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As you leave the flat,awesome farm lands and start up in to the mountains, still frosted with snow, you come upon the town that has remade itself into an Alpine Village. It draws tourists by the bus load, and is just gorgeous.
Steve had to have a braut and local beer and I was in heaven with all the hanging baskets. Puts Solvang to shame!
With hugs that didn’t want to let go, we headed to Spokane with Rob and Susie Bierman to sightsee and have dinner at the jewel of the city-the Hotel Davenport.
We did a walking tour of the ol’ girl because Susie has roots in the area and her grandmother had her Debutant Ball there iin the early 1900’s. We stayed at the hotel rather than backtrack our way to Seattle.
We also checked out Whitworth cause Robbie got accepted there for college but chose Westmont, and Gonzaga just because.
Everyone has a story of the last time they saw a moose…’cept me.
The trip to the ranch had lots of moose areas, or so they said. I’m still moose-less and forced to pine over their stuffed relatives.
Mosied out to Western Pleasure Dude Ranch with Bill and Benita to see Brad, Susan, Heather and Josh Yunek. Their life is on the ranch where Brad handles the horses, trail rides, etc, and the campfire sings! Brad has always been so musically gifted and his songs are being noticed in Nashville.
What a great time we had sitting around the campfire and listening to him play his guitar and his daughter play her fiddle!
What a beautiful town whose focus is life around lakes and rivers. Couer d’Alene! And because there is so much water, owning a place lakeside is not for the very rich. But it is rich in friends; Bill and Benita Yunek, Dan and Marsha Shupe, Brad and Susan Yunek and Fam, Rob and Susie Bierman, and a surprise from Jon and Janet Woerner.
We enjoyed Bill and Benitas wonderful hospitality and they, the Woerners, and us were part of a great group of friends from Huntington Beach at the Methodist church 73-’81. Us friends would still do anything for each other and are close to this day tho’ we are scattered.
Fabulous fireworks, fine food, inspiring views and FOREVER friends!
If I had another life to live, I would love to run a B&B, or maybe be a substitute to fill in for other B&B owners so they could take vacations.
The gardens here were beautiful and everything victorian inside. Steve could make the beds and I could play in the garden. This is here we started our 4th of July!!
The melting snows are making for some awesome,powerful waterfalls. Their power is incredible!
We got up at 6ish one morning and crept out into the park on an animal quest (moose). It is surprising how fast the sun rises, once it appears.
Well we saw a daddy elk with a huge “rack” and a couple females across the way. A deer family and a coyote walking by them but not looking interested. A marmot, a vole, and some bison were the sum total of our animal count.
Still in search of the elusive moose, we even went off on a few trails into the forest and were attacked by a band of marauding mosquitos.
Only the gift-shop stuffed moose gave me any affection.
Folk at the park say she “blows” every 90 minutes, give or take 10. How do you figure out mother-nature? We watched it 6 times…twice on time, once 5 minutes early,once 10 minutes late, and once 30 minutes late. But everyone hung around until she blew! and it did not disappoint.
Now there are MANY geysers in the park and they are all HOT, from 140 degrees to over 200. Just like a sign for wet paint, it’s hard not to put your finger in and test the waters.
Heat-resistant bacteria give some of the vernal pools their awesome colors, and some of the bubbling caldrons just look like mud but are really liquid rock.
Things I learned: that this was the First national park signed into law by President Grant in 1872 . But most amazingly, it is sitting on a huge inverted volcano! All this steam, and geysers, and bubbling caldrons in the the ground are the volcano giving off energy, and I wouldn’t want to be here when it blows!
The Tetons were the south entrance of Yellowstone, the youngest mountain range in this country (how do they tell?) were like teeth biting the sky.
There is snow everywhere, wildflowers covering vast fields of green, and the bluest of skies.
