Our first town to explore in Idaho was the much recommended resort town of Coeur D'Alene. This lovely town sits right along the Coeur D'Alene lake which is the largest lake either one of us has seen, stretching for miles and miles. We spent the morning lounging in the shade at the waterfront park and swimming in the lake. The temperature was cold at first, but easy to adjust to on such a hot day. Another of the town's attractions is Tubbs Hill. We didn't end up venturing up the hill but did have a picnic at it's base. The hill itself didn't seem too impressive having seen so many mountains in the last few weeks.
After getting our fill of the good life in Coeur D'Alene we drove to the small mining town of Wallace. This is a quaint little town with some charm but for the most part it really only has one big attraction- the Silver Sierra Mining tour. (Actually Teddy Roosevelt's been there, so there's that. The FBI also showed up to the town, but that was because of their interest in the local bordello. And not like the Secret Service would be interested. The bordello was shut down and turned into a museum and tour. We saw one, but not the other. I wonder if the Bordello's hookers were as surly as their tour guides-I) The flighty but kind cashier struggled applying our 10% AAA discount to the $14 admission price, so she had us go along on the trolley with reassurances that she would figure out the total by the time we got back. Lots of trust in small towns. We boarded the trolley and our driver Steve launched into his much rehearsed (but poorly performed-I) spiel describing the mine and the one time appearance of President Teddy Roosevelt. (Apparently it meant a lot to this town as they are still talking about it today). The trolley made it up a very steep and narrow drive without issue and we unloaded for the tour. Each person had to put on a hard hat and our tour guide Bob lead us into the mine. As Bob explained the mine hasn't been used since the 1960's for actual mining as it never lead to any successful discovery of oar (though the next mine over struck it big-I). It was turned into a mining school and is now open for the public to tour. As we went along our tour guide, who himself was a miner for many years, described the mining process in detail and used terminology well above our heads. Bob demonstrated some of the equipment they used to excavate the mines as well as his lame attempts to scare the ladies on the tour. (No comedic gold to be found in the mine, just plastic rats-I) I did flinch a little bit to be fair. I copied the link for the mining tour video that shows clips of the equipment we saw as well as Steve the trolley driver and Bob the tour guide. It's about a minute long if you are interested. You might even hear about Teddy Roosevelt.-I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftIaR6nuBDk
The trolley back took us on a short ride around town. Steve immediately launched back into the same script about fires and Roosevelt. He had a robotic malfunction when Amanda asked him a question as he had to deviate from his pre-established lines. He did, however, show us a duplex that shared a chimney. An hour and a half later, the cashier still hadn't figured out our tab-I.
Unfortunately for us the town of Wallace does not offer much more in the way of entertainment so we drove next to Missoula, MT. As you drive along the highway into Montana there is nothing for miles and miles and all of a sudden a town with over 86,000 residents appears out of nowhere. As we drove around exploring this very cool little/big town we happened about hoards of people heading for the Caras park along the river. We ventured down into the park and into the middle of the Best of Missoula celebration. The local entertainment paper called the Independent had painstakingly rated the best of everything in Missoula (and we mean everything. Down to the town's "Best Gynecologist") and was throwing a party to honor the winners. The Best Band put on a show at the entertainment stage and the Best Hackysack winners did some stunts in the center of the park. The only downside was that the event, billed to last until 8:30p by our watch packed up at 7:30p! They must have run out of songs. We explored downtown, finding on every other corner drifter types playing excellent banjo music. We then tried to participate in a trivia night at the Central Bar and Grill only to find they had started an hour before we got there. Our only complaint about this eclectic and fun town was that their timing is completely off!
On the way back to our van we stumbled upon a band playing outside of a bakery to a large group of enthusiastic fans including a hoola hoop dancer. Both bands we saw were really good and just added to the ambiance of this town. -A
Silver Sierra Mine Tour in Wallace
Silver Sierra Mine Tour in Wallace
Silver Sierra Mine Tour in Wallace
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