Back In The Saddle Again

 

I come from Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I love lakes – they are where my roots are. Nobody has better lakes than Minnesota, well at least that is what I thought. What about if you add forested hills rising from the lake shore?

There is a scenic byway that goes around Lake Coeur d'Alene. Side note: the people of Coeur d'Alene call their town CDA – Coeur 'Alene is much too long to pronounce in polite society. Anyways, the scenic byway is a 25.2 mile drive around the lake. They say it takes 43 minutes to drive it – it took us much much longer. There was the mandatory stops at any overlook and then there was that cute little town called Harrison where ice cream was to be had as we sat by the lake.

In Spokane Washington, there is Manito Park and Botanical Gardens. The park was designed by the Olmsted brothers, the children of Frederick Law Olmsted – the man who designed Central Park in New York and the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. The Botanical Gardens had formal gardens, a Japanese garden, a conservatory and rose gardens

The formal garden - perhaps it is a little early in the season to fully appreciate this

In the conservatory

The Japanese Garden

The Spokane River flows right thru the middle of downtown Spokane. It is a mighty force.

They had fun touristy things you could do along the river. We rode a gondola along the river which dropped 200 feet (gradually). There was also a carousel which I needed to ride. It was nice to be back on a horse. The Looff carousel was built in 1909 and the horses were all hand carved.

Random Street Art

The crooner Bing Crosby was born in Tacoma but grew up in Spokane. He was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20^th century. He had more #1 hits (38) than Elvis (18) or the Beatles (24). His boyhood home had been converted into a small museum with very knowledgeable college student docents. They did not know though, that Bing is my ninth cousin.  Seriously!

Me and my buddy Bing