Idaho Vacation Part Two - Schweitzer Mt. and Boating

On Thursday we went to Schweitzer Mountain which is a ski area in the winter. On the road up the mountain we saw several wild turkeys by the side of the road. That was a first for me.

J and I took the chairlift ($15 each) to the top of the mountain. At the village the elevation is 4,700.

The elevation at the top is 6,375.

this is the view on the way down

There is a restaurant at the top but we didn't eat there since the boys were waiting for us at the bottom.

They played oversized chess.

Before we left we recreated a photo we took here 7 years ago.

In the late afternoon we went to City Beach in Sandpoint. We used our inflatable tubes and mats to float around.

A funny thing happened at the beach. This small boat pulled up that had a pirate on board. He handed out "booty" to kids from a treasure chest.

For supper we got pizza from Domino's and ate at a different area of the beach. We played Ticket to Ride as a family and discovered how cut throat that game can be.


On Friday we stayed in Bayview. This is the view outside the front door of the condo.

The boys were intrigued by this unique house. We found out that an architect owns it. He lives in Mexico but comes back to add to it occasionally.

We asked at Macdonald's Resort in Bayview about boat rentals.  They had a simple motorboat for rent for a reasonable price - 65 dollars for 2 hours.

We just explored Lake Pend Oreille. This was my view.

Selfie on the boat:

We stopped in a little cove that had some docks where we could disembark. The photo at the top was taken there. The boys took a turn at the controls.

I took this photo which shows the condo that we stayed in.

It is 3 storeys high and brown, on the right. Note that there are many floating houses in Bayview.

Later in the afternoon we took out our own inflatable boat in the area right by the condo.

We had supper at the Lakehouse on the outdoor patio. We watched the pre-season Seahawks game on their big screen TV. I think that was the first time we've watched a Seahawks game while outside.

At sunset I took this photo.

On Saturday we drove home. We stopped at Vantage (aptly named) to take these photos high above the Columbia River.

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Idaho Vacation Part One - Silverwood

For our summer vacation this year we returned to Northern Idaho -- Sandpoint & Lake Pend'Oreille (pronounced Pond-er-ay in "American"). We returned to Bayview where we stayed for our summer vacation seven years ago. The vacation rental by owner (VRBO) condo is still there and managed by the same guy. This is our review:

We just stayed there for 4 days and had a wonderful time. The sun coming up across over the hills across the bay bouncing off the rippling water and dancing on the ceiling of the condo over your morning coffee is really hard to beat. We used the condo as our HQ for a day at Silverwood Theme Park (it's a 12 minute drive), a day on Sandpoint beaches & up Schweitzer mountain, and a day entirely in Bayview including getting out on the water in a rented boat. The condo is right on the shallow waterfront so you can just walk down and goof around lazily in inflatables and then walk to the floating restaurant for dinner.

But before getting to Idaho we stopped in Spokane. After breakfast the in an old rail car (Frank's Diner) where we also ate seven years ago we headed north. 

Our vacation didn't get off to the most auspicious start. The first activity planned was to visit Gardner Cave in Crawford State Park which is two hours north of Spokane. We left one day early in order to go there. We drove up to Metaline Falls which is very close to the Canadian border. The state park that the cave is located in was CLOSED when we got there. Closed on a Tuesday in August? Very strange indeed.

My family was very chill about it. I was the most upset. My husband enjoys being in the "middle of nowhere". We explored Metaline Falls and had lunch there. We found out that a movie was filmed here - the Postman starring Kevin Costner.

The "detour" also let us approach Sandpoint from a different direction than we had before, from the West instead of the South, which helped a little. This is Sandpoint beach at sunset.

Wednesday we spent the entire day (8 hours) at Silverwood Theme Park. A lot of people in Western Washington don't even know about Silverwood. We only really found out about it by accident years ago when we were driving from Seattle to Calgary. We've been once before and learned a few lessons. Our main target was actually the water park, known as Boulder Beach.

We arrived at the park at 10:30 am which is the best time to arrive. Boulder Beach (the water park) doesn't open until 11 so you spend some time waiting in line. Once it opens you should claim some lounge chairs with your towels for later.

