John and Judy's Vacation 2007 - Part 3 - Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

It was either raining or threaten- ing to rain the whole time we were in Idaho and Washing- ton. We met Judy's sister, Jeanette, at the Perkins family restaur- ant. I had never been to a Perkins before. The food was good, they had homemade pie and the prices  were low compared to southern California. Everything including real estate was more reasonable here. I had reserved our motel, La Quinta, where we stayed four nights, online through hotels.com for $70. a night although the price from their own website was twice that much. It had everything - two queen beds, a remote for the TV that actually worked, a full kitchen including dishwasher and breakfast was included. You can't beat that.

The next day Judy hung out with Jeanette while I explored Coeur d'Alene. General William Tecumseh Sherman, after he had laid waste to the south in the Civil War, had come out here and established a fort called Fort Sherman, naturally. The name Coeur d'Alene had been given to the local Indians by French fur traders who thought the Indians were pretty sharp traders with hearts like a shoemaker's awl. Coeur d'Alene is a pretty little town that has grown to include on the outskirts all the mall stores that you can find everywhere in the US.  We felt right at home. It still retains a small town flavor though in the old part of town - no fast food restaurants there, not even a Starbucks. The downtown hamburger joint, Hudson's, was celebrating its 100 year anniversary so naturally I had to go there. The menu was very simple: hamburgers, cheeseburgers and pie. No French fries!

Coeur d'Alene is located on a beautiful, enormously huge lake. Here are some pictures. Please remember that you can click on any picture to see a larger version.

There is a nice visitors' center with a sculpture of the "coeur."

There is a resort right on the lake.

There is a nice new public library.

The old chapel from Fort Sherman is still there:

Here are some shots around town. Sherman Avenue is the main downtown drag. For more pictures of Coeur d'Alene check out the album by clicking here.

That night we had dinner at Jeanette's house:

One day we took a drive to St. Marie's, a little logging town about 60 miles from Coeur d'Alene. More beautiful lakes and rivers. No water shortage here!

That night we spent some time with Jeanette and her family, and Jeanette did some energy work on me.

Judy and Jeanette had a lot to catch up on, not having seen each other for 14 years. Our last night together we went to the Tomato Street restaur- ant.

The next morning we went east on I-90 headed for Seattle. We stopped at the Seattle Valley YMCA, a beautiful new facility where Judy waited for me while I swam. Then we had our coffee and pastry at the coffee bar there and bought a couple of sandwiches for our lunch. There was frost on the ground that morning!

Comments

[Jeanette]

OH NO! NOT THE BUTT SHOT!
:)
LOVE YOUR BLOG