2023-2024
Couer d'Alene, Idaho
We finally got away from the school at about 4:15 on Wednesday, April 3, after playing many rounds of Tetris trying to fit everything into our limited space. Ms. Bonnie said we looked like the Griswolds from National Lampoon's Vacation! Then we battled whistling tie-down straps, having to pull over many times to adjust straps. We finally stopped and bought a roll of duct tape which saved our sanity from the horrendous sound! We intended to check out the Nimrod Hot Springs along I90, but it was cold and rainy so we just looked at it from the car going by. We got the ever popular dining option of Costco pizza and smoothies and were $1.50 under budget. We checked into Sentinel High School and stayed in the wrestling room. Their wrestling room was bigger than our whole high school! The students ate and took notes for their reflection packets and hung out.
It poured throughout the night, so our planned hike on the "M" trail by U of M got canceled due to the mud and clouds. We instead spent more time looking around Fort Missoula. We stopped for a short while at Garden of One Thousand Buddhas near Arlee. It was very interesting. Unfortunately, because of the cloud cover, we could not get the full experience and beauty of the Mission Mountains. We were scheduled for a guided tour at the Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana at 10:30 and had a most wonderful guide, who showed us many unique items. We then drove North to Big Fork. We intended to drive over the old bridge to the downtown area, but the bridge was closed so we had to drive around the bay to see the downtown area. We then drove to the Shepard Memorial Fountain at Bad Rock Canyon along the middle fork of the Flathead River that was one of the first rest areas developed in Montana in order that the first automobile's could easily get water out of the spring. It was then decided that since the roads were not clogged with snow, we were able to drive to Hungry Horse Dam, then checked out the scenery and tourist traps along Highway 2 all the way to the entrance to Glacier National Park. We turned around there and then headed back to Columbia Falls to check in at the high school, where we stayed in the Wildcat wrestling room. They remembered us staying there in the fall of 2011 on our trip through Glacier. The group then cleaned up for our nice dinner at the Buffalo Cafe in Whitefish. They wanted to check out the beach at Whitefish Lake. It was 46 degrees and raining, but there was a woman standing out in the ice cold water up to her chest. At least she was wearing a hat! We drove around seeing some of the downtown area before going to dinner. Ironically, we had eaten at the same restaurant on our previous trip to Glacier. We drove around some more after dinner and took a different route back to Columbia Falls. The students watched a movie before bed.
Day 3 started with a guided tour of the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell. Chare' was our most excellent guide, who told us a lot of history and stories about the family. Our tour went over a bit so we were late getting to the Flathead Valley Community College. Our school had received information about a college visit and it coincided with our trip so we did the tour and they fed us lunch. It is a very nice campus. Jacob and Tori won door prizes and they all got swag from the college. We then hit the road past Libby to the Kootenai swinging bridge and falls. It was a very beautiful stop and stopped raining just for us to enjoy our stop. We stayed there for around an hour. Our next stop was the Ross Creek Cedars State Park. We were really looking forward to it and were devastated when we got to the gate and it was locked! So we drove down toward Bad Medicine Campground on Bull Lake before turning around. There had been a lot of downed trees in the area, so we surmised that the gate was locked for that reason. The next portion of our trip was a new road for everyone. We drove on Highway 200 to Sandpoint. We got to the city and parked downtown. We had about 35 minutes to explore some of the shops before they closed for the evening, then we walked to one of the beaches in town near their very long bridge. Once again, it was very cold and rainy so we didn't stay long. But on our way back to the car, we visited with a local person who explained the reason for so much low water and shoreline showing on Lake Pend Oreille, up to a half mile in some places, was that they release water from the dam to get ready for the incoming snow melt and spring rains. We had to stop at a grocery store on the way to our Airbnb which was an A-frame "Chalet". Ms. Summers cooked tacos for everyone. The house had an assortment of games, so the students spent time playing Uno and the Logo game.
It poured rain once again, so instead of going for our hike on Day 4 to look at The Long Bridge and its two mile long construction, we slept in a bit and warmed up the delicious biscuits and gravy that Miss Bonnie sent with us. We waited for the rain to slow before loading up the car, then drove to Farragut State Park. We toured the Visitor Center before heading for our planned self-tour of the Museum at the Brig, but it was closed. Instead, we drove around parts of the park and talked about the continuation of Lake Missoula and how the shorelines show up on Lake Pend Oreille also. The Park is significant for its Naval inland training base and it has a dedicated structure to the Boys and Girls Scouts of America. It has many other activities available as well. After exploring the park, we headed to the Museum of North Idaho. We ran into another unexpected closure! We debated which museum to visit in its place, and decided to try the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center. Ironically, the Forrest Bird Chapter School had stayed at the Willow Creek School on a field trip to Yellowstone Park for several years. Dalton impressed us with his knowledge of airplanes as he quickly stated the model and year of every model airplane in the cases. We found a local gazebo and made the quickest lunch in the history of the world because it was so cold outside! We then spent the next four hours at Triple Play Family Fun Park. We enjoyed all of the indoor activities and then after being on a waiting list, we finished up our time with some games of bowling. We backtracked to our new Airbnb and setup our stuff. Ms. Summers cooked pasta, garlic toast, and salad. We hogged and jogged back to Triple Play for the Raptor Reef Indoor Water Park and Wave Pool until closing time. Everyone showered before bed. Some people watched a movie while waiting for showers.
The morning of the last day, we skipped eating at Jimmy's Down the Street which was featured on Guy Fieri's show Diners, Drive Ins and Dives because we had so much left over food. Then we drove in to Coeur d'Alene to walk around the World's Longest Floating Boardwalk, which is a world record 3300 feet long, and is located at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. We then intended to look at the miraculous engineering of the Veteran's Memorial Centennial Bridge, but there were a collection of law enforcement officers at our stop, so we continued driving to the interstate and drove across the bridge. We drove to the east end of Lake CDA to read the placards at two pullouts but there too many cars at the first one. As we were leaving, we discovered that yet another of our planned stops at the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot Museum in Wallace was temporarily closed. We were able to spend time at the Parking Area and Silver History Site and learn some mining history of the area instead. Our final stop of the day was to have lunch at the St Regis Travel Center and experience everything it has to offer. Upon leaving there, we counted each occurrence of bridges crossing the Clark Fork River and Googled where the river starts and ends. We also learned about the engineering needed to create a road bridge near Alberton, Montana, using bed rock as one of the pillars. Tori had bought the Road Trip Game at St. Regis so we all played that for most of the trip home. We each also guessed what time we would arrive back to the school. Campbell was the winner with his guess only being one minute off! We arrived back at the school at 6:57 PM.
There were many, many cancellations on this trip due to temporary closures of venues and weather. But it still turned out to be a very educational trip. There always seems to be an under riding theme develop on these trips and this year it turned out to be bridges. Some favorite quotes from the trip: "Wow! Musk ox are like cow corgis!", "There's a dam worker!", and "That's not a cop. There's no party light things on top!". Five students and two chaperons went on the trip and the total costs were $1941.
It poured throughout the night, so our planned hike on the "M" trail by U of M got canceled due to the mud and clouds. We instead spent more time looking around Fort Missoula. We stopped for a short while at Garden of One Thousand Buddhas near Arlee. It was very interesting. Unfortunately, because of the cloud cover, we could not get the full experience and beauty of the Mission Mountains. We were scheduled for a guided tour at the Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana at 10:30 and had a most wonderful guide, who showed us many unique items. We then drove North to Big Fork. We intended to drive over the old bridge to the downtown area, but the bridge was closed so we had to drive around the bay to see the downtown area. We then drove to the Shepard Memorial Fountain at Bad Rock Canyon along the middle fork of the Flathead River that was one of the first rest areas developed in Montana in order that the first automobile's could easily get water out of the spring. It was then decided that since the roads were not clogged with snow, we were able to drive to Hungry Horse Dam, then checked out the scenery and tourist traps along Highway 2 all the way to the entrance to Glacier National Park. We turned around there and then headed back to Columbia Falls to check in at the high school, where we stayed in the Wildcat wrestling room. They remembered us staying there in the fall of 2011 on our trip through Glacier. The group then cleaned up for our nice dinner at the Buffalo Cafe in Whitefish. They wanted to check out the beach at Whitefish Lake. It was 46 degrees and raining, but there was a woman standing out in the ice cold water up to her chest. At least she was wearing a hat! We drove around seeing some of the downtown area before going to dinner. Ironically, we had eaten at the same restaurant on our previous trip to Glacier. We drove around some more after dinner and took a different route back to Columbia Falls. The students watched a movie before bed.
