Home again

School ended with its usual flurry of activity--end of year parties, art/music nights, field trips and final exams.  Those last few weeks of school are intense! But the last day holds a special type of emotion.  It is excitement, joy and just a twinge of sadness about saying goodbye to favorite teachers all rolled up into a day that we never forget, no matter how long ago we were in school.  I share in the girls' excitement because I still feel it!  That feeling of the last day of school, where summer just stretches out before you, still lingers in my psyche.  It's the perfect time to pack up our camper and head out of town--which is exactly what we did.

We went from days that began early and ended late--filled to the brim with the constant hum of technology-- to a week out in nature, away from our computers and cell phones.  It was a perfect way to catch our breath and a fantastic way to welcome summer days.  (Though having seen so little of the sun lately, I'm not sure if summer is really here just yet...).  So in case you were wondering why I was away from this blog for the past week, I thought I would show you what we were up to.  Our six night camping trip took us to Northern Idaho near Coeur d'Alene, Hells Canyon on the Idaho/Oregon border and Wallowa Lake in Northeastern Oregon.

I should probably mention that we use the word camping loosely.  We recently upgraded our tiny camper to a fairly large fifth wheel.  Not only are we off the ground, but we sleep in comfy beds and we have a tiny bathroom, a microwave, and a TV with surround sound.  I was originally embarrassed by that last amenity, but I have to admit that I love watching a movie in our camper when the rain is pounding down outside--which it does so often on camping trips in the Pacific Northwest.  And I love being warm and dry.  So, to camping purists, what we do is not camping.  But we still cook our food outside, have campfires, and hike and bike in beautiful remote areas.  For us it is all of the fun of camping without the misery.

So to begin, we left Bainbridge early on the 16th and drove across Washington state on I-90, through Spokane, and into Idaho.  Once we got to Coeur d'Alene we headed north to Farragut State Park.  Our main focus was to explore the area around Hells Canyon and the Wallowa mountains.  My grandma spent part of her childhood in this area and I had heard many stories about how beautiful it is.  But Silverwood--a theme/water park near Farragut State Park--was calling to our girls, so we made a driving loop with destinations for all of us. Farragut State Park is in such pretty country. The camp sites were spacious and the park has miles of biking, hiking and horse trails.  We'll definitely be returning. 

At Farragut, we were surrounded by these little creatures that we called Prairie Dogs.  There was a rather large community of them and they chirped to each other incessantly.  Some of us thought they were cute, and others (Brian and Emily) were plotting ways to do them in as the chirping was getting on their nerves!  We were next to the huge lake of Pend Oreille, which we learned is pronounced "Pond-a-ray".  And we were also next to the town of Athol, which we chose to pronounce "ath-hole" -- hours of cheap amusement with bad jokes at this small town's expense!

The girls were right about wanting to go to Silverwood.  The day we went ended up being the nicest day of our whole trip--85 degree sunshine and an uncrowded water park.  We went on June 19th which was our 17th anniversary and it was actually a totally fun way to celebrate.  In the middle of the park's lazy river is a swim up bar.  Who can resist bar stools in water?  While the girls made laps around the river, which took a solid 10 minutes per lap, we enjoyed an anniversary beer.  We had just as much fun as the kids. 

We left Silverwood in the late afternoon and drove south to our next campground, Hells Gate State Park in Lewiston, Idaho.  The drive was scenic and rural--a beautiful winding road through the foothills and valleys of the surrounding mountains.  We finally came down (and the three runaway truck ramps we passed really let us know we were coming down!) into Lewiston and enjoyed our first glimpse of the Snake river which runs through Hells Canyon.  We set up camp in another gorgeous spot next to the Snake River.  The air was hot, but the clouds were moving in and by the time we finished dinner, we were treated to a lightning storm.  We sat under our awning and watched the sky.  It was a nice finish to a very fun day.

We were really hoping to take a jet boat tour of the Snake river through Hells Canyon.  I mean the name alone is enticing to me--Hells Canyon and Hells gate--what sort of place is this?  We had read that this canyon is the deepest gorge in North America--even deeper than the Grand Canyon.  So of course we wanted to see more, and there isn't much road access into the canyon.  But the jet boat tours are not cheap.  I called all of the tour companies and the cheapest tour for our family of five was going to be $750 for a five hour tour.  Now I'm not saying it wouldn't be worth doing, but for that price we let the jet boat dream go.  And we headed south to Wallowa Lake State Park in northeastern Oregon.

As it turned out, the drive to Wallowa Lake offered all the excitement we needed!  On the map, it didn't look like it would take us very long--maybe three hours or so of driving.  But we had no idea what we were getting into.  The drive from Lewiston to Enterprise, Oregon (which is the biggest of the tiny towns in this area) is a drive we will never forget.  For starters, there are no towns, and not very many roads--or paved roads I should say.  Washington highway 129 (which turns into Oregon highway 3) took us up and down, while hugging steep cliffs and offering hairpin turns every few hundred feet.  I wouldn't recommend towing a heavy fifth wheel as we were doing.   But I will say that even though at times those of us on the cliff side were afraid to look down, it is one of the prettiest, most amazing roads I have ever been on. 

