Happy Independence day to you all! We enjoyed the holiday here in Idaho, still camped out at the home of our friends, Duff and Bonita!
We heard a great sermon this morning, entitled "Love that Frees Us", at the church that Duff and Bonita attend here in Post Falls. The message was an uplifting reminder from Ephesians Chapter 1:3-5, reassuring us that Before God made the world, that He loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy. He decided in advance to adopt us into His own family, through what Christ has done on the Cross for us.
Our drive from Montana after Father's day, took us through Troy where the highway follows the Kootenai River. A good sized pullout and parking area allows for a hike to Kootenai Falls and to a suspension bridge that crosses the river. This provided a nice break from the drive, and gave an opportunity to stretch our legs and to enjoy lunch before continuing into Idaho.
Sitting beside the Kootenai Falls and watching the river churn past us was a sight to behold. Having grown up in semi-arid Southern California, the sheer size of this river was mind blowing to me. It makes no sense in my mind that this volume of water can be flowing past me continuously! And this was just one river we saw in the Northwestern States. I am sure that there are larger rivers, but this was very impressive to me!
Northern Idaho
As you can see this area of Idaho has mountains, rivers, forests and as we would find out, really large lakes, Pend Oreille Lake being the first one we enjoyed in Idaho. (Flathead Lake in Montana was incredible large and beautiful as well.) To further enjoy the lake we booked a boat tour of the lake that would take us to hopefully see some birds of prey. We did see some eagles' nests and some eaglets with their parent enjoying a view of our boat from the edge of their nest. Very awesome, but my camera couldn't capture the birds in the nest so I can't show it to you. Sorry!
Sand Point was a sweet little community on the edge of the lake. It had a nice walking downtown area and a great beach and park along the shore of the lake. The arch way is made of fish cut out of metal signs, so colorful!
The picture below is a bridge over the river that has been converted into shops and restaurants, very cool!
Some more travel brought us down to Post Falls and Duff and Bonita's home. We parked our trailer in the driveway and have been enjoying there company from our "base camp". (Also they watched over our truck and trailer during our little breakaway to come back to California.)
Steve and I enjoyed exploring Coeur d'Alene with a hike around Tubbs Hill, which is in a great park along the shore of the Lake Coeur d'Alene.
Someone had left this little scripture reminder along the trail! Some of you may remember when we did a rock painting outreach at CCFR called "Jesus Rocks!" Fun to find these little truth rocks along our way!
After our California detour we returned to Post Falls and enjoyed a ferry boat tour of Lake Coeur d'Alene, giving us a reverse view of Tubbs Hill from the water!
Check out this house built on a Rock!
Steve and I enjoyed an evening in Spokane, Washington, about 45 minutes from Post Falls. We had a really great dinner overlooking the Spokane River at a restaurant called Clinkerdagger. Then we walked to Riverfront park, which has a couple of places where the river runs through it! It had great play grounds, a skate park, basketball courts, splash pads and a fountain! I think it even goes into a shopping area, but we ran out of time to explore it! It was a beautiful place to stroll around in the evening after dinner!
Historic Towns and Silver Mines
We very much enjoy visiting Historic sites and finding out about the history of the area. When we heard about a town that is pretty much unchanged for the past hundred plus years we had to go check it out! The town sits along the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River and was founded in 1884. This area of the Idaho panhandle is in a valley of the Silver Mining district. This town remains mostly unchanged because the town devised a way to avoid being demolished when Interstate 90 was planned to pass through the town. The solution? Get the entire town onto the registry of historic places. Well, it worked and the I-90 passes beside the city on an elevated section of roadway which hugs the mountainside! The architecture of the town is very beautiful.
Another interesting feature of the town of Wallace, is that in 2004 the Mayor of the town proclaimed Wallace to be the Center of the Universe, (because it can't be proven otherwise, rather strange logic); there is a manhole cover at the designated intersection marking the exact spot of the Center of the Universe! The town even celebrates this proclamation yearly! Who knew!
Wallace is also famous for its 100-plus year run as the world's largest silver producer, making it the richest mining town still in existence. We took a great tour of the Sierra Silver Mine. A third generation miner with 18 plus years experience in the mines in the area gave a great 1 hour tour, during which he demonstrated mining equipment and explained how silver was mined.
Steve is holding a core sample which has been split to reveal the silver rich content...what they are all trying to find!
Sadly, we also learned the tragic story of the neighboring Sunshine Mine disaster of 2005, in which 91 men died, leaving 77 women widowed and 200 children fatherless. It was quite sobering to be in a silver mine while learning of how the industry was changed after this tragedy. A nearby memorial honors those who perished.
Another tragedy in the area was the Big Burn of 1910, a raging firestorm that killed 87 people, mostly firefighters while it burned 3,000,000 acres of forest and some structures. So much history to ponder in one small area.
We are getting reading to leave Post Falls and head south to new sites to explore in Idaho on our Adventures on the Road! Thanks for taking time to read our blog and enjoy the pictures. We are praying for all of our family and friends and so appreciate your prayers for our safety and health and enjoyment during this time!
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