We wanted to visit some places we would consider moving to, once the kids are out of the house. We wanted access to a good lake, and skiing nearby. On this trip we visited Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint, Idaho, with the kids.
Saturday September 5, 2020
We had an easy flight to Spokane. There we got in a rented Expedition Max (like a Suburban) and drove to Incrediburger & Eggs in downtown Spokane for lunch. We had amazing burgers and the girls got açaí bowls at another local place.
We drove into Coeur d’Alene, where the downtown was packed, and we had a hard time finding parking near the boardwalk/marina We finally found a spot and walked back, pretty much just in time for the 3:30 Gozzer shuttle boat across the lake. We enjoyed the 10 min ride over to Gozzer, and chatted with a MAGA guy who couldn’t believe that basketball players took a knee.
At Gozzer we met Shawn, and checked out the Lake Club. There were lots of people without masks at the bar. The girls saw some famous YouTuber (apparently there were several more, you’ll have to ask them who). We got in the car to head up to main Gozzer, and listened to lots of details about the golf course. We stopped at the Club House (golf) and got in a cart, then went around to the Red Barn (tennis, pool, workout). On the way back we went to the snack shack on the 14th hole and got some candy, which might have been the kids favorite part. Everything was very nice, but you can’t get to lake without driving, and there were no bike paths or hiking on property. The place felt super expensive, with a party atmosphere and celebrity spotting, not exactly our style. We were surprisingly disappointed! We were offered the opportunity to stay and have a drink at the bar, because Shawn had a 5pm tour, but decided just to catch 5pm shuttle back across the lake. The girls were devastated later when they found out how many stars were there!
Back at CDA, saw a stand with Trump flags doing brisk business on our way back to the car. On our way out we drove through CDA, it seemed like a fairly vanilla town. On our way to Sandpoint we decided to drive up to Schweitzer to see it – not sure that was a good idea in hindsight. It was a super windy road that climbs 2000’ with hairpin turns, and everyone felt a little woozy by the time we made it up. We were surprised there were quite a few people walking around, and lots of construction going on as well. There were many dated houses, but some nicer ones on the mountain with ski-in, ski-out . We turned around and drove back down, and E was pretty carsick.
Back in Sandpoint, found Seasons 606 and got the key. It is a beautiful place, with 3br on the top floor, 2br down, and a nice kitchen and garage on the middle level. Beautiful balconies overlooked the lake. We found beds for everyone, then walked in to town for dinner. Burger Dock was about to close but had gluten free buns and even home made gluten free veggie burgers, so we sat outside on the creek and ate great burgers as they closed down around us at 8pm. Back at the house, we all went to bed pretty soon. The house is right next to the main east-west railroad track, and very well sound proofed. Unfortunately, the heavy rail cars shake the house, and the beds on the third floor are really soft, so we basically had an earthquake every 15 mins or so. We didn’t sleep at all. Mom and Dad finally give up and went down to the unused bunk room on the bottom floor for rest of night.
Sunday September 6
Everyone slept in. We walked for coffee at City Beach Organic – mmm, small and strong and good. We explored a bit and had breakfast at the Heart Bowls food truck, supplemented from the GF waffle truck next door (the sausage waffle was good but the chocolate GF one wasn’t). The Heart Bowls were great.
At Seasons we checked out the marina and found a boat in our slip, so we texted management and got another slip for our boat tonight. Then we headed back to house. Tom went for swim, and met a guy who flew in on his Icon A5 from Spokane. S went for a run. We all motivated to leave around 1:30pm for the wakesurf boat rental. On the way we stopped at City Beach to order lunch, which took over 30 mins to make. The adults rented the boat, and went through the comprehensive checkout, while the kids brought the lunch over. We managed to get the boat out of the narrow creek marina, and onto the beautiful lake.
We zoomed over to Bottle Bay first, just to check it out, and ate our lunch in the sheltered bay. We also checked out the houses as we cruised around. Then we surfed for a long time, Tom and all 3 kids. We kept heading south and east along the lake, checking out the castle and the mountains. We finally quit surfing after a couple hours and got the tube out. That was fun! We got some epic GoPro video. Finally everyone was exhausted and we needed to get back up for dinner. We decided to zoom around Hope Island since we were there, then we motored back up to the bridge.
