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.

driving is about 7 hours from Vancouver. It could be a lovely fall drive through Osoyoos and down or through Everett

Another option is the North Cascades (SR20) route.

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.