Tree Graveyard

Hi Blog-Reading Friends! (If you weren't before, you are now!)

I've been travelling for the last month back and forth to Seattle every Monday - Thursday. It was worth it, but soaked up all my time to be writing creative things and showing you new pictures! Grrrrrr... I don' lika whena maya creativa buga isa squashada! SO, I'm BACK! Ha! Take that creative-bug-squashers!

Almost every weekend this Summer has been spent up at the property fishing, fishing, playing gin rummy, and more fishing. After four years of fishing the same river, we found something NEW! Well, not new to the river, just new to us. A TREE GRAVEYARD! What? I know, sounds odd, but it really is just that!

The water was really high in early Summer, which made for some fishing off the beaten path. Look at what we stumbled upon! In the midst of pine tree after pine tree, you can see about 25 dead tree tops poking up! When we got to the middle of them, we realized that almost all their trunks were in standing water. We're thinking that must be the reason they died? Maybe they were in too much water? Regardless, they are truly breathtaking to behold:

Groovin & Fishin

When is the last time you heard music that just made you have to boogie-woogie it out?? It's happening right now for me...

I have been grooving to James Morrison this morning. No, not Jim Morrison. JAMES Morrison. Wow. My friend Dom introduced me to his music last year. Last weekend, he gave me a couple of his albums. This guy has more soul in his little toe than most artists today have altogether!

Check him out here: www.jamesmorrisonmusic.com - just listen to the first sample in the player - you won't regret it.

Dom came to the cabin a few weeks ago and we all got our fish on. It was a beeeeeeeeutiful weekend! The water was still a little high, but we all caught fish and had a terrific time!

Here's Dom on a cool stretch of the river-

Here are Dom & J sharing a section.

Yup, it's too bad it's so ugly up there.

If you could hear me in this one, I'm saying "Heeeeeeere fishy fishy fishy fishy"

J trying to be artistic...

I actually kinda like it!

Back in the boggy section, there were these little bitty pine trees coming up. They were no more than three inches tall! So precious!

Dom & J recapping fish stories from the day, an absolute essential to the art of fishing!

After taking the above picture, I turned around and took this of the beginning of one stellar sunset. Gosh, I dunno why it's gotta be so ugly up there...

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Where is home for you?

For me, it is Coeur d'Alene. No, Denver. No, Coeur d'Alene. No, no, Denver. Yes, Denver. Noooo, Coeur d'Alene! Argh.

I grew up splitting my time between Colorado and Northern Idaho. Literally spending my Summers in Idaho and the rest of the year in Colorado. It made this weird transitory thing in me... When I'm in one place, the other is home. Neither and Both are actually home, yet they both are.

Growing up, I didn't see any of my school friends during the Summer, and then I didn't see my Summer friends for the rest of the year. So, even though I went to the same school with the same group of people from 9th grade to 12th grade, I don't have that same tight-knit relationship that most do. Sometimes I still wonder if I hold the friends I do have a little too loosely because of it...

Part way into my Senior year in High School, I moved to Coeur d'Alene to finish out the year. I stayed for a number of years and made it my 'home'. Until I got in trouble, and needed to move 'home'. To Colorado.

To this day, I have moved back and forth a few times as it seems the other place is always beckoning me...

It was a real treat to drive up to Coeur d'Alene in late Spring and stay for a full month. Who gets to do that?? I got to see friends, family, and all the places I love that fill my soul. After a couple weeks of pondering this dual-home catch 22 of mine, I decided that in the end, I really am fortunate to be able to call two places home, and wouldn't change it for anything.

Here are some pictures from my journey. It's hard to explain, but when I see these landscapes and views, I always feel like I'm going home...

A lake between Boise & McCall... Can't remember the name of it, but it almost doesn't matter because they all look about the same in those parts: STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL

Farmland up ahead! There are a couple hours worth of farmland to drive through, and I LOVE the rolling hills of green shoots with mountains and forests peeking up behind them...

You know you're in REAL farmland when there is a sign of all the names of people that live in the entire VALLEY. Not their address or phone number, just their name. Yep, the Gordon's live here and if you'd like to see em, just ask the next person driving down the road... they could probably point you in the right direction... What really cracks me up is the SAME SIGN is another 25 minutes down the road with the SAME NAMES. There must be one on each side of the Benewah Valley, just in case you missed the first one!

Across the street from the sign... A stunning set of silos and towers working hard for their farmers to make a living.

And then, just out of farmland, you hit the south end of the lake. Wow, it's always breathtaking. I was just in time to get a shot of a boat heading out from harbor...

The rocks along the lakeshore are truly unique to this part of the world.

When I finally hit the city, the first mandatory thing, every time, is to take a tour around the dyke road (yes, it's really called that, but it doesn't mean that) to see the river and pylons, and remember my college days here. This time, I saw THE biggest family of baby geese I've ever seen down there. I had to go get their picture...

Look at all those cute little gosling tookeses!

A parting note...

Although the grass may always SEEM greener, it really rarely ever is. Home is where your heart is, if you let it be there.

Yes, I've just been waiting for a post that I could use these 'grass is greener' pics!

p.s. Special Thanks to Trish, for being my friend every summer since we were about 8, and the rest of the year now that we're all growed up. I heart you.