We found our way up the river to Dover Bay and tied up the boat, with perfect timing for our dinner at Dish. The place was packed, and we had slow service, but very good food. We bolted out of there after the sun set to try to get back to the dock before dark, but the light went quickly. We pulled in when it was pretty dark, and searched for our new slip. E found our slip and we tied up. We were helped by a nice guy to tie up well, using the “whips” because they anticipate 25mph winds tomorrow. We walked in to town for ice cream, and enjoyed some delicious flavors at Panhandle. Back at the house we did some journaling, Louisa took a bath, and Tom laughed at the hilarious GoPro footage of the girls and D. We were in bed by 10pm.
Monday September 7, 2020
The next morning was like a totally different part of the world. As the sun came up, the wind started howling, and by 8am it was pummeling the shore with huge waves and whitecaps. The waves were washing over the docks and hammering the boats. Louisa could see our boat in the slip getting lifted and pushed against the dock. Tom threw on a jacket and shoes and ran out to the boat slip – the bow whip had broken, and the bow was pounding against the dock. He managed to get a line further up, but was stumped on how to tie it up to the leeward slip.
Suddenly a man came running up the dock and said he’s an owner of Action Water Sports, and started re-tying it. After a few minutes it was clear it was no use, so he said he would drive it back to the Sand Creek Marina. We got it untied and shoved off into the crazy waves, and Tom watched as he alternately gunned it and paused to let the waves crash over him. The wind was gusting over 50 knots, Tom had to stop and brace himself a few times to not get blown off the dock – it was scary. Then the power went out.
Tom got dried off and we went looking for breakfast. We stopped for coffee at Evans Brothers but the line was crazy. Tom went across the street to Murphy’s Donuts where they were just frying the donuts and asked for one. She said “you can’t just have one” and put three in the bag. They were absolutely divine. We went back to Heart Bowls since they were so good yesterday and ate in the garden, then went back to the house and chilled.
The weather was still really windy, the power out, and trees down everywhere. Waves were sloshing over the walkways. We decided to go check out Bottle Bay from the car, so we drove out across the long bridge and turned in toward the lake. We wound around, looking at houses as we drove quite a ways on the gravel road. We finally made our way back around to the highway again, and headed back to house. We picked up D, then went to find tacos. First place, closed. Second, closed. Third place was packed. We finally ended up at a very mediocre place and waited for food to go. We ate quickly in the car and then went to the Idaho Club.
We met Jeff Gove there, and talked about the club. We drove around the clubhouse area a bit, then drove up the butte where we saw some beautiful lots with amazing panoramas of the lake We walked up one unfinished lot to see the views, some were 5 acre and one 20 acre. (We learned later that Kellee doesn’t think the club will really make it because course is too long and too hard – what is it with pro golfers in Idaho?) We drove down to see the Rose’s lots on the lake – they bought 3 of the 6. We learned there may be some lots by the Lake Club, which could be interesting We went back to the club and met Bill, and asked about community and a “barn” – he was unwilling to promise anything. He is planning a pickleball court, but that’s it for now.
We drove along the lake a bit further to Hope, but there was not much to see. We headed back along the lake past the Pack River and the club, and back to the house. The power came back on soon, which was nice. We went looking for dinner, and ended up at MickDuff’s, which was absolutely packed because most places were closed with no power, We waited an hour for food, and ate our ice cream dessert from Panhandle before dinner. Back at the house we discovered we didn’t have ketchup or salad dressing, so we went back. We ate and watched some basketball on the phone – the TVs didn’t work. The girls did homework, Dad helped a little. We did some reading, and went to bed around 11
Tuesday September 8
Tuesday morning Dad got up early, he didn’t sleep well. Mom was up at 7 or so, and they went to get coffee at Monarch Mountain, good strong stuff, plus a croissant for Tom. Then we went to Starbucks 🙂 for souls vide and more coffee. Back at the house, the kids were on calls and class. Dad went for a run/walk out to the long bridge and around City Beach, and saw more of the damage the storm did. He then got Heart Bowls for everyone, and another sous vide for D.
We made an appointment to meet Kellee Daughtery of Daugherty Management (who manages the house we’re in, and lives at Seasons). We talked about the lake with her for a while, looks like we basically want from Sandpoint east on the north side of the lake. We visited Dover community – a bit too planned for our taste. We drove to Ponder Bay and saw some beautiful houses, and even went into one on the lake that might be for sale, 5br and 3 stories. We drove by a bunch more, but finally ran out of time and ran back to the house to pick up the kids. Tom ran to Joel’s for tacos, then packed up quickly and headed out. We had a painless car return and trip home.
On balance, we really liked Sandpoint, it felt artsy and had good food. Schweitzer seemed like a good mountain, comparable to Sugar Bowl. We could see ourselves here, if we could figure out a good way to get here.
