I Made A Hand Drawn Coloring Book Of Spokane, Washington (28 Pics)

As you drive up through Green Bluff you’ll likely pass The Mel Walker Ranch. Mel and Bonny Walker are the grandparents to Sabrina, the owner of Greenbluff Fresh Catering Company. On the front you’ll see two bent over rear ends, it is their arses depicted on the barn. It was common to see The Walkers bent over in the field working so the rears were incorporated onto the barn. Sabrina’s kids are 6th generation to live on this farm which was homesteaded by her great-great grandfather, Ludwig Beck (Mel's Grandpa).

The second most requested location for the book was Garbage Goat but LEGALLY I was not able to include that piece of art because it is already someone else’s art. So the third most requested was Mary Lou’s Milk Bottle. Originally a retail outlet for the Benewah Creamery it is now home to the world’s best ice cream flavor, River City Sludge (we fight about ice cream a lot in our family).

Built in 1891 this building stands imposingly at the awkward corner of West Riverside and Monroe. Its glowing color is due to its terra-cotta facade which gives the building a very stern but romantic look to it. Whenever I pass by I am compelled to stare at it and every so often if I look in the window of the apartment at the top, something will be staring back at me.

It’s a restaurant, it’s a machine shop, it’s a restaurant machine shop. Still owned by the same family all these years later, Crescent Machine works started off as an auto repair shop and now repairs most of Spokane’s restaurant equipment. Also Hoopfest!

The Nishinomiya Tsutakawa Japanese Garden was completed in 1974 and symbolizes the friendship of Spokane and its sister city, Nishinomiya, Japan. Nestled in a small pocket of Manito Park, it truly shines in the fall when all the leaves change color.

Look friends, I was born in 1982, and Benny and Joon was, like, the movie of my early teens. And also, eating in a train restaurant is really fun plus their breakfast is delicious. You Betcha!

One of the first faux pas’ I made moving here was to post a photo I took of Dick’s with the caption “Burgers by the bagful” and boy was that a mistake. Originally built in 1954 (the year my parents were born), it became a Dick’s in 1967. The original name was “Panda Self Service Drive-In” hence the fun but seemingly random mascot on their sign.

Before Europeans came to Spokane and settled in the area, the Spokane river used to overflow with Chinook Salmon. There used to be enough salmon in our river to feed entire tribes for the coming year. Salmon were fished using a fish weir made from the trees lining the river and dried on racks made from the same locally sourced branches. Hundreds of salmon would be pulled from the river (alongside the local animals also looking for the same nourishment), filleted, and dried using the wind. The fish, eel, and crawdad taken from the river would be enough to feed all levels of life using a sustainable system of respect and partnership with the earth. One day the new settlers that came to the area overfished these waters and then damned up the rivers preventing the remaining salmon from reaching the river. Spokane river once contained so many fish you couldn’t see the rocks on the bottom. But today, due to the impact of overfishing and damming, there are no Salmon left in our beautiful river. This page was created as a dedication to the indigenous people of Spokane. A people that once respectfully fished and lived on this land for thousands of generations.