Sandpoint, ID

It has been said that nothing is as strong as the heart of a volunteer. Nowhere could this have been more evident than at Sandpoint’s 14th annual Long Bridge Swim. If not for the many people who organized, oversaw, directed and managed this event (right down to the homeowner who provided the starting line), we swimmers would have never made it into the chilly waters of Lake Pend Oreille.

If you can race it, I will watch it. Needless to say when I was traveling to Spokane on a Saturday as we passed through Oldtown and Newport I looked down the Pend Oreille river and saw mini hydroplanes, I was beside myself. I knew they had a yearly hydroplane race and I had been to it when I was younger but as an adult I never remembered to look up the date

Tuesday there is always a buzz at my office about trivia night at McDuffs. I decided to round up my friends and try out trivia night. I had heard you needed to get there early to get a good table, near the large TV screen is best. Trivia starts at 7pm, so I arrived at about 6pm thinking that was plenty of time.

The finale was spectacular, with colors and shapes that impressed us all and made us wonder just how the heck they make those things. Glittery showers rained down from the sky at intervals while tall shooters streaked up in Vs and fell down again. Did they fall into the boats below? It sure looked like some boaters might have been stomping embers!

It was the 6th annual wooden boat festival in Sandpoint and my family and I decided to take the stroll around the boardwalk to see the boats. We parked near the courthouse and walked down to the Sandpoint marina boardwalk

It seems like everywhere I go I hear grumblings about gas prices. And it’s all true, what people are saying. We are paying more for gas this summer than we did last summer. Good thing we weren’t planning any big trips this year, otherwise we’d have to tap into our retirement fund! Instead of a vacation this year, my family is taking a staycation! What’s a staycation, you may be asking yourself? It’s a period of time where we will stay at home and relax, explore our community, and take day trips – all within a short drive from home. We may decide to take a week off for our staycation, or we may just do it over several weekends. Here’s what we’re thinking about doing:

“If you buy that, I’m not refinishing it!”
They looked like sisters, but they might have been friends for so long that they just resembled each other. One of them had discovered a treasure—an old end table with a lot of mileage on it—and she hoisted it before her like a shield. Her companion had apparently been through this before; she was stating her case, holding her ground, drawing a line in the sand.
Table Lady laughed and reassured her. “It’s perfect! Don’t you dare touch it!”

So we headed west on Cedar Street, stopping in at Pend Oreille Winery to view the artwork there. Here is where our adventure got a whole lot better (and no, not because we did wine-tasting!). We walked in to the winery, looked to the right, and all along a wall clearly displayed was artwork. And it was beautiful! And the artist was someone we know! We were so excited to finally see something wonderfully displayed, really allowing the focus to be on the art and not merchandise for sale. There was plenty of room for us to stand back and admire the art, and the salespeople left us alone (aside from a pleasant greeting) to contemplate the art.

Nothing stirs patriotism like an Independence Day parade, and the flags were out in earnest for Sandpoint’s 2008 Fourth of July procession.

My favorite holiday is the 4th of July, and I could think of no better way to spend the morning than watching the annual Parade. It weaves all through downtown, so there were plenty of places to sit and watch the festivities. We got there about 45 minutes early, which turned out to be great, because we ended up with an ideal spot to watch. We chose Farmin Park, across from Wells Fargo, so there was shade, and more importantly, a place for my 6 year old to play while we waited for it to start.