"To infinity and beyond...."

After spending most of the last 6 months stationary 95% of the time it is time to roam.....granted it will be just four short weeks until we reach our home base in SoCal, but it will be roaming nonetheless.

TLE and I started out our day with a trip down the hill to one of our favorite Goodwill stores.....I bought a pair of finger gloves, a small trowel, and TLE a couple of very nice pull over sweaters.....one with the tags still on it ($65 new), which cost her $5.....well, actually, it cost me.

Then it was off to make our annual visit to REI, my favorite outdoor outfitter, and my favorite REI store, but on our way we decided to stop off at Stella's Cafe for an early lunch.....we had not eaten breakfast...........Yelp gives them 4.5 stars on 73 reviews, and we have no problem with that rating.  I have to admit our criteria for choosing Stella's was that it was along our route up to REI, but what a great choice it ended up being.  I had their classic BLT, and TLE had their Portobello sandwich.....both were superb.

We wandered around REI for about 40 minutes, but managed to exit with no purchases, although I was tempted on a couple of items.

Spokane REI store

The big event of the day was my mother's 86th birthday celebration......she is just a few weeks shy of being exactly 20 years old than I.  My brother-in-law, Bob, suggested we take her to Latah Bistro for dinner, so we all congregated there at 1800 hours, spending the next 2+ hours in wide ranging conversations.  The ambiance, the service and the food were superb, and I can understand why my brother-in-law and sister love this place.

 Left to right: Moi, niece Caroline and Virginia (my mother)

Blowing out the birthday candle

I have to admit I did not check Yelp before going to Latah Bistro, but after such a wonderful experience (I had a bowl of their French Onion soup, and their Roasted Chicken for my entree, both which were a 4.5 in my mind, and everyone at our table raved about their menu choices) I was kind of surprised to read some of the Yelp reviews this morning....Yelp only gives them 3.5 stars on 43 reviews......I think there is some competition with another local nearby restaurant and that someone is purposely planting poor reviews to drive their rating down.....that's just based on the tone of what I read, and the fact that the negative reviewers all mentioned the other restaurant in their review.  At any rate we had a wonderful evening and I would recommend them in a heartbeat.

We arrived back home shortly before 2100 hours to find the first game of the World Series between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals tied 4-4 in the 10th inning.....I had thought it would be long over.  Naturally I sat down to watch the end of the game, but the end of the game did not come until the bottom of the 14th inning when the Royals won 5-4 on a 'sacrifice fly ball' with bases loaded and no outs.  The game also featured an 'inside the park homerun' by the lead off hitter for the Royals who hit the first pitch in the 1st inning of the game.

Tomorrow......"To infinity and beyond!"  Thanks for stopping by!