My Own Private Idaho, Day 3

Just some observations...

Just to let everyone know, Hope, Idaho (population 200), is about 15 minutes from Montana, 40 minutes from Canada. There's some landowners in an unincorported area outside the town borders that gets a kick out of calling themselves "Beyond Hope." They have signs & named their restaurant that.

The view from the deck provides an audience for the three or four guys who use sea planes to take off for work each morning. Obviously, we get to see them return in the afternoon. Yesterday, the Barnstorming Brother-In-Law Shane got to take part in an "emergency" take off as a storm was brewing involving hail & the next door neighbor could get them to the Sandpoint Airport (where he parks their plane...in this case outside) in 6 minutes. This would allow them to put the planes in hangars. No matter how many times you see a sea plane take off & land, it's worth stopping to watch.

It's about a quarter-mile walk to get the newspaper from the mailbox bin. No problem in the summer, but my guess is that in the winter it just ain't worth it.

When riding one of those boat toys that people call an "inner tube" (which is really one not at all like an inner tube, but replaces the function. It's about 15 feet wide and 8 feet long with handles & such.) everyone gets a look on their face that makes them look like their five years old. The Higher-Order Life-Liver sister Jilly pointed this out and it's true. What's really cool is to watch your Smokin' Hot Shutterbug Trophy Wife get that look because we didn't grow up together and haven't ever really gone out and done a lot of stuff like that.

Those ballet lessons paid off in spades as Kid2 could ride the "inner tube" no matter the speed or twists & turns. Apparently, balance has a lot to do with being successful at that. Also, leg strength matters when you're kicking your sister off.

Jilly & The Can't Help It Hostess Jean got some recipe from what they referred to as "the greatest recipe web site ever." For those recipe fans out there it's Epicurious.Com. We had this.

The Sentz family has a cocktail cruise pretty much every afternoon at sunset. Last night, our captain was the Reluctant Retiree Jay. He's owned property up here since 1979 and when you're in a town of 200, you know stuff about everybody. He was a GREAT tour guide. Dick Rowland makes the drinks too strong. Harrison Ford was rumored to be interested in the purchase of an island with an $11 million price tag, but won't buy it because it was once used as a burial ground for the Native Americans who populated this area (the logic was that if you ever decided to build on it, the lawsuits would start making the land "undesirable at any price."). He knew the name of the lady who donated the land for the state park. He told us about the guy from Germany who built quarters for his tennis pro and has part of the Berlin Wall as part of his driveway gate. This RV park is better than that RV park because of a jetty for boat parking, group beach access...the drawback is no restaurant. One was the "Beyond Hope RV Park."

A local radio station used the phrase "Rocking Spokane to Sandpoint and everything in-between." From what I've observed, that would be fields, mountains and lakes. Apparently, nature likes to rock up here.

Once you hit 10PM and are just a little bit tired, it becomes too much of a hassle to go hot tubbing (how's THAT for vacation mindset?). You have to get that action in motion by 9:30PM or it's just not gonna happen.

When you read a book about paratroopers in WWII who went all the way from Normandy to drinking Hitler's champagne, and think about what you were doing at age 20, well, let's just say that I'm not real sure that experiencing the best & worst war can throw at you and building an Easter Island looking tiki for the fraternity luau are even in the same universe.

I promise we'll get back into the parenting book...I'm further into it and you will NOT want to miss that series, man. It's pretty provocative.