OH MY! THE PIE……
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| Before the bake......"break"! |
(June 2018)
Deerpark, Washington (a small town outside Spokane)
was our next destination before heading to Idaho. The RV
park was a delightful stay with an abundant vegetable garden and plenty
of rhubarb for the guests to pick.
We
happily took them up on their offer as we had guests visiting (friends from
Perry's hometown) and I wanted to attempt to make a rhubarb pie. I've never been a huge fan but I did find a
rhubarb/strawberry pie recipe that looked intriguing. Nita, although her
occupation is a Nurse, is very domestic
(jams, crochet….you name it, she can do it).
Yes, I have to admit this "city" girl was trying to impress
the "country" friends and I was proud of my efforts! The nicely latticed pie (delicately placed in
my Pyrex pie plate) carefully was placed in the RV oven, leaving it to cook for 40 minutes. Bubbling with strawberry goodness and
smelling its' success, I removed it from the oven on top of the stove.
Suddenly, I heard the pie plate shatter. There went my pie! With everyone's urging I did salvage the top of it
(avoiding any glass) and the four of us finished what was left that night with
vanilla ice cream. For the next few days time was spent with Tom, Nita and Perry's other childhood friends. We said our goodbyes (knowing we'd be
seeing them at the end of June) but we were off to Hope, Idaho!
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| RV park in Deerpark, Wa. |
Early in 2016 while still in California, a restaurant
server was interested in our travels and suggested we visit her birthplace of
Hope, Idaho. The lake, trees and small
town environment was intriguing so we put it on the list of places to
visit. Hope was now on the "Edna n'
Papi" agenda of the Pacific Northwest!
Facebook, Friends and First Boyfriend?!
It was an easy two and a half hour drive from
Washington into Idaho. As we approached
the small town of Sandpoint, I told
Perry the name "Sandpoint" sounded familiar. Scrolling through Facebook during our
travels, I saw a childhood friend recently lost his wife to cancer. He posted date, time and location of the
services with the location being Sandpoint, Idaho! We arrived a couple days after the service
but I decided to reach out to "Scott" sending my condolences
mentioning we were nearby in the town of
Hope. It turned out where we were
staying was a short twenty minute drive to Sandpoint. Scott immediately responded saying he would
love to get together with us and that "Dave" his lifetime friend (my
first boyfriend) was staying with him.
This was going to be an interesting, fun visit seeing friends I had not
seen in over thirty years.
HOPE, IDAHO
Once again we were in another remote location but only
a few steps from the most beautiful lake I've seen, Lake Pend Oreille
(pronounced Pend or'ay). Lake Pend
Oreille is our nation's 38th largest lake and is 148 square miles.
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| Lake Pend Oreille-The most beautiful lake |
Our RV spot was surrounded by tall pine trees with
only a few neighbors nearby. Deer
wandered through often as we were on a Deer Sanctuary.
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| One of our neighbors |
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| The replica of Statue of Liberty on the lake |
Perry and I like to "hang" with the locals
to learn about fun things to do in the area and granted there is NOT a lot to
do in Hope with a population stretching to reach 100. Needing to explore, we drove to Sandpoint to
check out the cute town located on the other side of the lake. We stopped at a small replica of the Statue
of Liberty but the strong winds that day kept us from staying out too long.
Tall wavy flags invited us to "Amber Bear Inn" for a country meal
and glass of wine. We followed more
flags showing the way but we were getting further away from any civilization.
The deserted bumpy road was once again part of the "adventure" and
that it was, because grazing on berries just off the road, was a black bear
that scurried as we passed by. After
traveling along a dusty five mile bumpy road we came across the five-star Inn
(more flags assuring we were at the right place) greeted by dogs, cats and
peacocks. Bears are seen daily and thankfully the only bear we saw was from the
truck. The owners were transplants
wanting to escape the city and decided to open the "Inn" which hosts
retreats and campers, offering country style cooking. Deciding to stop for a nice meal, we didn't
realize it was close to closing only to learn we were actually in Montana….a
different time zone! It's fun to explore
and this was a great stop!
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| Out in the country-at the Inn |
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| Roaming in his own territory-at the Inn |
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| The Amber Bear Inn |
Childhood Friends and…..
"You Can Tell When There's Love
in a Home"!
I was taken back in time in seeing childhood friends Scott and Dave. Was it fate or chance that Perry and I happened to be within twenty minutes of Scott's home in Sandpoint, Idaho? This dear friend sadly recently lost his wife to cancer. Services had wrapped up and friends had gone back to their respectful homes except for Dave….my first boyfriend. We reminisced and caught up on our lives from the past several decades while Scott gave us a tour of his lovely home on several acres of beautiful Idaho property. Room to room he shared happy stories and pictures of the life he shared with his college sweetheart and their son. They shared the love of theater and music with love of their relationship felt in every room. The musical "Li'l Abner" has a sweet song titled "Love in a Home" the final line…"you can tell when there's love in a home". No doubt it was felt here and the few hours spent with Scott and Dave will never be forgotten.
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| Childhood friends reunited! Silly as always! |
We were enjoying our week in Hope
and the last couple of days were visiting Schweitzer mountain, a popular ski
area outside Sandpoint. We hiked parts
of Kootenai Falls Park which lead to a
swinging suspension bridge over the Kootenai River. It was windy that day so we opted out of
crossing the bridge not only for our sake, but for Gracie's. She doesn't like any bridges let alone one
that swings! The falls were stunning and
we were glad to have made the extra day trip to Libby, Montana. Other
interesting facts were the movie "The River Wild" was filmed here and
the Kootenai Indians at one time populated the area considering it sacred
ground.
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| A view from popular Schweitzer Mountain |
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| The swinging bridge over Kootenai Falls |
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| Kootenai Falls |
In all our travels, the week spent
in Hope has to be one of the more beautiful and memorable weeks. Trees, mountains, Lake Pend Oreille, hikes,
friends…….the epitome of what this trip is about!
Next-
More friends and fun in the Pacific
Northwest. One tire down, seven to go……..three hours stranded on the freeway!
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