Snowberry, Our Latest Diggs...

15 September ‘08

Monday

Over the last 2+ weeks we have had company stay here with us, family and friends in for dinner and smores, and said good bye to fellow “Host’s” here at Farragut.  Frank and Lynn called us the other night and invited us out to their home for dinner.  They’ve owned their home in Coeur d’Alene since the early ‘80’s and have just finished a beautiful remodel in their kitchen.  Frank is quite a “contractor” and has completed 3 different projects over the last couple of years, and has done a beautiful job doing it.  We also had dinner with Larry and Pauline last week.  They introduced us to a new “Italian” restaurant that I thoroughly enjoyed and then we followed that with a dinner party at The Greenbriar Inn.  They have a jazz group on the weekends and with Larry and Pauline celebrating their 38th anniversary we all throught this was the right place to be.

Then we got a call from Bonnie and Doug Rohrer.  They were on their way from Mount Vernon, Washington to spend the weekend with us.  We had been on their backs to get over here and finally they obliged.  Having Bonnie and Doug here gave us the opportunity to have a “get together”…Bonnie, Doug, Frank, Lynn, Larry, Pauline, and Louise and I, all have something in common, we all met here in Coeur d’Alene in early 1980.  We have had the opportunity to see one or the other since, but this is the first time that “all” of us have gotten together in one place for a very long time. 

        L/R: Larry, Pauline, Lynn, Louise, Frank, Bonnie, Doug

We had a great time and look forward to doing again soon.  Fact is, thoughts are to get together in a couple of years in Cabo.  On the first of September, we closed our first campground (Gilmore),

                                  Gilmore Host Site

and moved into our new campground “Snowberry”.  Snowberry is still located here at Farragut and happens to be the same campground that we hosted 2 years ago.  We were here for the month of September and the first week of October but for this visit, we’ll leave on the last day of September.  It has, and will be, a very quick two months.  Snowberry is about twice the size of Gilmore and all the sites are set into the tall evergreens.  With over 3000 acres here at Farragut, we are favored with large and semi private camp sites.  I’ve only had one camper get a little pissed at me, but all the rest have been here to have a great time.  You can’t win them all…  Yesterday we had the largest group leave and that meant we had the largest group of campsites to clean and get ready for today…39.  It took us about 4 1/2 hours and left us with some muscles we didn’t know we had.  To work off the sore muscles we took to the lake.  Grabbing the kayak out of the back of the car, we put into Lake Pend Oreille for a couple of hours.  We haven’t taken the opportunity to kayak near as much as we had wanted while here but we’re trying to make up for it now.  This gave us another chance to paddle into Button Hook Bay and back on the other side of the bay. 

We’ve also been able to get into a little biking in with our hiking as well.  Biking is new for us now but with a little practice we hope to expand the limits of our campground.  I haven’t done much biking since being a youngster and for Louise, it was even a little longer.  2 years ago, we did take a ride on the “Hiawatha Trail”.  That ride was on a slight downhill slant, through 5 tunnels (1 a mile long) and over 7 trestles. 

We did that with our friends Bruce and Peg…by the way, they just got back from their camping trip through a large portion of Europe.  You’ll have to read about their adventure on their web page

www.brupeg.googlepages.com/home .  Peggy is a wonderful writer and Bruce, well he’s a “wonderful guy”…(just kidding Bruce)…Louise and I both look up to them as leaders in our own travel adventures.  Today we decided to run up to Sandpoint.  We were looking for lunch and it also gave us a chance to look through town.  It has been a few years since we were last there.  Unfortunately the economy hasn’t helped them much.  Let’s hope for better times.  One thing that I haven't mentioned in my journals is our new find, or should I say Louise's find...Ralph's.  Ralph's is a laundomat/espresso establishment in Bayview and also known to be "The Place" to get all the "dirt" that is happening in Bayview. 

There are times when I have to look toward the heavens and say "Thanks for Ralph's" when my need for a Latte hits.