Friday broke nice and sunny and stayed that way until clouds rolled in late in the day. In the morning we walked (together for a change) from our Garden District carriage house to downtown CDA (as Coeur d’Alene is commonly referred to) and the lakefront. Plenty of Mudgy Moose statues about – he’s CDA’s mascot.
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We stopped by and picked some local information at the Visitor Center. Since it was a nice day we decided to take a drive north on route 95 (not interstate) to see Farragut State Park and the town of Sandpoint. Sandpoint is about an hour north with the park in between.
Farragut State Park has a nice lake and lots of hiking trials but was, frankly, pretty boring. The high point was just outside the park in a small town called Bayview where we stopped for lunch at Ralph’s. Ralph’s is a nondescript little place with three tables where had the best burgers we have had in a long time. And the homemade potato salad was outstanding. I enjoyed mine with a delicious huckleberry frappe (milk shake to you non-Bostonians).
Then we drove on to Sandpoint which is a pretty little artist community on Lake Pend Oreille, Oregon’s largest. It was pleasant but not really worth the hour ride. You could drive on from there eastward along the lake on a supposedly very picturesque (but long) drive, but it was getting late and we chose to double back to CDA.
We had cocktails on our balcony (without the ocean view to which we have become accustomed) before heading to dinner at 315 Martinis and Tapas. It’s a great little neighborhood eatery. Good cocktails! Great Caesar salad. Elaine had delicious salmon and I had, amazingly, my first steak of the trip. Everything, including the service, was excellent. The wine was an Elk Cove Vineyards pinot noir from Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
Hi Elaine and Joe, Billy aka Bailey here. Just want you to know I am reading each blog post and enjoying it. Keep on posting and having a great time. Beautiful country. Look forward to seeing you in beautiful Arizona country soon .
Love the pics! Miss ya’ll!
I missed this. Read Wallace first. Still getting back to normal after driving out to Vistancia to see our pal’s new house. Lovely house, out in the wilderness, well, not really, but boy it is desolate out there off the 303!!
The roads are now open to Glacier, have you seen any damage at all from the fires?
Like Barb, I missed this post too. Coeur d’Alene looks like a beautiful lake town. Love Mudgy Moose. However, it looks a bit too complicated to get a beer in town!