Invite for Sept 26 2026 Weekend Meet up in Coeur d’Alene Idaho - gathering number of people

I am planning to come!

Jean, put us down as 2, extremely tentative. Our local airport is planning to start non-stop flights to Seattle soon, and when Stan heard that, he said it would be fun to come to your meet up.

Edit to add: We'd love to see Jean do a packing demo, and hiking with Pam would be great!

I'm planning on it.

Lynn

Jane, I’d be happy to do a packing demo for you! : ). Shall I bring my kitchen scale for your suitcase contents, and you can try out your repacked suitcase during Pam’s hike? LOL!

Thank you Jean and Pam. I plan on being there The DH will probably hang out with the dog while we're at Woops. And by the way, on our recent cross country drive we stopped at Woops. OMG, it's worth the drive just for the macarons.

I am really hoping to get there, but still need to work out logistics. I hope I can make it!

I hope to be there!

Trotter, I chose two macarons for my sweet treat for this morning’s meeting - the pistachio and a blackberry cheesecake one. Yes, they’re excellent! : )

I’m more than a little interested. Flights are long with layovers, but driving is about 7 hours from Vancouver. It could be a lovely fall drive through Osoyoos and down or through Everett. If anybody in the Vancouver or Vancouver Island area, or northern Washington is interested in going and splitting gas (I have a hybrid car), PM me.

Planning on it. it will be just me.

Sounds wonderful.

I am going to book through booking.

Should I look for lodging that is close to downtown CDA? Is Woops bakery in downtown?

Bostonphil7, here’s the website for Woops Bakery, including a map. It is located on 4th downtown & close to the resort.

https://bywoops.com/locations/coeur-dalene/

If you’re not planning on renting a car, the resort is the only hotel in the downtown center streets - the only one for walking to Woops & the boat dock activity. If you’re renting a car, that opens up options. There’s a variety of hotels at Riverstone neighborhood, or near the interstate, or one up at Hayden adjacent to Triple Play.

There’s also a few AirBnB type places on Booking.com that are walking distance in the downtown streets. On the map of CDA, the downtown core is adjacent to McEuen Park.

My husband and I are planning on it. We would drive so we can make it a bigger trip and also to go to Washington to spend time with our daughter and her family. We are used to long drives. It takes us 13 hours to drive to our daughter’s in Washington from home.

Pam, I will be picking your brain about Yellowstone. ;-)

Jean, I’m planning on attending this get together weekend unless I’m in Washington DC. still waiting to hear from Arlington schedulers for the internment ceremony for my Dad. I’m hopeful his service is scheduled for sometime in the Spring.

Two tentatively here. We would like to do a fly, drive California to Oregon to CDA fall trip. We’ll let you know in the upcoming months if we can pull it off.

Thank you, Jean, for laying out everything so well.

The hike timing can certainly be flexible and could even slip to Sunday after breakfast if people wanted. The hike I have in mind is easy, less than 2 miles and is on well-traveled trails thru the North Idaho woods. It is north of town but I think I can get my brother with his pickup and me with my CRV and together can get most of the folks who are car-less and want to go. It will also be weather dependent.

We would not be able to pick up at the airport in Spokane though.

Jane, this hike it totally doable for you. It's an athletic shoe/walking shoe kind of hike so no need for any boots.

Jean, you should know I laughed when I saw Jane wants a packing demo because after traveling with her and Stan for 2 weeks, I'll tell you that they both pack in small RS backpacks that might even be smaller than your Cotopaxi!

Andrea....ready and willing to give you the info on Yellowstone any time, any place!

I'm still looking at it but it will be months before I know anything. It may sound very odd but my scheduling is dependent on someone I don't know and will never meet organising a trip to Norway. Very complex story, which illustrates my inate thoughtfulness to others.
Even if it happens I have a scheduling clash as I need to be in Cle Elum that Saturday morning.
The question is if I feel I can discharge that function adequately on Friday morning, If so I can take the bus to central Ellensburg, then from CWU to Spokane, then Spokane to CdA on Friday. Especially if Spokane Transit ever get their act together and open the planned regular Spokane to CdA route.

I feel it my civic duty to use the Ronald/Roslyn/CE to Eburg bus as it is part funded from lodging tax, and I know first hand that it helps locals who need the bus, some daily, some infrequently

And I know it is funded from lodging tax specifically to also benefit tourists.

