We woke up this morning lazily as usual. The hotel was nice and Brian and I weren’t exactly in a hurry to leave it. We didn’t have too far to drive today anyway. His flight was at 6:30 and we were only about 3 hours away from Spokane.
We left the hotel at 11 and started heading west. There’s a lot of road work on I-90 West through western Montana. Must be stimulus money or something. In any case, we soon made it to Coeur d’Alene Idaho where we decided to stop for food and drinks. In Idaho we changed to Pacific Time so it was still pretty early. While walking through downtown we came across the Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company which was of course right up our alley. Food and beers later we left the beautifully scenic town and continued the trek west. With a couple hours to kill we came across a mini-golf place and played a game. I lost, but Brian was really good. 🙂
Soon after that we met up with an online friend of mine who gave us a nice tour of the Riverfront Park area of Spokane. It’s a really scenic area and is great for walking and biking. A good amount of people were out since it was a really nice day here. We had a couple of beers at a local Irish place and then I took Brian to the airport. So he should be home soon. I now continue my trip solo.
I’m staying in a Marriott tonight which is also really nice. It was graciously hooked up for me by my online friend. Thanks man! I’m sure this place goes for a pretty penny. It’s right downtown and after checking in I decided to walk around downtown some more since it was such an amazing night. I’ll probably tour the area some more tomorrow before I leave Spokane. This place is very beautiful and definitely has a west-coast feel to it. I like it.
I’ll upload some pics tomorrow as I don’t really feel like it tonight.
Seattle isn’t very far away. 3.5 to 4 hours depending on driving speed and traffic. So I’ll find some place to hang my hat there tomorrow night. I’d like to see Olympic National Park and Mt. Rainier National Park while I’m in the area. I’m not sure I’ll get to Olympic since the two places are far apart. I also want to go to Mt. St. Helens. I went there when I was a kid, but I’d like to go again and get a fresh perspective on it. So, there’s a possibility I wont make it to Olympic, but we’ll see.
Depending on what exactly I decide to do, I could get into Portland Friday night at the earliest, but definitely Saturday. I might end up camping somewhere if my adventures in Washington take awhile.
So far I have driven a shade under 5,000 miles. My car is requesting another oil change soon. I’ll wait till Portland for that.
The latest Google Maps adventure tracker:
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