Adventure on December 14th
I went on an adventure this evening to the Davenport Hotel, the oldest hotel in Spokane. OUTSpokane had a holiday party (it's the committee that puts on PRIDE every June) and I bought a ticket to both support and be a voyeur. A beautiful hotel, restored to turn-of-the-century elegance. The Spokane symphony has a tree raffle that brings in a lot of dough, so the place was packed with folks buying raffle tickets and putting them in big plastic boxes next to the trees (you win cash prizes, vacations....it's a big deal) so I pushed my way through star-struck families and fake-tanned girls-night-out-groups to the ballroom where the group of gays were gathered. The guy at the lectern was proud that over 200 people bought tickets, and that this year's Pride event will attract almost 25,000 people. The supporters were mostly middle-aged, mostly coupled, and it had a church-type feel to it. Lots of people greeting each other, old friends and acquaintances, celebrating the season