Wednesday night we feasted on brats and beer. Thursday morning we had last walkabouts in Leavenworth. Elaine saw a deer close up. I saw shop windows.
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At 9:00 am we left for the five hour drive east to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It was a pleasant drive on route 2 first along the Wenatchee River and then along the Columbia River. This is serious fruit growing territory – grapes (and wineries and Washington peaches and apples. We stopped at a lake and the Gehrke Windmill Garden for brief pictures and then motored on to Grand Coulee Dam.
I remember learning about Grand Coulee Dam in grade school back in the 1950’s. It was a huge depression area WPA project under FDR. The lake behind the dam is named Roosevelt Lake. The dam is massive! At the time it was built it was the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. It is still the largest in the USA. The concrete in the dam could build a four-foot sidewalk around the Equator twice. It could build a four lane highway from Seattle to Miami. 81 people died during construction, mostly from falls. They have a great movie about the construction that we watched. There are tours but we missed them.
We started a nice picnic in a picnic area in the shadow of the dam. Like our last picnic, we were soon forced back to Blue, our trusty Nissan Rogue, as one bee, then another, then another, etc. arrived to enjoy the picnic.
Route 2 eventually merged in to I-90 (about 3,000 west of I-90 Mass Turnpike). That took us through a busy Spokane, Washington and into Idaho. Coeur d’Alene is just about 30 minutes east of Spokane. We arrived at our condo rental in Coeur d’Alene’s garden district at about 5:00 pm after an obligatory stop at Safeway for some essentials for our five nights here.
The carriage house unit is beautiful, albeit without any interesting views. It’s a 15-minute walk to Lake Coeur d’Alene. We’ll check it out in the morning. Good night for now.
Get any cotlets in Wenatchee?? Weather has been marvelous for you two, love the pictures. Liked the Munich restaurant for sure!!