online diary for the masses

The third and final festival I attended this weekend was the University of Idaho’s Palousafest. (The first and second were the National Lentil Festival, and Northwest Best Brewfest, respectively.) This event is primarily for the university’s incoming freshman and transfer students to see what their new school has to offer in the way of extra-curricular activities. After a few hours of walking up and down endless rows of booths representing various on campus clubs and local organizations — and simultaneously scoping out the options that their new school offers in the way of people of the opposite sex — the students were treated to a free concert by one of 1998′s biggest bands: Eve 6.

It was a beautiful night in Moscow as Mikey and I attended the show we’d have bragged about significantly more a decade prior. Fortunately, we enjoyed it nearly as much at age 26 as we would have at age 16. Watching freshmen interact was half the fun, but that deserves a post of its own.

Ladies and gentlemen, Eve 6.

The second of the three festivals I attended this weekend was Lewiston’s second annual Northwest Best Brewfest. (I’m blogging all three festivals, and I’ve already done the National Lentil Festival, in case you missed it.) Some 20+ local and national breweries were represented, each offering samples of their finest creations. The event was ripe with good people watching, plenty of good beers, and a handful of really terrible ones.

The Palouse’s rolling hills provided a fantastic backdrop for our 45 minute drive from Moscow to Lewiston. All the area wheat farmers are in the process of harvesting their crop for the season, which means the fields are a stunning gold. I hope the day I get used to the beauty I’m surrounded by up here is far off… but I digress.

To Brewfest!

This weekend was among the Palouse’s most eventful of the entire year. There were three festivals within an hour’s drive of one another, and I made it a point to hit each of them. This week I will be publishing photos from each event, starting with the first: The National Lentil Festival.

What’s a lentil, you ask? Sadly, despite several people’s attempts at explaining it to me, I’m not quite sure I know.

As far as I’m concerned, it is a small version of a bean, with which an entirely acceptable form of chili can be made. Each year at the Lentil Festival, Pullman’s downtown streets are filled with locals who are welcome to enjoy, among other things, a free bowl of lentil chili that is made in a massive, 350-gallon vat, and stirred with an oar by notable townfolk.

Masses, I give you small-town America at its finest.

One of the many luxuries the northwest affords its inhabitants is the ability to go rock climbing without having to drive three hours to get to a crag. This past weekend we took a day trip up to Post Falls, ID to climb at Q’Emiln Park. The weather was unbeatable, the surroundings were beautiful, and I managed to capture a few images of Climber Colby — not to be confused with Karate Kick Colby — climbing on Identity Crisis (5.10a).