We left on June 15 to head up north to Couer d'Alene, ID. We finally made it out of town at about 2 pm and just missed a huge storm, luckily we were too far east to get any of the weather. It did rain a large part of trip, driving and not driving. This is a picture of a different storm north of Fort Collins on our way to Wyoming. 
We made it through Wyoming and into Montana then stopped at Custer's Last Stand. It was almost 9, but the sun was still out and the area was still open and FREE since it was after 6:30! Paul and I are both interested in history and like to learn about the areas we are in so we stopped and wandered around for a while. The area is beautiful and with the sun setting it was even better. 
I had never been to Montana and it was what I expected, gorgeous. We finally made it to Billings to stay the night and headed out the next morning. After driving a total of 14 hours pretty much straight there we made it to Hayden Lake, which is about 15 minutes from Couer d'Alene (CdA). My teaching partner did an Ironman on Father's Day in CdA and he and his family were staying for the week so we crashed with them. This is the "Boathouse" that they stayed in. 
The house was right on the water and there were a few water toys to play with. It was a little cool but Mike's sons had no problem getting into the water. The two of them and Paul spent a lot of time on the boats exploring the area. 
There was a near by sandbar that was fun to play in and the lake was practically deserted, very few motor boats. We basically hung out around the house and relaxed on Wednesday and watched the bands of rain move over.
On Friday we started our 8 hour drive to Boise to pick up Kevin from his eye surgery. I will write about that part of the trip later.
We made it through Wyoming and into Montana then stopped at Custer's Last Stand. It was almost 9, but the sun was still out and the area was still open and FREE since it was after 6:30! Paul and I are both interested in history and like to learn about the areas we are in so we stopped and wandered around for a while. The area is beautiful and with the sun setting it was even better. I had never been to Montana and it was what I expected, gorgeous. We finally made it to Billings to stay the night and headed out the next morning. After driving a total of 14 hours pretty much straight there we made it to Hayden Lake, which is about 15 minutes from Couer d'Alene (CdA). My teaching partner did an Ironman on Father's Day in CdA and he and his family were staying for the week so we crashed with them. This is the "Boathouse" that they stayed in. The house was right on the water and there were a few water toys to play with. It was a little cool but Mike's sons had no problem getting into the water. The two of them and Paul spent a lot of time on the boats exploring the area. There was a near by sandbar that was fun to play in and the lake was practically deserted, very few motor boats. We basically hung out around the house and relaxed on Wednesday and watched the bands of rain move over.At around 4 Mike's wife, Melinda and I decided to try to go to the Farmer's Market in CdA. So we headed off around the lake. It was a little rainy as we passed a truck off the road. It didn't look too bad and it appeared as though the driver was talking. About 5 minutes later it started to pour rain. So we decided that it wasn't worth the drive into town and the market was probably closed because of the weather. Before we decided to turn around emergency vehicles had passed us going towards the accident. Well, we waited 5 minutes too long to turn around because the road back was closed. Another motorist mentioned another way around the lake so we figured we would try and find it. Well in trying to find a way around the lake we passed a local Hayden cop who gave us directions AFTER he gave me a $75 ticket. I have to say in my 13 years of driving I've NEVER been pulled over but he decided to give me a speeding ticket the very first time! Argh... he didn't even give me a chance to try to get out of it... we were lost, the road was closed, obviously from out of town, and does anyone ever really drive 25 mph? Well we couldn't follow his directions and figured the road HAD to be open by now, but it wasn't. Now they were waiting for a helicopter to come to airlift the driver out and it would be about 30 minutes. (Apparently the accident was worse than we thought.) So we waited thinking we could watch the action and then head home. We saw the helicopter come, the ambulance come, the loaded the driver and the helicopter took off. Here is the view from our vantage point, the helicopter is yellow and the ambulance in red. Melinda and I both thought that maybe the night was going to turn around since there was a rainbow. 
But after the helicopter left the road still wasn't open so we went and drove north for a while. We finally made it home, after accomplishing nothing, about 3 hours later. We should have stayed home.
But after the helicopter left the road still wasn't open so we went and drove north for a while. We finally made it home, after accomplishing nothing, about 3 hours later. We should have stayed home. Paul and I were planning on going to Ketchum to visit Kevin the next day but I really wanted to go into CdA and I still needed to get into the water, so we decided to stay one more day. We headed into town on Thursday and wandered around and hiked up a little trail, I think called Tubbs Hill, by the lake. This is a picture on our way up the trail. 
The lake is huge and doesn't seem to end. The town is small and the touristy part is about the same size and the main drag of Old Town in Fort Collins. There are a couple of neat little stores and restaurants, but there wasn't a whole lot going on. Of course I had to get into that lake too. This is the bottom of the trail we hiked.
We did find the Couer d'Alene Olive Oil Company which had really good flavored olive oils and vinegars. We headed back to Hayden around 5 and I finally did make it into the water. It was cold out of the water and in but I had to get in.
The lake is huge and doesn't seem to end. The town is small and the touristy part is about the same size and the main drag of Old Town in Fort Collins. There are a couple of neat little stores and restaurants, but there wasn't a whole lot going on. Of course I had to get into that lake too. This is the bottom of the trail we hiked.We did find the Couer d'Alene Olive Oil Company which had really good flavored olive oils and vinegars. We headed back to Hayden around 5 and I finally did make it into the water. It was cold out of the water and in but I had to get in.On Friday we started our 8 hour drive to Boise to pick up Kevin from his eye surgery. I will write about that part of the trip later.
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