Coeur d'Alene

After our three hour Red Bus ride and about a five hour drive from West Glacier to Coeur d'Alene we were pretty wiped out, so settled Hilda into her spot, ate dinner (love all you can do with a roti chicken) and crashed.  This morning we got up late and took a leisurely drive into the heart of Coeur d'Alene.  Seemed like everyone else had the same idea!  There is a lovely park right on the lake plus a small museum at the edge of the park.  We found a parking spot next to the museum - very tight spot, which tells me there are very few returees in the city.  Publix and Food Lion would lose customers if their parking spots were that small.  The museum is a treasure - very small but quite informative about the history of Northern Idaho.  The city started as an army fort - can we ever get away from General Sherman?  Some of the buildings from the fort are still standing and the fort site is now the campus of North Idaho College.   The city saw several boom times: gold and silver rushes and lumber mills as well as tourisn.  At one point 25000 tourists came on  weekends to cruise the lake on a steamer. 

The Main Entrance to the park and lake.

In front of the museum

I don't expect to ever see the lavendar in bloom in Provence, so this is pretty spectacular in front of the Visitors Center.

We took the scenic lake drive to Harrison which is about half way around the lake from the city park.

These photos show the lake as very rural but there are several resorts, condo conplexes, and McMansions built on the airspace between the roadway and the lake.  We ended our exploration of the lake road at a destination everyone else was heading to.

The line was long but moved fairly well and it was definitely worth it!

The ice cream shop was next to another nice park where a musician was entertaining and food was being     

cooked on a big grill.  Of course I was impressed by the flowers lining the fence.  The boat slips were right beyond the park.

Heading back to our campground we saw the rural side of the lake as well as several small lakes.  

The lake is different than Flathead Lake in Montana.  But it is obvious that water attracts people even when access to the water is difficult.