Rainy Day Exploring

 

We have been exploring on this rainy weekend.  My husband participated in a bike "ride" (it was not a race!) in Leavenworth, WA, so we joined in for one big family road and camping trip.  The rain mainly came overnight, so it didn't bother us in our nearly-new family camping tent.  My husband had a whopping six flat tires on the 85-mile ride, and his riding partner was besought with a gear shifter malfunction and chain issues.  So we were pretty amused when hubby won the grand prize in the raffle drawing:  a toilet paper roll dispenser made of bike parts (quick release changer, no less).  

While they were riding bikes, the rest of us were exploring Wenatchee State Park.  Four little boys, one very cold lake.  A long, flat beach perfect for swimming--if you could take the freezing temperatures.  The boys couldn't resist, even as their lips turned blue.  Luckily, when they got cold, there was lots of shoreline exploring and fort building to be done.

This is definitely a spot we will have to adventure back to!

Backroads Road Trip

We just returned from an epic road trip.  1,500 miles in five days through some really remote (and some not so remote) country.  Redfish Lake and the Sawtooth Recreation Area, where have you been my whole life?  The area made me fall in love with Idaho all over again, Idaho's other shortcomings notwithstanding.

The trip to Park City (via Stanley and Redfish Lake) was just my son and I, my little buddy, as my husband had a work-related meeting.  He was such a great road trip buddy, I can't even begin to describe it.  Never, well, hardly ever, complained and so helpful.  The kind of road trip buddy that will roll down his window so you can take a picture of the sandhill crane.   And on the way home, a complete family with hubby included, and this time I didn't have to do the driving!  I could finish my bike yarn bomb for Moscow's Artwalk and knit a saddle blanket for "Neigh Neigh."  

Park City was nice, but I loved Stanley, ID, population 63.  The winters are pretty rough though.  Luckily we caught it in a mellow June, and not a typical June with snow squalls.  I didn't love Sun Valley and Ketchum.  All those fancy stores, but the yarn shop is hard to find.  I'd take Whitefish, MT any day.     

Here are some of the trip highlights:

We were stopped when a bad accident occurred on HW 55.  For two hours.  The man cub tried to recruit other kids to play soccer with him to pass the time!

Oh, Sawtooth Mountains!

Redfish Lake!

A Sandhill Crane!

"Mom, are the antelope those bouncy things?"

Headwaters of the Salmon River

Rockin' bike trail in Park City, UT

Top of the Wasatch Range overlooking Park City, UT

Bike trail in Sun Valley, ID

Returns at the Sawtooth Hatchery

These Long Days of Spring

The longest days of the year are really in spring, you know.   By the time the first day of summer is over, the days are already getting shorter.  These are the busy days, the flower-filled days, the can't we stay up just a bit longer days. We had a thundershower today, so rare on the Palouse, and this one even came with hail.  After watching it for twenty minutes, my husband and I both looked at each other and said, "I hope the plants are OK!"  They were, although the lettuce is looking a little rough.  Fortunately, my hubby doesn't like big chunks of lettuce leaf in his salad, so now it comes pre-chopped!  But rain makes the garden wet and grow-y, and I love walking in the garden after a storm.

Putting my son to bed, it seemed like nothing could be a better finale to the weekend than watching the last, soft light of the day fall across his cheek.  Love.

Trainspotting in North Idaho

We are a rail family.  I grew up in a household of model trains; my husband grew up watching big trains in southern California.  Our son loves trains, and fortunately North Idaho affords lots of trainspotting activity.  We were in Sandpoint, ID for the long weekend, and caught this BNSF freight train coming through at sunset.  The engineer leaned out the window to wave at our son.  

The Sandpoint lines are very busy.  In addition to BNSF, Union Pacific also has an active North-South line running to Canada, and the Amtrack Empire Builder runs through twice daily.  My dream vacation is to take the train across the country, or better yet, across Canada.   A little history, and a trip where part of the adventure is the journey.  Awesome.

 

 

Winter's Eve

When I am coming back to Moscow, and I see Moscow Mountain, I sometimes have a sense of home wash over me, just as I used to when I would see Sharp Top and Flat Top in the Peaks of Otter where I grew up in Virginia.  It's funny how your adopted home can become just as comforting to you as your native soil, as the years wind by.  

So beautiful today, in the last light of the day.

 

Winter Solstice

 

To keep back the long winter's night, we had a solstice party with the neighbors.  We made sun cookies, and bright colored play dough.  Then, we turned off all the lights, and turned on the sun!

Lights and Whites

Every day from now until the winter solstice we lose two minutes of light per day.  This week we've had wonderful unseasonable sunny-ish November weather, and it's been great.  This sunny weather has corresponded with a full moon, so it seems unusually bright.  

We spent a little bit of time decorating this weekend.  Not the tree yet...that is still coming.  But a few things.  White linens, paperwhite bulbs, lights on the house.  Enough to make it a little brighter.

Still too dark to take pictures!

 

Turkey, Off the Grid

We were invited to spend Thanksgiving with some friends at their cabin on Lake Coeur d'Alene.  In a tiny little cabin filled with the noise of laughter, we weren't really off the grid for Thanksgiving, since we had electricity and plumbing.  But we didn't have wireless or cell phone service, so the kids had to entertain themselves the old fashioned way...playing Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, Battleship, and Uno.  Oh, and they had to do really boring things such as go on hikes and canoe rides and all bunk out together.  We ate really, really well on a locally raised turkey and all the fixings (have you ever heard of Mama Stamberg's Relish)?!?

Perfect.

 

Montana Adventures

May rolled away lazily, June slipped by like a mountain stream, and July was intense.  So intense, in fact, that I'm just now getting to write about it, as the first week of August winds to a close.

The intensity came from a lot of different sources.  I was traveling for work-related projects, involving more long roadtrips, this time west to Wenatchee, WA and Hood River, OR instead of south to Boise.  Palouse friends were making use of beautiful weather by continuing the BBQ circuit, Moscow hosted the 30th annual Rendezvous in the Park music festival, and my parents were visiting.  

As a family, we took a trip to Whitefish and Glacier, MT.  It was my first foray into Montana as a destination, rather than a pass-through.  We loved it.  Whitefish was just our kind of town:  cute shops, a nice Main Street, a bustling train station, and a great LYS (Knit'n Needle).  I bought some beautiful Malabrigo yarn for a friend's Christmas present. We are definitely going back; we felt this was our recon trip and next time we would really do it right.  A little later in the season, perhaps, to avoid the crowds, or the first week the Going to the Sun road is open, before cars are allowed and bikes rule.  In addition to Whitefish next time we would stay on the eastern side.  The beautiful Montana prairie is a Siren song to me, and I'm getting increasingly fond of the east side of the mountains, any mountains.  Plus, there's a great train station in East Glacier!

Bear grass on Big Mountain in Whitefish

Whitefish Lake

Lake McDonald

Hubby at Avalanche Lake