Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
July 14-18, 2001
We arrived in Coeur d’Alene and located the local church for a Saturday evening service–beautiful church adjacent to the downtown area with stained glass windows all around.  The Mass was almost full at this vigil service.  We drove along the lakefront going to church, and there was some kind of  festival going on with booths lining the lakeside park.  We decided Sunday would be our day for exploring the festival and taking the cruise on Lake Coeur d’Alene.  We arose not too early and walked the couple of miles to the lakefront.  A lively scene there had vintage wooden station wagons on display amidst throngs of people enjoying the craft fair and the breezy, sunny weather.

Since waterfront cruises are always enjoyable, we took a six hour cruise across the lake and down the St. Joe River.  The lake is billed as one of the five most beautiful lakes in the world, and its shores are heavily wooded hills with some lovely homes.  The river portion allowed us closeup views of the numerous osprey nests along the route.  They were busily feeding their young, and the platforms built for their nests were at a level which made it easy to get a good view. Along the shores were remnants of 19th century lake and river logging operations that kept this waterway busy after the fur traders were no longer the primary travellers on this route. 

Our last stop on the afternoon cruise was to sail up to the world’s only floating golf green.  After teeing off, you take a boat over to the green to put.  There were several golfers on the green when we cruised past them.  Golfers can add this to those wanna-go golf courses.

When we returned to shore, we were greeted by a display of the sand sculpture contest that took place in our absence.  First prize was a huge, tremendously intricate, castle with turrets, stairs, balconies, and hundreds of tiny fir trees on the surrounding hillsides.  Runners up included a bear and Humpty Dumpty.  I know that castle team had lots of practice sessions.  We stayed a few more days in Coeur d’Alene to catch up on house cleaning, laundry and reading.