While Roamin was in the service bay, we drove to downtown (or 'city center', as it is referred to in these parts) Spokane to see what we could see. The Spokane river runs through the center, and a very nice park surrounds it.
Beside the usual park features, there is also a carousel, an area for special occasions (such as midway rides or sports events), metal sculptures, and a giant wagon.
At the far end of the park, you can take a cable car ride over Spokane Falls. It appeared to be the best way to see the falls, so we did. We mentioned in our last post that we were leaving the nice cool weather of the Northwest coast, and heading into summer heat. On this particular day, the forecast for Spokane was to hit 100. It was still mid-to-late morning, but the temperature was approaching the high 80's. We mention all this because just before we stepped into the cable car we noticed a sign saying that when outdoor temperatures reach 85, the temperature inside the cable car can be 110 or more. And it was! As SheM furiously fanned herself with her hat, and HeM fumed at the lack of proper engineering for better ventilation in the car, we made our way SLOWLY over the falls.
And this is the view we saw when we reached the falls.
OK, nice falls, but did you notice the nice walkway to the falls? When we saw that, the car was suddenly filled with words that we can't print here. If we had had any idea that we could have walked to the falls, we would never have gotten into this airborne oven. And we still had a long way to go before we would be able to get out. More furious fanning, fuming, and unprintable words! When we did finally get out of the car, we felt like we should have been topped with some butter, sour cream, and chives.
It's a short distance from Spokane to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We spent a week in a park just outside Coeur d'Alene. Our first visual impression of the park wasn't great, but once we were parked and situated, we found it to be rather pleasant.
The park is in a small town setting, and a WalMart is less than 1/2 mile from it. We enjoyed being able to walk there for small grocery purchases. And there were more falls to see. No cable car access this time...just a short drive and foot path to see Post Falls.
Not terribly impressive, but we didn't bake a second time either.
Coeur d'Alene itself is not very big, but it does have a large lake that is the center of activities there. When asking for directions, we found that a lot of people use "the big hotel" as a reference point.
On the warm day we were there, the beach was a popular spot.
We celebrated July 4 by just hanging out at home, cooking hot dogs, and listening to fireworks. That's right, 'listening' to fireworks. We thought that we were going to be able to see some local fireworks from our spot, but that wasn't the case. But we did hear them going off all over the neighborhood well up to midnight. And the next night. And the next night. Idahoans sure do like their fireworks!
We're moving into Montana after a short drive across the Idaho panhandle. We've just realized that we didn't eat a single potato while we were here in Idaho, baked or otherwise. We have seen some very big, blue skies, though, and figure that we'll see even more in the Big Sky state.
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