Orlando-Newport Beach-Coeur d'Alene Back2Back2Back Trips To Kick Off Fall (2022)

A week later we were off to Coeur d'Alene for the annual Whiskey Barrel Weekend. The rental car guy asked if we wanted a fun car upgrade so they gave us a Dodge Charger.

We got upgraded to their top floor suite on the side of the resort that faces the street.

Our balcony had amazing views of the lake on one side.

We also had great views of the city and mountains too.

We are posing on the balcony here. It was a little scary to be up that high on that small balcony!

This is a great view of the suite as one enters. The living room is sunken too.

We went to our favorite dessert place in Coeur d'Alene for a treat after checking in.

I got some huckleberry ice cream with huckleberry sauce, candy, and the signature Teddy Graham on top!

I am all ready to go the Whiskey Tasting event!

At the Whiskey Tasting Event, a guy was hand dipping the tasting glasses in the Maker's Mark signature red wax on site!

This is what the glasses looked like. I started off with some Japanese whiskey in mine from Hibiki.

I found out that Beam Suntory owns a lot of spirit brands. They had two of their Japanese whiskys available to taste.

Legent is a new brand of Beam Suntory. This is a Kentucky Bourbon with a Japanese twist. I had it before at a sushi place.

Joy is checking out the bacon here.

There were lots of great desserts too including the Kentucky Bourbon Balls.

The caramel apple tarts were good too!

We are enjoying the food before I tasted more bourbon and whisky!

Here is a table with some local distilleries.

Here is another local distillery. They had a few distilleries from Montana of all places there.

We took some pictures at the photo booth too.

We are trying to be funny here. LOL.

I needed coffee in the morning. We went to our favorite coffee shop in town. I had a rough night. LOL.

I found a cool spot to finish watching the Cowboys and Commanders game on my iPhone at the resort.

I needed the electrolytes in me to recover!

We went to brunch at the Honey Social Club in town. That weird sculpture on the wall is a bee. LOL.

The cinnamon rolls at Honey Social Club were so GOOD!

Our suite was the top most triangle with the balcony and the three triangle windows. It was amazing!

We drove up north to Lake Pend Oreille, which is Idaho's largest lake after brunch.

The lake was super calm.

The water was pretty clear too.

We took a water taxi from the main resort to their golf course after we got back.

There is the Coeur d'Alene Resort in the background as we headed out to their golf course and beach club area.

The boat ride on the beautiful wooden boat was fun!

This is the infinity pool and beach club area by the golf course which was closed for the season.

The famous floating tee at the Coeur d'Alene Golf Course is shown here.

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There are some golfers here with the tennis courts in the distance.

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We had dinner at Beverly's that night at the resort. Like most of the restaurants at the resort, they have iPad menus.

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Joy and I are ready for a great fine dining experience at Beverly's!

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We had a great view of the lake as the sun was setting.

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We started out with oysters from Washington's Penn Cove.

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I got a lobster bisque with lobster claw meat after the oysters.

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I got scallops with lobster meat and a risotto.

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We got room service the next day for breakfast since we had a dining table in our suite. I loved their huckleberry pancakes!

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The fitness center at the resort was redone since our last visit. The resort made a lot of money during Covid when most of the West Coast was shut down due to the illegal mandates.

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I worked out that morning, but I also swam in the indoor pool.

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We went to our favorite sushi place in town for lunch.

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Shiki Sushi presents the food so artistically also.

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We had time before our flight home to walk around the Riverfront in Spokane. This is the Sky Ride over the falls.

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Joy was too afraid to try the ride so I went by myself.

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The ride is about fifthteen minutes.

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That is the falls in Spokane.

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The Spokane River Front area was really clean and nice to walk around unlike many parts of California which have homeless.

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That is an amphitheatre in the background in Spokane.

    To kick off fall, I had back to back to back trips in September shortly after coming back from Hawaii. I had a national meeting in Orlando to start off the epic travel weeks. After arriving in Orlando via Houston Hobby, I checked into the Hilton Orlando, which is a large resort where many companies have meetings and conventions. We had a fun week of dinners and even some Top Golf in addition to our "work" events. I loved the resort pool and lazy river there. To get around Orlando, we were in luxury Suburbans which made me feel like I was a high ranking cabinet official. LOL. Of course, I would only serve under a Republican administration! Orlando was hot as usual despite being fall.

    After coming back from Orlando, I had less than twenty hours to unwind before flying out to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California for a weekend of parties. I booked a luxury class car so they had a fun Genesis G70 3.3T for us. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach. I noticed a big difference between how the hotels were maintained in Florida vs California. Both hotels were high end and pricey, but the Florida one was way better kept up. I think the Covid mandates killed tourism in the Blue States which lead to many hotels struggling to maintain their properties versus Florida where Governor DeSantis kept his state open for tourism and business. The Hyatt Regency Newport Beach had a nine golf course too which we had free access to with our resort fee. We also had three pools we could use including one with a water slide.

    I was able to meet up with some friends for a great brunch on Saturday at the Bungalow Kitchen by Michael Mina in Belmont Shores. Afterwards, we went to my friend's 45th birthday party at his beautiful home in Calabasas. He hired a catering service that set up hibachi grills in his backyard for the approximately thrity five guests. We selected our entree choices when we RSVP for his party. He also had a bartender that night for us all. The party was amazing, and it was great to catch up with friends we have not seen for the last few years due to the Covid crap.

    The next day, Joy and I got to play a little golf before meeting friends for lunch in Anahiem at P.F. Changs. Afterwards, we went to another birthday party in Corona. We flew home later that night. Southern California was really warm that weekend when we were there. I thought it was fall? LOL.

    A week later, we flew out to Spokane so we could attend the Whiskey Barrel Weekend at the Coeur d'Alene Resort in Idaho. The rental car agent asked if we wanted a fun car so he got us a Dodge Charger. The resort upgraded us to their 17th floor suite that overlooked both the mountains and lake. I felt like I was the King in Game of Thrones residing at the "Red Keep" since our room was the highest one before the Penthouse, and we had a balcony where the monarch can look down on the peasants below. LOL. Joy and I had time to go our favorite dessert place in town before the whiskey tasting event. I got my usual Huckleberry ice cream. That night, we had the whiskey tasting event which features lots of the Beam Suntory brands including Maker's Mark who sponsored the event. We got special tasting glasses which were dipped with the famous Maker's Mark red wax on site. We also had some finger foods and desserts too at the event.

    The next day, Joy and I had brunch at the Honey Social Club after I finished watching my Cowboys beat the Commanders on my iPhone via the Sunday Ticket app. We went to the largest lake in Oregon, Lake Pend Oreille, after brunch. This lake was very peaceful and scenic. After we got back, we took the beautiful wood shuttle boat to the golf course area for a drink. That night, we enjoyed a fine dining experience at Beverly's which is on the 7th floor of the resort. The views of the lake were amazing! I loved the seafood there!

    We got room service the next morning before heading out to lunch at a sushi place in town. Since we had a later flight back home, we got to walk around the River Front area of Spokane. I also did the Sky Ride over the Spokane Falls. Spokane was a pretty clean city for being in a liberal state. Although, we were in fall, the weather was really warm in the Pacific Northwest that weekend.