Back from Vacation

I'm back from vacation. Kate and I had a great time up north, it was a great way to spend my birthday visiting all five of my old mission areas and showing off the amazing scenery of northern Idaho/Montana/Washington to my wife. The only real downside was coming home and realizing no one got me a mustang, MG42 or DeLorean. Shame on you guys! I did get a subscription to The Limbaugh Letter and Rush Limbaugh's website from Kate's uncle, renewed from when he got me that last year; so that's very cool.

Speaking of which, before I go on, woohoo for Sarah Palin! Now I have someone to vote for, rather than holding my nose while I vote against Obama. We now have a VP nominee with better qualifications and more experience than the Democrat's presidential pick. Also she's willing to push for domestic oil, which is a big plus. Is McCain finally waking up and coming back to conservatism? This gives me hope. As one Limbaugh caller put it today, (mocking Michelle Obama), "for the first time in years I am proud to call myself a Republican!"

Okay, now I'll save the politics for a boring future post.

Two observations from the trip: The Jeep Cherokee definitely gets the best mileage by far at around 55 mph. Also, gas on Indian reservations is much cheaper, since they don't have to charge for tax; as a result, they are the only ones who actually make a real profit on the gas itself.

We left Rexburg late Monday morning, and arrived at Farragut State Park that evening, where we camped for two nights. Farragut State Park is on Lake Pend Oreille, which is pronounced Pondaray by people who, like the french, can't remember what sound half those letters make. Here's Lake Pend Oreille:

If I had it all to do over again, I would totally camp there again. Great scenery, right in the dense forest, and a nice trail around the lake. Next time, though, we'll go prepared to canoe on the lake. The park is right near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (another french name that requires holding your nose to pronounce like they do in france), and as a bonus you have to go through a tiny town called Athol. Yes, I know I'm completely immature, but I think this name is hilarious if you say it out loud and pronounce it wrong. It sounds like a rude word with a lisp, and is extra funny if you say "Entering Athol":

If you notice, I'm actually wearing a coat. The weather was awesome! There was rain, and overcast clouds to hide the evil, oppressive sun most of the time, and it was mid-40s until late morning both days we were at Farragut. Any weather where I think about putting on a coat is good weather.

On tuesday we took a scenic loop around the lake and through northwestern Montana up to Troy, Montana, then back through Bonner's Ferry, Idaho, which was my second mission area. This was just a scenic trip; there's nothing to do in Bonner's Ferry, and no one I really needed to visit.

As we were headed east past Clark Fork on Hwy 200, we saw these cool rock outcrops (you should really click for the full-sized image):

I really didn't take as many pictures as I expected, we mostly enjoyed just driving, and only stopped for the most spectacular things, such as those outcrops. We got back to camp with plenty of daylight left, so we went to Coeur d'Alene because there is a store there that sells a line of purses Kate is interested in. Naturally purses aren't my thing, but since most if not all of you who read this blog are women, you may be interested in these, which are made out of recycled seatbelts:

They're very expensive, so she didn't buy one yet, but Kate was very excited to see them so they were a planned stop on our vacation. Afterward we went into Spokane Valley, about 30 miles west of Coeur d'Alene, which was my third mission area. The best friend I made on my mission I met in this area, but she lives in Utah now, so we didn't visit her. Instead we tried to find our way through a maze of construction; literally every major road in this part of town had been ripped up and was closed to through traffic. I thought the construction crews in Rexburg were lazy with the planning, this was ridiculous! We finally made it to two people I wanted to visit, though, but one wasn't home and the other had moved away. It wasn't a big deal, though; they weren't major reasons for the trip, just old acquaintances.

We ate that night at The Mustard Seed, which is a great Asian (generic Asian, but good anyway) restaurant that is local to Spokane and serves great food. If you ever find yourself in Spokane area, I highly recommend eating there.

The next day we went up through north Spokane (my fourth mission area), which doesn't have much to offer scenery-wise but gives a fine taste of how hard it is to find your way around Spokane. Spokane may be the worst-planned city of all time. It's a maze of one-way streets (none going the way you need, of course), confusing intersections and rude, careless drivers. I've never seen a city that is more frustrating to get around in than Spokane, not even close.

