Things to Do in Spokane Valley

North Bowl’s glossy lanes unravel into pin-filled pastures, fostering competitive, family-friendly action in a completely smoke-free environment. Between thunderous bouts, patrons can roam into one of the facility’s trio of ancillary spaces, including the game room, pro shop, and bar and grill, where burgers, sandwiches, and pizza fuel fingers for rematches. During lights and strikes bowling, lasers and fog dance across darkened alleys, while speakers help energize competitors by blasting out tunes. The alley’s expanse is ideal for groups of friends to battle gutter-to-gutter in league play or during birthday parties, which, like the prerogative to scream for ice cream, are available to kids and adults alike.

Wonderland Family Fun Center is a great place for the entire family to spend a day creating memories that will last a lifetime. Open all year round with free admission, the center contains both indoor and outdoor attractions such as batting cages, two story adventure-land playhouse, an arcade with more than 80 video and ticket redemption games, a wonderland prize center and a 2,200-square-foot laser-tag arena. Once game matches are over, players can switch over to the equally fluorescent black-light 18-hole mini golf course or venture outdoors to sit behind the wheel of a bumper boat at the other end of the facility’s 5-acre expanse. Fun game play can build up appetites that can be satisfied from a selection of available food such as pizza, breadsticks, and soft drinks.

The staff at Sew E-Z Too helps its students wield sewing needles, knitting needles, and crochet hooks to create cloth jewelry, bags, and other decorative pieces. Classes meet inside Sew E-Z Too, a cloth and fabric emporium that holds enough material to supply larger projects, such as a warm knit shawl or a quilted cozy for the family car. The store stocks dozens of brands from Mike Canetty Textiles to Cranston Village, and the pro knitters and stitchers in the shop are on hand to offer advice and tips.

The Tipsy Muse painting series draws together wine appreciators to create acrylic paintings in the unpretentious environment of the Nectar Tasting Room. The venue aggregates the winemaking talents of five local wineries: Anelare Winery, Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards, Northwest Cellars, Skylite Cellars, and Terra Blanca Winery. Attendees cozy up with glasses of wine from the aforementioned producers inside the 2,000 square-foot space to sip and glean painting tips, such as how to properly speak to their paintbrush, from an experienced instructor.

In 1921, the citizens of Post Falls, Idaho marveled as horses pulled two church buildings to the corner of Fourth Avenue and William Street, combining them and kindling the spirit of collaboration that fuels the structure's current resident, The Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center. Here, gothic-revival and vernacular architecture converge, brimming with more than a century of stories and earning a spot in the National Register of Historic Places. Throughout the building's past and into its present, it has persisted as a haven where the community gathers to socialize, learn, and question suspected witches. These days, the facility hosts activities that strengthen the mind and body, such as fitness classes and cooking courses. An upstairs gallery showcases the work of local artists from North Idaho and Eastern Washington as well as works by national artists, and the main-level celebration hall's raised stage and space for up to 200 seats acts as a venue for concerts, weddings, and crowd-surfing practice.

Sprawling across 100 acres in the verdant, picturesque Spokane Falls, Riverfront Park beckons with awe-inspiring visual and auditory wonders. The newly constructed SkyRide invites visitors to survey the land from above, swooping across the Spokane River and past city hall, where they can wave to their favorite comptroller. Back on the ground, the historic Looff Carousel, built in 1909, whirls riders around on 54 horses, two Chinese-dragon chairs, one giraffe, and one tiger, and a tour train chugs through the park on a 30-minute narrated jaunt. Among other attractions, such as the Sculpture Walk and pony rides, Riverfront Park houses an enormous IMAX theater with one of the largest indoor screens in the Pacific Northwest. Standing 53 feet high and stretching 69 feet wide, the screen is slightly taller than the average human and displays crystal-clear two-dimensional images, which are complemented by the sounds of a booming, wraparound surround-sound system.