Surrendering to the Inevitable

Well, it's done.

Last night I registered my wife and myself for attending memberships at Sasquan — the 2015 Worldcon in Spokane, Washington. But not before I reserved our hotel room though — lodgings in that town during that week are getting hard to come by (forget about blocks of rooms set aside for the con at the specific con hotels — those are long gone) — 'cause if you've got no place to stay, there's no point in buying tickets to the event. Luckily, I was able to find a room in what seems to be a nice enough hotel. So, we're officially locked-in for this shindig.

Wasn't an easy decision though. As I've noted in a previous post, we had to think long and hard about this one. After all, we're just coming off the high of Loncon3 this past summer, and we weren't sure we wanted to do two Worldcons back-to-back. Also — and no offence here to the good people of eastern Washington — Spokane isn't really on our list of vacation destinations. And our 10th anniversary is coming up not to long afterwards in October, and we want to get away for that occasion, so budgeting is a consideration.

And yet... and yet... Despite all of our hesitations, there's been an inexorable pull towards Spokane. The reality is, there probably won't be another Worldcon this close to us again for quite some time (Seattle's bid a couple of years ago fell apart, so there's no knowing when they'll try again; and Vancouver... well, the Worldcon rules, as I understand them after a limited fashion, seem to indicate the current VCon committee, for all its experience, doesn't have enough experience [which makes no sense to me], and there's a remarkable amount of fear around these parts among a not-insignificant portion of the community of going after something that big), so that along merits going. It's also within easy driving distance, which makes it inexpensive to get to, we won't have to worry about airline luggage weight restrictions (which means I can buy more books!!!), and we can take our time and stop along the way at our leisure going to and from. And some of our friends from the White Dwarf gang will be going (and we're trying to persuade some of the others to come too), so that'll be fun.

Now it's just a matter of waiting until August.

Meantime, if anyone reading this post is from Spokane or the area, or if you've been there before, what are some of the can't miss restaurants, sights, and things to do that you'd most recommend? Yes, I know, there are all kinds of travel sites, books, and other resources out there, but I'm always interested to hear about individual experiences — especially from fellow sf fans. So, what should be on our agenda in Spokane when we're not knee-deep in the con? Where do you go for the best burger? What's the best bookstore in town? What's the most interesting historical attraction?