Room With A View

David Delfs has a prime view of Spokane sunrises, city lights and Bloomsday.

He watched it all Sunday from a window five inches wide in a maximum-security cell at the Spokane County Jail.

It took a little work to piece together what was happening. With an ear to the glass, Delfs could hear the race announcer but couldn’t see. Peering through the narrow window he could almost see the finish line - but he couldn’t hear.

He enjoyed the race from his sixth-story cubicle anyway, shouting updates to inmates down the hall. “They call it the hole, but I like it,” said Delfs, 39, who’s in jail on firearms charges.

Other Bloomsday watchers struggled to find the perfect lookout for the race. They climbed trees, shoulders and fire escapes. Some smashed their faces against windows in buildings high above downtown. A few stood on top of parked cars - sometimes not their own.

Still others got in trouble for the viewing spots they finally did claim.

Tory Stevens, 17, shimmied up a streetlight pole at Riverside and Post, hoping to get a nice view of the human stampede below.

A Spokane police officer squashed that idea. He ordered Stevens to unstraddle himself and return to the street.

“The view’s not as good from here,” Stevens complained.

On Government Way, three children in the bucket of a 60-foot crane hovered above the road.

Their father, Rich McIntire, brought the truck to advertise for his tree-trimming service.

McIntire lowered Rebecca, 8, Leva, 6, and Isaac, 4, into their front-row seats.

Not far north, Nancy and Larry Dean had breakfast with neighbors and friends in their front yard on Riverview Drive, where they enjoyed a panoramic view of Government Way, the T.J. Meenach Bridge and Doomsday Hill.

“It’s sort of an anthill’s version of Bloomsday,” said Dean, a salesman for Unisource on East Trent. “They look like little moving dots of color.”

Neighbor Ruth Clarke gave up trying to spot her grandchildren among the runners years ago.

“We tried tying balloons to their heads, but that didn’t work,” Clarke said.

Housekeepers lined a balcony at the Spokane Club, taking a break from laundering linens in the basement.

“Most of us come up here and at least take a peek,” said Laurie Brown. “We want to see everybody else sweat before we have to.”

Hotel guests waved from wide-open windows and diners took their plates of pancakes to the skywalk, another viewing hotspot.

Herschel Payne, 84, of Shelton, Wash., watched his first-ever Bloomsday from a perch in the middle of the course - at the graffiti-covered People’s Wall west of the Monroe Street Bridge.

Payne climbed atop the wall with his son, Leslie Payne, and settled back in a blue-and-white lawnchair.

“I can’t believe no one else is up here,” said his son.

A dozen watchers climbed all over the Bloomsday runner statues in Riverfront Park, perching themselves on smooth metal shoulders.

Others stood on the frozen runners’ bent legs, extended arms and tilted heads. One child climbed on the lap of a metal wheelchair racer.

“I can see!” she cried, lifting herself to her tiptoes for a better view.

In a tree above her, two Washington State University students settled in the branches and watched Bloomies make their way down the last stretch of the course.

Jay Bartley, 22, munched an apple and looked mildly interested. His friend, Chad Gold, 21, leaned out of the tree and squinted hard at the finishers.

“He’s looking for this girl,” Bartley said, scouting out a place to toss his apple core. “He doesn’t even know her name, he just saw her at the starting area.”

“She has an orange tag,” Gold said. “Orange people are coming now.”

“She’s probably married,” Bartley said. “Let’s get a beer.”

Staff writer Alison Boggs contributed to this story