Seattle, WA → Coeur d’Alene, ID
October 17–20, 2015
Changing it up on this post, my wife will share her reflection on this stop before we get to the photos.
One month after heading out from Arizona on this memorial road trip up the coast, we finally reached Seattle. Krys and I had started our marriage with a honeymoon cruise to Alaska. Before and after that trip, we spent and fell in love with Seattle. It has always been one of our favorite places, so it was bittersweet and strange to be there with our girls.
We had made it this far staying mostly with friends and family which kept our hotel cost pretty minimal. Fortunately for us, one of my old friends works for Best Western, so he was able to hook us up with discounted rates. We scored one that was walking distance from the Space needle in downtown Seattle. The girls thought it was the coolest thing that we could see it from our room.
When we began this trip, it seemed more honoring to our boy who was so confined to the hospital, then jumping back into the daily grind. To be reminded that this world is still a beautiful place and love on our girls. I thought for sure that we would reach Seattle and Krys would be ready to head home. However, this trip had been so refreshing for our souls and we knew that this chance wouldn’t come again.
We had an amazing day in Seattle with old friends from Arizona. The last time I saw her kids, they were my kids ages. We did the space needle, rode the monorail to Pikes Market, passed by the disgusting gum wall, had fish and chips by the water, rode a ferry and hung out in the park. It was a very full, fabulously chilly and wonderful day.
Krys talked about his moment at the hockey game. One of my moments came in Seattle. We were standing at the top of the fountain. I have visited Seattle in the summer and it is swarming with kids. On our day, there wasn’t a soul down there because it was ridiculously cold. The girls, particularly the oldest, asked to go run and play in the fountain. I said no and they asked again. I told them they would freeze and they didn’t care. Our hotel was basically across the street so I told them to go ahead. It was such a beautiful moment watching her run with complete abandon. Bittersweet tears streamed down my face as I watched the girls. How I wish I could give Atticus more of those moments.
We got in at night and the family had pizza with a good friend of ours. We had played music together back in Phoenix.
Then he and I went out for beers, and we learned my tastes are a little pedestrian for the Pacific Northwest craft beer market (read: hops plus hops). ;-)
But very good times.
We would only be staying one full day, so other friends of ours helped us cram in 24 hours of touristy stuff.
It was an awesome day roaming the city with friends. The next morning, we loaded up and visited the Seattle Children’s Museum at Seattle Center.
When we started this trip we had said to ourselves, “Let’s go all the way up to Seattle. Once we are there we can see how we are all doing and decide what we want to do.” Decide what? Well, Melissa’s family lives in New England. And we didn’t know when we’d have the chance to take the family out there again, so after everyone did so well for this first month we decided to go ahead and do it.
We had taken a pretty slow pace, staying with family and friends up the coast — taking a month to cross our third state line and get to Seattle — but getting “from Portland to Portland” would require a much different travel pace.
On our way east, we stopped by the gorgeous Snoqualmie Falls
From there, we watched the scenery change as we entered Idaho.
We arrived in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho at night and surprised the girls by taking them to an INDOOR WATERPARK!! Raptor Rapids.
We didn’t get a ton of photos (because of all that water), but we had a lot of fun with more October swimming — enjoying a kind of attraction that doesn’t really exist in Arizona.
Arriving at night, we didn’t really get to see how beautiful this lake town was. The morning revealed a town straight out of a magazine.
It was lovely. And since we had decided that this trip would be about new experiences, we said yes when the girls asked to do this…
Then we drove through Montana, and marveled at the trees and the skies.
It was a long day of driving, so we let them stretch their legs…
We had an aggressive driving schedule ahead of us, but it would be a picturesque drive and our kids would get to see more of America than most people do.
