It’s Walla Walla for fun fun

Oh, for pity’s sake. Hard on the heels of the gorgefest that is the holiday season, the folks at Tourism Walla Walla have unrolled a brand new reason for you to tie on the feedbag.

And you can do it every single weekend in February, and the first one in March, too.

They’re calling it the “Walla Walla Gourmet Getaways” package, and when they say package, they mean – well, I haven’t the slightest.

Near as I can tell, the “package” involves booking a room at one of eight participating hostelries for rates ranging from $125 to $275. When you make your reservation, you’ll have the apparently very special chance to spend another $85 to attend a cooking class on Saturday.

Not only that, organizers say you can “enjoy dinner for two each evening” – as long as you make your own arrangements, provide your own companion and pay for it yourself.

Should you find that extra $85 expense irresistible, you could find yourself in one of the following local kitchens where local chefs will provide instruction:

•Grapefields: Thai cuisine, Feb. 2

•26 Brix: soups and sauces, Feb. 2

•Fat Duck Inn: duck (what else?), Feb. 9

•T Maccarone’s: Italian cuisine, Feb. 9

•Walla Walla College: cooking with wine, Feb. 16

•Wildberries: pate al la natural, Feb. 16

•Whoopemup Hollow: decadent desserts, Feb. 23

•Whitehouse Crawford: hearty stews, Feb. 23

•Walla Walla College: fabulous flatbreads, March 1

•Saffron: Mediterranean cuisine, March 1

During class, they’ll ply you with two whole glasses of wine and a Gourmet Getaway apron. That must be when the package idea really starts to pay off.

Organizers further encourage you to take advantage of Walla Walla’s attractions, “historic charm,” culture and various spa services available for purchase.

To play the “I’m My Own Tour Operator” game (and yes, I made that up), visit www.wallawalla.org/specials.cfm or call (800) 586-2193.

Great White Northeners

Up north of us, a couple of spots have taken a page out of Walt Whitman’s book, so Anchorage and the entire province of British Columbia will spend part of 2008 celebrating themselves and singing themselves.

In Anchorage, the Fur Rendezvous – known locally as the “Rondy” – has been paying tribute to the early Alaskan way of life since 1935.

This year’s festivities will honor such event traditions as outhouse races, snowshoe softball, a poker tournament and live concerts. The fun gets under way on Feb. 22 and runs through March 2.

Anchorage’s canine population gets in on the action with the Rondy World Championship Dog Weight Pull and the Rondy World Championship Sled Dog Races.

And the Multi Tribal Gathering brings indigenous cultures of the Western hemisphere together to share dance, music, song and other works of art.

Additional events include the Alaska Sound Celebration Melodrama, the Jim Beam Jam and the Frostbite Footrace and Costume Fun Run.

To find out more, try www.anchorage.net or (907) 274-1177.

In British Columbia, they’re noting the sesquicentennial of their formation as a crown colony with some province-wide navel-gazing.

The Royal BC Museum leads the way with “Free Spirit: Stories of You, Me and BC,” an initiative that explores the province’s past through stories of individuals and communities who lived through it.

“Free Spirit” will include a souvenir book, summer events, an interactive Web site at www.freespirit.be.ca, and other components.

What’s more, a 10,000-square-foot exhibition opens March 13. Created entirely in-house, the show will feature hundreds of artifacts, specimens and documents from the museum’s collection. Many of them have never been on display to the public before.

British Columbians can share their stories of life in the province at The People’s History Project Web site, and those will be incorporated into the Free Spirit exhibition as well.

To find out more about this Canadian trip down memory lane, try www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca or (888) 447-7977.

Regional events

•Microbrew Review and Cool Dog Ball, Jan. 25, Helena. Kick off February’s Race to the Sky, the 350-mile sled dog race, with more than 30 Northwest beers, food and fun. (www.visitmt.com/406-447-1535)

•Seattle Mariners 2008 FanFest, Jan. 26 and 27, Seattle. Meet players, try your hand at hitting and pitching, get some tips from Mariner coaches, tour the clubhouse, and turn your kids loose on some activities just for them. (seattle.mariners.mlb.com/sea/community/fanfest.jsp /206-346-4000)

•29th Annual Southeastern Montana Juried Exhibit, Jan. 27-March 16, Miles City. Paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and more by professional and amateur artists from Montana and nearby states. (www.visitmt.com/406-234-0637)