vacation!

Jeff and I had the incredible burden this weekend of having a free cabin to use in Hope, Idaho (just near Sandpoint) overlooking Lake Pend Orielle (pond-er-ay). God bless generous colleagues. We headed out Friday afternoon, stopping at the coop to buy salami, mozzerella, tomato, basil, bread, wine, cereal, milk, and beer. It took about 1:45 to get to Coeur d'Alene and then another hour to Sandpoint. Finally, from Sandpoint to the cabin took about 30 minutes. Sandpoint is like Traverse City. A real mix of tourists and locals, and amazing views. Lots of cute shops, restaurants, etc. As you drive north and east around the lake (Hope is actually southeast of Sandpoint, but you have to go around the lake to get there) it becomes much less touristy, although it's definitely still got that vibe--just much less Traverse City feeling and much more Copper Harbor, if that makes sense.


The drive from Sandpoint to the cabin is crazy beautiful, weaving through the mountains and popping out periodically on the lake. See:


The actual town of Hope is teeny, with a few marinas, a few restaurants, and that's about it. The cabin is a little outside of Hope. You drive up this dirt road up a big ol' mountain. There is a real mix of cabins on the road. Some are trailers w/ junkyard dogs, some are really big ol' fancy log cabins, and everything in between. On the way you go by our favorite place, appropriate for north-Idaho (think militia):


We then found the cabin, just as the sun was starting to get low in the sky. This is a photo on our way out actually, but you can see the cabin:


It's on a sloping 5 acre lot, with a mix of grassland and big ol' conifers. It's a great 3 bedroom place, nice kitchen, and lots of windows. The best part is the view, and the front porch. We probably spent most our time on that porch.

Here's me when we first got there, opening my beer and prancing about the grassland:


Ok then, the view:


Not half bad eh?

Friday night we drank some wine and ate our coop goodies, as we were too fried to go back to town for dinner. It was quite lovely. We got up Saturday, hung out on the porch for awhile--see Jeff eat breakfast:


..and then we headed down to check out the water. There is a campground/public beach just down the hill from the cabin. It's really nice, and far less busy than the ones at Sandpoint, but still very popular.

Walking up to the water:


The lovely lake, as clear as Superior:


The beach, it's quite rocky:


And then, the self-portrait:


We wandered about Sandpoint later Saturday, and then eventually headed back to the cabin. Grabbed a belated birthday/anniversary dinner down at a place on the water, just a few miles from the cabin. It was really nice and quite tasty, plus it had a hell of a view.

Today, Sunday, we got up late, did our porch breakfast and eventually packed it up and headed out. Overall a really great vacation. Could've used about 2 more days of staring, but still, this was good.