Friday: Home to Seattle

We are so sick of being in the car! In the morning we dinked around the Coeur d'Alene boardwalk looking at the big, big, blue, blue lake. There was a lot of this going on:

and this...

It was already hot at 9AM (80s) and getting hotter by the minute.

Spokane, Washington was on our route so we stopped at the Riverfront Park. We took the gondola ride over Spokane Falls and hung suspended in a mini sauna boasting two tiny windows. Saw the falls, though - or was that sweat pouring down over my eyes? Here's what we should have been doing:

From Spokane, it was just a hop to Moses Lake, where John's son lives. We met up for lunch at Bob's just off I-90, and then spent hundreds of hours in the car in 1,000-degree heat...OK, it was about 3 hours in the car in 98-degree heat. By then we were so hot and tired our conversations consisted of grunts and little whining sounds. We finally found a Starbucks in Issaquah, just a few miles from home. But that Java Chip Frappuccino gave us the strength to crawl those last hundred miles...OK, we drove and it was more like 20 miles, but oooh, that Frapp was good!

Maybe later I'll post more pictures and try to sum up our experience. But right now there are a zillion things to do to get ready for work on Monday...OK, maybe a hundred things...or perhaps five things. We enjoyed our trip and look forward to more travel time in faithful Blaze, especially now that it's outfitted with new red "luau" print seat covers. Not at all my usual classic style but they make me smile.

Thank you all for coming with us on our travels to Kansas. We've got a mini-break coming up in September, so stay tuned for details.

Thursday: Couer d'Alene, ID

We decided to visit the Cathedral of St. Helena before leaving town this morning.

Our timing was perfect; we heard organ music coming from the cathedral and followed the sound.

I'll have trouble describing the cathedral adequately. It is so beautiful in an ornate, old Europe way, with every detail like a little treasure. Turns out the design was inspired by a cathedral in Austria. All the stained glass except for the very front window is from Germany. The windows depict the life of Christ and Catholic church history.

We were the only ones in the sanctuary except the practicing organist, a man painting some wood protectant on one of the confessionals, and the cleaning lady, Kim, shown here reluctantly posing by one of the holy water receptacles.

Kim does all the cleaning for the cathedral, including the vast downstairs rooms where meetings are held. She's a 30-year resident of Helena and says it's not so cold. "Oh, there are a few days where it is 30 below but it really doesn't feel that cold." She wore longjohns the first few winters, but now she doesn't find it necessary to wear them.

Kim told us the cathedral is decorated throughout with 24-karat gold leaf. It seats 800 and is so popular for weddings you have to book it a year in advance. There are 250 families in the parish, and many of the priests come to St. Helena from nearby Butte, which according to Kim was settled by the Irish, giving St. Helena many priests of Irish descent. Besides St. Helena, the area contains 4 or 5 other Catholic churches, so obviously there's a large Catholic population.

Just then, the organist began playing Bach, so we settled in the pews as the sublime tones washed over and through us. Thrilling. I would have loved to have stayed for the noon concert - all Bach!

As we left, Kim pressed some brochures on us ("not for just anyone"). Outside the cathedral, I took lots of photos of the saints and figures and the crow's nest in one of the alcoves. Arrrgg- I was so overwhelmed by the Bach I'd forgotten to reset my camera for sunny outside photos. They all came out blurry. But it was a wonderful experience, the kind that can happen when you slow down and spend time in one place.

Moving on, we headed to Couer d'Alene, Idaho. At a rest stop enroute I saw my first prairie dog.

At tiny mining town Wallace, Idaho (in the Silver Valley - guess what they mine there?) we found a cool silver ring with elk ivory for John. It was mined, smelted, and crafted in Wallace.

In Couer d'Alene we stayed at a brand-new Holiday Inn Express which featured free BBQ and beer from 5-7PM. Here's John going out to the car for the THIRD time for something I forgot. What a guy!

We've had a great time, but I am sooooo ready to be done with driving all day. Tomorrow we head home to Seattle!

Wednesday: Helena, Montana

We left Buffalo, WY just before 7 AM - it had rained the night before and the morning was cool and cloudy. As the sun rose higher, we took zillions of photos of clouds - they were spectacular!

Following I-90 north, at the Montana border we entered the Crow Indian Reservation and headed toward Bozeman, where we picked up the magnifying mirror I'd left at the hotel last week. Yay, they had it! The application of makeup, even the minimal amount one slaps on during vacations, requires seeing all the gory details clearly.

Montana's terrain is so varied, mostly depending on how near the mountains you are. We were happy to see mountains again.

Just before reaching Bozeman, we stopped for lunch at Livingston (pop. 7,000). Livingston is sandwiched between the Crazy Mtns and the Absaroka Range. Jalisco, a large Mexican restaurant, served us huge taco salads for only $7.15 each. We walked through a little park after lunch and came across rows of trees all decorated with yellow ribbons. Attached to each ribbon is a photograph of a man or woman from the area who is currently serving in the armed forces. What a great idea.

We reached Helena about 2:30 PM, way earlier than we've been used to. In fact, we had time to visit the impressive State Capitol building. Here are a few of the photos we took:

Reading the guide book.

The building is made of local sandstone and granite, the dome is made of copper, and the figure atop it is "Montana" who holds a torch and shield to signify freedom and the state of Montana.

The inside of the Capitol is beautifully ornate. It's tough to capture it in photos. These photos show the colorful design (taken by John from a 3rd floor balcony), and one of the spectacular stained glass windows:

Looking up to the Capitol Dome:

We even had time to board the Last Chance Tour Train for an hour's trip around town:

Pedestrian shopping area

Mural honoring women and their contributions to Montana.

Window in Grandstreet Theatre building.

It looks like a prison, but it's a house built by a former madam. Behind it is an old fire lookout station, high atop a hill overlooking the town.

The Montana Governor's Mansion is just a house on the Capitol grounds. A nice big house, but still not overly fancy. Interesting.

Fast-food dinner enjoyed in our hotel suite (don't worry, mine was a salad- but dessert involved a hot apple pie), and we're ready for sleep. We watched a PBS special about Garrison Keillor and his Prairie Home Companion radio show. Amazing man. Tomorrow we will visit the Cathedral of St. Helena if we have time, and then it's onward to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.