Weekend Getaway

We decided last minute to take off for the weekend and head North to Couer d'Alene.

Though we did a lot of fun things, the boys would all agree that the best part was swimming at the hotel.

They are easy to please!

We left the hotel Saturday morning and went to Lake Couer d'Alene where we spotted a friendly moose who told us about a nearby trail...

Ethan & Kamden led the way, arguing taking turns being in the front.

Kamden did not want to take time to stop for pictures.

The Resort & Marina

Owen had a rough time riding on Daddy's shoulders most of the way.

He got bonked by several stray branches.

We stopped at one of the beaches where the boys explored for awhile.

The water was so clear, it was difficult to keep the boys out of it. It was a chilly morning & we didn't come prepared for a dip in the lake.

We watched the "geeses" fly by...

& of course ALL of the boys had to throw lots of rocks into the water. Especially Jeff, who threw the biggest rock.

After hiking back to the car we went to find a magnet for my collection, then we found the golf course with the famous floating green out in the lake. Jeff had a tee time for that afternoon and when we pulled up there were big white gates & a little man in a booth who let us in. I think Jeff thought he'd died & gone to Heaven, it was like we'd just driven through the pearly gates or something. He was speechless & the boys were devestated & heartbroken that they couldn't tag along. 

On the Floating Green

Now, I'm no golfer, but I'll admit it was a beautiful course.

Jeff had a great time & even had a caddy who wore a white jumpsuit & drove him around in a golf cart with really shiny hub caps.

He even got a pre-game massage out on the course, but not from his caddy.

I'm pretty sure Jeff was in Heaven.

While Jeff was golfing, the boys & I navigated our way through the city until we finally found a park. I'm not sure how long it took me to figure out where I was supposed to park our car so that we could get to the playground, but we did get to see a lot of beautiful houses near the lake.

It was a really great park with an awesome wooden playground where the boys had fun chasing each other around. While I was helping them do monkeybars, someone said my name & I turned to find a couple who had moved from Emmett to Couer d'Alene a few months earlier. Crazy! When we all lived in Emmett, we played softball a few times with them & they both graduated a year after I did, I even worked at his dad's insurance agency after high school. So it was really surprising to run into them there, but they told me all the fun things to do around town. Too bad the boys all had a meltdown & we just went to the hotel to rest before picking Jeff up.

Then we went to dinner & back to the hotel for more SWiMmiNg!

This morning we drove to Spokane, Washington and went to this really beautiful park that we'd seen pictures of. They have a lot of bridges that you can walk across & see the waterfalls. Only, there wasn't any water. It had all been diverted so they could work on something & all we could see was the dry riverbed, which was interesting but also a little disappointing.

But we still had a good time wandering through the park & it was a lovely little stroll for a Sunday morning.

This picture is for my dad, per Jeff's insistance that I take it for him. It is a Boy Scout monument. For those of you who don't know my dad, he loves scouting.

But I think we can all enjoy it.

And look! Those helpful Scouts pointed us in the right direction to finally see some waterfalls, although they were small & not like the pictures, we took what we could get.

The boys kept trying to climb up on the bridge railing to get a better look but they were making me nervous, so they each found a peep hole to look through. It worked out better for everyone involved. And you can even see some of the pretty fall colors that were starting to show up!

We had also seen in a brochure some information on a nearby Cat Zoo, so we decided to check it out on our way home.

We saw one white tiger:

At least 8 regular (Siberian?) tigers?

& these freaky monkeys you could sit on...

There were also several Mountain Lions...which Jeff so kindly pointed out that we could probably see in our very own backyard.

& for those 8 years & older, you can pay money to feed meat-on-a-stick to a tiger from behind a piece of plexi-glass.

You can't really see in the picture, but the guy is holding a sword-like stick which the zoo worker pokes the meat onto, then the guy pokes the stick through a hole in the plexi-glass & through the chain link fence. There is a flat circle on the end of the stick next to the guy's hand that is too big to fit through the hole, hopefully preventing the tiger from biting his arm off.

This big guy is Sampson.

He is now retired, but was once the MGM Lion & has been in several commercials.

I'm not sure, but I don't think he chose a very good retirement home. All of the animals had very small cages & the entire zoo consisted of two rows of chain link fence that wasn't even as long as the house we live in. But they said they receive no government funding, the only money they make is from people who walk through the gate or make donations. So I guess that makes me feel better about the $31.00 it cost us to get in.

Here are more of the tigers...

I kept waiting for this tiger to fall into the water, bu he stayed balanced on that ball pretty well.

There were also a bunch of bobcats that were all sleeping, a black panther, a leopard, and for some reason there was a black bear...I guess I should've studied zoology because I didn't know that bears were members of the cat family.

Then it was time to hit the road & head home.