Spirit Lake is one of my favorite places to go OnLocation in the summer. The scaled down crowds on the beautiful lake and the historic two-block long downtown are draws for us. Spirit Lake is not one of those towns with a studied theme on their main street. It's authentically old, charmingly run down and I love that their city streets are named for states, especially the tongue-in-cheek humor of naming their main street, Maine Street. The well-kept city park is right downtown, heck, Spirit Lake city limits are only about two square miles. About 2,000 people make their homes there, rural folks, artists, recluses ... old timers and newcomers, seeking a bit of what Small Town, USA used to be and finding it. Their Maine Street saloons are world class and you can find bikers and boaters sitting side-by-side enjoying a cold beer. Their city council meetings in recent years have been rough and tumble but at the end of the day, the citizens of Spirit Lake agree to disagree on the little things and get together to move forward on the important things, like celebrating their 100 years in 2008. There's always been a Labor Day parade on Maine Street but this weekend they've added other events like a mountain bike ride down Mount Spokane on Saturday morning; a mountain man encampment, blacksmithing displays, muzzle loaders and Dutch oven cooking Saturday through Monday. If you've never gone OnLocation to Spirit Lake, this is the weekend to check it out.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Centennial Celebration
Spirit Lake is one of my favorite places to go OnLocation in the summer. The scaled down crowds on the beautiful lake and the historic two-block long downtown are draws for us. Spirit Lake is not one of those towns with a studied theme on their main street. It's authentically old, charmingly run down and I love that their city streets are named for states, especially the tongue-in-cheek humor of naming their main street, Maine Street. The well-kept city park is right downtown, heck, Spirit Lake city limits are only about two square miles. About 2,000 people make their homes there, rural folks, artists, recluses ... old timers and newcomers, seeking a bit of what Small Town, USA used to be and finding it. Their Maine Street saloons are world class and you can find bikers and boaters sitting side-by-side enjoying a cold beer. Their city council meetings in recent years have been rough and tumble but at the end of the day, the citizens of Spirit Lake agree to disagree on the little things and get together to move forward on the important things, like celebrating their 100 years in 2008. There's always been a Labor Day parade on Maine Street but this weekend they've added other events like a mountain bike ride down Mount Spokane on Saturday morning; a mountain man encampment, blacksmithing displays, muzzle loaders and Dutch oven cooking Saturday through Monday. If you've never gone OnLocation to Spirit Lake, this is the weekend to check it out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment