Richards Extended Road Trip: Hiawatha trail

 The highlight of this vacation was biking the Hiawatha trail.  We were up bright and early and headed to the bike rental shop to load up our bikes.   My girls occasionally beg for a tandem bike  and jumped at the chance to get to rent one for the occasion.  It took a minute for them to coordinate but soon became pros on a bicycle made for 2.  

 This trail is a highly rated rail to trail.  It's 15+ miles of trail that used to be a railroad track.  It's perfect for kids with a gradual slope the whole way.  The trail starts with a 1.7 mile tunnel and has 10 total tunnels, seven trestle bridges spanning up to 240 feet high.  

I loved every minute biking on this extraordinary trail.   I loved sharing the stunning scenery with my family and feeling close to nature while enjoying a leisurely bike ride.  Bart's favorite part of the bike ride was going over the bridges and tunnels.  Emily's favorite part of the bike ride was all the tunnels.  Jane's favorite part when she was riding on the tatum bike with Emily along side Kim and Jeff would pass them and sing and tease them.  Aaron's favorite part was racing through the dark tunnels.  Spencer's favorite part of the bike ride was getting to ride his tag along with "no hands".  (see picture below)

"look mom no hands"

Richards Extended Road Trip: Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

We spent the better part of the day working our way up to Northern Idaho.   Such a beautiful drive.  

My kids entertained themselves with electronics, sleeping and took some selfies.  

An hour or so outside of Missoula we started seeing signs for famous "Huckleberry shakes".   Bart's never been one to pass on ice cream and suggested we stop. Trip advisor recommended this drive in and we all fell in love with this local delight.  

We arrived in the beautiful city of Coeur d'Alene in the late afternoon.  After checking into our hotel we set out for the center of town in search of food.  It took us a while to find a place.  Most were expensive bars and a hopeful Italian restaurant was closing their doors and locking up for no apparent reason other than Covid.      

We finally settled on a kid friendly restaurant that overlooked the harbor.   Nothing to brag about but we were fed and we also vowed not to eat at another restaurant again the rest of the trip.   Large energetic Family + restaurant= expensive nightmare.  See this post from 2016.  http://bartandcolletterichards.blogspot.com/2017/01/new-years-resolution.html

After dinner we made our way over to Tubb Hill and enjoyed watching a few cliff jumpers and watching the sun go down over the beautiful lake.  

We stopped by a fun playground before making our way back to our Hotel and spent some time in the pool.  

The next morning it was more swimming and then back to the city center for Emily to buy herself a shirt she had her eye on the previous nights shopping.    She adores this shirt and wore it everyday the rest of the trip.  

We took advice from this nice man we talked to while waiting for our table to avoid the city beach and go 10 or so miles up the freeway to Post Falls.    We enjoyed the lake and taking turns paddling each other around and digging in the dirt.    

Emily found my hat and soon became "Mother Emily" while wearing it

Bart took a turn and became "Grandpa dad" to the kids

We stopped by the drive in Rogers for a quick lunch and another huckleberry shake.   This shake was not as good.  Too creamy and not enough huckleberries.  

We loaded up and headed back down the I=90 to Wallace 

Richards extended road trip: Lava and fireworks

We started this vacation in the evening after Bart finished work.   It's hard for us hot springs loving family to pass by Lava without a quick soak so we pulled into McCammon.    I saw the tubing down the river was in full force and my 3 older kids loudly and very persistently quieted my anxiety about doing it with them alone.   So Bart and Spencer went in a lone to the springs and I rented a big 4 man tube (the man said it was the only one that wouldn't flip on the rapids).    

I'm glad I didn't let my anxiety win because it ended up being so enjoyable.   We laughed, screamed, joked and relaxed down the river.  I love having older kids and doing "friend" type of stuff with them.  The first time down I got a little antsy that we would miss the exit despite Jane saying there would be a sign and I bailed off the tube too early.  I got back on the tube and in time to see the sign on the bridge.  After we floated under it  I jumped off again and had a hard time controlling the large tube by myself so Jane bailed to try and help she went one way and her flips flops went the other way.  She had to hurry and go rescue them and then swam over to help with with the tube.  Aaron was attempting to paddle with his hands leaning off the inner tube.   Meanwhile "Princess" Emily sat on her inflatable throne paranoid that if she jumped off she would get her hair wet and heaven forbid she'd ruin her tediously straightened hair.   We made it to the shore without lost people or shoes laughing and teasing Emily about her straight hair obsession.  We were just in time to catch the shuttle back up to the top of the river.   Thanks to a nice shuttle driver who was willing to wait for us despite closing time we got three full runs in and because it was so late we practically had the river to ourselves.   

After collecting Bart and Spencer we made our way to Sarah and Joe's house just in time for their neighbors fireworks show and some nice beds to sleep in for the night.