Lewiston, Idaho to Spokane, Washington - August 11

Our hotel in Lewiston was situated high on a hill overlooking this pleasant city on the banks of the Snake River.  We had our breakfast with those nice views then headed on our way north past fields and fields of ripening wheat, barley and, to our surprise, garbanzos.  Some people know garbanzos as ceci beans or chick peas, however we were surprised to find them growing in Idaho.

The skies have been clear and blue as a high is settling over the northwest with no immediate changes in store.  We start out with cool mornings and warm up to temperatures near or over 100 degrees but with low humidity.  This is good weather to our way of thinking.

Our first stop was in Moscow, Idaho, home of the University of Idaho and not much more.  We drove through the campus which was clean and pleasant looking.  Then we headed to the Appaloosa Horse Museum but it didn’t open for another half hour and didn’t appear to have much to see so we continued onward.

At the town of Plummer we headed east to St. Maries then north and west to Harrison and the scenic drive along Lake Coeur d’Alene which was carved out by glaciers many years ago.  We continued along the windy, scenic road hugging the lake until we finally arrived at the city of Coeur d’Alene.  We drove into the downtown area and were impressed by all the chic restaurants amid lovely flowers and trees.  We stopped at the Moon Time Traditional Ale and Food restaurant for lunch and split a nice sandwich and potato salad.  I had a draft Mac and Jack’s African Amber beer which went down easily.

Finally we navigated to Interstate 90 where we headed west into the state of Washington which was closer than we realized.  We arrived at our hotel in Spokane a bit earlier than expected but our room was ready and they let us check in.

After unpacking we headed into Spokane to explore, stopping first at Riverside Park which was full on a Saturday with parents and their children.  The park is great for children (and adults too) with a 102 year old carrousel, a giant red wagon (American Flyer) that is a slide set, and trails over bridges that span the Spokane River with several rapids to view.  Our granddaughter would love it!  After walking around the park for a while we went a few blocks to the Davenport Hotel, a beautiful building dating back to 1914. Back in the car we drove to South Spokane and the beautiful Manito Park with a rose garden, a lilac garden, the formal Duncan garden and a Japanese garden where Rita and I sat to rest and enjoy the tranquility.  

We drove back to our hotel to make dinner reservations and change clothes.  We ended up eating at Italia Trattoria in a quiet neighborhood on the edge of Spokane.  We hit the jackpot!  Our food was delicious, the staff was friendly and the setting was pleasant.  We started by sharing a paté of wild boar along with glasses of local chardonnay.  Then Rita had veal Marsala over ravioli while I had lamb ragu over paparadelle pasta.  We had glasses of Italian red wines with our main courses.  Delicious!  Rita ended up with affogato while I had a scoop of ice cream for dessert.  It was a pleasant experience to end up our stay in Spokane – a very livable city.