I've wanted to go to Coeur d'Alene for awhile now. It is surprisingly hard to plan a family vacation in the summer if you don't schedule it months in advance. I looked at options for a long time. Airbnb vs hotel, activities to do, etc. It is pretty expensive up there! We finally booked a hotel for six nights. We couldn't leave until after 12 because Kylee had dance that she couldn't miss. And we had to be back in time for Ryan to get loose and warm for the Member Guest. I'm telling you, it's not easy! We went during "dead week" because Kylee didn't have dance and soccer hadn't started. It worked out though. Kaden woke up sick though. He threw up and we were worried about him being miserable on the drive. We waited for Kylee to finish dance, took our time eating lunch, hoping his stomach bug would pass and he would start to feel better. He didn't. We brought bags in case he threw up in the car. He did. Multiple times. Poor kid. But he mostly just rested and slept. Our kids are really easy to travel with.
I guess I didn't look at the route to get to Coeur d'Alene. I didn't realize we went up threw Montana so much. We ended up driving right past the Hiawatha trail on our way (after stopping in Missoula to eat at Five Guys where Kaden decided he was feeling better and ready to eat a burger, but we didn't believe him so we didn't order one for him so we had to go to McDonald's to get him a burger, lol). We had to drive another hour to get to our hotel, then get up the next morning and come right back. Ugh! If I had known I would've figured out a way to hit it on our way there or back. Oh well.
Oddly enough, the time zone changes between Montana (and the Hiawatha trail) and Coeur d'Alene. Because of that we thought we were leaving plenty early but ended up being an hour later than expected. It was fine though. It did get warm. Which is funny because we had heard it gets chilly and so I was expecting more shade and cooler temperatures because of elevation or something. But it was super hot other than the one mile long tunnel, which was really quite cold. I packed sandwiches and waters in a backpack and that worked out great. The problem is that our family doesn't ride bikes much (other than me) so nobody is prepared for the seat for that long. It was really cool, but we did have some whining. The bike they originally had for Kaden was horrible. I thought he was just being difficult and not feeling all that great still, but he was crying and saying he can't ride that bike for 17 miles. Ryan asked Sadie to try it and see if there was a problem. She got on and said right away that it was really hard to pedal. Kaden had been wanting a bigger bike, saying his was way too small. But the bigger one was a little too big for him. Ryan took him back and had him try the bigger one and he liked that a lot more. I had to adjust the gears for him because he doesn't know how to do it and kept gearing down which doesn't work well for a downhill ride. But he was much happier with the bigger bike and did really well for a lot of the ride. But the last few miles were rough for him. I felt bad, he had to work so much harder than the rest of us. I would literally be coasting the whole time and he would pedal hard to catch up and pass me, but as soon as he stopped pedaling, I would coast past him easily. I would love to ride that trail up and down. We had to wait for-ev-er for the shuttle to take us back. If we would've started earlier it probably wouldn't have been so bad. But the line was long and it was really hot and we were not happy. Then the ride up took longer than you would think. THEN we had to get back on our bikes and ride through the mile long tunnel again. I think there's a better way to enjoy it. Parking at the bottom, riding up and then down. It's such a gradual incline it would not be hard at all. Someday.
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