A Lavender Farm and Coeur d’Alene Idaho…God’s Country!…More Than Just Potatoes.

This blog is going out way late, so please accept our apologies. We started our Idaho-Montana leg of our journey more than a month ago but due to an emergency family situation it was halted and we have been back home since the 9th of July. Unexpectedly, Kathy’s Son, Brad’s Stepson passed away. We both loved Larry very much. Out of our five children, Larry was the only child to call us and ask us “where are you”? He was the one most interested in our travels. As heartbreaking as it is we need to move on. Larry would have wanted us to!

In between now, and then, we drove our car from Idaho Falls to Hamden, Ct. in thirty-six hours over three days. Due to the circumstances we left the RV in storage in Idaho. Yes, we will be back on the road mid-August but in the interim let’s pick up where we left off in our journey…Larry would want us to!

To break up the 330 mile drive to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho we did an overnight pit stop at Trinity Garden Lavender Farm in Quincy, Washington. It was a pretty neat spot to take a break. Our reservation for this stop was mistakenly made the day before, but, we got lucky, and they still had one spot left and accomadated us. Yes, we stayed at a Lavender Farm. Indeed, there was lavender everywhere…We also met some pretty cool people from northern Callie that night too….and hung out.

Whenever Brad can get a rope to hang on or a jungle gym to use to do his exercising in the morning, he’s good. This place had it. He pulled his mat out to the lavender field and playground and had an excellent workout while snorting lavender and looking up at the beautiful blue sky.

From there we took the hundred and sixty nine mile trex to beautiful Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. What a beautiful town. Lake Coeur d’Alene is the centerpiece of this majestic town and the first thing we did after we arrived was walk the boardwalk and beach areas. The boardwalk was impressive. It skirted the lake and in the middle was a walking bridge that connected the ferry, beach and kayak rental areas to McEuen Park. Beautiful!

We took a driving tour of the quaint downtown and grabbed dinner a DD&D restaurant called Carbone’s Pub. Triple D never lets us down! Good food, good service, good fun!

Our campground was located just over a medium size bridge, only a few minutes from the beach and downtown areas. We hit Sanders Beach one day and on the other day we took an awesome twenty mile e-bike ride on the North Idaho Centennial Trail. We hadn’t been in beach weather for quite awhile so that was a nice change of pace. The northern- pacific weather sucked so we were ecstatic to be in mid-seventy weather. The trail took us around the lake and it was absolutely extraordinary. It was scenic, had great views, was well maintained, and was wonderfully, naturally groomed.

Sherman Avenue is the main drag downtown so after doing a sushi lunch at Shiki and then Gelato by the Lake, we scouted out Hudson Hamburger. Which was recommended by our new friends Toni and Stuart. Toni lived in Coeur d’Alene for years and boy was she on point. This hamburger joint had been around for over 100 years. They only did counter service or takeout. No ketchup! They had a big glob of meat next to the grill and the cook would grab a handful and then smash it with a press on the grill. We were told to order ( by our friends) a double and pass on the fries. So, that’s exactly what we did. The place was fun, eccentric, unique, and tasty.

We definitely enjoyed our first visit to Idaho. It was fantastic. Definitely underrated, while hugely exceeding all of our expectations. Idaho, is much more than just potatoes. Thanks for following us on our journey. Our next stop is Whitefish, Mt. and Glacier National Park. Good bless America!

Kathy and Brad