Summer 2013 Part 1: North Idaho

Hi guys!!! It has been a long, long while. We are here… DFJ and I managed to move our butts 3,000+ miles from Washington State to Maryland.

Just a week or so before we left, my second parents, Bill and Sally, hosted a very sweet wedding reception/farewell party for our Washington friends. After all our belongings were moved, we packed the rest into my car, cleaned our old apartment, then drove off for a mini vacation to Bend, OR. Somehow, in between this chaos, we also managed to find a place to hang our hats from across the country, thanks to my in-laws. After Bend, we went to my Greencard interview, which I passed with flying colors. Haha! Then, we embarked on our exciting cross-country drive (more on that later).

I usually get pretty wordy… but in this post and the ones to follow, I will let the pictures tell you how my summer went. Be prepared for a gazillion pictures!

As the first few weeks of summer rolled in, we decided to pretend that nothing major was happening. This summer would be just like any other summer. Which meant that we did zero packing and just goofed off!

We went to visit family in Spokane, WA and in between visiting, we went on day trips to the Hiawatha Bike Trail and Coeur d’Alene. The Hiawatha Bike Trail is a scenic bike trail that used to be a railroad that connected Idaho and Montana. It was an amazing experience to bike in the wilderness! The tunnels though, were totally NOT my thing. Brave souls, including little toddlers, breezed past me on their bikes with just their headlamps on. But I was being a scaredy cat and froze my ass walking my bike in the cold, damp tunnel for 1.66 miles (that’s not counting the other shorter tunnels that I also walked). Other than the torturous tunnels, this is an awesome bike trail. Make sure you pay attention to where you’re going though, you could fall off the cliff if you gawk at the gorgeous scenery too much! And yes, there is a high chance that you will be sharing the road with some wildlife! *wink!*

The next day, we drove less than an hour to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to bike the Centennial Bike Trail. I enjoyed this ride immensely! The wide, paved trail was alongside highways, neighborhood roads, a park, the University of Idaho, and the beautiful Lake Coeur d’Alene. We stopped at the farmer’s market to buy some lunch and a pint of raspberries, which we finished off in less than 15 minutes. Those were the best raspberries I’ve had this summer! This bike ride was for sure 23.5 miles of heart pumping bliss!  

Man, typing this post and revisiting the pictures just made me so homesick for the Pacific Northwest. It is a beautiful part of the country… and I have more proof of that in the next post!

It feels good to be back here though… I have missed you all.