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Coeur d'Alene

Because Sandy teaches Engineering Management at the University of Idaho, she is active in the American Society for Engineering Management. You know how academics like their professional societies and conferences. Like many organizations, ASME tries to have their annual conference in an attractive place to encourage people to attend. A few years ago Sandye went to one in Virginia Beach and I tagged along so we could spend the weekend there. It was a lot of fun.

This year the conference was sponsored by U of I. It was being held at the Coeur d'Alene Resort, a nice hotel on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Since U of I was the sponsor Sandy definitely wanted to go. Since it was at a nice place I wanted to go along (see - it worked!). We went up a day early so we could spend some time on our own. The resort is nice and it's a pretty part of Northern Idaho. We would also have a chance to visit my sister and her family who live in the Couer d'Alene area.

I had only been back for one day from my trip to California for wargaming at GMT and hiking in Yosemite before we left for CdA. We flew to Spokane, the closest major airport, and it was an early flight. A very early flight.

Spokane is not a very big airport so we expected to get through quickly. It didn't happen. Our rental car agency didn't have anyone at the counter, just a sign saying to go the next counter over. There was one person there ahead of us. Not bad, right? Wrong. From when we got there until we were in our rental car it took an hour. Sandy was pretty unhappy with them. I was there and I am still not sure how they managed to make it take so long. To add insult to injury, they gave us a minivan. Good thing we were out of town and nobody I knew would see me driving it. Even with the delay it was still only 9 am when we finally left the airport. By the time we drove to Coeur d'Alene though we were both really hungry and ready to stop for breakfast.

The conference was at the Coeur d'Alene Resort, a high rise hotel right on the shore of the lake in downtown Coeur d'Alene. It was certainly luxurious and our room was on the fifth floor overlooking the lake. It was nice but a bit too developed for our taste. Yes, we could see the lake and the mountains all around it, but the most prominent thing in view was the marina with rows and rows of expensive boats at anchor.

We spent the afternoon walking around the downtown area. There were a lot of interesting shops there because CdA is somewhat of a tourist destination. We also walked around the marina. Literally all the way around it. There is a floating walkway that completely encloses the marina. There's a bridge that is two stories high that let's you walk over the marina entrance. The walkway is three quarters of a mile long and claims to be the longest floating boardwalk in the world, for whatever that's worth. It was pretty cool though.

I did notice while we were walking that there were a lot of bugs in the air. They weren't obnoxious but there were a lot of them and they would get on your clothes or in your hair. Usually they weren't bad at all but we did spend a lot of time walking around town and around the lake and at certain times of the day or in certain places they could be very bad. Once they drove us back to the hotel. I did some research later and found out that they were ash aphids and they show up for a week or two every fall in the area. It was just our luck that we hit them at their peak.

We had a late lunch/early dinner (or linner as Sandy and I call it) at the Resort. It was quite nice. The restaurant overlooked the lake and they had a terrific salad bar. In the evening we met some U of I faculty and students for drinks at a nearby brewpub. Afterwards we watched Game 5 of the NLCS in our room. Unfortunately the Brewers lost 5-2 to the Dodgers to fall behind three games to two.

The next day was the start of Sandy's conference so she was busy. Since the weather was nice I decided to go hiking. Searching the web I found a trail that went to the summit of Mt. Couer d'Alene, a forty five hundred foot mountain that overlooked the lake. Ten miles round trip and over two thousand feet of elevation gain meant that it would be a good days work.

It was only a twenty minute drive to reach the trailhead. I started up the Cedar Ridge Trail, which immediatly climbed steeply up a wooded ridge. For the first half hour I passed through several clearings that gave nice views of the Beauty Creek Valley and the Wolf Lodge Bay section of Lake Couer d'Alene. And then that was it. The rest of the hike was in the forest, with no views at all. Even the summit area was completely covered by trees and was so big and broad that there was no way to tell that you were on top of a mountain. There was even a campground up there. It wasn't exactly the kind of alpine peak that I'm used to climbing in the Sawtooths.

It was a pleasant hike. It was nice walking through the forest. Even so close to town I pretty much had the trail all to myself. In six hours of hiking I saw a total of seven people, three deer and two dogs. The hike was definitely quiet and peaceful. According to the GPS app on my phone it was over twelve miles roundtrip, not ten, so it was a good workout. There just wasn't the kind of scenery I am used to when I hike. I did enjoy the forest though. I even saw some impressive large fungus growths on the trees. Ever since our trip to Southeastern Alaska in May I have been a lot more watchful for them when I hike. In Central Idaho the forests are dry so they are rare but I saw some large specimens on this hike. Pretty cool. Overall it was a nice day of hiking if not a spectacular one. I'm glad that the Sawtooths are my home mountains though and not the mountains of the North Idaho lake country.

