Can you believe how close Idaho is to Seattle? I totally had no idea until I started hearing about Idaho in a family travel chat that some of my family travel blogging friends put on and then I figured out that some of the places they were talking about were only a 3-ish hour drive from Seattle. (They also highlighted a monthly giveaway called 18 summers for a trip to Idaho so of course I entered too!)
I was instantly intrigued. We’ve been road tripping a lot more lately and we had a free summer weekend and Coeur D’Alene Idaho looked like a perfect family weekend getaway from Seattle.
And then we heard about Mudgy and Millie, a moose and a mouse who have statues hidden around some city highlights in Coeur d’Alene and we were instantly smitten. We had to go!
Why more places do not have a Mudgy and Millie I don’t know, but finding them was the perfect way to explore a really neat city with kids.
We bought the book on our first night at our hotel and I love the fact that proceeds from the book support the Coeur D’alene Public Library Foundation. (Again, more places need to make books like this to support their city and libraries too!). The Springhill Suites Coeur D’alene was a perfect hotel for people who have electric vehicles and we were able to stay there thanks to Idaho Tourism.
If you have an electric car you can call ahead and they will put a cone in the spot so that it is available for you when you arrive. It was nice having a free charging station and we didn’t even need to head into town to charge there. We loved the free wifi and the included breakfast and the way the room had a half partition between the beds and a sitting area so us parents could watch tv at night while the kids slept.
We also liked that we could walk to a few restaurants (we really enjoyed the Ugly Fish Asian Bistro) and get a bit of fresh air at night. The hotel also had bicycle rentals which would have been really fun on all the nearby trails, but they didn’t have bikes that were small enough for our guys. (Next time we really need to bring their bikes and helmets!)
My kids were excited to find all the statues. We didn’t do them in order, or follow the trail but all the areas around each of the statues were really cool. We found amazing playgrounds and parks like the incredible McEuen Park that we ended up visiting twice over our visit because it was so much fun!
And we were visiting during Car D’Lane weekend so we saw some pretty amazing classic vehicles while we found one Mudgy statue too.
We had a great time in Idaho and we will tell you more. But starting with the Mudgy and Millie is a fantastic way to introduce a beautiful city to young children and I loved being able to tie in reading a great book with our summer adventures.
(PS. We received two nights accommodation at the Spring Hill Suites Coeur D’Alene thanks to Tourism Idaho but were not required to post and these opinions are definitely our own. We also paid for a third night ourselves at the same hotel and had a wonderful time.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)