Day 8 - Sunday - On to the Pacific

We decided we need a little slower pace today - didn't get on the road until 8:30.

Our GPS - "Missy" told us to turn right out of the hotel parking lot - Lester thought we should go right, but he listened to Missy. We turn right, then another right, right into a mess of road construction. Missy was trying to make a block so we would have ended up exactly where we would have been if we had turned right. I think Lester changed her name to something I won't

mention! We shut her up for a while.

As we were putting our luggage in the car, we me a man from New Bern, NC. Small world.

We stopped in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho. Beautiful little western town. Browsed around in a couple of interesting shops.

Next stop - Sandpoint, Idaho - home of the infamous Mark

Furman - of O.J. Simpson case fame. Sandpoint seems to be a very exclusive, upscale community on Lake Pend Orielle. Beautiful

town. Did some shopping. They have a wonderful yarn shop in a converted train car. I could have stayed all day.Lester finally found his Elk anters. YES, we loaded them in the SUV. Discussed tying them on the hood or the roof, but decided someone might steal them. I vetoed the hood or roof idea, anyway. Getting a little crowded in the Tiguan!

Coeur d'alene, Idaho - The marina

is one of the most beautiful in the world. Seaplanes taking off and landing on the lake. The most beautiful geraniums I've ever seen. We met a nice couple from Spokane while we were walking on the floating dock. We had a nice lunch there.

Our day was going so well. Until...Seattle! Unbelievable traffic. We

thought Sunday afternoon/evening would be the perfect time to be in Seattle - Wrong! Interstate 5 must be the only road in the city

because everyone seemed to be on it at the same time. What a headache. And of course, it was raining - does it rain all the time in Seattle? We didn't even want to stop to see anything. Just seemed to be another big city. We saw the Space needle - had no desire to fight the traffic to get any closer to it.

We are spending the night in Marysville, Washington. After looking at the map and realizing what a hassle it is to get from Victoria, BC to anywhere in the US, we have mutually agreed that Canada is not worth the effort. We have both been to Canada, so I think we'll mark that off the list. We are going to Whidbey Island tomorrow.