Arriving In Coeur D'Alene

Day 3

If anyone ever speaks poorly of the continental breakfast at the Super 8 Motel in Baker City, Oregon; do not believe them. It is an average to poor continental breakfast. Not long after breakfast we hit the road, despite the pleasant downpour. There really is a lot of farm land in this area and we must have seen most of it; a billion acres of corn and some millions of cows. Lots of cows. But we did see a couple of Elk off the highway during our drive which was a welcome sight. Those things are huge! We got to Walla Walla about midday and headed to the “Fort” Walla Walla Museum. The use of the word fort must have a different meaning this far north. Mind you, they did have a great deal of exhibits about the agricultural history of the area, if you are into old tractors and threshers. And if you know me, I’m all about replica antique steam engines. Booya. Their pioneer village also offered a glimpse into the olden days of Walla Walls. But, no fort. No guarded walls with canons and muskets. No actors in replica uniforms. Besides the name of the place, there wasn’t any reference at all to any fort that ever was there. I’m not bashing it, just truthifying it.

Following that excursion we took to downtown Walla Walla, which has a main drag with a really nice area of shops and restaurants. What attracted us to Walla Walla was the wineries. Down the main street, there must have been a dozen tasting rooms for local vineyards and wineries. We went to a couple of tasting rooms before lunch and enjoyed some tasty wines. One wine vendor gave us a great deal of insight to the area and recommended a great restaurant for us, T. Maccarroones(sp?). Awesome little italian restaurant (with a really nice bathroom, BTW). After hitting another wine tasting we were off bound for Coeur D’Alene. I can only vouch for part of this drive after tasting all of that wine. Didn’t take long before we got through Spokane and arrived in Coeur D’Alene where we were warmly greeted by our hosts Jack and Janet. They promptly offered us a glass of wine and I knew we would be getting along just fine. With a bit of afternoon left, we went down to the lake and walked along the boardwalk. Lake Coeur D’Alene is a massive and beautiful lake. We stopped at a boat that was on “open house” and took a look inside. I would hardly call it roughing it with the plush carpet and marble countertops. Unfortunately, it was just out of our price range at $280,000.

We returned to Jack and Janet’s and had a delicious dinner of Feta tacos(recipe officially stolen), plenty more wine and good conversation. We are looking forward to tommorrow and spending some time on the lake. We are already having a great time so far and this has been the “boring” part of the trip. Bring on the good stuff!

--jeff