We picked our rides pretty carefully the night before so we could get the most out of the day. We focused on the "medium intensity" water slides which we could do as a family (Avalanche Mountain & Richochet Rapids) and the low intensity longer-lasting attractions, like the wave pools and lazy river. A was the only one to take on the Riptide Racer (solo mats you lie face down on and go up to 30MPH on.

The family favourite was Avalanche Mountain. It is for 4 to 6 people, in a large tube and goes down a slide. We also tried Richochet Rapids but C and I didn't like that one. I ended up going backwards and that was no fun. There is a dark section and you don't know when a drop will come.

The Lazy River is just a fun way to float or swim along in a big 'circle' bumping inner tubes with a hundred perfect strangers. We did that multiple times.

There are two large wave pools and they actually are a lot of fun. The water is super-warm and the waves come thick and fast without too long of a break in between. You can easily pick your intensity level by where you choose to stand.

Later in the day we dried off and did a few rides in the main park, though mostly the ones with a water theme. We did the "Roaring Creek" Log Flume, which is mostly a lead-up to a 20 ft "freefall" slide & splash, and finally the "Bumper Boats", which are more like spray boats. You can spray other boats and spray people on shore. Watchers from the shore can also spray those in the boats. Jonathan joined in and got soaked by S who was on the shore.

That's J in the top right and C at bottom right.

We ate at the sit down restaurant at the park - Lindy's. We left the park about 7:30 pm. We'd planned to go to a magic show but it was sold out by the time we checked. We ended up spending 8 hours at the park, definitely getting our money's worth.

Our feet were pretty tired. My phone has an app that tells you how many steps you did. I didn't have the phone with me for the whole day but even with that caveat it said that I did over 9000 steps.


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Seeing the Sights of Seattle

The boys and I went on a field trip, of sorts, last week. There were three locations in Seattle that I haven't visited before and I wanted to show to my boys.

First we went to Columbia Tower Observatory which is 73 storeys high. A has previously visited Rockefeller Center in New York City and that is 70 storeys high. The Columbia Observatory is the highest public observatory on the West Coast. It is higher than the Space Needle and it costs less to see the view. Here's a link to the price, if you are interested. If you really want to save money, you can just go to the 40th Floor (for free) where there is a Starbucks but you don't get a 360 degree view. We started at the Starbucks and these photos show the view from there.

At the top I was impressed by how much you can see. You have views on all sides of the building. I also noted that it wasn't crowded.

Photography was hard since the sun was so bright outside and yet inside is was shaded.

We had a clear view of Century Link field where the Seahawks play.

Our second stop was the Seattle Public library in downtown which is only two blocks away from the Columbia Tower. It has very unique architecture. However, my aspiring architect wasn't impressed.

They have a fun gift shop on the main floor. To get a better view of the building we crossed the street to the courthouse.

Our third destination was Gas Works Park on the shore of Lake Union. A very unique place.

This was once a coal gasification plant. It closed in 1956 and has been repurposed as a park.

The views from here are amazing.

Parking was a bit challenging since the lot is small. I eventually found street parking that wasn't too far away. C wanted to roll down the hill but there were a lot of droppings from Canada geese.


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Boy Scout Camp 2017

C at Camp Parsons' dock

This was C's second time at boy scout camp.  This year his troop went to Camp Parsons in Brinnon, WA, which is on the Olympic Peninsula, near the Hood Canal.

The setting of the camp is gorgeous as you can see in the photos.The camp is almost 100 years old.

Scout summer camp is typically time for earning merit badges. C earned his wood carving badge. He also went on a 5 mile hike. At this camp the scouts didn't have to cook (unlike last year's camp) as they ate in a dining hall. C said the week started out with fried chicken. C worked on skills required for advancement. He is curently at the Scout rank but will soon advance to Tenderfoot. He stayed in an adorondack (a very simple cabin) which had bunkbeds. Here's a map of the camp.

I mailed a funny letter to C but it didn't arrive until the morning that he left. Other scouts received car packages from home and one even mailed one to himself!

