The main reason for our weekend stay in Spokane was to watch our granddaughter compete in the annual Irish Feis at the Convention Center. The Feis would begin at 8am on Saturday. We arrived to Spokane on Friday late morning and did some of our usual shopping before we ventured all the way into the Downtown area. Our first stop before we would check in to our hotel was the MAC~Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. This museum is in an older historical neighborhood of Spokane. The houses surrounding the museum were all quite grand.

There was a special exhibit on called Iron and Honor: The Art of Knighthood

The contents of this exhibit were a collaboration from Italy.

On the grounds of the museum we spotted this small statues in bronze on our way to the Campbell house (mansion) and Carriage House which was open for visits on this Friday.

They are called ‘The Return of the Four Leggeds”

The historic Campbell House was built in 1898. The greatest advancements in technology were included like indoor plumbing, hot and cold running water, electricity, central heat and a telephone. The Campbells lived in the house with their servants for 26 years. In 1924 the house was donated to the Eastern Washington Historical Society.

What a grand entrance hall! The house is approximately 13,000 square feet on three floors.

This reception room was a bit out of place for the design of the house in general. It did make us say, Wow. “Mrs. Campbell received callers on Thursdays in this room. It is decorated in the French Rococo style and has silk moire and gold gilt on the walls.”

You can see why the pink room seemed out of place in contrast to all the other ground floor rooms.

Up the grand staircase to the bedrooms. There were a few other smaller staircases going up and also down to the basement rooms.

We had a nice chat with the docent who was sitting in the kitchen. It was interesting to read the hand written menu courses for a typical evening meal. Fourteen courses! The cookie recipe is one that the house serves during their special Christmas openings for tours.

We ended our house tour in the Carriage house where the electric car is housed and a lot of history and displays are available to read and on videos to watch.

At this point on Friday our room was ready at the hotel. We drove to the hotel and checked in. I used a mobile key entry for the first time and was quite proud of myself that it worked. After freshening up we walked to Tavolata for dinner. A little Italian theme happening with the Italian Knighthood exhibit and then an Italian dinner. This walk along Spokane Falls Blvd. gave us a few moments to experience the Good Samaritan story (we did not identify as the Good Samaritan on this walk, we moved to the other side of the road).

We enjoyed this meal celebrating Greg’s birthday again. We would recommend this restaurant especially at Happy Hour with same dinner portions at a lower cost. After dinner we had a pleasant walk back to the hotel.

Our Colville kids arrived to the hotel after dinner and came to our room to visit and to say goodnight. Early to bed to rest up before a full day on Saturday.