On Idaho's Panhandle

Didn't really want to leave our warm, large, cozy suite this morning in the pouring rain, but, on to new adventures in Idaho! It was only a one-hour drive from Spokane/WA to Coeur d'Alene/ID and "CdA" is only about 100 mi South of the Canadian border and about 50 or 60 miles to Montana (East) - the small stripe is therefore called "Idaho's Panhandle".

Since we arrived early, we explored the city first and walked along main street (Sherman Ave.) to find out that there are nice shops and restaurants and that it is a bit more touristic, though much smaller (45.000), than Spokane. The Museum of North Idaho and Fort Sherman Museum were closed for the winter. The Fort, constructed in 1878, played an important role in avoiding conflicts between settlers and indians and was the place where the town was born.

Then we checked into the Coeur d'Alene Resort, an eye-catching highrise directly on the lake. Phantastic place, we got a room with a view, a fireplace and a balcony on the 16th floor towards Lake Coeur d'Alene and the mountains and the marina. You always think, it can't get any better, but it can!






We were scheduled for a 1,5 hour site inspection of the property at noon, including the hotel's own golf course, the spa, pool area, restaurants, different rooms etc. The Coeur d’Alene Golf & Spa Resort takes pride in having one of the top-notch golf courses, famous for its floating Green on the 14th hole. Golfers arrive by wooden boat, are greeded by your personal forecaddie and play their 18 holes with the lake and the mountains as a gorgeous backdrop. There is a beautiful pool closeby the golf course, directly at the edge of the lake (see pic).

In the hotel itself, consisting of three parts, there is the equally praised Suplime Spa, with running water all over the place, with waterfalls, fireplaces and lakeview (pic of quiet room). Among several restaurants, lounges and bars there is the star-rated "Beverley" restaurant serving Northwestern Cuisine. They have a gigantic wine "cellar" and, of course, offer a view, too! Duane Hagadone, a local businessman and newspaper publisher, not only owns the resort and golf course but also many other operations in town. Seems, like some people can make money in journalism!!!



A boardwalk runs in front of the hotel around the marina, there are trails, beaches, tennis courts, bikes can be rented and horseback riding arranged. There are regular boat cruises in summer and water adventures as kayak, rafting, float trips, fishing and much more outdoor activities being offered. Must be great to stay here in summer!

In the afternoon, despite of the rain, we drove the approx. 50 mi over a mountain pass to two former mining towns east of CdA: Kellogg and Wallace. Wallace was considered the "silver capital of the world" and is by far the more attractive one of the two, with many intact historic buildings and a microbrewery. The town was founded in the late 19th century, when silver was mined in abundance and when the area boomed. The Silver Mines can be toured, but not in winter.

When we came back to the hotel in the early evening, there was a beautiful rainbow (actually two, one weaker than the other) showing up, as if to say: there is always some bright light, even if it rains most of the time and your nose is running...

Spokane - "City of Waterfalls" and Parks

Blue skies on Wednesday morning, so sick of the rain! We drove into Spokane (210.000 people) and parked in the city center, at River Park Square. From there we explored the city by walking and it was a packed day full of new experiences! We didn't expect the city to be so interesting and diverse, green and interesting!
Main draw of the city and our first stop were the Spokane Falls - the second longest urban waterfalls, consisting of Lower and Upper Falls. From Monroe Street Bridge (see pic) the larger Lower Fall looks really impressive. Air gondolas connect the Riverfront Park with Kendall Yards - a new neighborhood, which we explored later in the afternoon.



Spokane was founded as a mill town (thanks to the Spokane River) in 1872, a little later the railroad arrived in town and dominated furtheron. In 1889 the city burned down and therefore many buildings in downtown were constructed afterwards. From 1901 on, the railroad built bridges and viaducts, stations, depots and warehouses and Spokane became an important railroad hub. In 1974, when the Expo '74, the World Fair, took place, the former railroad area along the river and on the island in the river was revamped and the Riverfront Park Island developed. Only historic relict from railroad times is an old clocktower from 1902 in the park.

We strolled through the park with its former world fair pavilion and admired the artwork along Sculpture Walk. The "lake", originally part of the river, is very pitturesque, and the Convention Center couldn't have a more prominent location (see pic above).

