vacation part 4 - 4th of July

On the 4th of July, we had plans to spend the majority of the day in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

The town is, locally, famous for it's festivities during the day, and fireworks at night.

We had a bit of a slow start that morning, but the kids enjoyed some punching balloons before we headed out the door.  $1 well spent - they played with them, regularly, for the rest of the week.  The grown-ups might have, too.

Tiffany made these adorable cookies for the 4th!  Aren't they just beautiful!  And delicious, too!

We parked several miles from downtown CDA and walked the Centennial Trail into town, with hopes of avoiding parking frustrations among the masses.  It ended up being a lot further of a walk than we all expected, but it was nice to take in the views along the way.

A few houses along the river.  Not too shabby, right?!  I'd take any one of them.

The section of trail around the lake into town is really pretty - trees line the road, lake views, and tons of people enjoying some Idahoan sunshine on the beach.

Once we got to the downtown area, we paused for a few under the shade of a pine.  Callan pointed at the itty-bitty pinecones on the ground (they were rather round-ish), and kept saying "ball?  ball?!"  I gave him two - one for each hand (because that's how he rolls), and he was the happiest kid around.

This is the tail end of the vendors in the park, but the path through the park was lined with heavenly smells and tempting treats.

Speaking of tail ends, we caught the last few minutes of the parade.  After all that walking, it was time for a parade-side cookie break.

We strolled through the shops downtown - Figpickels is one of the coolest toy stores, ever.

Of course, Callan got a new toy.

That is one very cool airplane.

We wandered up the street and found a statue of Mudgy & Millie, one of 5 throughout the downtown area along the Mudgy & Millie Trail.  

We stopped for lunch and then walked further through town to a roadside, walk-up ice cream shop/burger place.  Huckleberry shakes are tha bomb.  We had more than one during our stay.  Clearly, at this point, the little boys had had enough.  Sweet, tuckered out little guys.

While out and about, we happened upon a Farmer's Market setting up in the middle of downtown - what a treat!  Lots of goodies and local produce.  Such a fun atmosphere.

   
We stopped in at an antique store - lots of cool stuff to look at.  I picked up an afghan for $4.50 and 

               Travis got a mug for $1.50.  Ya know, just doing our part to support the local shops.

After all the fun downtown, and the very long, and tired, walk back to the car, naps were had by the kids and sparklers happened after dinner.  Callan got a kick out of them.  I tried letting him hold one, but that was a bit too dangerous.

Once it started to get dark, we hopped in the car to look for an ideal spot to watch the fireworks.  We may have found a less than perfect spot (a random parking lot next to an RV park), but we were able to see the show, nonetheless, and it was still quite impressive, even from a distance.  

It was a fun, tiring, and festive day.
Perfect weather, lots of exploring, and the best of friends by our side.
Many fond 4th of July memories were made.

"Remember that 4th of July that we spent up in Idaho?  That was fun."

vacation part 3 - Farragut State Park & Sandpoint

Day 2 of vacation was more fun.  There's just something so exciting about exploring new places!

We started out the day by driving up to Farragut State Park, about 30 miles north of Coeur d'Alene.  The park used to be the world's second largest naval training facility.  Today it is a 4,000 acre park on the shores of Lake Pend Orielle, with 5 camp grounds, day use areas, picturesque picnic spots, and lots and lots of trees.

It is gorgeous.

We walked through the Brig museum - a structure that served as a prison from 1942-1946, during WWII.

In the courtyard of the museum, there was a wonderful wooden wall in front of which both families took pictures.  These are my new favorite family pictures. 

Just outside of the museum, in the Memorial Plaza, is a giant bust of a US sailor that is representative of the recruits that trained at Farragut.  It is a bold statue, solemn, celebratory and commemorative.

Walking the path to the statue.

Callan loves his Aunt Tiff.

After the museum, we drove through the park until we came across a day use area where we stopped for a picnic lunch, and a beautiful, brief thunderstorm.  Hail included.  It was pretty spectacular.

Once finished with lunch, and a little exploring on the guys' part, and before it started to rain again (it looked quite promising that it would), we quickly loaded into the car and headed out of the park and  further north to Sandpoint, ID.  Sandpoint is a beautiful little town on Lake Pend Orielle, full of fun shops and restaurants.

First stop was for the boys - a local brewery for some beer tasting.

Laughing Dog was it's name - the beer is not recommended. 

After the brewery, we drove to the downtown section of Sandpoint.

We spent some time walking through this treasure-filled antique store.  Slightly over-priced, but lots of goodies to look at on each of the three floors!

Out back, of the antique store, was this fun, old light-up sign leaning against a building.  Callan had absolutely no interest in looking at the camera.  I could have gotten some, potentially, cute pictures, but this is the best I could get.

Oh well.

Still cute in the not-even-close-to-looking-at-the-camera kind of way.

From the antique store, we headed down the road, on foot.

We passed this ginormous chair that screamed "photo op".

This place had fantastic coffee.  Just the thing we needed to take the chill off.

No joke.

I loved the fact that I was wearing a sweater in July.

Yum in a cup.

"Campfire Mocha".

Exploring Farragut and Sandpoint took up the majority of the day, so after coffee (and a quick stop at a gun store), we headed back to the house for some delicious, homemade pizza.  

The good thing about activity-filled vacation days is that you sleep really good at night.