Having reached the city of Spokane, Washington we headed to Riverview Park for our next little coaster fix, and a visit to a historical landmark.
Spokane Falls are not a huge waterfall like we'd passed on the drive up but a wide stretch of smaller falls from which a hydroelectric company now takes its power.
This place used to be an Indian Settlement which they called Stluputqu, which translates as "swift water", which kind of makes sense given the river next door. Better than my iPhone's predictive offering of "stupid".
The rock in the middle of the river has a rather unusual name. It was named after a local chap who became notorious for walking around Spokane in next to nothing.
Riverview Park is a collection of small rides that has taken root under what appears to have been a sheltered ice rink complex. The rides are nothing to write home about (err, isn't that what a blog is?) and clearly aimed at the younger clientèle.
On a hot day I can think of nothing worse than enduring a simulator ride, except a simulator ride in a green house. I'll give this one a miss.
See how smooth the ground is? Definitely a rink of some kind.
The coaster that we'd come to ride was a powered dragon coaster, which given the abundance of these in China I'm really bored of now. But unlike the fair scene this was a dragon we had no problem riding, although the young operator was a little perplexed why 4 adults would be doing it.
I'm not sure what this pig thing is all about.
Cute train ride.
Freaky rabbit. Why has his got his legs crossed so tight?
It's not uncommon on this trips to have local people enquire about our hobby. Here Christof faces off to one of his bigger fans.
Why has the land train got a cattle guard on the front? I don't image cows run wild in Spokane.
A lovely day!
On the southern bank of the river is the Looff Carousel which has been in the city since 1909.
It has a varied selection of wooden carved animals and is the only one to have a tiger (that's what I rode)
It also has the ring dispenser, which very few have these days. Reach out and grab the ring - should you get the brass one you get a free go. If get a plastic one try to chuck it at the target on the other side of the building.
They had some technical issues with the music player which when it finally did come on made the ride so much better. Nostlagia rules!
Tal and Thomas enjoying the ride. I'm just unsure why they didn't go for the tiger too. It's grrrrreeeeeeaaaaat!
and as we made our way back to the car we spotted a number of kids making the most of this upturned fountain thing.
Spokane was a nice city and broke up the driving a bit more but knowing where we were headed next our stay was short.
No comments:
Post a Comment