Journey to Idaho -- Part I

We went to Idaho during the last full week of October. We really wanted to get up there before any snow started to fly. I think we timed it perfectly, as far as the seasons go.

For those that don't know, Bonner's Ferry is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up north. Right at the Canadian border. Brrrrr.

Now, we went up there because a close relative of ours was sick. I won't go into details because that's really his business, but I will say that we were very worried about him. I was excited to go see him, and I was extra excited because I had been trying to get Lee to get up there for a couple years now. Before Abby was born, and we were doing a lot of traveling, we were "in the neighborhood" on three different trips, like within a couple hundred miles. We kept seriously considering driving on up, but we just never did. So this time, I was very excited to make a special trip to Bonner's Ferry with Lee and Abby.

We arrived at night, got settled in, and woke up to a glorious autumn morning. It was briskly cold in the morning, but the sun was pouring down and it was just a beautiful day! Now, when we had left California, it had been in the mid 80s. When we got to Idaho, the high for the day was 57. Brrrr. But with all the sunshine, it really wasn't that cold.

Watch this video about Bonner's Ferry if you're interested in seeing the "tourist attraction" part of this beautiful town.


Sigh. It was so wonderful to revisit somewhere I hadn't seen since I was 12 or so. There were tons of half remembered things to rediscover. There were totally familiar things I couldn't wait to see if they were exactly the same. And there were the things I didn't remember at all.

One of the changes I felt disappointed in was the Northside school house. It was the old grade school that my father had attended long ago. I remember playing in their playground when I was last there, though the building itself was closed. I remember thinking how neat it was to be playing around the very same grounds where my father had played when he was even younger. Now though? Well now someone made it into a bed and breakfast. I didn't like that. But, the owners were nice enough to let us inside and show us around. So, for the first time ever, I got to go inside and look around.



There were so many things to do with Abby! So many memories to start making!

We jumped straight into autumn and began doing all the autumnal things we could think of. Our cousins had a few apple trees, so we harvested all their apples. Then we took them all to a apple press and squashed them into apple cider. We raked leaves into giant piles and then played in them. We dug up potatoes before the frost got to them. Abby got to decorate their house for Halloween. We went looking for wildlife at the nearby Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge.

A bald eagle at the refuge:


We went window shopping in town, drank hot coco, carved pumpkins, and watched quaking aspens do what they do best - quake. It was delightful.

And, we got the best news while we were there! Our cousin was reacting well to his treatment and things were looking up! We were all so pleased!

We gathered some old blankets and pillows, camping chairs, and gloves and scarves, and went out for a picnic by the Kootenai river. We started a campfire and ate smokies made from the meat our cousins had hunted.

A train went by, right across the river. We were the only ones out in this area, so I'm sure the engineer saw us right away.



All the adults, and little Abby too, started pumping our arms, pulling them down like an engineer would pull on the trains whistle. He obliged us with a long, deep, and very loud, train whistle toot.



Just for us. Abby was thrilled.

Then we worked on skipping rocks. Lee spent so much time trying to demonstrate the technique that he actually hurt his throwing arm and shoulder. What a nerd!



My cousin caught a fish and let Abby reel it in. Lee helped her.





It was so amazing to watch her face as she reeled it in and got a good look at the fish. Our cousin helped her by holding the fish and let her touch the slimy scales.



And then they released it back into the river.



For more pictures, check out my slide show.

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And I'm dedicating a separate post just to the apple pressing. It was too cool. I don't know if you could tell, but we had a blast in Idaho! I can't stop raving about it! And when we got back home to California, it was 82 degrees. Gag. It looks like this year we get two autumns!

My cousin collecting fresh barley for us all to sample straight from the stalk. How cool is that?