Pulled Over by the Police in the Palouse!
Coeur d’Alene, ID
July 27, 2018
This week we initiated coverage on Coeur d’Alene (Ticker: CDA) …with a strong Buy rating.
While past results do not guarantee future performance, we had heard great things about this charming village in northern Idaho, and wanted to do our own research.
We originally intended to arrive yesterday, but changed plans when we learned Ashley would be in CDA hosting a Winemaker Dinner Wednesday night.
Having already shadowed Ashley from San Francisco to mooch off her and Brian in Walla Walla, we were happy to follow her here…and to watch her in action, gracefully describing the attributes and merits of five of her wines between each of seven courses served along the stunning shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Our path to this place was equally spell-binding, if markedly – and remarkably – different.
North from the Walla Walla Valley, we entered that of the Snake River…and were overwhelmed by rolling, expansive fields of wheat and legumes extending to the horizon in a spectacular quilt of colors, the folds and seams of which resemble the glorious links of an infinite technicolor golf course.
This is the Palouse, a region covering a swath of southeastern Washington and west central Idaho that, in its way, is as sublime as any I have seen.
If the mighty Rockies are the majestic denouement of Beethoven’s Ninth, the pastoral Palouse is the exquisite opening of Mozart’s 40th…affirming that feeling, like a CIA operative blackmailing a foreign leader, often speaks with greatest power when it lowers its voice.
Every rose, of course, has its thorns.
The town of Colfax, on which this unique terrain is centered, is apparently strapped for cash…or starved for entertainment.
Lavrentiy Beria once boasted that if you showed him the man, he’d find you the crime.
Well…Ecce homo!
For the ostensible offense of exceeding 60mph in what apparently was a 55-zone (which more closely approximates the population than a reasonable speed in this remote province), I made the day of one of Whitman County’s finest…while affirming that the law is often a spider’s web, snaring the small flies as the big bugs go free.
Even so, that ticket was worth the price of admission to Coeur d’Alene.
As Atlantans, we are relieved to see a town William Sherman raised rather than razed. After massacring, plundering, and pillaging Southerners, Sherman applied his special gifts to the Nez Perce and their neighbors in the Northwest.
Traveling west from the US Army fort at Missoula, he camped on the north shore of a gorgeous alpine lake…helping establish a town in the midst of the Coeur d’Alene tribe.
The city’s main drag still bears Sherman’s name, and is a delightful nine block promenade past a bustling assortment of cafes, shops, and restaurants in the shadow of spectacular scenery and ample recreational opportunities.
Yesterday afternoon, we indulged of these what a record heat would allow, hiking the Tubbs Hill trail along the lake, and swimming a bit in it, till we relented under the wrath of the sun.
Within a couple hours, cool evening temperatures soothed the air, and we enjoyed a delicious dinner and marvelous views from the upper floors of the Coeur d’Alene resort.
This morning we meandered along Sanders Beach, marveling at the elegant homes and beautiful vistas this shore features. We eventually arrived at the Golf Course at Coeur d’Alene, containing the only floating green in the world and one of the more immaculate courses I have seen.
A Celebrity-Amateur tournament was underway, and as we left the Pro Shop bumped into Roger Clemens on his way in. With a surprise appearance by the Gonzaga basketball team at the Winemaker Dinner a couple nights earlier, the boys were impressed by the athletic aspect of this leisurely lake.
Alexander, David, and I spent the afternoon on horseback, riding trails along the canyons and ridges outside Hayden. Afterward, we joined Rita in Coeur d’Alene for an al fresco dinner.
Basking in a warm sun and cool breeze at a sidewalk bistro, and knowing that the next morning we’d depart this wonderful spot, we hoped for dawn’s delay…that some blessed wind might break the axle of Aurora’s car.
JD
