best Western hotel in Moses Lake, and that evening Dad and I killed some time by going over to the local Japanese Peace Garden. It was fine.

Wenatchee

On Monday, after driving out of Moses Lake, we stopped in Wenatchee to visit Ohme Gardens, which is honestly less a botanical garden than it is a series of uneven stone walkways, stone steps and stone formations. Dad and Sherri apparently visited decades ago, but Sherri now has balance issues and uses a cane so she mostly had to wait for Dad and me to explore the place. Dad and I were separated momentarily when he went to check on her, during which time I set my timer to take this shot of myself on the "Hobbit Bench."

Cashmere

We also stopped briefly in Cashmere at the Liberty Orchards Applets & Cotlets Factory. We didn't take the factory tour, but I got this shot through the window of a closed door, and both Sherri and I had a few of the delicious samples set out, and bought some gift boxes. (I was delighted to discover these candies do not contain gelatin as I had suspected, and are in fact vegan.) This company is kind of a longtime Washington State local institution, and was recently slated to be shut down; the company was then sold to a Russian food conglomerate just last year. As of now, though, the product is still being produced in this factory in Cashmere.

[Click here for Inland Northwest 2022, Part Two]

Inland Northwest 2022, Part One: Wallace, Idaho, Moses Lake, Wenatchee

My tweets