Thursday morning we left Missoula early for Seattle. It was another eight hours in the vehicle the boys would have loved to avoid, but surprisingly they’ve been very good sports about the long drives. For sanity’s sake we decided to stop in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to stretch the legs and eat some lunch. We ventured into town and parked near the lakefront city park.
For whatever reason, our youngest is fascinated with seagulls. It may have been the pent up frustration of being stuck in the vehicle for so long, but as soon as he saw those gulls he was running after them screaming and yelling. Those poor gulls. I’m sure they’re used to getting crumbs from passers-by and here’s this kid chasing and trying to kick them. I’m sure the locals thought we were loco. After a couple hours of adequately stretching the legs with a hike along the shoreline of this beautiful respite, we piled back in the vehicle and continued our westward trek into Washington.
Eastern Washington was an interesting place. The topography and climate were certainly unique. It was kind of like North Dakota with no tree rows mixed with some desert Wyoming sagebrush. The high winds that day were blowing dust everywhere making the sky the color of sand. Within fifty miles of the coast things really started to green up and the Cascades started blocking our view of the horizon. Our first extended stay, Seattle, appeared out of nowhere sprawling throughout Puget Sound.