It's not only Father's Day

but it's also the longest day of the year.  How wonderful to spend a few more daylight minutes enjoying the most wonderful time of the year.  And Mary has made a coconut cream pie, after blueberry pancakes, two naps and three phone calls.  Wonderful.  Hope you all have found your own special ways to make your holiday equally spectacular.  (Do I go overboard on this?)

So, we arrived back from our trip at the obscene hour of 3am on Thursday morning, but as I tell Mary, we saved $40 by doing so,  This was my first time to California, and we saw what -- at least in northern California -- what everyone else sees in the state.  San Francisco has all these great neighborhoods and a different feel.  Our Peace Corps conference was at Berkeley so we recognized from the movie The Graduate the landmark buildings there (before the terrible balcony collapse.  Redwoods and wineries, beaches and Golden Gate all lived up to their billing.  Then on to Oregon where we were steered correctly to Crater Lake (never heard of it.)  We looked at getting a room at Crater Lake Lodge and the website they were all booked and taking reservations for next summer.  So at 11am we called and got a room (obviously a last miute cancellation) at the lodge. Mary is now the patron saint of reservations, as well as parking places.  Santa Maria.  Then on to Seattle to see our friend Valerie who had us on a busy schedule of sightseeing in the cty and on Bainbridge Island, passing Ivar's again.  The photo here is a feeble attempt at art, a reflection at the Chihuly glass museum, with the needle in the background.  

We rented a car to rdrive from San Francisco to Seattle, and drove mostly smaller highways and came away with a distinct impression of poverty in America.  A lot of homeless and down and outers.  Pretty tough out there.

We were not the only ones traveling.  We say Johanna's facebook postings and her account of her trip to Idaho on this site.  Great.  Annie is also in the middle of her train ride across America.  At one point we were probably just a couple of hours away from each other as she disemabrked at Sacremento to head up to Chico to see a friend.  We thought of turning the car left to go see her, but then we'd be the crazy parents.  Sounds like she had a great stay in Dundee and evening hosted by Bill and Jen.  And Margaret and Andrew are ready for a vacation.  Margaret has been putting a lot of weekend time into work, so they will be ready for their trip to South Africa in August.

And, Andrew and Lur sound like they had a great trip to the Carolinas.  They stayed with a friend in North Carolina who has a horse farm, and then on to Myrtle Beach where they withstood the hard sale for a time share to enjoy a coupl eof beach days.

Nature news:  we got home and saw that the peas and beans have been chewed in our fenced in garden.  The mystery was solved this morning when we saw a groundhog in the garden.  When I ran out to chase it out of the garden, I was surprised to see it slip through the fence, which has openings of 4" by 1 1/2".  I tw as a baby but still incredible to see it slide through.  Soon it will be big and fat and hopefully not be able to get through those openings, and hopefully not after it has eaten everything in the garden,

Other news:  John and Marilyn celebrated the sale of their house in Pittsfield.  Our friends from Nigeria (Peter and Jan) celebrated the purchase of their house in Richmond MA.  Joe has put a bid in on a house in DC.  

Happy birthday to Melodie who celebrated with a baseball game at Nationals stadium.  And congratulations to Sean for a distnguished graduation from law school.  

And special thanks to Robbie for looking after kitty while we abandoned her, or him.  He's gender confused, or maybe we are.         

And on that note, love from up here.

A Week in Idaho

Hello all!

As many saw on Facebook, I spent part of last week in Idaho on a business trip. My colleague Lindsey and I are were flown out by our author, Michael B. Koep, for the hometown launch of his second book Leaves of Fire. 

Coeur D'Alene, his hometown, is a resort town on a gorgeous lake. It's very artsy and affluent and full of just about the nicest people you'll ever meet. There was nary a person who didn't say hi to us or smile at us. We arrived early morning Wednesday and had three full days ahead of us before the launch to do what we wanted. Our first day, after settling into our hotel and grabbing coffee and a bite to eat, we hiked up through the woods that over look the lake. It had stunning views all around and turned into a 4-mile excursion. We ended the evening with dinner and foosball at a local tap house. 

We were still required to work while out here so we spent the mornings working at local cafes and then the afternoons hiking. Each day we hiked about four-five miles. The terrain is rather easy, as it's pretty flat, but the length felt like a great workout. Thursday night we joined our author, his wife and son, his publisher and his wife for a lovely dinner at a favorite local tapas spot. Friday night was the hometown launch in a done-up abandoned building. Michael is an  artist and a musician in addition to a writer so the party featured his artwork, local musicians, and plenty of imbibing. Michael did an fantastic reading of an original essay in addition to a chapter from the book, part of a trilogy about art coming to life and changing the past. 

Saturday morning we took a short cab ride over to Post Falls, Idaho where we would be staying for our last night. While Coeur D'Alene is a scenic resort town, Post Falls is pretty much the opposite. The mountains in the background and the area around our hotel were lovely but the town itself was rather dull and lifeless. As the hiking wasn't up to our speed we decided to instead borrow bikes from our hotel and take the Centennial Trail (a paved trail that runs through Idaho and Washington; we hiked part of it in Coeur D'Alene) over to Liberty Lake Park in Washington. It's normally an 11-mile ride each way but we went way off path after losing the trail near Liberty Lake the town. As such we ended up walking our one-speed bikes up a mountain. But we made it to the park and managed to bike about 3 miles in it before deciding to turn around and head back. We were exhausted once back in Idaho but the feeling of having succeeded in that ride was incomparable. Remarkably we weren't too tired to wake up the next morning and hit the hotel's fitness center.

I arrived home safe and sound late last night, high off a wonderful experience. Lindsey and I are already good friends but it was amazing to spend the past five days with her. Not many of my colleagues would have been up for all the activity. 

Coeur D'Alene isn't easy to get to (almost no direct flights and the return trip takes about a whole day) but I highly recommend a visit if you ever have the chance. It's a spectacular town and well worth the trip. And many thanks to my amazing parents for watching my dog while I was away!

Love, Johanna

​