And in about the middle of the drive, we came down into a canyon to find a little restaurant very aptly named "Boggan's Oasis".  We needed a stop, both to calm our nerves and to tend to the front brake which was smelling very hot.  And Boggan does know how to make an oasis.  We walked in to the smell of hamburgers, fried onions and homemade pies.  Plus they had old fashioned milkshakes.  We promptly ordered five and I don't know if it was Boggan who made them, but the sweet gentleman who made ours looked like he was in his 70's.  He made the best milkshake I have had in a long while. 

As we drove into the town of Enterprise our weather took a turn for the worse--again!  It was pouring, and our shorts and flip-flops suddenly felt very wrong.  We picked up a few more groceries and continued on through the very cute town of Joseph and then around Wallowa Lake and into our campground.  The rain was pouring as we checked in and the river we were next to was running full and fast.  All of the sites were soaked in puddles and we set up camp as quick as we could and then felt very thankful for our warm and dry camper--especially as we saw groups of tent campers huddled around soggy fires trying to keep warm.

I didn't sleep well thinking of the rising waters of Ice Creek running so close to us, but in the morning we were surprised and happy to wake up to sunshine and dry pavement.  We couldn't believe how quickly the puddles drained! And we were treated to our first real views of the Wallowa Lake. It is a glacier formed lake that sits at 4200 feet elevation with the Wallowa mountains rising to 10,000 feet behind it.  Hells Canyon lies East of it. It felt like we were very far away from civilization which was nice for a while. This area of Oregon, Idaho and Washington was the ancient home of the Nez Peirce Indians. In fact the town of Joseph was named after Chief Joseph. There are some history signs in different places telling where the tribe spent winters, where they hunted, etc. And with so few people living here, it isn't too hard to imagine what the place looked like a couple of hundred years ago.

My grandmother lived in this area when she was a little girl. Her father was a rancher outside of Joseph in the early 1900's. One of the stories she told me was of going out to visit an aunt who lived in Imnaha (about 20 miles outside of Joseph). She told me the road was so narrow, that when two cars passed each other the people in the car on the cliffside would get out and stand on the running boards while they slowly passed each other. This was to weight the car and keep it on the road since it was essentially passing on two wheels. The other side was hanging precariously off the edge of the road over the canyon! My grandma told me it was terrifying. Armed with that kind of a story, of course we drove out to Imnaha to see what the modern road was like.

Imnaha is a sweet little town boasting a store, a restaurant, a post office and a school. We were told by one of the local people that a gorgeous view of the Snake river canyon could be found if we drove up the Imnaha canyon and then took a dirt road up for just a little ways. Of course we did this too. And we found ourselves on another crazy road-- this one was a dirt/gravel road hugging the mountain and it was only one lane. It felt a lot more like what my grandmother had described from 100 years ago. The views from this road were stunning, and even though it was a bit scary, it was worth it.  I was thankful for our trucks' four-wheel drive.  We got back to our campsite at Wallowa Lake just fine, with memories of some gorgeous country.

The last couple of days of our camping trip we spent around Wallowa Lake.   We rode the tram that takes you up to the top of Mt. Howard (8,200 feet).  It is about a 15 minute tram ride and it takes you up over 4,000 feet!  Sophie discovered that she is afraid of heights during the ride up, or at least afraid of being in a small space suspended above the side of a mountain.  Not an unreasonable fear. 

At the top of the mountain we landed into snow!  We hiked around the few trails up there and took in the views of the mountains around us and the Hells Canyon off  in the distance.   It was so quiet on the top of Mt. Howard--very peaceful.  We all noticed the elevation change too.  Coming from the Puget Sound, we are used to operating at sea level.  At 8,000 feet the air is quite a bit thinner!  Or at least that is what I told myself as I was out of breath hiking around up there. 

Emily, being the sort of big sister who loves to tease, was extra enthusiastic on the tram ride back down the mountain so that she could fully appreciate Sophie's squeals when the tram moved a bit.  So my ride back down was filled with squeals and giggles--a different type of peace altogether!  Back down near the lake are all kinds of fun touristy things to do:  go-carts, mini-golf and a little arcade.  So after our tram ride, and another good lunch at our new favorite brew pub in Joseph, we rode our bikes around the lake, marveled again at how full and fast the Ice Creek was running into Wallowa Lake, and then checked out the go-carts.  It was a small track and Emily and Sophie were both old enough to be drivers.  And since Emily is about to get her driver's permit, we let Grace be her passenger.  They loved it!  This was the first time neither Brian or I had a little one with us for something like this.  So we each had our own car and got to race the girls and each other.  Amazing how much they are growing up...

We knew our drive home was going to be a long one.  There are only two roads out of Wallowa Lake--one heads north/south and is the one we came in on, the other heads west.  Both are the sort of roads that take their time, so we knew it would be a long day of driving to get home.  (Mostly, it was going to be a long day just getting to the freeway!)  So our last day started early and with some sadness that our trip was over.  But we discovered some new places that we love, with Joseph in particular being one of our new favorite small towns.  And we discovered a new brewery, Terminal Gravity Brewing which has a fantastic double IPA.  (check out their website http://www.terminalgravitybrewing.com/ )  We are back home, with our world feeling a bit bigger and some nice memories to keep for later.  And as for the start of summer, we are hoping the sun decides to join us here on Bainbridge soon!