Northern Idaho and Washington, in pictures

I'm compiling my pictures from this trip in a Flickr photoset for those of you who are interested in looking at them all, but just so you know, there are a lot, so, I mean, if you feel like wading through a whole bunch of pictures of St. Paul's Cathedral to waste a couple hours at work today, fine, but don't say I didn't warn you. I'm working on labeling each picture so you'll know where they all were are taken (when you take a billion photos of a "really beautiful sky" it's bound to get confusing) but I'm a little behind on that project as every time I open up the laptop to do some work, the temptation of getting into bed and watching TV for about three seconds before we pass out because we're so tired is too much to resist.

I did want to post a few pictures and talk a little about the past week though.

After leaving Montana we had to pass through the northern panhandle of Idaho to get to Washington. We hadn't given much thought to this part of the trip, in fact, I told J (admitting my total geographic idiocy) that I "didn't even know there was a northern part of Idaho." But guess what? It's beautiful.

Instead of driving all the way to Seattle and getting there late Wednesday night, we decided to stop in a town called Coeur D'Alene in northern Idaho. The first time we'd heard of it was when the woman at the visitor's center in Missoula gave us a brochure, told us we'd be passing through that area when we were headed west on US 90, and said we'd love it there.

We totally did.

The main street had tons of great shopping and restaurants, but perhaps the best feature of this resort town on the lake was the little motel we stayed in, The Flamingo. When I went in to the office to ask about rates, an older man who looked just like the best version of a grandpa you could imagine gave me the information I needed, and then told me that all the rooms were different. Themed, he said. We were in the "Victorian Room" and it was the best room we've stayed in yet. Rather than some sterile, cheap, run of the mill motel room, like most of the others we've stayed in so far, this room had been put together with love, baby. Magazines. A comfortable, warm bedspread. Candy. Movies. Really nice towels. Nicer than our own towels that we registered for when we got married.

The next morning we got back on the road, entering Washington on the east side of the state and continuing westward. We passed through miles of flat, dusty land covered in brush before reaching the Columbia River where we stopped to take in the view.

Finally we got to Seattle, brought our bags up to Eric's apartment, and proceeded to have an awesome time.

Of course, we went to Pike Place Market.

I took a picture of the very first Starbucks, that's right, the very first one that ever existed in this great country.

Here's J and Eric graciously posing for me because I realized I should probably take some pictures of people, and not just, you know, the mountains and trees and stuff:

We also spent some time walking around the city, checking out the really cute houses and autumn leaves.

Once we got to to Seattle we realized how quiet life had been in places like Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, where the sky is huge and stars are bright in the clear, night sky, but I must admit, I loved being back in a thriving, metropolitan environment and seeing the city lights from the roof of Eric's apartment building.

Our vacation, part two

Arriving in Seattle was noteworthy for a couple of reasons. One, getting there meant we had crossed the country for real and not just in a "we're driving cross country" sort of way. We'd driven from one coast to the other. If you want to get technical and annoying, we'd driven from the Chesapeake Bay to the Puget Sound, but let's not get like that. The other nice thing about arriving in Seattle was it meant we'd reached the second part of our trip, the part where we drive down the west coast and, maybe more importantly, the part where we know a lot of people. Friends and family we can visit and stay with. We're excited to see them.

First was our friend Eric. He was an MD/PhD student at UNC when J was there and now he's doing his residency in Seattle, where he lives in a great apartment (with a fountain in the courtyard!) in Capitol Hill.

Staying with Eric not only meant catching up with a good friend, but it meant that we had an excellent tour guide. Like I said, I've been to Seattle before, but just for a short visit and the only thing I could remember about the city was a general sense of loving it and checking out Pike Place Market because that's what everybody does.

Eric took us to great restaurants and bars, went to the Seattle Art Museum with us and pointed out many other cool things to do in the city.

On our last day in town he took us to Green Lake, where we got to see all the native Seattle-ians exercising, walking their dogs and enjoying the good weather after some rain that morning. It was a place we would have never known about on our own and going there meant our visit to Seattle was this well-rounded mix of hip hangouts, wonderful food, typical touristy stuff, outdoor activities and, of course, really good coffee.

And we didn't even have to look at our guidebook once, which was nice, because seriously, I love the guidebook, but when you're trying to be all nonchalant in some cafe and you discreetly pull the behemoth which is the Frommer's USA guide out of your bag, well, it's pretty clear that, as much as you wanna be, you're not a local.