Road Trip Day 7

Refreshed from a full night's sleep in a comfy bed, we headed out in the morning to explore downtown Missoula a bit. We discovered a cool carousel in the park on the riverfront. It didn't take a lot of cajoling on Trevor's part to get me to ride. We bought some tokens (with particular ponies on them!) and were soon on our way to grabbing for for brass ring! After finishing our walking tour of downtown, we drove over the the university and saw what campus looked like, then were on our way west.

We crossed over into the Idaho panhandle before early in the afternoon, and arrived in Coeur d'Alene in time for lunch at Trevor's boyhood favorite restaurant. We then drove about and visited significant sites in Trevor's formative years (he was born there, you know). I had no idea that there was so much to the town of Coeur d'Alene. It was fancier and larger than I expected.

Soon we were back on the road west, and we quickly came upon Spokane. We drove down to the Riverfront Park there, which was the site of the 1974 World's Fair. Very 70's-rific in some ways, but large and packed full of fun. Unfortunately, we didn't see the Segway rentals until we were about ready to leave. We could have ridden Segways through the park! So instead we each took a 5-minute turn on one. The ride was probably close to what I would have expected, but different from anything else I've experienced. We both started slowly, but were able to get more proficient quickly. We each wanted more than 5 minutes!

We spent a while longer walking around downtown, but the day was getting on, and we didn't really want to spend another night away from home when we were this "close." So we said good-by to Spokane and headed south-west. On the way, we stopped ever-so-briefly for a well-justified mail stop at the Tri-Cities. We stopped for dinner at some truck-stop east of the gorge, and were in Portland before midnight.

July 18, 2003 11:59 PM