Day 6 (June 28): Welcome to Idaho

Today was our first big day of driving. Mostly, it went very well. We were on the road around 10am, on a ferry at 11 but not at lunch until after 1. (As usual, lunch cost $150 and about half of what we ordered went uneaten.) Another accomplishment: there was zero screen time. The credit for this goes to the miracle of audiobooks. We previously stumbled across a title called, "Mystery of the Third Lucretia," which features a 14 year old heroine. So on this trip we started the sequel, "Rescuing Seneca [something]." It's obviously captivating for the kids!

I had been looking forward to this drive because it significantly retraced the route that Elise and I biked in 2001. We had independently signed up for a tour run by a group called Cycle America. The first week was from Everett, WA to Missoula, MT, which are the origin and destination of these first two days of driving.

We got to see a lot of familiar scenery, including some specific sites (and sights) that we (each and both) recognized from 18 years ago. It's fun to point this out to the kids, since it is the story of how we met and fell in love. We've told them pieces of this story over the years but it's fun to see it in person.

Notably:

• We had lunch in Leavenworth, which I think was totally not worth the hassle, although it is still an adorable place (one of those kooky, Bavarian-theme villages).
• We had dinner in downtown Spokane, which would have been worth it except that it was the start of their annual hoopfest so many streets were closed and restaurants were jam packed.