Spokane's downtown is easily walkable and architecturally interesting with many intact buildings from the beginning of the 20th century, partly Romanesque-revival, partly Art-déco style. One real gem is the Davenport Hotel, which opened in 1914 and was completely renovated in 2002. At the time it was the center of social life, with big events, concerts and balls, gorgeous ballrooms and popular restaurants. Nowadays the lobby (pic), the ballrooms and especially the Hall of the Doges (see pic) - decorated in very eclectic European styles - are worth a visit in the hotel even if not staying there.

On the Columbia Plateau

After a sumptuous breakfast and a meeting with the German-speaking, Bavaria-loving hotel manager of the Sleeping Lady, we left Leavenworth in pouring rain and took Hwy. 2 East to the Columbia River, over Badger Mountain to the Columbia River Plateau. Would have been a beautiful drive, but, unfortunately, clouds were hanging very low, almost laying on the surface, and it was rather a "white soup" we were driving through than "wide open space" as expected. Landscape changed on the East side of the Cascades: high desert now, with sagebrush and low vegetation instead of forest and mountains. The region - called "Inland Empire" - is predominantly used agriculturally, with fields of lentils, beans and wheat.

Even in the rain the route along the Grand Coulee - a canyon from the last ice age (see pic) - along Banks Lake, the water reservoir for the Columbia Plateau agricultural area, was impressive. At Grand Coulee Dam, we visited the visitor center; dam tours are only offered in summer. Nevertheless, we saw the humongous dam and got information about its construction and function. The dam was built 1933-41 under Roosevelt's administration - approximately at the same time as Hoover Dam. Coulee Dam is about 550 ft. high, Hoover dam is higher (726 ft.), but Coulee is about four times broader than Hoover and produces three times more electricity. It's considered the largest manmade concrete construction in the world and it's really impressive!


After not quite 200 driven miles in total this day, we arrived at Northern Quest Resort & Casino, a little west of Spokane. The casino opened in 2000, the hotel was added a little later. It is operated by the Kalispel tribe - a group of plateau indians with only about 450 members. This hotel has nothing in common with your general idea of a casino hotel - very elegant, very restrained, separate from the casino building, with a spa, pool, fitness center and top restaurant. We were fortunate and got a suite in the top floors, almost larger than our apartment at home. Living room, kitchenette, bedroom with wrap-around windows, two bathrooms (one with a top-notch shower with computer screen to switch on different shower heads, a whirlpool tub and it's own TV), three flatscreen TVs, a walkable closet for our luggage/clothing and a really comfortable bed.


After meeting with Payton from Spokane Tourism to get helpful instructions for our visit to town and after a hosted dinner in the star-rated steakhouse in the hotel (we had smoked salmon chowder, filet mignon and salmon and deserts) we enjoyed our large suite and slept 6 hours at a stretch.
Our view from the room:

Bavarian Feeling

Monday morning, 8 am - thanks to Seattle Tourism, we were picked up by car service and brought to the rental car facility at the airport to pick up our car at Alamo. Good thing was, that we were able to choose a car out of a row in the booked category and it took us a little to figure out what SUV was best, esp. judging tires, mileage, trunk size, gas mileage etc. We chose a white Hyundai Tucson, nice car, well equipped but without all the fancy stuff which takes a day to figure out. Also, got a GPS for free (for whatever reason), but didn't install it yet. Our first stop was at AAA office on the way out to get maps and tourbooks. Perhaps we are old-fashioned?

We took I-405 from the airport and got to know Seattle's horrible traffic: congested and slow-moving. On I-90 we crossed the Cascade Mountains (see pic), still deeply covered in snow, to Kle Elum, and then on SR 97 north over Blewett Pass to Leavenworth, our final destination. Since it's been mostly sunny we had a beautiful drive and arrived to Leavenworth around noon, greeted in the museum by two ladies from the local Chamber of Commerce and the former director, who was pivotal in the development of the city.

Yes, Leavenworth is a Bavarian village but, no, it's not as touristic and kitschy as many other people wrote and told us. The setting – snow-covered mountains and forests for a scenic background (see pics) – makes it attractive and architecture is not intrusive. They really did a good job in making it "authentic" bavarian. Many restaurants and hotels, of course, carry German names - e.g. Enzian Inn, Linderhof Hotel, Muenchen Haus, King Ludwig's or Mozarthaus – and there are several beergardens, but shop not necessarily carry souvenirs, no cuckoo clocks and rarley kitsch, but instead a broad variety of different eclectic things and Bavarian specialities. We found many wine tasting rooms, as well as a brewery and a distillery.

