Driving across Lake Pend Oreille pronounced, Ponderay, on our way to Sandpoint Idaho for the weekend.
First night of the Reformation Conference was good and there were so many intersections from our past listening to the Speaker and the Mother and Son we sat at a table with. More to share later.
Hope you all have a good last weekend of October.
For our 47th Anniversary which is today we drove to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho after church on Sunday for an overnight stay. We made dinner reservations on Sunday at Cedars Floating Restaurant. It was a good choice and we enjoyed our meal and time there.
When love is true, There is no ending. We hope to celebrate with you for years to come…
Tempura asparagus with balsamic and blue cheese crumbles. I love tempura veggies! Prime Rib for Dear, Scallops for me and then we shared with each other.
Complimentary Huckleberry Ice Cream.
We are going to do some shopping today in Idaho and then head on home. Coeur d’Alene is only 100 miles from Colville. It’s a great place for a getaway. Sales taxes are lower and gas prices are lower, too.
All of our Christmas decorations are up, the tree is trimmed, we had some snow in the early hours on Saturday so things are looking like a winter wonderland. I’ve been working on our Christmas letter so next up is addressing and mailing our Christmas Greeting for 2021.
Happy New Week to all of you!
Our bags are packed. Our vehicle is loaded. Our house keepers are watching over our home. We are eastbound from the State of Washington. We’ll travel south in Washington, east to Idaho and make our first overnight stop in Helena, Montana. Hoping to add postcards along our journey. Time will tell how much time I have to blog and visit other bloggers. We’re naming our trip, “Land That We Love Tour”.
For my birthday getaway we chose to stay at The Roosevelt Inn which is a Bed and Breakfast in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Welcome to The Roosevelt Inn, a stunning Coeur d’Alene inn. This grand brick building was the first permanent schoolhouse established in 1905. Now, experience historic elegance at The Roosevelt Inn a romantic and relaxing bed and breakfast located in the heart of beautiful downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
We chose The Principal’s Suite for this stay. When we checked in they delivered a welcome small portion of a very tasty bread pudding along with a fresh rose and water.
This elegant executive suite offers the best of both worlds; beautiful stylish accommodations with a separate sitting room.
We enjoyed our breakfast. Once upon a time they would have a large breakfast buffet along with choices for you to choose from the kitchen. Now because of you know what everything comes from the kitchen with no buffet service.
After we made our reservations we found out that the owners have sold the Inn and new ownership takes over in April. I don’t know what the new owners are like and how they will continue or modify the Inn so I’ll hold back on our recommendations. We did enjoy our stay.
We enjoyed my birthday meal at the Wolf Lodge Steak House in Coeur d’Alene.
If you are a fan of meat this is the place for you!
The restaurant was dark inside so the photos taken with our phones are a bit muddled.
My birthday started out earlier than usual since it was Spring Forward time of year! First thing in the morning I was greeted with the sweetest video of our grands singing happy birthday to me on a video. A wonderful way to start the day. On the way to church our daughter called with her sweet wishes. Our church service was so good with lots of laughter and then a more solemn time of Communion. After church we drove to Idaho and the texts and phone calls continued. Both our sons called with their wishes. Another call from my brother with his family singing happy birthday to me. Another dear friend called and then my college roommate from the University of Redlands called out of the blue. I’ve been overwhelmed with the many wonderful birthday greetings I have received through phone calls, texts, and Facebook messages. And now that I’m in this new decade I need to document all these things so I can remember.
Thank you to all my blogging friends, too, who have left such encouraging words on my birthday posts!
When we checked into the resort we were informed that they had given us an upgrade to a room with a partial lake view. This was our partial view and we enjoyed it. Our room was on the 17th floor with only the Penthouse above us. Sunday was a beautiful day.
As the sun was setting…
We enjoyed our restaurant experience at Beverly’s on the 7th floor of the resort. We started with Calamari. I ordered a salad and French Onion Soup and Dear ordered the Rib-Eye and shared some of the meat with me.
This over the top ice cream surrounded by cotton candy arrived at our table with Happy Anniversary wishes.
After my dessert drink arrived our server informed us that our meal had been paid for by our children. They had called the restaurant ahead of time to arrange that. We were so surprised and grateful for their thoughtfulness. Brought tears to my eyes.
After dinner we got our coats and gloves on to go out and walk along the docks to enjoy the extensive Christmas lights that the Resort puts up. It was well below freezing so we kept walking with few pauses.
The following collages will give you an idea of what we saw.
The interior of the hotel was nicely decorated as well.
This could be a good alternative for a Santa photo in this year of no sitting on Santa’s lap.
On Tuesday morning we watched the sun come up or tried to see the sunrise but soon the fog rolled in and socked us in. These two shots of the water taxi and looking east toward Montana were the clearest shots of the morning.
The hotel staff and restaurant staff all wore masks. Overall our Anniversary was wonderful and it was refreshing to get a night away and to be served a delicious meal in a fine restaurant.
On our drive home we made a few stops at HomeGoods, Harbor Freight, and TJMaxx.
Thank you to everyone for all your kind Anniversary wishes.
Last Thursday we met up with my brother’s family at the Tamarack RV Park in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho for an overnight before we guided them up to our home. It was so good to finally see them in person. The last time we were together was at our Pop’s funeral in 2018.