So we passed through that area up to my fifth and final area, north of Spokane in a small town called Deer Park. There were two families we planned to visit here, and fortunately both were home. First there were the Helms in Deer Park, who when I left had been planning an African safari. Cliff Helm is a big hunter, and their house is full of mounts of various animals he's hunted, and he showed off his African kills. I'm not big on hunting, or mounting animals and keeping them at home, but he did have some cool ones, like a leopard and a zebra and a lion and a hyena. Almost five years ago, at the Helms' place, I got to cut up a whole pig (unfortunately I finished my mission and went home right before I'd have gotten to eat it) with a saw and a big knife, and I got to go to the ski slope (before snow) to dig up some small trees for Cliff's landscaping business. Fun stuff.

That night we went up to stay overnight with the Hansens up in Elk, Washington, who are the coolest people ever. I should have taken a picture of their house, which looks like it's straight out of Better Homes & Gardens both inside and out. When I was a missionary there, Galen Hansen had been Ward Mission Leader and superintendent of the school district there, and he and his wife were housing six young troubled girls at their home. These are girls that had been either neglected or abused, and in some cases were only not in jail because they'd chosen to stay with the Hansens instead. Galen has since retired, and Kathie Hansen (who runs a business or something that is in charge of sheltering the girls, a different group now) had found a group home at which to house the girls, which made for a much less noisy house.

When we got there Kathie was in the middle of cooking a meal for a huge family that lived down the street whose grandfather the night before had been killed by a bull. This was my favorite area of my mission, not only for the scenery, but because it was such a tight-knit group of the nicest people ever. The night after we left the Hansens were planning on having a couple dozen extended family members of the Vanderholms (the family who'd lost their grandfather) who were headed in for the funeral. I often get fed up with the exclusivity of Mormon culture, but these guys up in the middle of nowhere are the real deal, true Latter-day Saints; we could have been crazy strangers, and if we'd knocked on their door they'd have given us a room to stay in for the night.

Oh, yeah, and Kathie Hansen is an amazing cook, too. After cooking a huge meal for the Vanderholms she threw together a very good meal for us and her family, and the next morning did the same again for breakfast that included homemade maple and huckleberry syrup. Also she introduced us to possibly the best salad dressing I've ever had, Walla Walla Sweet Onion and Summer Tomato Salad Dressing:

I plan to order several bottles at some point soon; some will go on salad, some will probably serve as a beverage. I want to try their sweet onion and honey mustard, too. Yum.

That night I had a weird dream where I was on a nature preserve on the Helms' property, and he'd captured live African animals rather than dead ones, but they'd gotten out like in Jurassic Park and I was stuck outside and had to defend myself from lions, leopards and hyenas with a big blacksmith's hammer. I think the hammer came from a character in The Wheel of Time who is a blacksmith but also fights battles with a huge axe, but wishes he only had his hammer. This has nothing to do with the trip, it was just a cool dream that I almost forgot until just now.

The next morning we left to go home, and traveled south through Lewiston, Idaho. The trip from Spokane to Lewiston is through very cool rolling hills covered in wheat that I should have taken a picture of. Since I didn't, here's a picture from the internet from near Palouse, Washington, which we passed through:

We took a detour to drive through Moscow, Idaho, which was my first mission area. That's a real hippie town, and if we get a chance in the future we will visit on April 20 someday, to go to HempFest. Moscow is a town that really knows how to celebrate 420.

Then it was back through Lewiston on the way home:

From there we took highway 12 east to Missoula, simply because it was the quickest way home, slightly quicker than going south through Boise.

We almost went through Boise simply because we'd never been there before, but we're glad we took this route because it was yet another awesome scenic drive. It's part of the Lewis and Clark trail, and follows the middle fork of the Clearwater River. If possible I'd love to get friends together and do a float trip down this river, because the scenery is great. For the first half of this leg of the drive we were in more rolling hills, but the road cut through recent (as in Miocene) basalt flows, which were fun to look at. There was one point in particular that had some spectacular columnar joints, but unfortunately there was nowhere to stop the car for a picture. I'll take one when I take that float trip. Afterward it was down into older rock and denser forest, all the way to Missoula. Then it was dark, and we got home at 1am Friday morning. A good trip.

And on the way home on highway 12 we got stuck for awhile behind the BioDiesel bus:

Oh, yeah, and I'm older even than I was now, with more gray hairs. I am now officially older than a quarter century old! I think I get to pay my tuition this year with social security.