Our Road Trips

6/13/14

We spent yesterday around Lake Pend Oreille, a leftover from the last ice age 13,000 years ago. Idahoans are proud to tell you the history of their region of the NW, with good reason. The area is as beautiful as it gets. The rivers & lakes nestled in the many mountain ranges make for beautiful tourist attractions. My sister asked who besides us spend so much time in Idaho...and we are finding out that the number is actually quite large in winter and summer with moderate crowds in the interim. We have caught the state in an 'off season', which is fine for us. Campgrounds have abundant openings, retail shops are completely unoccupied, and one can actually walk up to a lake cruise 5 minutes before sailing and get a decent spot on the boat...nice.

So we drove to Sandpoint and got a spot on a Lake Pend Oreille cruise boat for $22 and went on a 2 hour cruise around the lake. Yesterday was their official first cruise of the summer. We can never claim to understand the thinking of making June 12 the beginning of summer, but that was the case anyway. So, the two of us sat near the rear of the boat and listened to the narrative for 2 hours and were taught the history of the lake and what has been going on for the last 13,000 years...pretty long history lesson. But the scenery was gorgeous, a front was moving through, creating some interesting cloud formations, Linda's narrative was interesting, and the pace was slow enough to be quite enjoyable...we think we are going to enjoy this type of activity as we go forward with this retired thing. There was a young lady rushing around trying to make sure the fellow passengers had plenty of microwaved popcorn, etc. to keep them more than happy for 2 hours. It was a good time. They pointed out an Osprey sitting on a nest and a Bald Eagle, but otherwise, it was a history lesson. The lake has some pretty deep places, and it was pointed out that if the Empire State Building was placed on the bottom, the observation deck would be at the surface of the lake. We are pretty sure that being on the Observation Deck of the ESB in the last 12 months, that analogy probably meant more to us than most of the other guests, but that is what happens on these things. It was a fun time.

Afterward, we did a little shopping in Sandpoint in clearly empty stores. Barb pointed out that she never bought anything either...we just wiled away an hour or so looking at the type of stuff folks who start coming to town starting tomorrow will probably cart home with them...not sure who would want this stuff??

Then we drove around the north end of the lake and went south on US 200, which follows the lake shore on the east side of the lake for a while and then bends east and eventually passes through Missoula, MT 180 miles away. We found where we were going to eat an early dinner but did some exploring first, seeing how folks live along the eastern shore...those folks who obviously have a fair amount of disposable income and enjoy sunsets in the mountains. It was an interesting ride, lots of unusually designed homes, and places where deer were actually laying in the grass in the front yards...interesting. There were signs everywhere to 'Please DO NOT Feed the Deer', so obviously these people are trying to deal with the problem and live with it at the same time. We eventually ended up at what is marketed as the only floating restaurant on Lake Pend Oreille. We got a front row seat on the lake and ordered dinner. Before it could be delivered, about 50 people showed up on motorcycles...whoops, not enough help on duty for a Thursday evening in Hope, ID. But they worked around it and got us all served sooner or later. But everyone was more interested with what was happening on the other side of the lake and no one seemed to mind. So I talked to some of the bikers, a group of 27 bikes from Edmonton, Alberta, who had been riding since Sunday and were headed home today. They too, thought Idaho is an amazing place to ride and were taking pictures of the setting sun in the cloud formations created by a moving front. The couple next to us lived 80 miles from Banff in Alberta and thought Idaho was pretty cool. So we were surrounded by folks from Alberta who were enjoying Idaho with us. It was a fun hour of so. And dinner was very good too. Seems we aren't the only Idaho fans.

We headed home, back through Sandpoint. At one traffic light, I commented how deserted the town looked...bet it looks different tomorrow, summer has arrived. But we will be getting ready for our next adventure...Alaska. We are going to check out Spokane, WA today and then get ready to move back to Coeur D'Alene. Stay tuned.

Steve & Barb Larson