FTJ, Entry 109: In the Heart of... Awl?

Coeur d'Alene -- a beautiful name in French. Not so much in English: It means Heart of Awl, an awl being a sharp pointed tool used to puncture holes in leather. Beau further explains: The French named the Indians who inhabited the area this because the French considered them such astute traders, i.e., sharp as an awl, heart of an awl, yadda, yadda, who cares? It sounds cool in French.

But the town itself is just lovely. Beau and I could definitely spend a summer or two there.

Speaking of Beau--again -- I always let him look at the blog entries, and he often adds to them. Then he shows them to me so I can check his spelling, etc. Well, on the last blog he made changes that he did not show me, and one had a typo. Gads. My editing job is not over, I guess.

So back to Coeur d'Alene. Our impression of it was that it is a happening town on a fabulously beautiful lake. Very clean, very upscale, very lively. The shops are unique, the people -- a real mix of young and old -- are super friendly, and the weather while we were there was perfection. We really loved every minute of it.

On the town's main drag. Note the huge flower baskets hanging from all the light poles.

Along the streets, there are a number of statues of  Mudgy Moose and his pal Millie Mouse, which are creations of author and Coeur d'Alene resident Susan Nipp.

All kinds of water sports are available on Lake Coeur d'Alene, including parasailing.

The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

We had unbelievably perfect weather to enjoy the lake. So did a lot of other people.

Beau on the world's longest floating boardwalk. It measures 12 feet wide and more than 3,000 feet long. The boardwalk and the marina (365 slips) were built with more than 16,000 float logs and 28,000 pounds of spikes. The construction took half a million board feet of lumber as well.

Having a cool one on the lake. A guy could get used to this retirement stuff....

Out at dinner at the Beachouse restaurant, further up on the lake. A girl could get used to this, too....

Our RV park was pretty great as well. Blackwell Island RV Park is just outside of town, on the river. Very large grassy sites and convenient to everything. There was even a guy selling barbecue right outside the gate, which made Beau very happy. He loved the ribs.

The river beach at Blackwell Island.

Beau chats up a couple from Butte, Montana.

We took a long drive around part of the lake, and were continually awed by the beauty and the impressive lakefront homes. Many of the tiny burgs on the shoreline are quite remote, however, which is not particularly appealing. But the scenery -- it's just spectacular.

The countryside in other parts if Idaho is, not surprisingly,  pretty darned spectacular as well.

The land just goes on forever. No overcrowding here. Wheat fields for miles and miles.

Cabela's. Laura's Kind of Place...Not

Beau just had to go to Cabela's outside of town, since he had not been to one before. To me it seemed much like Bass Pro Shops, just with more dead stuffed animals. Kind of depressing for this animal lover. But I was a good sport about it, sort of.

 

 

 

 

 

I think Beau likes to pretend he hooked these babies.

There were dozens of beautiful dead animals, including wolves, which are very special to me. Hated this.

The Western Skies

We are constantly amazed by the vastness of the west. And the sunsets are unlike any we have ever seen.

 

Incredible, yes?

A Few Oddities...

A moose on a balcony. A lumberjack in front of a school. An eagle sculpture on a realty office. You don't see these in Connecticut.

Oh, forgot this oddity:

It's a long story. Suffice it to say, Beau goes through a lot of T-shirts. So I labeled the bad ones.

Nothing that exciting about this blog, I'm afraid. I'm anxious to move on to the next one -- from Montana, which I have been dying to visit. It did not disappoint.

Tanks, Panky