I spent the day after my hike just walking around town. There were some interesting shops and I bought a number of Christmas gifts for friends and family. My favorite place was The Labrador Store. It had all kinds of things for dog lovers. As you can guess from the name, labs were the most prominently featured breed. I bought a lot of stuff there, from a tshirt for me to lab-themed Christmas presents for Sandy to dog treats for Abby. By the time I left town both the owner and the resident lab knew me really well.

One night we met my sister and her family at Mackenzie River Pizza. During dinner we watched game 6 of the NLCS. The Brewers were down three games to two so it was a must win for them. I challenged our table to make sure that everyone in the restaurant knew that we were rooting for Milwaukee. The Brewers won to pull even in the series and we made plenty of noise in celibration. Fortunately my nephew Alex was good friends with our waitress so she cut us some slack for being rowdy.

Some of the other places we ate at on the trip were quite interesting. One night Sandy and I went to Cedars Floating Restaurant. Customers can either drive there by car or pull up at their dock by boat. We chose the former. We went early and it was still quite crowded. It was understandable. We had a nice view of the lake. The food was good. The salad bar in particular was excellent, just like at our resort. Must be a CdA thing. And the price was reasonable.

Another day we had lunch at Hudson's Hamburgers. A local landmark, it has been open for over a hundred years. It's a tiny hole-in-the-wall place downtown just across the street from the Couer d'Alene Resort. There were no booths - just a lunch counter with about fifteen seats. We walked by to check it out but it was completely full. But just as we were about to go the two people nearest the door got up and left. It was clearly fate so we went in and grabbed the two end spots at the counter. It turns out that we were luckier than we thought. From what I read later most days there is a long line outside waiting to get in.

Their menu was simple - hamburgers. Nothing else, not even side dishes. No fries or chips or anything. Sandy likes burgers so she was happy and I have to admit that the burgers were good. When we finished ours the person behind the counter came and asked us how many more we would like. Huh? We just finished eating. She looked at us strangely when we declined seconds. Not so the two guys next to us who downed three plates of burgers while we were there. Definitely an interesting place. It reminded me of the old Dutch Oven Cafe that was in Boise for so many years.

On our last day we took an early morning walk up Tubbs Hill. It's a three hundred and fifty foot hill that's the main feature of a 120 acre park along the lakeshore neart to the resort. It's an impressive natural area considering that it is sits next to the center of town. There are several trails and we walked up, around and down Tubbs Hill in an hour. Like my other hike, it was a nice walk in the woods but there weren't many views. I have to admit that I was a little insulted the day before when after my full day hike several of Sandy's U of I colleagues who heard that I spent the day hiking asked "Oh, did you hike up Tubbs Hill?" Yes. Before breakfast.

Afterwards we walked to KnitKnit, a local yarn shop in downtown Coeur d'Alene. Sandy likes to look for unique yarns and small shops often carry locally produced yarns that aren't widely available. Later on the way to the airport we stopped at The Quilting Bee in Spokane. I've gone to lots of fabric stores with Sandy and this one was huge. Sandy didn't seem to impressed because surprisingly she didn't buy any fabric. I really liked the place because they had two rooms off to the side. One was a play room for kids. The other was for husbands and featured a big screen tv (with a football game on), comfortable chairs, snacks and a fridge filled with drinks. Considering how much time I spend waiting for Sandy while she looks for fabric I think all quilt shops should have a similar setup. (Are you listening Laura?)

Our flight was in the early evening and it meant that we missed the first hour of Game 7 of the NLSC while we were in the air. While we drove home from the airport I watched on my phone (yes, Sandy was driving). Sadly the Brewers were already behind and they ended up losing 5-1. Still it had been a great run for a season when they weren't expected to do much. And I am looking forward to next year. In the past when they made the playoffs they went downhill quickly afterwards. Next year they should have their core team back with some good young prospects and a chance to make other improvements during the offseason. I am really hoping to be able to write a post for the Dog Blog when the Brewers win the World Series.

Of course Abby was glad to see us when we got home, and not just because we brought her a toy from The Labrador Store.