A Christmas Getaway

Instead of brooding at home over celebrating another childless Christmas, Matt and I decided to take a mini trip and make the most of our time alone together. It was nice to get out of town and see and do some new things. Even though we were quite busy the entire time, Roland was always at the front of our minds. During almost every activity, we talked about what it would be like if he was there. That little boy is so much a part of our family and we haven't even met him yet.

On Christmas day we drove up to Spokane with Yukon (we boarded Copper because we did not think he would be warm enough sitting in the car while we were out doing things). We were suspicious of the roads, but we arrived uneventfully. That evening we got dressed up for our fancy Christmas dinner at the Davenport Hotel.

 On Thursday we drove over to the Coeur d'Alene Resort for lunch and an eagle watching lake cruise. Every year hundreds of bald eagles migrate to Lake Coeur d'Alene during the week of Christmas because of high concentrations of fish.

The Coeur D'Alene Resort

The view from our table at lunch- not too shabby.

We then bundled up and headed out on our cruise. The weather was nice (high close to 40 degrees), but it felt pretty chilly out on the lake.

The on- board biologist said we saw around 175 bald eagles. I don't know if I personally saw that many, but I saw a lot. In the pictures, look for their distinctive white heads. I was surprised to see how  many eagles would share one tree.

The lake was surrounded by a wide variety of houses, from sinking shacks to beautiful mansions.

This is a mansion from my perspective, anyway.

Cruising back to the resort

 

By the time we got back from the cruise we knew the daylight was dwindling so we hurried across the world's longest floating boardwalk (which can be seen from our lunch view photo).

On our way back to Spokane we stopped at the Post Falls Park to let Yukon stretch his legs.

When we got back to the car the first glow of sunset began. 

As we drove back to Spokane, we enjoyed one of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen.

Our little Christmas trip also served to celebrate our 8th anniversary (we are just so efficient) so on Thursday evening after dinner we stuck to tradition and watched The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit have become our anniversary movies as they always come out at the same time.  (Our wedding was Dec.30 and now we are forever stuck celebrating it right between Christmas and New Years, as if there already is not enough celebrating going on.) We're hoping we will be in need of a babysitter for our 9th anniversary while watch the grand finale of The Hobbit.

Before driving home on Friday we stopped by Spokane's Riverfront Park and took the Skyride over Spokane Falls. It was a fun little ride that I look forward to taking Roland on when he's older. Sorry the pictures are not great- the windows were icy and smudgy.

And that pretty much sums up our short, busy trip. It was good for us to get out of the house and "do" Christmas different this year. It was fun, but we are definitely hoping next Christmas will look vastly different.