Before anyone asks I don't have the confidence to drive over there at least on the interstate. It's been being worked on for a very long time, but two incidents on the I90 in the last two weeks have shredded any nascent confidence there ever was.

”Before anyone asks I don't have the confidence to drive over there at least on the interstate. It's been being worked on for a very long time, but two incidents on the I90 in the last two weeks have shredded any nascent confidence there ever was.”

Isn31c, I’m not sure what you’re referring to regarding a warning about safety on I-90. We travel across I-90 regularly between CdA and Seattle. The two recent incidents were a person rescued from the water, but he jumped in, and this was the I-90 bridge in Lake Washington at Seattle. And the second one was an oversized trailer haul from Canada who didn’t exit the overpass near Cle Elum (west side of Washington state) as required, and he hit the bottom of the overpass bridge.

Everyone, I certainly don’t want to get into a debate on transportation options. I will just reiterate what was shared in the original post about coming here for this weekend event. Pam (please correct me if it wasn’t you) warned that planning to come to CdA by way of the Spokane bus station is not a good idea from a safety standpoint - day or night. If you don’t want to rent a car, the only option we as a group know is to arrange for an Uber from the Spokane airport or stay at the resort, and they have an airport shuttle you can reserve.

Jean I agree 100%. No matter how much you use public transit at home, this option is not well done here.

I’ve looked at the Spokane Transit update from this year and everything looks like it ends in Liberty Lake in Eastern Washington. I don’t see anything recent from the Kootenai County ID side that shows involvement. It also looks like STA is concentrating on service to Cheney WA where there is Eastern Washington Univ. Don’t count on this option coming to fruition!

I plan on walking from Spokane. I figure if I start in August, I should make it there on time.

Mardee, once you reach the Idaho border, lots of Idahoans will offer to help you. : ) But this also falls into the camp of methods our travel group doesn’t recommend- LOL!

P.S. Better pack some of that vodka you recommend for stinky clothes on the other current topic post…hot weather in August! ; )

I have been doing research on shuttle service to and from CDA.

There is Omnibus 208 667-6664 and Payless 208 762-7433. I might just try calling to se eif they are still good numbers,

I got these numbers from a Visitor Site. Have not yet tried to call. Do not even know if these are still good numbers.

Cost of Uber from Spokane to CDA was less than $100 but taxi was well over $100

UPDATE: well I called both numbers and they are good numbers. They said something about shuttle service and please leave a message. I didn't because I will be very busy on Monday but I might do it later in the week

I know you can walk from Spokane, on the old electric railway route - the continuation of the "John Wayne" (it's old name) trail that follows the Milwaukee road route all the way from Seattle. An epic walk or bike ride, from Seattle.
No real idea how long it would take, and it's beyond my heath capacity now anyway.
The "short" bit from Spokane does look interesting, on the trail map, but all that is a totally frivolous aside.
I have looked, a couple of years ago, at the walk from the end of regular STA service at Liberty Lake to the start of CdA service at wherever it is, but not a great route at all.

This is so cool ! Love that you all are doing this. Hope everyone has a great time.

Thank you for the update and planning. I'm still planning on driving over from Seattle. Please put me down for (1).

Pam, our bags may be smaller than Jean's, but I guarantee you they are heavier!

I would love to come and meet some of you - put some faces to the names. You could put me down for 1 as very, very tentative. I have some friends coming to Oregon from out east sometime in Sep/Oct for a road trip through OR and WA, but that's very tentative also regarding dates. If their dates don't interfere I would drive up and stay in Spokane (I have friends there) and would love to come to the bakery and maybe do the hike with Pam. It's always nice to meet fellow travel addicts.

P.S. Better pack some of that vodka you recommend for stinky clothes on the other current topic post…hot weather in August!

Jean, I will probably have drunk the whole bottle by the time I get there. 😂

I spoke with someone from Omnibus who reminded me that we are talking about a year away.

He said that he does offer shuttle service from Spokane International Airport to CDA and back. It is $95 each way no matter the number of passengers. Each one pays the $95 each way and that is today's rate.

I can not remember what Uber was but it was maybe about the same rate, maybe a little less. But with Uber, if there is more than one, you are dividing the cost.

I have not heard back from Payless.

The Spokane airport is about 40 miles from CdA so $95 each way sounds about right. ( The driver has to get back)
Keep in mind WA has gas prices in the top 3 highest in the country and insurance rates have doubled over the past 3 years (attributed to inflation), so transportation here is not cheap.

Joe32f, yes, my kids all live in Washington, and they time their fuel stops to fill up their tank as they cross into Idaho & top it full as they leave.

This is a bit far out for me to commit to yet, but I am listing it as a strong possibility! If I come, I’ll drive I90 from Seattle and could perhaps coordinate with those needing a ride from Cle Elm or Spokane airport. When I lived in Idaho (Lewiston), I drove over the pass across the state so often that I feel quite comfortable with the drive…

This is a fun idea!

I was wrong about Uber.

Uber costs over $100 from Spokane airport to Woops Bakery.

CDA Resort offers shuttle service for $50 each way between Spokane airport and the resort. I assume that a tip might be expected as well.

Best Western Plus offers shuttle service which you can order after booking your room. No other information is available on the site and there are no reviews about the shuttle service.

Jean, I will probably bring a friend or family member with me since I don’t really like to drive that far alone. Coming from West Seattle

"I know you can walk from Spokane, on the old electric railway route - the continuation of the "John Wayne" (it's old name) trail that follows the Milwaukee road route all the way from Seattle. An epic walk or bike ride, from Seattle."

The Old John Wayne Trail, now called the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail actually doesn't go to Spokane it ends south of Spokane at Tekoa. A couple of years ago my brother went down to check it out for biking and said the surface at Tekoa was rocks the size of regular RR ballast with no fill gravel and it looked like they'd just pulled up the tracks and left it as is. The access at Tekoa was not good either as it was just a dirt lay by on a side road. A couple of years after that some friends who are experienced long-distance bikers tried to ride it from either Ellensburg or CleElum and finally had to get off and use regular roads to get to Spokane. They were doing a charity ride and found the trail does not actually exist in some sections. As my brother said when I asked him about it, "It exists more in people's minds than in reality".

There IS the Centennial Trail that does run from Spokane to CdA, ending at Higgens Point in Idaho. It is managed cooperatively by each state it runs thru. There is 40 miles of trail in Washington and 24 in Idaho. It is completely paved for its full length.

How big is the Woops store?

"How big is the Woops store?"

It has 2 big wooden tables for 8 plus about 8 or so 2-4 tops. When the weather is nice they can open on to the sidewalk. Jean estimated 30 so if there are more than that we'll have to figure out another location that has the charm, the food and the location.

As a possible back up plan, my brother owns a huge second home on Lake Couer dAlene. It’s unoccupied most of the time. We could meet there and get pastries from Woops.

Thank you, Tammy, for that generous offer! That’s a wonderful option as a backup plan if we go beyond Woops’ capacity.

Linda--You would be more than welcome to ride over with me:)

Thank you to the hosts who will be welcoming fellow travellers. I’m rethinking joining the group. I’m not comfortable travelling to the US at this time. Perhaps in 2028.

Hi Pam, this sounds like fun. I'd love to meet some of my favorite RS posters. Please pencil me in!

@Susie, totally understand. If you are ever thru here anyway, let us know and we can probably meet up for coffee!
@pippen - Consider yourself penciled, lol!!

Our tentative number, along with our regulars looks like we’re still within capacity to meet at Woops. Tammy won’t be able to join us, so we will look around for a different Plan B - just in case numbers increase during the last two months before the meet up.

I’d like to be considerate to Woops and be able to notify them 1-2 months ahead to give them an idea of what they could expect that day.

Please put me (and maybe DH) down to join. There are some other moving parts in our fall next year, but at this point, we're planning to make it. It's possible that we could coordinate with others who land in Spokane and need a ride to/from CDA (can't commit right now) Should know more in the spring. We would be heading up from Kennewick/Pasco/Richland aka "Tri-Cities" Washington.

We would be heading up from Kennewick/Pasco/Richland aka "Tri-Cities" Washington.

I know that area! Okay, I don't really know it but I've read about it because one of my favorite urban fantasy series takes place there (the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs). Did you know there are werewolves in that area? 😂

I would love to join in the fun, and possibly my husband too. We'd be driving over from western WA. Tentative this far out, but adding it to the 2026 calendar.

I have moved Paris up tp Spring so fall is now open again.

Please keep me as. a tentative for now.

I would love to meet some forum member in person but I would also love to see your part of the world. Have been to Seattle but not the Northern United States.

Have over 100,000 Southwest Rewards and this would give me a chance to use them but still will have to change planes to get to Spokane and then back home again.

I would stay at the resort because they offer what appears to be reliable transportation from and to Spokane Airport. The transportation is owned by the resort. The price is good.

And I have been thinking that if I should come, I would make a vacation out of it lasting more than a week but less than two weeks.

I would stay at CDA three or four nights but on my way home would get off at a connecting city and spend another four nights or so.

Las Vegas, Denver, and Salt Lake City are among my choices.

Have been to Las Vegas a couple of times but would. not mind going back. Have spent a few hours in Denver and only passed through Salt Lake City. Would love to spend more time in the last two cities.

And I am going to have my cataracts out this summer so i will be able to see what you all look like

Denver is certainly a city I would like to go back to for a few days. I only got arrival afternoon there and then a few hours the next morning before our chartered bus started on a railroad tour of the preserved lines of Colorado then ultimately over to the Grand Canyon then Amtrak from Flagstaff to LAX, SFO and the Californian Zephyr back to Chicago.

Personally I've never fancied Vegas but that's just me. SLC intrigues me (and did the more as we passed through on the Zephyr at dawn).

I don't know how I missed this. Thanks, Lynn for letting me know about. I'm very interested & will start looking into travel options.

I wish I could attend but it’s two days after I get home from Italy. Timing just doesn’t work.

Jean and Pam, thank you for organizing the meet-up!! I would love to put faces to names..

isn31c

Thank you for the information.

I like all three cities but leaning between Denver and SLC.

This planning is tentative depending on if I can make the end of September weekend in CDA.

Your response to me reminds me that I need to call CDA Resort for more info about their shuttle.

Now that we’re into 2026, I will bump this to the top again.

Thanks, Jean. I’m still committed to coming but have not booked anything yet. I’m in Florida right now but I’ll be home by at the end of the month and we’ll start checking around then.

Jean and Mardee, I. too, hope to come, but haven't made any reservations yet.

For those who may not want to stay at the Resort but want to be near town:

I booked a room at the Greenbrier Inn. It is a reasonable price and is walking distance to the resort and downtown. https://www.greenbriarlodging.com

It's rated 4.5 on Tripadvisor and has overall very good reviews. There is a bar and restaurant attached to it as well.

Jean and Pam - you may know more about it?

Hi MaryK, I don’t know anyone who has stayed there, but it looks like another great option! : ). You’re just a 6-minute walk to the bakery.

Jean, this is still on my radar, but honestly, I think it unlikely that we will be able to come. We will probably be very busy this fall, and it will be hard for Stan especially to justify yet another period of time away from local obligations. I am dancing lightly around the question of politics, not wanting to bruise any feelings or raise the Webmaster's own radar.

I think we would love to come, and I won't say decisively that we won't be there, but it's not looking good. I was very surprised when Stan said we could manage it. So consider us a weak "maybe," and a strong "what fun this would be!"

I still have no idea, being dependent on other people's scheduling. If it was a normal tourist visit to WA I was making (this is at the very end of a 3 to 4 week trip) it would be my schedule and booked by now. But it isn't that at all, it is a way more personal trip, 15 years in the planning, delayed by care giving then Covid.
One thing I would be looking for in accommodation in CdA is walking distance to St Luke's Church for their 8am Rite I (yay!) service.
An unexpected complication in my overall plans after last night's Yakima City Council meeting - they are keeping the trolleys! I thought that was a lost cause, so at least one night to add back in at Yakima.

@MaryK - I have not stayed there nor do I know anyone who has. I can drive by and take a look from the outside if you'd like me to. Googlemaps street view looks fine.

I am 99% sure that we will be there. Our friends that live in Portland want us to do an Alaskan Cruise and Land Tour and I’m strongly advocating for the September 6-20 date. That would position us perfectly to arrive in CdL on the 25th. We can visit some friends and/or family in Washington between the 21st and the 25th. That gives us just enough time to stop in Nevada on the way home to see our daughter and family and have about 10 days to get ready for our New Zealand/Australia trip. I think I’m going to book our lodging today.

I have a friend who stayed at the Greenbriar recently with her mother. I'll ask her and report back.

First of all, I misspelled Greenbrier but, more importantly and unfortunately, it's not the place where my friend stayed - mea culpa!

Pam - There is no need for you to take time to check it out. I'm feeling ok about it based on reviews. I can handle a "creepy" floor for 2 nights for the price and distance to Woops! Thanks for the offer.

Andrea, glad you both can come!