Have NID vacation questions for you! (Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls: fit in, real estate, rent)

[Memememe]

My family (grandparents, mom & dad, two kids) are going to visit CdA/Post Falls in July. We'll be there for one week. We're renting a house and planning fun things to do, plus want to seriously evaluate whether we'd like to make the move permanently. To that end, I have some specific questions and would like to ask anyone local to the area to please consider offering some advice.

1. We want to dinner cruise. What's better? Pend Oreille, CdA Lake, or Spokane River?

2. What is Rider Ranch like? Are there any other day-ranch horse riding places that you can recommend? The one north of Sandpoint looks great but that's too far. We're all beginners. Kids are both under 12. Petting zoo or hay ride would be fun, too.

3. We'll be there during River City Rod Run. Is it fun?

4. While we're there I want my oldest to take a dance class. What's the best ballet studio? She's a serious student. Is our best bet to investigate Spokane?

5. I'd like to plan one 'hike day' and I think I'm choosing Mineral Ridge Trail. Anyone know of a reason why we shouldn't?

6. In July does anyone know of any u-pick orchards or berry farms or vegetable farms, or anything of that nature?

7. If we go down to St. Maries, can we really dig for star garnets? Or should I just find a nice shop and buy an artisan's piece.

If it doesn't come across, I really want to delve in to a 'locals' mentality. I hope to be one, sooner rather than later! I plan to set aside an afternoon to meet with a real estate agent, but I know better than to ask for a recommendation here. I've been reading this forum for months, even though I'm just choosing to say something today. Hi! :-D Thanks in advance y'all.

[mistyriver]

Dinner Cruise-- Couer d'Alene
Riding-- I know it's far but Westrn Pleasure Guest ranch or riding up at Schweitzer Mountain ( I don't know if they still do that or not?)
U-Pick-- Green Bluff, right outside Spokane celebrates the Cherry Festival in July Fruit & Vegetable Calendar | Green Bluff Growers
Also, I'd hike one of the trails around Priest Lake. It would be sad to miss it, it's one of the most beautiful spots in the country.

[Memememe]

Thanks, Misty River. Loved your Christmas card from a few months ago btw. Priest River hiking. Thanks for the recommendation. I'm looking at go-idaho.com listings of hiking trails. Is there a certain section of the area that I don't want to miss? How long of a drive is it between CdA/PF (where we'll be staying) and Priest River?

Western Pleasure is the one I keep seeing in the guides. I'll call them and see what they offer. Seems like "15 minutes north of Sandpoint" is a long way, but maybe not.

Thank you so much for Green Bluff. It's *exactly* what I was hoping to find.

[mistyriver]

I'm glad you liked the card!
It takes about 45 to get from CD'A to Priest River and Priest Lake is about 30 minutes north. Seriously though...try and make it to Priest lake. It is just incredible. Here is a link to some trails:
Priest Lake Trails
Stop and have dinner at Hill's Resort or Elkin's Resort; they are both wonderful restaurants (I'm partial to Hill's) with gorgeous views.
Welcome to Hill's Resort at Priest Lake, Idaho

[Memememe]

I'm sure we can work in a visit to Priest Lake. Doing some google searching has led me to all kinds of information about it, and photos. Looks gorgeous. Hill's sounds fantastic, too. It's not too uber-expensive, I hope. And can I get some fresh seafood there? That's another thing I meant to list.

[mistyriver]

Hill's usually has fresh oysters and salmon and another type of fish as a special. Their food is excellent. Which we are very happy about since there is a lack of good restaurants in this area.

[Sandpointian]

Just a brief comment. You are choosing the best time to go to SP, but a rather biased time to do an "evaluation trip!" If you are thinking of moving, I would suggest a few more trips in addition to the July trip.

1) first week of December. Before Christmas, after Thanksgiving. Good chance of no snow on ground. Likely chilly and gray...or wet.

2) Mid January. Probably snow. Potentially very, very cold.

3) Mid-April thru first week of May. Chilly air. Spring trying to "spring" into existence. Likely very slushy and muddy.

