A Two-Hour Cruise

On their last day in Coeur D'Alene, the Bag Lady and her party had booked passage on the last dinner cruise of the season on the lake.


The day dawned damp, dismal and dark. The Bag Lady and the Rancher went on a little tour of the city. At one point, they sat in their vehicle in the parking lot of a collection of stores, the rain pouring down so hard that it was almost impossible to see!

Once the storm passed, they went for a walk along the shore.


Several hardy souls were out jogging, walking and generally taking the fresh air. There is a lovely park there, filled with enormous old trees.

There is a boardwalk surrounding the Coeur D'Alene Resort, built over the water.


There is even a little bridge, allowing motorboats to access the harbour.



While the Rancher and the Bag Lady were on the bridge, admiring the view, a pair of Canada Geese flew in, honking in that distinctive way that says "I'm landing, what about you?" The Bag Lady watched as they appeared to be preparing to land on the resort hotel, then changed their minds and flew past. She and the Rancher commented on their strange antics, and were amazed a few minutes later when the geese came back and actually landed on a balcony of the hotel! Neither of them had ever seen a goose land on a building (of course, where they live, there are no tall buildings for geese to land, so, for all they know, geese in the southern parts all live in resort hotels, and only live on ponds while on summer vacation in Canada much like humans, roughing it at the cottage.)


This is the resort hotel (where the geese live)


The weather stayed relatively decent (didn't snow, which for Canadians is still summer) so the dinner cruise was not cancelled. The meal was very good, and after they ate, the Bag Lady's party spent most of the rest of the cruise on the open top deck, enjoying the view.


There was a bald eagle perched on a piling sticking out of the water quite a distance away from the Bag Lady (hence the rather blurry photo)



The Coast Guard managed to get us around the lake and back again to dry land within the two hours allotted for the cruise.

(And yes, the Bag Lady was humming the theme from "Gilligan's Island" while they waited to board. She's old now, but wasn't one of the lines in the song something about a two-hour cruise? Or was it three? Crap, she can't remember.)