Since we were so close to this special town where our special friends, Dave and Barb, live, we came for a two night sojourn.

This was what we were greeted with. Most of the town acted like it was July 2019, vs 2020 and the time of COVID. It was a little disheartening but we were cautious and our friends are pro-maskers like us!
Even the moose in the library was wearing a mask (though it was only recommended, not mandatory).
The Public Library sits on the edge of an amazing park. Throughout are these Storywalk signs with a children's story meandering about. So very, very cool.
The entire town is enriched with public artwork. I was pretty smitten by George Lundeen's The Valentine.
Not to offend any other Little Free Library steward, but this might be my favorite, thus far. Talk about a giving tree! When this 110-year-old cottonwood tree in Coeur d’Alene needed to be removed, Sharalee Armitage Howard—a librarian, artist, and bookbinder—transformed it into an amazing Little Free Library. Now, instead of providing shade, the tree shares books.

History lessons are found in the public artwork, which I find intriguing. In the late 1800s, the logging center of the United States shifted from the East Coast to the Northwest because forests were being depleted in the east. By 1910, Idaho was producing and distributing 745 million board feet annually.

The Coeur d’Alene region is very steep, so loggers had to cut down trees and transport logs up the hill to a log deck and load them onto some type of transporter: river/road/railway.

By the 1920s, there were more than 20 logging railroad systems in the mountains around Coeur d’Alene. It was also a major site for flumes. There were 35 flume projects in the area adding up to 150 miles of transport. Oh man, so much history!
Also here was Fort Sherman (1878–1900). Who knew? General William T. Sherman (1820–91) had recommended the site in north Idaho after an inspection tour. It began as a camp the next year, became Fort Coeur d'Alene in 1879, and the adjacent city grew. Its named changed, in honor of the General in 1887, three years after his retirement from the U.S. Army. The fort became unoccupied during the Spanish–American War and was abandoned shortly thereafter. We'll explore more on our return to this interesting city.
This wall puzzled us and we had to ask the groundskeeper about it. It's a seawall, built by the Army Corp of engineers back in the early 1940s. The wall is designed to be assembled in the event of a massive flood when crews would install hundreds of steel beams and then place over one thousand beams of wood on them. The city says it's all necessary in the event if a big flood were to ever happen there.
This image is from a practice run of installing the seawall. What a bunch of work.
I found this to be hysterical, "Water for your dog OR for you. We don't judge!!!"
You have to love a town that lists today's reason to celebrate as Gorgeous Grandma Day.
And how cool is this 21-foot sundial gnomon? It was totally accurate by the way (less the hour difference due to daylight savings time).

What a wonderful tucked away mural, Memories From My Childhood by Rolf Goetzinger. Mr. Goetzinger said, "As Coeur d' Alene is a Happy Place for all who experience the magnificently unique setting, my desire is to create a mural that connects the city's past with today and has a positive effect on its future." Works for me!
Again, nature was evident everywhere.

Oh did I mention the lake? Coeur d’Alene Lake is the second largest lake in northern Idaho, caught in a beautiful mountain setting created when great lobes of the continental ice cap receded during the last Ice Age. The lake is over 26 miles long with some 135 miles of shoreline, dotted with numerous parks, campgrounds, beaches, trails, recreational facilities and amazing homes. More about that tomorrow as we'll be boating then!