Sailing on the Sound

Guess what? I got to go SAILING!!!

Saaaaaaaaiiiiiillllllllllliiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg, takes me away to where I'm goin tooooo-oooooooo...

I hope you can hear the music because I would embarrass my self and annoy you by typing out the phonetic sounds of the music to go with this song (or any other). So, if you didn't hear the music while reading that, start back at the beginning until you get it.

On the 4th of July, after the wedding, JJ and I traveled down to the piers in Seattle to enjoy the water, people, sights and sounds.
There was a booth set up to go sailing in the Puget Sound for an hour and a half at a very reasonable price.

After much capitulation about if I should go sailing with a skirt on or not, and figuring out how I could hold my skirt down with all the wind, and how if this was truly being modest or not, and how I WAS wearing bathing suit bottoms anyways, so did it really matter? We decided to GO!

I am so glad we did.



I've never been sailing before and was fascinated by the maneuvering, engineering, physics, or whatever that is (I got a D in Physics AND Geometry). Here is the First Mate on the boat getting the sails ready...



I took one hundred and one pictures of the city from the boat. It was definitely the best view in town!



It was AWESOME to just sit with the wind off the water, cruising in absolute tranquility.



There was an adorable family in the middle of the boat who ended up in just about every picture I have looking back at the boat. I love this one. It shows the truly joyous smile that we all had. You couldn't wipe mine off my face for the rest of the day!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...

If I took one hundred and one pictures of the city, I definitely took one hundred and TWO pictures of the sails! Here are a couple neat ones:

Although I look serene here, I was really thinking, "I'm SAILLLING! I'm SAAIIILLLIIINNNGGG!!!" Like Bob in What About Bob?

If you EVER have the chance to get yerself on a sailboat, do NOT skip the opportunity.

Apamazen

I've officially ended my month-long road trip that was preceded by weekend road-trips for the prior 3 weekends! I've had enough of every song on my iPod to last 10 years, and enough sunflower seeds to last a lifetime!

It's been a while since I have been able to post since I wasn't online for a full week! Wow, that's a record. The next few posts just HAVE to be of my travels, fun and love encountered in the past few weeks. Hope you enjoy!

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One of the best afternoons I had on my trip was with my Cousin, Tiffany and her new friend, Phyllis - aka Babs.
Babs lives at The Seasons in Sandpoint on the lake. It is a beautiful location and has a pool that sits lakeside, of course!
When I arrived, the Ladies had created a new drink and I was challenged to come up with a name for the drink... it was a combination of iced Tazo Zen green tea and Pama liquor. After much deliberation, the best I came up with was Pamataza. They had already come up with a better name that stuck: Apamazen. Doesn't the name just make you want to try it??
If it doesn't, this picture should!


Babs, is a DELIGHT! Full of charm, intelligence and humor, she is a Coach for Automotive Dealers. I think her hands are full right now :)

We had so many laugh out loud moments, the people sitting next to us were starting to eavesdrop and then chime in!! Between the three of us, it was a good ol' fashion laugh-fest!

You couldn't ask for a better spot to soak in some rays and enjoy Girlfriends:





After we were done basking, we went back up to Babs' place to peek at the view and take in a few pictures from the Lost in the 50's Car Rally.

Here's the view from her patio and a couple shots of some beautiful flowers she has blooming:

Babs and Tiffany kept telling me about this cherry blossom tree in town that just HAD to get it's picture taken... Of course, we had to stop and see it! It was in full bloom and just stunning!!

After basking in the sun all afternoon and swimming, we were not the quintissential picture of beauty, but I still love our pictures under the tree:

On another night when I stayed with Tiffany & Hannah, my 2nd cousin & Tiffany's daughter, we were about THE silliest girls you have ever seen. Hannah's friend, Mariah was staying the night too and we had a little Charlie's Angel's shoot. Well, it started that way...

Hannah was making the most awful faces in nearly every picture just to make us take another one...

Mariah was straight out of America's Next Top Model with a perfect pose in every shot!!

I'll spare you the other dozen pictures that should never see the light of day and leave you with these fun shots:

Oh no, we weren't having any fun AT ALL!

Hannah, Mariah and I all tried to sleep in Hannah's bed for a real slumber party, but it was too hot in the house and my 1 foot strip of bed wasn't going to cut it for me! I moved to the living room and had a great night's sleep.

Thanks for the fun Ladies!! Love you!

Neibs!

I honestly believe we have the very best Neighbors that exist on the planet. Well, they are the very best for us, anyways... I heart Pat n Suz. They came up to the cabin for the weekend, we played cards, rode at Copper, stopped at a dive bar, had snacks for dinner, cooked a whopper breakfast, took the long way home through the woods, and finished at sushi with John & Jeni for dinner on Sunday night. Phew! What a weekend!

These are their "Ready to go Ride!" smiles...

Hanging in the parking lot...

Spring is here! I love this little flower coming up out of nowhere... and this tree growing out of the rocks, how does that happen anyways? I need to do a series on trees at some point, I am in awe of them on a regular basis.

and, of course, puppy play in the snow!