Road Lessons/Day 13

The oldest building in Idaho

After breakfast, today, Jim drove us up to  Old Mission State Park at Cataldo, north of Coeur d'Alene.  The mission is the oldest building in Idaho still standing.  There is a brand new visitor center here and we watched an informational video about the history of the place before we walked through to tour the site.  This is a very unique place in that the Coeur d'Alene Indians actually invited the Jesuits (black  robes) here, because they hoped that the Catholic Great Spirit could help them against their enemies. They found that there were many similarities in their traditional spirituality and the practices of Catholicism. The building was really beautiful in its rustic and handcrafted construction.  One of the founding priests was an amazing renaissance man: he did designs for the building, did all the paintings, carved the chandeliers out of tin cans, painted newspaper for decorative trims, and it goes on....the ceiling was wood with some simple decoration but the cool part is that they stained the wood with huckleberries to get this amazing soft blue to mimic the sky.  Local tribes still come here for ceremonies commemorating the friendship they experienced with the priests at the mission. They were setting up tepees when we were there for  a rendezvous this weekend.

The Old Mission interior
Check out that soft blue huckleberry stained ceiling

It was a very small and intimate church and felt so personal due to all the handcrafted details and art work...not done by the best craftsman available, but by a talented and dedicated priest who believed in creating this mission in remote Idaho.  In the future it also was a refuge for the many silver miners in the area.  

The Snakepit

We left the mission and drove on down the road to the Snakepit for lunch....my favorite kind of place...wacky, quirky decor  and amazing food, and so far off the beaten track only a local can tell you where it is!  It has been there literally forever and caters to rafters, fishermen, and bikers...and by bikers I mean bicycle bikers.  There is a paved bike trail that goes right by here that was the old silver mine railroad track.  David had a BBQ pork sandwich that he said was excellent, Jim had Hot Roast Turkey and I had a veggie burger.

Interior: the Snakepit

After lunch Jim took us to see the Settler's Grove stand of Cedar trees.  We don't know why it is called Settler's Grove, or how old these trees are, there wasn't any kind of information at the site.

But the trails were good with several little bridges over the stream that winds through the grove and it was spectacularly beautiful and quiet.  These trees were enormous, like redwoods, we did a rough measurement of one and figured it was about 30' in circumference.  Why they decided to save this one stand of trees, we don't know, but we were glad they did...they are letting this grove be completely natural, and only remove downed trunks if they impede the trail, so it is rugged and primeval.

So, after some lunch and some great sight seeing, we headed back into Coeur d'Alene.  Jim wanted to show us the memorial park that the city was building dedicated to fire fighters and police officers.  There were some interesting sculptures depicting first responders all done in rebar, they were large but not imposing due to this medium,  but even though the figures were essentially transparent they depicted strength due to the material used in their construction.
There was a 9/11 memorial, of course, with stone monoliths standing in for the twin towers and a layout in the ground showing the placement of the surrounding buildings at the ground zero site.  There was also a slice of T beam from one of the towers.
My favorite part of the site was the playground area for kids:
the big slide, climbing structure was based around a giant red fireman's helmet.  I'm sure that helmet is a big draw for local kids with dreams of being a fireman when they grow up!

We made our way home, had a rest, and later went to dinner at a little place called The Porch....once again, an excellent meal...David had a Ruby Red Trout fillet...Ruby Red's are unique to Idaho, I believe, we had never heard of it before, but I guess it was delicious!
To cap off a perfect day, we stopped at the Baskin Robbins on the way home for some ice cream!


Jim and Marlene are really taking good care of us and we are having such a wonderful time here enjoying the country club life!  It is really great to hear all the family stories and I love hearing about David's father, Gordon, who passed away such a long time ago.  David is learning things he didn't know about his father and his uncles, and I, of course, am hearing this all for the first time too.  We feel so fortunate to be here and more than a bit chagrined that we haven't done this sooner.

Rebar sculpture  

Marlene's winking Beetle