Life after Yellowstone, Hot Showers

July 17, 2009, Old Faithful

Left the campsite, checked out Old Faithful and then headed for Butte, MT. There are a lot of buttes and casinos in Butte, MT. There are small casinos in just about every gas station, liquor store and in many restaurants. I guess there’s not much else to do in Butte—a real mining town. A hot shower and a bed were a welcome relief for all of us though. Keep your eyes open while driving these Western roads, you might see a cow or horse right on the road---no fence.

July 18, 2009, Spokane, Washington
While heading for Vancouver we made a quick stop in a very small mining town called Wallace, Idaho. The movie, Dante’s Peak was filmed here. We had a great barbecue sandwich at a local saloon called the Smoke House . Then about 50 miles down highway 60W we came to Cedars Floating Restaurant in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on the Spokane River. It is a beautiful setting for dinner. There’s no recession happening in Coeur d’Alene, ID! It a very upscale, non-diverse city. We had to stop, of course, for appetizers only since we had just split a sandwich earlier. We all vowed to come back to Cedars one of these days. The appetizers were delicious and the meals being served around us were totally consumed by our neighbors.-
July 19, 2009, Brewster, WA

We decided to take the scenic route from Spokane, Washington t o Vancouver, BC—a two lane road through North Cascade National Park—through the most beautiful mountains. Stopped in Brewster, WA at the “Stop and Rest for a While Country Store” for some delicious cherries and a bottle of Washington Chardonnay. Then, after driving for miles and miles, we came to a small town called Winthrop, WA in the Cascades. There were tons of people hanging out in this cowboy town in the middle of these mountains. We later found out we hit Winthrop on the last day of the annual weekend Blue Festival held at the Blues Ranch during the 3rd weekend in July. There were about 4,000 people in attendance. We plan on attending this festival sometime in the future.

July 20, 2009, Vancouver to Vancouver Island/Victoria
Went to Vancouver Island today on the ferry. The weather and island were beautiful. We walked around the marina, listened to the street artists, and then had dinner at Pagliacci’s, an Italian Restaurant with a three piece Irish band. The next day we had afternoon tea (for Tina) at The Fairmont Empress Hotel and then toured Parliament. Afternoon tea is not really Hazel or Bryant’s cup of tea! There is reat marina with lots of expensve boats and local artist who play for tips.