Summer in the Panhandle of Idaho (Part 2)

This summer we have been enjoying the sun, water, and scenery of Idaho. We learned a little about the French fur trappers, gold mining, logging, and even a naval training base on Lake Pend Oreille (which happens to be the 5th deepest lake in the U.S.). Below are some of our favorite things we have been doing; continuing on with our Summer in the Panhandle of Idaho.

We like going to visitor centers, actually I highly recommend it to anyone travelling when they get to their destination. Usually the people working at the centers have so much knowledge of the local area as well as a plethora of printed information for one to take with them.

One morning I was looking through the stack of information I had recently picked up at the Coeur d’Alene office. I found a story of this place we had walked by the previous week in Sandpoint. I thought it was the coolest thing when I read it and afterwards I just had to share it with the kids. So the story goes that there is an old auto and pedestrian bridge that originally took people from downtown to the train depo on the other side of the river. As train travel declined, so did the bridge.

Finding Europe in the Panhandle of Idaho

In the early 80’s a local entrepreneur and world traveler had an idea to turn this bridge into a market-place-on-a-bridge, and was inspired by the Ponte Vecchio in Italy. Right then, I almost said out loud with happiness, What, we’ve been there! In fact Ellie has a bookmark that she has in the bus right now of that very bridge.

This kind of stuff helps bring travel full circle. It’s so exciting for all of us, especially the kids, when they see someplace they have traveled to on a T.V. program, or the box lid of a puzzle, or art work on a wall, and again it’s that enthusiastic “Hey! I know that place, we were there!”

As with the Ponte Vecchio in Italy, we were taken back to what we were doing that day. We had finished with the Gallio museum (which was recommended to us by an astronomer at a summer star party in the U.S.), we were headed back on foot to our Airbnb, crossed the Ponte Vecchio lined with stores on both sides. It was a lovely walk. Then made a right turn once on the other side and headed to our favorite gelato place in all of Italy.

Spirit Lake

On a recommendation of a friend of a friend we went to Spirit Lake. It’s north of Coeur d’Alene, almost as high as Sandpoint but to the west.

It turned out to be another beautiful summer day. After eating our picnic lunch we set out on our boards from the north end of the lake. It was nice, the scenery pretty but nothing amazing. Until, that is, we landed on an island in the lake.

From there the view opened up and the mountains looked beautiful in their various shades of blue as they went further and further into the distance, one ridge after another. At our feet, the water was clear and wonderfully warm. It was so shallow, almost connecting one side of the island to the main land.

What a beautiful spot to have as an unintended destination.

Tyler and Ellie immediately took to the water running and playing. The island itself had probably 5 or 6 cabins on it. Not in use the day we were there but well kept and inviting for a weekend getaway.

Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes

31 miles we road on that bike trail, and what a ride it was! It was wonderful to be out and using our muscles together as a family. (Sad to say though that Jason was missing from this experience as he was working) You might be thinking well aren’t they always together as a family travelling the U.S.? And yes, that is the case, but this was an activity that we were all into. Into, as in all doing the same thing at the same time. Concentrating on the path a head as our feet pedaled and pedaled. Working up a sweet together and then enjoying the water breaks and noticing that our same muscles were beginning to tire. As the day went on feeling our butts get sore! And when reaching the car at the end after continuous miles of gradual incline, feeling accomplished, together.

I was so impressed with Ellie, she did it all on her BMX bike. If your not aware, let me inform you, those bikes have tiny rock hard seats, and your legs are cramped up. Hardly the bike I would want to be on. Infact I wouldn’t of been able to go that far if that was the only bike I had. And after that distance she said she was ready for a mountain bike, although she still wanted to keep this bike for other riding:)

That was enough to make my day great but as a bonus we had lovely scenery the entire time. We chatted with friendly people. We saw a deer munching on apples and then realized there were apple trees all along the path. Apples galore actually. We also earned big fat double scoops of ice cream that day.

“What was your favorite part or something you liked?”

Tyler: “I liked all the miniature trail caution signs. It was like I was in a train set.“

Ellie: “The ice cream.”

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Things to note:

Tyler and Ellie are working on some videos to add to this post and last. Please check back for them soon:)