Friday, June 3 Montana, Idaho and Washington

Today’s drive was really beautiful.  Again, the sky was incredibly beautiful most of the time. Instead of seeing snow-capped peaks in the distance, we climbed up to the level of the snow and crossed the continental divide.

Temperatures were in the low-to-mid 40s from when we left Missoula until we descended to Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, where it was very close to 50.  We stopped at a rest stop where there were lots of small squirrels and one chipmunk.  Several of the squirrels came almost to the feet of people and stood to beg for a treat.  They appeared to live in holes in the ground at the rest stop.

Coeur d’ Alene is a charming town, at least the parts we saw.  We had lunch at Jimmy’s Down the Street Restaurant.  The inside has walls covered with license plates from most (all?) states and other memorabilia.  Jim really liked his taco omelet.  Ardith’s BLT was just right. This restaurant was featured on a TV program called Diners, Drive-ins and Dives in February of 2010.

We then took a walk in Coeur d’ Alene’s gorgeous lakefront park. 

 One of the fun features of the park was a set of signs that had excerpts from a children’s book about the adventures of a moose in the city.  The signs also had maps.  Adjacent to each of these signs was a statue of the moose.  We also saw a tour boat pull up to the dock and unload about 100 very orderly kids who eventually stood along the railing of the dock for a chat about ducks.

After more miles of breathtaking scenery, we ended our day in Corville, Washington. 

 Jim wanted to stay in a cheap motel.  Ardith wasn’t very happy with him.  The room was very small and didn’t have much light, but it was clean and the bed comfortable.  The couple that manage it were very pleasant and chatted with us for quite a while. We took a walk to the city park and also walked 3 blocks to Stephani’s Oak Street Grill which were both recommended by our motel managers.  The place was really beautiful.  One interesting design element was the use of 3 doors with lots of glass tied together at an edge and braced so they were equally opened.  These were used as table separators.  They gave a feeling of separation from adjacent tables but left views in.  Very effective.  Jim and Ardith both ordered one of the evening’s specials.  Jim had the Crispy Ocean Grill.  He wanted fish but didn’t think about the word crispy meaning deep batter fried.  He usually avoids that to limit fat intake, but enjoyed it.  Ardith had prime rib with pot stickers.  That also included a yummy baked potato that had sour cream with a great balance of herbs.  Jim had a huckleberry wine  (nice to have once, wouldn’t want it regularly) and huckleberry vinaigrette on his salad (very tasty).  They also had several huckleberry desserts, but we were both stuffed.

The posts for many of the street lights in downtown Coville have silhouettes of local wildlife attached to them – each different.

Our car had been driven 3157 miles, but it got to ride on a flatbed truck for 70 miles..