We were impressed with all the steps that need to be taken to settle a RV in.
Andrew was excited to show me his skateboarding skills.
We made a quick trip to Costco and brought in a meal of Rotisserie Chicken, Mac n Cheese, Caesar salad and fresh baked bread. We had the meal together in the cabin that Dear and I rented in the same RV park.
Me and my brother. I’m #4 in our sibling order and my brother Leonard is #8. There’s a twelve year difference in our ages.
We all made it safely to Colville and the Reflection will be parked in our front acres for a few weeks before my brother’s family leaves for their journey south through Oregon and California.
While they are in Washington they will travel without the RV to a couple of our National Parks and of course get their obligatory family selfie photo in front of the Capital building in Olympia. They are trying to see as many National Parks as they can and they are also trying to make it to the capital of each state they visit. While on the West side of the Cascades they are staying with our sister Lana and her husband. Leonard and Lana are twins.
More to come from our time in Colville and the Western part of Washington.
I’m on the road again today so I won’t be participating in the Wednesday Hodgepodge.
We enjoyed a belated birthday dinner and overnight in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on Wednesday September 30th. We strolled along Sherman Ave. before our dinner reservation at 4:00.
Our kids gifted us a certificate to eat at Tony’s on the Lake, an Italian restaurant across from Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Filet for Dear and Osso Buco for me and it was oh so good.
We stayed the night at Blackwell Hotel, An old grand house turned into a Boutique Hotel. It is right on Sherman Ave. It has all the creaks and wood banisters to prove it’s old.
When we checked out of this hotel we headed north just a bit to stay in an RV park that my brother’s family rolled into on October 1st. We spent the night and then all of us headed to our country bungalow on Friday. More tales to come.
Over the mountains and through the woods for a wedding and home again for family fun. I’ll be back with more soon.
It’s time for ABC Wednesday and we are on the letter R.
Thank you to the ABC team!
I’ll share a few snapshots of my daughter and my road trip across the U.S.A. The reason for our road trip was to return her and her car to Jacksonville, North Carolina to be ready for her husband’s return from Afghanistan. The reunion will be rewarding for them. We left Seattle on April 27th and arrived at our final destination on May 4th.
In the meantime it’s interesting living in a Marine populated city with license plates from all over the U.S.A. I will leave Jacksonville on Thursday and re-unite with my Dear in Orlando, Florida for a conference he is attending and then finally be back home later in May.
Day one on the road. We stopped in Spokane Valley for lunch with my son and his girl friend and then carried on.
Day one we drove across Washington and Idaho and into Montana!
Day two started with snow in Bozeman, Montana. Retreating was not an option so we returned to the road hoping for good traction and no sliding on the road.
Day two ended in Rapid City, South Dakota. We drove across Montana, down into Wyoming and across to South Dakota. Three states a day became our road trip theme. The other theme we did not want to repeat was snow but when we woke up in Rapid City to start our third day on the road snow was whipping side ways in some extreme wind conditions. Again retreat was not an option.
We learned to rely on Rest areas in many states across the U.S.A. They appeared just when we needed them most and they were all clean and well maintained. This is how the snow was sticking because of the severe winds in and around Rapid City.
Many times along the roads that were unknown to us our minds recalled the reassuring verses in the New Testament from Matthew that read…
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
I also would sing in my head…His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.
Day three ended in Nebraska which means we traveled across South Dakota, into Iowa, and finished in Nebraska.
Day four we left Nebraska, entered Iowa again, and headed to Kansas City Missouri to meet up with a bloggy friend for RIBS!
After a great lunch and meeting Pam face to face along with her daughter we continued on to our stop for the night which would be just outside St. Louis, Missouri in the state of Illinois. Day four ended up being a four state day!
On Day five our goal was to reach Hendersonville, Tennessee. We traveled along some rock lined highways and other areas full of green trees from Illinois into Kentucky and then down to Tennessee.
On day Six we would only travel in two states Tennessee and North Carolina. Our goal was to take a scenic road to Asheville, North Carolina nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains for a two day retreat and rest before we traveled the final five hours to Jacksonville, North Carolina (Camp Lejeune Marine Base).
Our scenic route took us through some towns that surprised us with their weird attractions not so much rural charm.
Finally after passing a few attractions like these in Pigeon Forge we entered some refreshing views like these.
We were rewarded after our sixth day of travel with dinner at the Omni Grove in Asheville, North Carolina with beautiful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
If you’d like to see more photos from this grand Inn click here.
Our seventh day was spent at the Biltmore Estate and Gardens. The azaleas at the Biltmore were in their glory. I will be posting more about our day at the Biltmore in the future.
On day eight of our travels we reached our final destination in Jacksonville, North Carolina, home of MCCS Camp Lejeune. We checked into our hotel and started the planning lists for securing an apartment asap and setting up a temporary home for Katie and Andrew upon Andrew’s return and homecoming from Afghanistan. I’m happy to report that I’m preparing this post from that apartment with wifi and all the bare essentials are in place for Katie and Andrew to live comfortably for the next few months. I might have even lost a pound or two carrying boxes up the three flights of stairs to their third floor apartment. (no elevators)
Road trip mission accomplished. Semper Fi!
Relief and Rejoicing upon Andrew’s Return soon to commence!
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 