Priest Lake Summer Vacation

Time for another late posting but better late than never! We enjoyed our summer family vacation at Priest Lake in northern Idaho. We had the wonderful opportunity to stay there from July 25-August 1. We stayed at a friend's cabin and had a glorious time.

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On Priest RiverThe cabin is on Priest River, only about 100 feet from the outlet from Priest Lake so you can hardly tell the river is moving. It is more of a reservoir as it is backed up from a dam and there are several homes along the river. There is grass off the cabin porch and then, the water. It is really magical as you can walk right out into the water that is so clear and beautiful. We all spent hours each day in the water swimming with the fish with our swim goggles and snorkels. Nate and Justin really enjoyed the water too!

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Huckleberries!
We took the opportunity for a family outing to the huckleberry patch as we heard it was a good year for picking! We found an abundant supply and spent an hour and ended up with about a gallon of the luscious fruit! We also had purple hands but the it was all worth it for the yummy treat. We enjoyed some as we picked, when we got back to the cabin and then we froze most of them. We're still enjoying them more than a month later in our morning cereal and in huckleberry milkshakes
!

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Enjoying the Lake!The friend who owns the cabin was gracious enough to let us borrow her Waverunners too! We took them out to Four-Mile Island and dropped anchor for lunch on the beach. We had fun exploring the island a just swimming around. We also went to Papoose Island and ran into a large school of fish to swim with. It really is neat how clear the water is. You can see over 20 feet down! We also got to use a kayak to enjoy the water. One morning, I was paddling around, waiting for sunrise when I noticed a little critter in the kayak. I looked down and there was a mouse! He wandered around the kayak and finally jumped up on the forward seat and jumped into the water and swam ashore (more than 50 feet away!) I was surprised at how well he swam!


We also had fun on the lake thanks to some other friends. When we went to church on Sunday, we saw my boss from the hospital and his family come in to sacrament meeting. We came to find out they have a cabin in the same development as the place we were staying! He invited us to come out on their boat and do some wakeboarding. Well, the boys (including dad) were all over that idea. We caught up with them one day and had a blast on the board. We also did some knee boarding. Another neat experience was running into an old friend from the Sunnyside area at church. We were just getting done with sacrament meeting and I told Denise that Brother Bailey was sitting right in front of us. I spoke his name and there was no response. I was sure it was him so I went up to him and said hello again and introduced myself whereupon I was greeted with a big bear hug! We renewed acquaintances and had a nice visit.

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Celebrating Twenty-Five Years!

What a wonderful place to celebrate and anniversary! Denise and I are blessed to have spent 25 years together. We went to dinner July 28 at Hill's Resort. I don't usually get to fancy with eating out but I think this was an occasion worth celebrating so I enjoyed a filet mignon wrapped in bacon and Denise had the stuffed top sirloin. We had a great table looking out on the lake and we sat there and made googley eyes at each other.

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stormy weatherWe had a couple of thunderstorms that blew through during our week at the lake. One was at night and gave us a nice lightning show (see the video). The other was during the day and actually resulted in a tornado warning for our area! There was no tornado actually spotted but lots of downed trees including this one that came down on a cabin at Hill's resort. We saw it when we were at dinner.

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The Great OutdoorsNo trip to Priest Lake would be complete without some more enjoyment of the great outdoors on the trails. I brought my bike and took several trips. One trail goes right along the bank of the lake for several miles north from the cabin. Another trail goes through lush forest areas and up on a mountain with wonderful views of the lake and surrounding forest.