Our first stop in North Idaho was Coeur d’Alene. About 50,000 people here so not small by any means. It’s a bit different than I expected. It’s more of a resort town which makes a lot of sense because the lake is absolutely stunning. And it’s within touching distance of Spokane over the border.
We arrived in the early afternoon and headed south from the town along the east coast of the lake. Found a nice small public beach and I caught up on some ukulele playing and Amanda did a bit of drawing. We played a few games of chess (we picked up a small travel set) and I took a swim. The water was a bit chilly but very refreshing.
We drove into the forest southeast of town to try to find a dispersed campsite for the night. The road was fairly rough and there weren’t many spots available. Not that they were taken. There just weren’t many campsites in this forest.
We finally found a campsite but it was swarmed with bees (a constant theme throughout our stay in Coeur d’Alene) so we decided to leave and head down to the developed campsite at the base of the road. Sometimes it’s just not worth it just to save a few bucks.
The campsite wasn’t anything spectacular but it was close enough to town. We made that our base for the few days we spent here.
Our two full days in town went about the same. I dropped Amanda off at the coworking space and settled in the park north of town. Made some breakfast, did some stretching and read a bit. Then in the afternoon, we did a small hike to Tubbs Hill Beach.
The beach here was on a point that jutted out into the lake and it wasn’t crowded at all. There were a few small alcoves among the rocks and it was almost like we had our own private beach.
The second day we were there we met a man and he asked me to take a picture of him swimming out to the rocks a bit ways away from shore. He wanted to send them to his son. He swims out to the rocks every day and wanted proof.
We got to talking and he let me in on a secret of his. I was a stranger after all and we would never see each other again.
He told us that he was battling cancer for about a year, which was a surprise because he looked in tremendous shape. He told us about what he was doing with his diet and how it was doing wonders for him. And he gave us some insight into his journey up to this point. The denial, the anger, the frustration, and then finally, the acceptance.
It was really great just talking to him and feeling his energy. Here’s a man that is fighting for his life and he was still in good spirits. It’s all about mindset, isn’t it?