Spokane

In Spokane, WA: Celebrating a World’s Fair + a Hotel Amenity Fee to enjoy

May 13, 2024Harriet BaskasHotels, UncategorizedDavenport Collection, Hotel Amenity Fees, Spokane, Spokane International Airport

The Stuck at the Airport team is a longtime fan of Spokane, WA.

The city is home to, among other treasures, a giant red Radio Flyer wagon.

Its airport, Spokane International (GEG), offers a free car wash to anyone who uses the parking garage.

In 1974, this eastern Washington city became the smallest city to host a World’s Fair and a citywide 50th-anniversary celebration of Expo ’74 is running through July 4, 2024.

We stopped at the Expo ’74 exhibit at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and got a kick out of the list of bands and other performers who visited the fair. Marcel Marceau, Gordon Lightfoot, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, The Modern Jazz Quartet and Chicago, were all there.

As was Liberace.

The exhibit displays the poster advertising Mr. Showmanship’s appearance (prices starting at $3) and the lovely beaded blue costume and boots he was wearing in the poster and in his show.

While in town, we stayed at the Davenport Grand, which sits right across the street from Riverfront Park and is one of the five unique hotels in the city’s The Davenport Hotel Collection.

Four of the hotels – The Davenport Grand, the 110-year-old Historic Davenport, the Davenport Tower, and the Davenport Lusso – are part of the Marriott Autograph Collection.

And each hotel adds a $20 amenity fee to the room rate.

Usually, hotel amenity fees irk us. But this one feels like a good deal.

The fee covers high-speed internet; a standard offering of amenity fees these days.

But guests also receive a coupon for a Washington wine tasting that includes two small glasses of wine, plus another coupon for $20 food & beverage credit which can be used anytime at any of the brand’s 11 restaurants & bars in town.

We got great value from this by using our coupons during Happy Hour at the Safari Room at the Davenport Tower and were pleased that the wines offered in the tasting, which we loved, were included in the discounted Happy Hour wines.

If we weren’t so busy enjoying the festivities at Riverfront Park and visiting the Expo ’74 exhibit, our amenity fee would have also covered our use of the hotel’s bicycles – and helmets – for two hours; any number of fitness classes at the local branch of The Union; and unlimited rides on the hotel’s shuttle van to any attraction or location within a half mile of the hotel. If the weather hadn’t been so nice, we would have used that shuttle quite a bit.

The Davenport Collection team values this amenity package at $125.

And while not every guest will take advantage of all the items covered by the amenity fee, as amenity fees go, this $20 is easy, and fun, to recoup.

In Spokane: the world’s oldest flying Boeing airplane

July 23, 2010Harriet BaskasAir Travel, Airplanes, aviation, Aviation history, Exhibits, Fun Stuff, MuseumsAddison Pemberton, Boeing, Boeing Model 40, Marvin Carr's One of a kind in the world museum, Spokane

I’ve been touring Spokane, WA and the surrounding countryside this week in search of unusual people, places and events to include in the 3rd edition of Washington Curiosities, one of the books I write for Globe Pequot Press.

The week will end with a visit to Felts Field to meet Addison Pemberton, who found and rebuilt (with the help of more than 60 people) the oldest Boeing airplane still flying.

I’ll report back on my visit with Pemberton and his airplane, but in the meantime, take a look at my new Spokane buddy. I found him while touring Marvin Carr’s One of a kind in the world museum, which is filled with wonders ranging from the oldest typewriter in the world to a taxidermied giraffe and Elvis Presley’s 1973 Lincoln Mark IV.

First-time trike flight

July 20, 2010Harriet BaskasAir Travel, Airplanes, aviationaerotrekking, Backcountry Aerosports, light sports aircraft, Spokane, SpokaneFam, ultralight planes, Washington

For a while up there on Prosser Butte, just outside of Spokane, WA, I was hoping the sun would set before it was my turn to get strapped into the back seat of the two-seated, three-wheeled, motorized, kite-like contraption that Denny Reed insists is a perfectly legal light sport aircraft, or trike.

But there was plenty of light left after the four writers I’m touring Spokane with each took their turn flying low over nearby hills and wheat fields with Backcountry Aerosports owner Denny Reed as their guide.

So when it was my turn, I had no choice but to climb in, buckle up, and hold on tight.

You know how this turns out.

There was nothing whatsoever to be worried about. The sampler flight – maybe ten or fifteen minutes max –was a bit scary at take-off, but incredibly exhilarating after that.

As Reed promised, the aircraft (I’m still uncomfortable saying I flew in a trike) felt stable and safe. And when we flew down low, it was indeed possible to feel changes in air temperature.

So, I’m now a convert. I’m not saying I’m ready to sign up for the flight training courses Reed offers and get my own Ultralight or Light Sport Aircraft anytime soon. But if I had the opportunity to ride along with someone again, I’m game. I might even seek it out.

And I promise: next time, no whining. In fact, next time, I’d like to fly first.