Originally, a lumber and railroad town founded in 1903, the town declined with the shut-down of the lumber mill in 1927 and became quiet. In 1960 the "Bavarian transformation" started, but especially 1996 when the "Projekt Bayern" took effect, the Bavarian village we see today developed. There are annual celebrations like Oktoberfest, Maitanz or Christkindlmarket, there is a Festhalle (see pic) and a Alpenstrasse. During these events the town of less than 2000 people seems to burst.

But there is more than the Bavarian cliché: Thanks to the beautiful landscape, on the banks of the Wenatchee River Valley (see pic of river), the outdoors are a big draw, in winter and in summer. Also, it's a very fertile valley with plenty of orchards and fruitstands rowing up along the road. The region is especially known for being the # 1 producer of organic pears in the U.S.A. Didn't know all of that, but haven't been in the region before.

We explored the little Bavarian town before we drove to our accommodation a little out of town: the Sleeping Lady Resort. We were completely surprised to find not one building, but a hotel village with cottages spread out on the grounds at Icicle Creek, in the woods, peaceful and very unpretentious. The resort, which is owned by Harriet Bullitt, a very influential philanthropist from Seattle, is famous for its substainable operation and cuisine. Several clusters of cottages of different sizes and types, very cozy and furnished with lots of wood serve as guest accommodations, in addition, there is a spa, sauna, fitness room, library with fireplace, chapel theater, game room, greenhouses and veggie gardens and (good for us after having traveled for two weeks!) a laundry room.

Along a fantastic "Art Walk" with a variety of sculptures on the grounds, is a great work by Chihuly called "Icicles" (see pic). In the evening we enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the restaurant with organic, regional produce - beef or fish as entrées - before we went back to our cozy cottage to call it a day.

Farewell to Seattle

Day 3 - Seattle: Breakfast at 8 am at Lowell's Restaurant & Bar in Pike Place Market (on the pic: my eggs benedict with smoked salmon). This is an almost 100 year old institution, starting out as a coffee and peanut roaster and cafeteria that served the clients of the “Public Market”.

Well fed, we had some free time to explore the market in the rain (Seattle lived up to its reputation during our stay!) before we headed on to the Seattle Center. Originally built for the 1962 World's Fair, it's a park with museums and entertainment. Its landmark feature is the 605-foot (184 m) tall Space Needle, at its completion, the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. Views were somewhat restricted due to the weather, but, nevertheless, it's always an experience to stand on the open observation deck of this ufo-like building.

At the basis of the Space Needle stands the EMP Museum (Experience Music Project) - founded by Paul Allen, the founder of Microsoft. He not only commissioned famous architect Frank Gehry to plan it, but also provided it with a stage, with studio space and with a great collection of musical instruments and memorabilia of pop icons like Jimmy Hendrix, Nirvana and other famous groups of the 1990ies when the Seattle Grunge became famous.

We visited the Chihuly Museum - one of the greatest museums in the U.S.: glass exhibits not only indoors but, also, in a winter garden and in the surrounding park. Gorgeous glass work in amazing colors, shapes and dimensions! Dale Chihuly the world-renowned glass artist, was born in Tacoma, but lives in Seattle. He also is an avid collector, e.g. of Pendleton blankets, Curtis photos but, also, of profane items like pocketknives, bottle openers, porcellan figurines, accordeons etc. Part of his collections are shown in the museum’s Collections Cafe, where we had lunch (on the pic my roasted beet salad) after our visit. Nice to have a space like this to store your favorite items!


Besides the eight galleries inside, the garden with its color-wise perfectly fitting plants is just gorgeous, and with the Spaceneedle as its background simply unique.

Who could refuse a little wine tasting in the afternoon? Our two chinese tour participants did and voted for shopping instead. Therefore we became an intimate group of only four in total for the excursion to the wine country. Woodinville is one of the hubs for wineries in the Washington Wine Country. We had a nicely arranged and interpreted wine tasting in the beautiful wine library of Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, one of the state's founding wineries in an historic chateau, followed by a tour. Lauren Ashton Cellars, our next stop, was much smaller (only a tasting room), but wines were equally good. Washington State counts over 800 wineries, plus over 250 breweries and destilleries. On the way back to town (fortuantely we had not to drive!), we stopped at Woodinville Whiskey for a tasting of their whiskeys and wodkas.

Dinner at "Aqua by El Gaucho" in the evening was the absolute culinary highlight in Seattle, couldn't be topped anymore. A little apart from downtown, at Pier 70, it not only offered great views of the Bay and the city, but also highly creative food.