If you can enjoy a two week stay in each of these four periods, you will love Sandpoint. The other 44 weeks are either more of the same or better. Summer in the mountains, early fall, late Spring, festival times, and holiday times, are wonderful, but they provide a false sense of what the community is all about. Like seeking honest criticism instead of "yes" men singing your praises, you need to do the same with how you evaluate a place to live/retire!!

The most poignant analogy is that of marriage. Marriage is not dating, the honeymoon, nor the period of bieng newlyweds. It is the quiet time on the porch, the time when you both clean the yard from golden leaves, or a hot cup of cocoa after shoveling. It is watching re-runs and helping the neighbor with some small act of neighborliness. It is fixing the garage or putting up new shelving. It is losing sight of the fact that the weather may actually be miserable. Dating is all cover and no book. Similarly, seeing a community in all its glory is like trying to compare your physique at 45 to what it was when you were both 18.

When viewing SP and other such places through the realism of the four periods above, you will get a a fair picture of SP. An 18 year old who is all **** and vinegar will likley dismiss SP as boring or unsexy. But to us married folk with many years under our belts, we know a good thing nor for its sex appeal but for what a town can offer our lives and our relationships with those we care about. It'll be hard to gain such appreciation if you only experience SP at a time when the glitz is out in full force and half the people you meet are from out of town!!

S
P.S. Sorry, I referred to SP the whole time, but the same POV applies to CDA or any other such town. Good luck!!

[IdahoEagle]

Mineral Ridge is a great but somewhat steep hike. Click HERE (broken link) to see a picture of part of Lake Coeur d'Alene from the top.
There is a nice dinner cruise out of Templins Inn in Post Falls.
The place to search for Garnets is pretty out of the way. If you are going to take a day and drive around Lake Coeur d'Alene make sure to stop at Heyburn State park and look at all of the birds and other wild life.
Another fun thing to do is to go to the Enaville Resort (Snakepit) and have some "Idaho Nachos" then keep heading into the Silver Valley and go to Silver Mountain in Kellogg and take the gondola ride and rent Mountain bikes and ride down the mountain.
If you are going to be here on the 4th of July the parade and fireworks in Coeur d'Alene are fun.

[Sanddawgg]

Memememe, I can't answer all your questions,but my son just returned yesterday from an overnight school field trip to Emerald Creek to dig for garnets... technically you can't really dig for garnets any more. You now get gravel from stockpiled material, and use a sluice box to search for the garnets... He's a bit of a rock hound and had a lot of fun, and can't wait to go back.
I also wanted to weigh in on Sandpointians comments.. as a fellow Sandpointian. We moved up here four years ago. He is spot on. Loving CDA, Sandpoint, anywhere in North Idaho in July is easy, just about a no brainer. It will most likely be beautiful. It's not really representative of what life is like up here year round. Summer is the briefest of seasons. It's the icing on the cake. Typically summer runs from late June, or early July to Labor day. Take this week for instance.. currently 48 degrees at ten AM... a cloudy, drizzling, gray day, with more of the same forecast with no end in sight. If you love this kind of weather, then you will be much more likely to enjoy the weather of the typical day up here... If I were to sum it up, in a typical year, we get about five months of winter, two and a half months of summer, and eighteen months of cloudy, rainy overcast weather. That being said, I can't think of any place better to live and raise kids. It's not perfect, but it works really well for us. The biggest concern that I have is that Sandpoint and CDA, are both growing scary fast. Businesses and houses seem to be sprouting up on every available plot of land at breakneck speed. I saw So Cal paved from one end to the other over the many years I lived there, and I am afraid that the same fate awaits North Idaho.

[Memememe]

Thank you all; I appreciate your comments so much. It's reading this forum and others for the past, gosh almost a year now, that lets me know I'm going to fit in with the neighborliness that apparently is the backbone of life in northern ID.

Husband has visited in January, so we have a starting point on the winters. Especially (apparently) this past winter. We also lived for almost a decade in a snowy/bitter cold locale back east when we first got married. So I *think* we'll be okay, but good advice nonetheless.

I do plan to visit more before making a move. The thing is, a week up there at peak tourist season seems to me, isn't the idealized version of life up there. Let me put it another way -- do you locals see peak tourist season as the best time of year, or the worst? if you get my meaning.