Road Trip to Wedding Part VI: I Heart CDA

We woke up the next morning and it was hot outside. We were used to the cooler temps in Yellowstone and it was a bit of a shock to be in that heat again.  Our aggressive goal to get to Missoula the night before ended up making the trip to Coeur d'Alene, ID an easy three hour drive (and we also gained an hour by crossing into Pacific time).  I never heard of Coeur d'Alene until we were at the Arizona Ironman back in November of 2012. Roy's sister and friends were talking about the Ironman they had gone to there and how beautiful the scenery was. When planning this road trip I made sure we went through it since we'd be in that part of the country.

Our second time in Idaho (remember Rexburg?)

Beautiful geraniums.

Lake Coeur d'Alene. It's huge - 25 miles long.

We grabbed lunch at the Bonsai Bistro right by the marina and this was my fortune. Spot on, I'd say!

On the way to CDA, I had the bright idea of renting a ski boat so we can have some fun on the lake. We found this place called New Sun Adventures and rented this Glaston boat for a couple of hours.

The lake was beautiful. The temperature was in the 90s so it was perfect for a day on the lake.

No need to anchor here. The water was deep, blue, and clear. It was nice.

After swimming for a while we cruised around. 

The lake is so big there's planes that land on it. Eventually our time ran out and we had to head back but it was okay. It was cool arriving at CDA not knowing what to expect and leaving with such an awesome experience. I want to go back - soon!

You know the drill... back on the road! We crossed into Washington after about 15 minutes.  Spokane is about 30 minutes from CDA. Our original itinerary included a visit to Seattle but since we spent more time than expected at Yellowstone, we decided to nix the city and head toward Oregon. After spending the last few days enjoying nature, the thought of getting tied up in city traffic wasn't appealing either. Plus we had a date in San Fran that we didn't want to be late for.

 Here is the sun setting in Kennewick, WA.  We drove a little over three hours away to Hermiston which was just over the Oregon state line. We stayed at the Oxford Suites and ate at Hale's. It was really good.  The county fair and rodeo was going on but we had a long drive the next day so we opted retire for the night.