Closed Thursday Rundown

Posted on May 28, 2026 by brent

Thursday always seems to come sooner when preceded by a Monday holiday. Tonight’s Thursday Rundown will be my last of the month so let’s send May out with a bang…

Fr. Jeff’s 15th Ordination Anniversary – Our family priest marked his 15th anniversary of his ordination this week. That’s right, Fr. Jeff Lewis has now been part of the priesthood for a decade and a half. We have enjoyed celebrating Fr. Jeff’s ordination anniversary (here and here) over the years and this latest one was bittersweet as he will leave St. Mary next month for an assignment in Walla Walla.

Fr. Jeff Lewis celebrated his 15th ordination anniversary on May 26. We celebrated the milestone with him at our young family group meeting.

Family Faith Night – Speaking of Fr. Jeff, he was in attendance with us last night at the final St. Mary Family Faith Night of the year. The theme centered on different Catholic religious orders, a topic that was of great interest to me. It is a gift from God that priests and others are able to live out their vocations under special spiritual missions. Once again, the evening was a complete masterpiece thanks to the organization, thought, and creativity of Marie Bricher.

Beau yells something at Fr. Jeff Lewis as we “try” to listen to Marie Bricher during the last Family Faith Night of the school year on May 27, 2026. The topic/theme centered on different Catholic religious orders.

Flight 509 – I felt for the Spokane business community when Flight 509 announced its closure on Tuesday night. The entertainment center is closing after just two years in business. Those owners poured a lot of money, time, and effort into making Flight 509 a clean and fun place with all the bells and whistles. It truly had everything from laser tag to a ropes course to bumper cars to bowling lanes to robots who delivered pizza. Even the adults felt at home with a swanky bar and large TVs. The kids did receive Flight 509 gift cards for Christmas so we will be making one final trip before the business closes its doors to the public on June 13.

Flight 509 was fun. Photos are from our first ever visit and from when we found free passes in a geocache. I thought Flight 509 did excellent community outreach. It is sad to see them close.

Hard Mt. Dew – Normally I wouldn’t purchase something like this, but I wanted to enjoy a fun beverage with my brother before we headed to the Ron White show this past Saturday. On my way to his house, I stopped at a convenient store and couldn’t help but reach into the cooler for two of the Hard Mt. Dew Baja Blasts. When I handed one of the cans to Glen with a mile-wide grin, he knew he had no choice but to indulge with me. It tasted pleasant and tropical but much to my dismay it contained no caffeine. That was a head scratcher to me. How could any Mt. Dew beverage—alcoholic or virgin—not have any caffeine? Anyway, it was definitely a change from the rare light beer I drink every now and then.

Cheers! Glen and I hold the Hard Mt. Dews we drank before the Ron White show.

National Hamburger Day – Today is a big day in Americana as it is National Hamburger Day. I wrote my ode to the burger two years ago on this date that I felt served as my mic drop when it comes to our nation’s favorite food. But if you are still hungry for more, I once wrote about my top five favorite hamburger toppings, the freshest hamburger I ever ate, and one of the most unique hamburgers I ever ordered. Hope you celebrate with a burger tonight!

I love a good burger. Happy National Hamburger Day!

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Hope everyone has a great weekend. June will be here on Monday as it will kickoff what promises to be a very busy and memorable month for Sid and me. Don’t Blink.

My Best Burger This Year

Posted on May 28, 2025 by brent

To commemorate National Hamburger Day last year, I wrote this tribute that I am pretty happy with. In fact, I don’t think there is anything else I could pen that would surpass it. So I am not going to try.

I am a big burger fan! After last year’s ode, however, I am not going to try and top it.

What I am going to do, however, is take a few short paragraphs to tell you about the best burger I ate since the 2024 National Hamburger Day and today…

The best burger I ate over the past 365 days was cooked in a small, no-frills café in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Called Hudson’s Hamburgers, you walk into the joint and there is literally a giant mound of ground beef out in the open on the employee side of the bar. You place your order, the cook grabs meat from the mound, throws it on the grill, and cooks your burger.

You can see the hamburger meat to the left. When I was there, the meat was much more plentiful and packed in a high tower but I didn’t have the presence of mind to take a photo of it (photo courtesy of Adam Peter Shinn).

I had never seen such an operation. I had also never tasted a burger quite like the one I had at Hudson’s. It was juicy, tasty, and savory. But its real distinguishing characteristic? The FRESHNESS! How do I explain? Well, as a blogger who finds it a challenge to truly define what freshness tastes like, eating that burger conveyed to me immediately what freshness is…words not needed.

I took this photo of one of the burgers we were served at Hudson’s Hamburgers. It was delicious and FRESH.

But it gets better. In a world of $20 burgers, a Hudson’s hamburger won’t even cost you $4. What kind of parallel universe are we living in?!

Our lunch at Hudson’s Hamburgers occurred in July. We had brought my in-laws to Coeur d’Alene for an afternoon of boating. I was a little nervous to bring them inside Hudson’s for a quick bite before we hit the water. But you know what? It was probably the favorite meal they ate the entire 11-day trip. Go figure.

Happy National Hamburger Day. Don’t Blink.

Celebrating National Hamburger Day

Posted on May 28, 2024 by brent

It is National Hamburger Day and since I missed National Cheeseburger Day back in September (😂), I thought I should probably write something today. However, I don’t want to beleaguer the topic too much so how about just a few points—or better yet—bites? Just the perfect amount it takes to devour a good-sized slider.

There is nothing better than a great burger.

I have much admiration and comfort for the universality of the hamburger on a restaurant menu…and when I say “universality” I am of course speaking of just American restaurants. You won’t just find a hamburger on the menus of restaurants like Applebee’s, Chilis, and Buffalo Wild Wings. You will also find them on the menus at the fish house you don’t like because you hate seafood, the Thai place that intimidates you a bit, and the steakhouse where you don’t want to shell out $60 for a steak. Hamburgers are seemingly on most restaurant menus and provide the perfect fallback option.

Retro photo of me eating a hamburger in 2012.

Although ordering a hamburger can be the economical choice on many menus as I just alluded to with the steakhouse example, don’t think it has been immune to inflation. I see many burgers priced at $17-$20 these days and let me say this: I have had a lot of bad $20 burgers over the past couple years. But I have also enjoyed some pretty good ones over that span as well. Case in point, just this past weekend we ate at a place called Pint House Burgers and Brews here in the Spokane Valley. My $17 cheeseburger came with two patties, a shiny/fresh bun, and the necessity that two hands be used to eat it. Almost worth every penny.

I ordered this cheeseburger just this past Friday at Pint House Burgers and Brews.

I can easily make due with just the bun, meat, and slice of cheddar cheese but I am not opposed to enhancing a burger with toppings. Back in 2017 I wrote a post that revealed my top five burger toppings but I can save you the link click (because I am feeling nice today) and just tell you them here: bacon, pepper jack cheese, french fries, BBQ sauce, and blue cheese crumbles. And oh yeah, I also love some peanut butter on my burger too!