billbauer

This was the coming home day of trip.  We had a luxurious, relaxing morning in the hotel before heading for the airport.  We turned in the rental car: 1,550 miles in eleven days from Bozeman to Spokane, however the last three days in Coeur d'Alene had few miles. We had a great time every day.  It would be hard to pick out a favorite.  The scenery, of course, was a highlight travel days.  The jet boat and the zip line added excitement.  The weather was superb. There is no Delta Sky Club in Spokane so we enjoyed the next best, a Starbucks in the center of the concourse. Our flight was delayed about an hour and half, with the last half hour delay occurring on the jet bridge.  The rest was thankfully uneventful.  I made friends with Conner, aged 1 1/2, sitting with his mother on my right. Thanks for following along.  See you next trip.

We bid adieu to the very nice Coeur d'Alene Resort today but not before an exciting (for me) activity.  I have wanted to do a zip line for some time.  However, the opportunity was never quite right.  Today the stars aligned.  We had time, the weather is great, I loved the course and I had confidence in the safety of the operator. Timberline Adventures (www.ziptimberline.com) has constructed a zip line course with seven zip lines terminating on platforms high in the trees and joined with three rope sky bridges.  The first zip line is only a few hundred feet long through trees.  Each zip line gets progressively higher, longer and faster.  The last of the seven is 1,600 feet (a quarter of mile) long set 400 feet in the air.  It was thrilling.  It was fun.  It was scary even though I was clipped in with a safety wire the entire time. This video gives an overview.  Everything you see in the video I did. https://www.youtube.com/watch...

First a shot taken from our hotel room last evening during the photographic "blue hour".  This part of photography is not my specialty but I'm trying to learn. We had a fairly low key day.  Unlike past trips, the blog this trip has been mostly absent of food pictures.  That is because, well, the food, while good, hasn't been particularly noteworthy.  Now that we are here, that has changed.  We plan today with a late "breakfast" intending to only have two meals today.  We breakfast in the Dockside Cafe. There is a test today.  Guess which of the below breakfast meals belongs to each of us.  No peeking. We tour Lake Coeur d'Alene by boat ... to get views of the famous "floating green" of the 14th hole of their golf course ... and get views of the hotel. I was able to tour the wine cellar of Beverly's Restaurant, the signature restaurant of the hotel.  This wine cellar, they say, is the largest wine cellar in the northwest,...

After breakfast this morning, we stop at the overlook for the Battle of White Bird Hill which initiated the war between the US Government and the Nez Perce tribe in Idaho over land rights.  The Nez Perce dominated this battle. But Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce tribe knew that they had to flee the US and did so before finally succumbing to US forces in northern Montana.  There are Nez Perce information placards all over this part of Idaho.  We stop at the main visitor center near Spalding, ID. We drive through some very pretty country including the "white pine drive". We finally escape from internet/cellular purgatory, find connectivity again and have lunch at the hillside golf course in St. Maries, ID. A very pretty drive hugging the eastern shoreline of Lake Couer d'Alene. Our stay tonight is at the very posh, Coeur d'Alene Resort.  We were pleasantly surprised that our "partial marina view" room actually had a water view, albeit over ...

Before we set out on today's only adventure, a little look at our B&B, the White Bird Summit Lodge, located 9 miles south of Grangeville, ID.  Terri and Frank, especially Terri, made us feel like family. The Schmitz's have traveled the world hunting and the B&B reflects their many trophies acquired over the years. Yes, that is a giraffe. But our main adventure today is a jet boat ride through Hells Canyon on the Snake River.  We set off from Pittsburgh Landing, a precarious drive over the mountain from White Bird, ID. We travel through three class five rapids.  This is not one of them.  During the class fives, I was hanging on. We turn around at the Hells Canyon Dam ... and spot some wildlife (big horn sheep ewes) on the way back down. We spend a second night at the White Bird Summit Lodge.