A few weeks ago, my husband and I unintentionally went on a culinary tour of Portland, Ore. We hadn't really planned on eating and drinking our way through the city, but that's basically what we did.

Tonight, I'm on the first night of an organized culinary tour of Bellingham, Wash. I'm staying in a lovely hotel and currently digesting dinner and dessert from two of this city's favorite eateries. It's in preparation for a future story on agritourism and eating local foods.

(Note to self: give yourself a chance to lose at least five pounds between these trips. This is a dangerous job, but someone's got to do it.)

I'm part of a group of travel and culinary writers, and we're all here for roughly the same reason. Some of the others have been to Spokane before or are interested in visiting, so I'm wondering two things:

1. If you could set the restaurant agenda for someone visiting the Lilac City with plans to write about it, where would you send them?

2. Part of our tour involves visiting bison ranches, lavender farms, a shellfish farm, a cheese factory and other similar stops. What agricultural and culinary (non-restaurant) pitstops would you want visitors to Spokane make?

I'd love to pass on your suggestions.

In the interest of full disclosure: My agricultural/culinary tour of Bellingham is being paid for by the Bellingham-Whatcom County Tourism agency.

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