We were the only parents who came to the camp to pick up their son. I was able to take group photos for the troop. All the other parents either had a dad attending or their son was driven back to the meeting spot. I was surprised since the camp was so relatively close to home and in a beautiful area.

We drove over on Friday afternoon and stayed the night in Quilcene which is 15 minutes away. We picked C up on Saturday morning and then we went to Sequim which is 30 minutes away to attend the Lavender Festival.




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Lavender Festival

On Saturday morning we picked up our son from Boy Scout camp. We drove from Camp Parsons to Sequim (pronounced squim) for the annual lavender festival. There is a large street fair and farm tours.

At the street fair I had crab cakes and J had elephant ears. I bought some lavender themed fabric which I plan to use to make sachets. I have several lavender plants in my own garden.

As we walked to our car (back from the street fair) we found a little girl selling lemonade (both regular and lavender flavoured) for 50 cents in her front yard. It was delicious.

J and the boys dropped me off at Purple Haze Lavender Farm. I visited this farm back in 2007 with my friend Colette. I'm glad it is still there.

I took some photos and then cut some lavender to take home.

I had a lavender lemonade but it wasn't as tasty as the one from the little girl!

Tip: if you go to the Lavender Festival be sure to arrive really early in the morning or arrive the night before. As we drove out of Sequim (at about 2:30 pm) we saw traffic backed up for miles and miles and miles and miles along Highway 104 towards the Kingston ferry. It is a two lane highway that can't seem to handle the volume.


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Canada Day 2017

It has been many years since my husband and I have actually been in Canada on Canada Day. This year Canada celebrates its 150th birthday. Since July 1st fell on a Saturday, we decided we could spend the day in Canada. We left home on Saturday morning at about 9:30 am. Our border wait was 20 minutes.

I did some research into Lower Mainland Canada Day celebrations and I picked Richmond since it seemed to be a large one and the salmon BBQ drew me in. Richmond is also convenient to the border.

We arrived in Richmond at about 11:30 am. We parked our car at the edge of where streets were blocked off. As we walked, we found the giant Canadian flag pictured above (in front of a homeowner's garage) and this Mountie happy to pose for photos.

We caught the tail end of the parade. The little we saw was very Asian, as to be expected since Richmond has a majority of Chinese immigrants.

Next was the salmon bbq. There was a super long line.

We ate our salmon then we explored the booths and performers around Richmond.  We watched a man on a super tall unicycle juggle flames and knives. We even found a horticulture display with ribbons for extra large rhubarb grown in someone's garden.

Next we walked along the Steveston Waterfront and down to the boat docks.

We saw live crab (still wiggling) and cod being sold from the back of boats. Also, live sea urchins.

This marina is the site where in May a little girl was pulled into the water by a sea lion. We saw lots of signs telling you not to intereact with them or risk a pretty hefty fine. $100,000 I think.

My favourite part of the day was spent sitting on a bench on the boardwalk, people watching.

There was a man playing the pan pipes nearby. My hubby liked that. Me, not so much. Screamers (near the Gulf of Georgia Cannery) sells a delicious pineapple whip ice cream. We had supper on the boardwalk eating fish and chips from Pajo's. Thumbs up for their fish and chips.

We saw this huge yacht docked nearby. Here the boys are prentending it is ours.

We walked to Garry Point Park (near the mouth of the Fraser River) and found a spot for watching fireworks. C and I both put Canadian temporary tattoos on ourselves. I hate my profile so I must really love this photo (taken by C) to share it.

Here are C's hands.

It really cooled down when the sun went down and the wind picked up therefore I was freezing!

After we watched the fireworks, we made the big walk to the car and then sat in a bit of traffic getting out. J moved the car closer to us part way through the day.

Our boys were amused by the sign on the public buses which weren't in service. The sign read "Sorry, Out of Service." They thought that was quintessentially Canadian.

We got through the border fine and arrived at our hotel in Bellingham just after midnight. I couldn't figure out why the front desk clerk was smiling at me. Then I remembered that I had maple leaf temporary tattoos on both off my cheeks. He he!

On Sunday morning we attended Christ Church Bellingham (where my friend's husband is associate pastor) and returned home.


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