When Judy and I lived in Seattle, we traveled on several occasions to Coeur D Alene, Idaho and stayed at the the Inn.  It is a beautiful hotel that sits on the lake and the premier rooms feature a sitting room looking out of an all glass wall with a three step elevation to the king sized beds where you enjoyed the same view.  It was one of our favorite places in the NW so we returned there again for the Memorial Day fun.  The town was very busy with thousands of young people enjoying the unusually warm and sunny weather.  While it had been more than 12 years since we had been there, the memories were very fresh.

Today I traveled on to Bozeman, MT where our good friends Jack and Kay Gaines now live.  Kay was one of my classmates at Russell High School and also a member of my confirmation class at St. John's Lutheran.  After school Kay moved to Denver and we again saw each other and met Jack who was the manager in the Trader Vic bar at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in downtown Denver.  Jack spent his career in senior management with the Westin Hotel organization and they lived in many parts of the world managing hotel properties and regions.  We always stayed in touch and have enjoyed time together when we all lived in Seattle and meeting in other times for reunions and fun events.  This trip has served to remind me of the incredible value of friends and family.  I have now traveled several thousands of miles in my first major road trip ever and while I have seen some of America's great views, it is still the people that will stand out from the trip.