Sand Point Idaho

 Well, today I had to hire some pros to polish the coach. I have tried to clean the grime we accumulated in our trip, but I just don't have the tools necessary to get it back to pre trip shine. It looks good now!!

 While they were doing that we went to Sand Point for some wine tasting and lunch. This is the Pend Oreille winery that we tasted at Twin Lakes Village earlier. Very tasty wine and interesting shopping.

 These are actually place mats. Nope, they were way overpriced so sorry, JK.

 They also had an interesting and overpriced selection of bottle stoppers. Really, $40.00 for on of these?

 Ok, these look more reasonable, but I still passed.

 We did buy the green and red wine thermos bottles though. These will be great for camping and picnics. Insulated so the white will keep its chill.

 Virginia, Sam and Linda waiting for another wine to sample.

 Steve Meyer the winemaker. Originally from Lodi and moved to Sand Point 20 years ago and loves it.

 This is also the Litehouse blue cheese factory. Somehow the girls found something to buy.

 Lunch at Jalapeños! Great mexican food and a sense of humor! See the next picture as an example. Tomorrow is our last day in Idaho, so it must be time for more GOLF!

Sunday we are off to Washington to visit my family. Long drive though, like 420 miles.

Coeur d' Alene Lake tour

 We had a very busy day yesterday! Sam and I met Jack and Mike at Twin Lakes Village, where we had the wine tasting earlier this week and played golf. I had one of my best rounds and shot an 89! Beautiful course, narrow fairways and fast greens.

 The we drove down to Coeur d' Alene (CDA) lake and boarded Mike's (blue shirt) boat. Not a cloud in the sky and a cool breeze made for a great 3 hour tour. CDA lake is huge and very clear with people in all manner of water sports going on everywhere. Mike and Connie, Jack and Gan were very gracious hosts for our visit to CDA. Hope they visit California so we can return the favor.

 This is a very expensive condo group, where they start at $3 million. Oprah has a small place there. She did not return my call.

 This is the driving range on the CDA golf course. Roland and I played this in 2010. The golf balls float and they have a boat to pick them up. Distances are marked with buoys.

 In the foreground is the famous floating green. They move the island daily and it can vary from 125 to 175 yards off shore. You take your shot and board a boat for the trip to finish the hole! I was very lucky and made a par on this hole when we played it.

 This is the hole where Roland's drive drifted out of bounds to the left, fell out of sight and hit a rock and bounced back up onto the green! I called him Rick-o-shay the rest of the day!

 This is a peninsula that is a city park. Lots of hikers walking and picnicing.

 The CDA marina has a lot of very nice boats.

 Sea planes for tours. Nope, skipped this tour.

 Entrance to the marina and the CDA hotel. We stayed there in 2010 and had room overlooking the lake and marina complete with a fireplace!

 This is  the wooden boat you take to the golf course around the city park. CDA is famous as a place that builds fabulous wooden boats. They call them woodies.

These are old piers left from logging days. They used tug boats to move huge rafts of logs miles long up the lake and tie them up here. They then took the logs down the river to a mill. 

So many houses on the lake and many are only accessible by boat. All materials to build it or live in it come by water,  

 One of the beautiful wooden boats on the lake.

 This is actually a house! Not a bad spread, no?

 Dinner tour on the lake.

 They built this house right on top of the boulder! Looks like a solid foundation to me. The green marker is actually a navigation point to boaters. Look closely on the left had deck; the owners put a mannequin in a bikini that looks like she is waving!

Sunset on CDA. We counted 21 boats all rafted together in the middle of the lake and it certainly sounded like a party was going on to me! We are off to Sand Point tomorrow! More to come.

Aunt Pearl and Wine tasting

 As promised, here is an improved site, complete with spa!

 Aunt Pearls place in Coeur d' Alene

 Aunt Pearl's apartment. At 95, she is as sharp as ever!

 Linda and Aunt Pearl

 Linda and Cousin Allen

 Allen, Pearl and Linda

 This is the entrance to StoneRidge.

 Ok, this is the front yard of someone in StoneRidge whose backyard is on the golf course. I am guessing they had plenty of raw materials to work with!

 We went to the Twin Lakes Country Club for a wine tasting.

 We had fruit and chocolate matched with wine. The wine was good enough for Linda to buy a couple of bottles.

 After wine tasting we drove around the area and it was lovely.

 We fed, their fish and they were much bigger!

 We went to Jack and Gan Cossel's house and met their dog Demi, an Italian greyhound.

 Look close and you will see a hummingbird.

 Twin Lakes would be a great place to spend the summer!

Sundown on Twin Lake. Tomorrow we get a pitch from StoneRidge, play golf on the Twin Lakes course and take a tour on Lake Coeur d' Alene. Obviously, more pictures to come!

StoneRidge Golf and Resort Idaho

 Sorry I have not been keeping up, but we had no Wifi and no phone coverage either! This valley is all Verizon and we had to pay for Wifi. But we are back on track now. It was about 240 miles from Big Fork and we took the western path around the lake and it was a very pleasant drive, very pretty some of it along the Clark Fork river, through Paradise. Got to tell you it is really weird not to have phone or internet connection, it is actually liberating.

 We are camping here for free! We will have to listen to about an hour sales pitch on Thursday, but one week for free is great.

 The ones with casitas are owned and improved. Some sites are very nice; I will get some pictures tomorrow to show you. There is a very nice pool and spa and game room. Laundry is free.

 Surrounded by mountains, just not as big as Montana.

 Yes, we do have any awning! It has been up to 90 in the afternoon and we are facing West and getting a lot of sun on the windshield.  Rick and Jan gave us the checkerboard cocoa mat, very nice.

 Finally got to play golf again; first time since Mississippi!

 Sam on the second tee.

 They said they see moose down here all the time, but none today.

 Golf was $47.00 with a cart and that includes a nice breakfast or lunch at the clubhouse.

 Course is in good shape with only a few dry spots

 On the 6th tee they have a fish food dispenser. For a quarter you can feed the fish.

 Well, they fish do jump for the pellets, but there are seagulls that will eat both the fish and the pellets, so the fish have to be kind of cautious.

 They also have homes, condos and apartments here.

 Along the left side of the 18th fairway is a manmade creek. Yesterday I made a par and was happy to get on the green from 160 yards out. Sam and I played again today and I hooked my second shot left and hit a shot off a rock in the creek. I was lucky enough to have a playable lie and reached the green in 3 on a par 5. Too bad I 3 putted and made a bogey.

Sam and I played the only 19th hole I have ever seen. It was on the scorecard after the total, so it is on there, but after your total score. Linda and I are off to see Aunt Pearl tomorrow!