Let's Go to Idaho!

July 13

On Saturday, not having flown enough in the last couple of days, we headed back to SeaTac for a flight to Boise. We actually had real tickets but, out of habit, we almost waited until the plane was fully loaded to hear our names called for stand-by, our normal mode of travel.

In Boise we rented a car and headed north up the scenic Payette River valley to McCall, where our daughter was renting a house for three weeks. Since Nash had flown back to Hong Kong the day before, we were childcare reinforcements. It was so wonderful to see Christa, Quinn, and Conner. It’s amazing how much kids change when you only see them every six months or so. Christa had rented a waterfront cabin on Payette Lake and it was great to sit out on the deck and just enjoy the beautiful Idaho mountain scenery, plus the kids jumping all over you.

Even though Conner had more ice cream on his mouth than in his stomach, it was still a great treat.

The view from the top of Ponderosa State Park at Porcupine Point.

The BEST chocolate chip milkshake on the planet.

We explored the tiny downtown area of McCall, including a stop at a hidden away shop called Ice Cream Alley, where even the kid cones were too big for me. Christa drove us to Ponderosa State Park where we looked at the view from the top and did a little hiking, then back to town to My Father’s Place for great hamburgers and shakes. I could really fall in love with this place.

Enjoying elk burgers from the deck of Christa's cabin.

Christa's best friend from high school, Jenny Schon, and her husband Patrick.

At home Quinn and Conner regaled us with a dance routine from the movie Frozen and kept us busy reading stories and playing with lots of toys shipped to McCall by their grandmother Dottie. Christa’s best friend, Jenny Schon and her husband Patrick, treated us to elk burgers and salad. Patrick is a long time smokejumper and had lots of interesting stories about fighting fires in the Northwest. “Let me get this right: You jump out of a perfectly good airplane into a blazing forest miles away from civilization?”

Seems like it wasn't that long that we were hiking with a 2 year old Christa.

Conner definitely marches to his own drummer.

A little snack for the Happy Hikers.

We did a nice hike up to Duck Lake with the kids, who loved the fields of white flowering Bear Grass covering the hills. The hiking here is different than the Pacific Northwest, with sparse undergrowth and lots of rolling hills covered with rock faces. Absolutely beautiful!

Christa’s next activity was to rent stand-up paddleboards at the Marina and then paddle up the lake a mile to have dinner at the Shore Lodge. Great plan but ignoring the fact that I’m not very stable on a paddle board as the late evening waves washed across the lake, and me. Plan B, I drive up and meet Meryl and Christa at the restaurant. A little wet, but no worse from the experience.