Coeur d' Alene is a beautiful town right next to the lake. We stayed at the Flamingo Motel, a small 14 unit old style motel that has each room decorated differently. We stayed here last year in the "Country Cottage." This year we drove up and they had one room left -- the "Cowboy." Talk about luck. The host said that this was the only room they had vacant for several weeks.
The room is cute and location perfect. We are in the shadow of numerous new high-rist condos. They tore down the building next door and will be building something there soon. We are hoping that the Motel will be there for our next visit and not fall prey to new development. We are within walking distance from "the Coeur d' Alene", a huge luxery hotel and marina, the park along the lake and a number of restraunts, a museum, and all those new high-rise condos...
Had dinner at the Coeur d" Alene Brewing Company (est. 1908) at the corner of 2nd and Lakeside. The food was great and I had a Vanilla Bourbon Stout that was really delicious. A nice dark beer with a slightly sweet vanilla flavor that takes away any bitterness. We tried to buy some, but they do not bottle it. So you have to go there to get it. Highly recommended.
We are now back in our Cowboy room andJim is happy-- watching the Oregon State/USC game.
The drive here was very pleasant. Nice and sunny once we got to Hood River. 395 North to Spokane reminds me of Western Kansas only not quite so flat, but no trees and lots of wheat fields. According to our Roadside Geology book this area is called the "Scablands." It was formed from massive volcano flows of basalt millions of years ago.
Then there was the Spokane floods. During the ice age the Pend Oreille Lake near Sand Point, Idaho (about 50 miles north of here) formed an ice dam and created the Glacial Lake Missoula. The water backed up was 2000 feet deep, and the lake contained avbout 500 cubic miles of water. When global warming occured, the dam broke loose and all that water rushed towards Spokane and the scablands. Jim said he saw a TV show describing how scientists were trying to figure out what had happened. They had found Montana boulders on the top of some of the cliffs along the Columbia Gorge. They finally verified the flood.
And we think our version of global warming is bad!
We stopped at several rest areas and encountered wild life
and lakes left over from the flood.
On to Montana tomorrow.
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