Day 3 started with a guided tour of the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell. Chare' was our most excellent guide, who told us a lot of history and stories about the family. Our tour went over a bit so we were late getting to the Flathead Valley Community College. Our school had received information about a college visit and it coincided with our trip so we did the tour and they fed us lunch. It is a very nice campus. Jacob and Tori won door prizes and they all got swag from the college. We then hit the road past Libby to the Kootenai swinging bridge and falls. It was a very beautiful stop and stopped raining just for us to enjoy our stop. We stayed there for around an hour. Our next stop was the Ross Creek Cedars State Park. We were really looking forward to it and were devastated when we got to the gate and it was locked! So we drove down toward Bad Medicine Campground on Bull Lake before turning around. There had been a lot of downed trees in the area, so we surmised that the gate was locked for that reason. The next portion of our trip was a new road for everyone. We drove on Highway 200 to Sandpoint. We got to the city and parked downtown. We had about 35 minutes to explore some of the shops before they closed for the evening, then we walked to one of the beaches in town near their very long bridge. Once again, it was very cold and rainy so we didn't stay long. But on our way back to the car, we visited with a local person who explained the reason for so much low water and shoreline showing on Lake Pend Oreille, up to a half mile in some places, was that they release water from the dam to get ready for the incoming snow melt and spring rains. We had to stop at a grocery store on the way to our Airbnb which was an A-frame "Chalet". Ms. Summers cooked tacos for everyone. The house had an assortment of games, so the students spent time playing Uno and the Logo game.
It poured rain once again, so instead of going for our hike on Day 4 to look at The Long Bridge and its two mile long construction, we slept in a bit and warmed up the delicious biscuits and gravy that Miss Bonnie sent with us. We waited for the rain to slow before loading up the car, then drove to Farragut State Park. We toured the Visitor Center before heading for our planned self-tour of the Museum at the Brig, but it was closed. Instead, we drove around parts of the park and talked about the continuation of Lake Missoula and how the shorelines show up on Lake Pend Oreille also. The Park is significant for its Naval inland training base and it has a dedicated structure to the Boys and Girls Scouts of America. It has many other activities available as well. After exploring the park, we headed to the Museum of North Idaho. We ran into another unexpected closure! We debated which museum to visit in its place, and decided to try the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center. Ironically, the Forrest Bird Chapter School had stayed at the Willow Creek School on a field trip to Yellowstone Park for several years. Dalton impressed us with his knowledge of airplanes as he quickly stated the model and year of every model airplane in the cases. We found a local gazebo and made the quickest lunch in the history of the world because it was so cold outside! We then spent the next four hours at Triple Play Family Fun Park. We enjoyed all of the indoor activities and then after being on a waiting list, we finished up our time with some games of bowling. We backtracked to our new Airbnb and setup our stuff. Ms. Summers cooked pasta, garlic toast, and salad. We hogged and jogged back to Triple Play for the Raptor Reef Indoor Water Park and Wave Pool until closing time. Everyone showered before bed. Some people watched a movie while waiting for showers.
The morning of the last day, we skipped eating at Jimmy's Down the Street which was featured on Guy Fieri's show Diners, Drive Ins and Dives because we had so much left over food. Then we drove in to Coeur d'Alene to walk around the World's Longest Floating Boardwalk, which is a world record 3300 feet long, and is located at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. We then intended to look at the miraculous engineering of the Veteran's Memorial Centennial Bridge, but there were a collection of law enforcement officers at our stop, so we continued driving to the interstate and drove across the bridge. We drove to the east end of Lake CDA to read the placards at two pullouts but there too many cars at the first one. As we were leaving, we discovered that yet another of our planned stops at the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot Museum in Wallace was temporarily closed. We were able to spend time at the Parking Area and Silver History Site and learn some mining history of the area instead. Our final stop of the day was to have lunch at the St Regis Travel Center and experience everything it has to offer. Upon leaving there, we counted each occurrence of bridges crossing the Clark Fork River and Googled where the river starts and ends. We also learned about the engineering needed to create a road bridge near Alberton, Montana, using bed rock as one of the pillars. Tori had bought the Road Trip Game at St. Regis so we all played that for most of the trip home. We each also guessed what time we would arrive back to the school. Campbell was the winner with his guess only being one minute off! We arrived back at the school at 6:57 PM.
There were many, many cancellations on this trip due to temporary closures of venues and weather. But it still turned out to be a very educational trip. There always seems to be an under riding theme develop on these trips and this year it turned out to be bridges. Some favorite quotes from the trip: "Wow! Musk ox are like cow corgis!", "There's a dam worker!", and "That's not a cop. There's no party light things on top!". Five students and two chaperons went on the trip and the total costs were $1941.