Summer Wrap up Weekend 1

Where has the time gone? We left Arizona over 7 weeks ago! The first week in Utah flew by, probably because we were running ourselves (or, being drug) into the ground by the Billy Goat Benny, and Supa... But, 6 weeks in Coeur d'Alene ALREADY. WTH?

With only 2 weeks left we were starting to realize we hadn't done nearly what we wanted to! Shane has been working his tail off, and while my work hasn't been all that busy - races are behind us, we needed to take the next 2 weeks and really enjoy ourselves!

We started out Friday! Date night :-) We headed out to the floating restaurant, Cedars (I have ALWAYS wanted to eat here!). It was a nice night, perfect temperatures, but a little windy (which made for an interesting meal on the floating patio!). The food was fantastic. I chose seared scallops with red mashed potatoes & green beans - I made a really good choice. Shane had the cedar plank salmon with wild rice & veggies. Of course finished with a chocolate molten cake.

For as long as I've wanted to eat here, it definitely lived up to my expectations... Someday I want to pull up on a boat for dinner :-)

The view of Tubb's hill from the patio (a.k.a. "Bubb's Hill)

Saturday we woke up to a nice COOL morning. I was trying to build up some mileage so the plan was for Shane & the dogs to run out 30mins with me, then turnaround - I would head out for an additional 10before turning around. I've got the crazy idea to "try" another marathon... That is a whole other post though - so I'll save it. Long story short a 16 week training plan will start, well today actually - and the long run on the schedule is 2hours - I'm not quite ready to jump that high so I though 1:20 was good.

I've had some sort of respiratory cold/infection since Tuesday so my lungs have been less than great for a week. I made my best of it, wheezing through the first half of the run, but finally getting more air on the way back in. It was a perfect cool morning with a breeze. 1:20 in the bank!

When I got back home Shane said "I don't want to work today!" I know, it's Saturday - DUH. I'm ON IT! Hmm, what can we do? Let's drive up to Sandpoint! So after some yummy huckleberry pancakes (Let the IDAHO EXPERIENCE BEGIN), we were showered and on our way.... Almost. The traffic on the highway leading to Sandpoint (only 40miles away) was horrendous. We were stop go, stop go for 30mins, only moving about 2 miles. We actually pulled off the highway, ready to bail on the trip, but found a slight shortcut to get us ahead of most of the delay. Pheww...

About 90mins later we were FINALLY in Sandpoint.

Hungry, and ready for?????? We actually had no idea what we were going to do.

First stop - FOOD. We started walking down the main street along the water and saw a pretty big line forming outside of this place... MUST be good. One look at the menu & I had found my perfect place. One full page of baked potato lunch options. Seriously, my heaven. Post long run fuel - gotta love it.

Next up? Wine tasting - The Pend d'Oreille Winery. Who knew? I swear this was NOT the plan - I found it in the Sandpoint Magazine on the way up...honest

I fell in love with my first taste - A Malbec (not usually one of my favorites). It was interesting, nothing like I've ever had with a spearmint finish. While the other reds I tasted from the reserve list were GOOD, this one was GREAT. I can't wait to try it with some food!

After the wine tasting, we decided to drive around the lake a bit - see how it compared to Coeur d'Alene. The lake is HUGE - quite impressive actually. However, every driving around the entire CDA Lake a few weeks ago, we were more convinced we someday want to call CDA our "partial" home...

A little further up in Northern Idaho is just a little too, well - this sign says it all.

I kid you not people - you can't make this stuff up. It was right along the main highway through town at a Bar/Grill. Nuf said.

As I was looking through the rest of the Sandpoint Magazine to see if there was anything else we wanted to check out, I saw an add for "Laughing Dog Brewery." Although beer was the last thing on my mind after wine tasting, when I mentioned it Shane perked up. A business acquaintance he knows was just telling him about said brewery and how they were having an anniversary party and it just so happened to be well, this day. So, we stopped by the brewery to see if we could find his friend.

Have you ever been to a beer festival, or any sort of beer tasting event? It's like nothing other. Especially in Northern Idaho :-) These are straight up cowboy, beer drinking hicks. Trust me, I know my roots & where I came from, but I have to admit it's been a WHILE since I've seen something like this.. Stumbling, sloppy, DRUNKS. Wow. My Idaho experience is almost complete. That said, we did find Shane's friend, visited for a bit & I had a very good Huckleberry Ale! It was light and crisp and not too hoppy! Just the way I like my microbrews.

Our Sunday was actually already planned. I found a local wine I really liked, and also found they had a tasting room close by. When in Rome..... So, I summoned some of my girlfriends and Shane & I met Joy & Molly for an afternoon of wine tasting at Townshend Winery. The winery is close to Mt. Spokane in an area of farmers & fields of every fruit and veggie you can imagine - Green Bluff.

The wine tasting was GREAT. After having been to several wineries in Sonoma where you learn what varietals you do and don't like, and even start to narrow it down to your favorite vineyards (Alexander Valley), I wasn't expecting to have to winery trips where I enjoyed nearly EVERYTHING - including a very nice Viognier (which I had to try after regretting passing it up in SandPoint once I read the description).

We finished up our wine tasting with a couple of pictures, and headed to a neighboring farm for lunch and a little more wine.

The afternoon was GREAT. Perfect weather, company, wine & good food. We finished off the trip with a visit to Grandpa, pie in hand. To say he was pleased is an understatement when we walked in carrying sweets!

Next installment - a Dinner Cruise on Lake CDA & daytrip to my childhood favorite, Priest Lake!