God's hidden playground

I've been meaning to blog about our trip to Coeur d'Alene but ever since we got back I haven't had enough time to sit down and actually take the time to write about it and upload the photos. This trip was so great and I want to make sure I can describe it well enough.

We flew over to Spokane, WA on Wednesday morning on the 9:30 a.m. shuttle. For once we had such a "fly by the seat of our pants" trip planned that when we got in the rental car at the airport we realized we didn't have directions to our hotel and there was no map in the car. We figured that since Idaho is east of Washington we'd just hop on I-90 and hope for the best. Luckily we weren't on the road too long before we saw signs to Coeur d'Alene. After we passed the five exits for CdA without finding the resort we gave in and called the hotel for directions.

As busy as the hotel is I never expected that we'd be able to check in early but when we got there they said our room was ready so we headed upstairs to change into our swimsuits. The weather was beautiful - high 80's and sunny - so we headed out to go jet-skiing. Lincoln had actually never been jet-skiing but I knew he'd love it and he did.

After that we headed back to the resort and decided to go up to the top floor to the "fancy" bar. We had a few drinks before heading back downstairs. I had talked Lincoln into going to the spa with me for the evening. I don't think he was too opposed since jet-skiing is harder on the muscles than you give it credit for - especially in the legs. The resort spa focuses a lot on water treatments so we both did a TAG Signature flow-through bath and then I decided to do the Pure Essence shower which is a 5-minute shower with 19 shower heads pointed at you. It was heaven. After that we had a couples massage in a private room with a fire place and a view of the water. Between treatments we sat in the co-ed lounge that had a fire place and a view of the water where you can sit and relax and look out at the water while drinking water, tea, or coffee.

After the spa we went up to the room, ordered room service, and watched a movie in bed. The best part of that was that the movie included no animated characters and wasn't produced by Disney.

The next morning we got up and headed out to go kayaking. We actually had a seaplane ride scheduled for 11:00 a.m. so we only did a 30-minute single kayak rental for each of us. From there we got on the seaplane for a 20-minute/40 mile ride up the lakes in the area. It was a beautiful ride and we even got to fly over the floating golf green.

After that we headed out to lunch at a local pub. The hungover bartender (by his admission) that waited on us wasn't terribly happy when I ordered the BBQ Jalapeno burger with no BBQ sauce and hold the jalapenos but it was a delicious burger. What I wanted on it was the pepperjack cheese and zesty mayo. It was worth tormenting that poor man for such a delicious sandwich.

After lunch we went to the CdA micro-brewery and had a great little tour. The beer was actually really delicious and unfortunately they only have about a 200-mile distribution radius and they pretty much only sell their beer in kegs and not bottles. Otherwise I'd be on a quest for their beer like I used to be on a quest for Leinie's.

When we finished up at the micro brewery we headed back to the lake and rented a 2-person kayak for 2 hours. It was 93 degrees in CdA that day but no humidity. It was a beautiful day to be on the water. We kayaked over to some rocks on the side of the water where Lincoln had seen kids jumping off the rocks into the water. We rowed over to one of them that had a rope swing and Link got out to swim over to the shore and climb up to jump off. After that we kayaked along the shore a little more until we got to a small beach and another group of rocks to jump off of. Lincoln got out again and hiked up to jump off the rocks. After he did I decided I would give it a try but after climbing up there and hanging out with the teenagers for about 25-30 minutes I chickened out and climbed back down. I was mad at myself for not doing it - especially since the rock was probably only about 7 feet above the water - but the water was VERY clear and even though it was deep enough to safely jump into you could see every rock in vivid detail under the water and I just couldn't do it. After I hiked back down again we got in the kayak and headed back to the dock. Once we docked we headed back to the car and it was time to go to the airport.

If you ever want to take a fabulous vacation with all the delights of a Caribbean vacation without all the expense you should definitely go to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and stay at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. Check out the website here: http://www.cdaresort.com/ Even though there were lots of people there we never had any trouble booking a reservation or renting a kayak or a jet-ski. The people were friendly and the beaches weren't crowded.

Here are some pictures from our trip.

This is the view from the hallway while waiting for the elevator:

A full service dock: This dock was right outside the hotel. On it you could rent kayaks, book a dinner or sightseeing cruise, go parasailing, or get on a seaplane ride.

The famous floating tee as viewed from our seaplane:

A view of the resort from the seaplane:

Our seaplane: Link jumping off the rocks. The guy in red was one of the many teenagers up on the rocks: