re: Roadtrip Review: Buffalo to Seattle

Day 6: Bozeman, MT to Coeur d'Alene, ID
366 miles, 5 hr 49 min

First stopped at the University of Montana since it was not far away. Nice stadium surrounded by mountains


Then continued to Missoula for a quick hike at the Maclay Flats. This trail is flat and pretty easy for kids, but we needed to get our legs moving after driving so much. Pretty nice views below, took maybe a half hour for 1.7 miles





Golfed at coeur d'alene golf club after checking into the hotel. Great wooded course, had to watch for houses a bit. Finished this round in 3 hours so we had time to rush back to the hotel and get free beer in the lobby.



Once we had our free beer, we went to downtown coeur d'alene for dinner at Crafted. Very nice place, would recommend to anyone interested in craft beer or good burgers.



Took this pic before dinner of the seaplane on the lake


Downtown Coeur d'Alene was one of my favorite spots on this trip for some reason. A lot of fun, really nice people, and lots of things to do. Masks were not a thing here, you'd only see people from Washington that drove across and were wearing them. When we got back to the hotel there was a guy bitching about Inslee

Day 7: Coeur d'Alene, ID to Issaquah, WA
295 miles, 4 hr 35 min

Drove from Couer d'alene through Spokane to start the day, didn't stop at all out there. Then we hit the farm area and what looked like great plains, had no idea the middle of washington was farmland.

We stopped at the viewpoint off of 90 and got this picture below of the columbia


Got some quick Jimmy John's in Ellensburg, where we noticed that gas prices were quickly increasing the further west we got. After lunch we continued to Cle Elum and golfed at Sun Country Golf Resort. No one in front of us so finished in 2.5 hrs, great sunny day for my first day in Washington.



155 yrd par 3 downhill a 300ft vertical, used an 8 iron and sailed it


We then continued on our way to Snoqualmie Falls, really nice looking restaurant up top


Didn't spend long here before heading to Issaquah for the night. Stopped at the Gaslamp bar across the street and it was pretty good

Day 8: The end
Unfortunately all vacations have to come to an end. Dropped off my friend at Sea-tac, no traffic either down there on the 5, 405, or 90 so apparently I got lucky. Since he's left, I already went camping at Money Creek campground and hiked Heybrook Lookout Trail. Lot of people wearing masks on the trails which made me question why they were doing it. People out here are very friendly, everyone is a character as I'm finding out.

Vacation wise, if I could have done maybe 1/5 of the miles and had a week that would have been excellent. But we made do with our limitations and I don't think I would have traded anything besides the cold weather in Yellowstone and the okay meal in Buffalo. Would highly recommend taking the time and doing a road trip the right way this summer