Dad Goes Home and Cait Graduates

And just like that, it was time for Bruce to drive Dad home to California.

Teddy: "Bye, Angel. Nice meeting you. They keep telling me you're a dog, but I'm still not sure."
Angel: "Yeah, well, thanks for not eating me. I'm ready to go home. Where's the truck?"

Bye, Dad! Thanks for coming up to visit and see this beautiful part of the country. We'll all miss you!

And then they left...

Going

Going

Gone!

And then I was alone. Better start on all those chores that Bruce usually does. No more laying around eating bon bons!

Bruce and Dad spent the night in Redmond, Oregon and ate supper at the Black Bear Diner. Bruce had the Tri Tip plate and Dad had...the Bigfoot Chicken Fried Steak!

The next morning, a rainbow paved their way south on the road to California.

While Dad was up here, I made new "sails" for a bird thingamajig that he had in his front yard. As you can see, the old sails were worn and faded from the sun.

Peggy and I came up with a pattern for new sails.

Dad took the new sails home and installed them on the thingamajig.
If you look closely, you can see the sails at the far end of the flowerbed.

The flowers had grown quite a bit in the five weeks Dad had been away. The deck looked beautiful!

Caitlin was graduating from UC Davis the next day, and had an extra ticket. Guess who got to go?

He even got a haircut for the occasion!

Awwww, Grandpa and Caitlin at her college graduation. They both looked great! I bet Dad was remembering the little six year old girl who would only wear pink dresses.

Here's Cait with her friend, Jennifer, getting ready for the ceremony.

And here she is walking across the stage to get her diploma. She's the one to the right of Mr. Red Robe.

After the ceremony, Bruce and Dad went to Cait's house to celebrate at her graduation party. There was delicious Indian food, which Dad had no problem devouring.

And a scrumptious cake for dessert.

Everyone had a wonderful time celebrating Cait's grand accomplishment. Graduating with high honors, with a double major, in just three years!

Dad hung out, looking pretty snazzy.

The next day, Bruce went to see his friend. Ricky. They hadn't seen each other in years, and a visit was long overdue!

They yukked it up for a couple of hours, and then Bruce stopped by for a quick visit with our dear friend, Doris, and her doggie, Jerry.

Jerry looks crazy!

That night, Bruce and Dad had supper with our family friends from waaaaaaaaay back. I'm talking back to the '60s!

L to R: Dad, Terry, Mary, Gail, Lucy and Arlene

The next morning, Bruce got up at the crack of dawn and headed north. It took him two days to get home to me, Teddy, and all the kitties and other critters.

We are so grateful he got Dad and Angel home safe and sound, Caitlin graduated and is off to a bright future, and Bruce got home safely to us.

Thus ends Dad's Idaho Adventure!

Dad's Visit - Week Five

During Dad's last week here in Idaho, we drove up to Priest Lake for the day. Bruce and I have been wanting to go up there but never got around to it. Dad's visit gave us the perfect excuse to finally go.

Now, Peggy told us that she has been up to Priest Lake several times, but it creeps her out. The last time they drove there, she actually made Dave turn around and go home before they even got there. She gets a creepy feeling at some point on the road, and doesn't know why. When she relayed this to us, Bruce said "Well, you know what it is, don't you?" "No, what?" "BIGFOOT!" Great. Now I'm going to be on the lookout for Bigfoot.

We drove all the way to the north end of Lower Priest Lake and had our lunch there.

Teddy and Angel took refuge from the hot sun under the picnic table. I wish we could have. It was pretty warm out there, but beautiful!

After lunch, Teddy got to chase his tennis ball and go for a cooling swim at the same time. If you scroll down fast, it's kind of like a movie! Or, it could make you dizzy...

Love this last one. Teddy looks like Jerry Lewis. No comments on who I look like, please.


On the way back, we stopped by a campground with a little grocery store that sold homemade ice cream. Dad got a bowl of Lemon Meringue Pie ice cream. He seemed to enjoy it.

Priest Lake was just as beautiful as everyone told us. We only got to explore the east side of the lake, as it's 19 miles long with a 35 mph speed limit most of the way.

Next time we go up, we'll explore the west side. We may even plan a...gulp...camping trip and bring the boat. We need to dig out the camping equipment. Where did we put it?

Just south of the lake, on the way home, we stopped by a rest area. There was a cute little trail off to the side, and I stopped to take a photo. When I looked at it, something caught my attention.

Whoa, do you see that?

BIGFOOT!!!!

I can't wait to tell Peggy!

Next post will be about Bruce driving Dad back to California and Caitlin's graduation from UC Davis. Stay tuned!

Dad's Visit - Week Four

It's finally feeling like summer around here!

We took Dad to the WWII 'Museum at the Brig' in Farragut State Park.

Can't resist a big red fire truck!

And then...they threw Dad in jail!!!

Luckily, they didn't throw away the key. We continued our tour...

"We're walking...we're walking"

Dad still likes to have fun!

We visited "Mack" out in front of the museum.

I encourage everyone who visits northern Idaho to tour this museum and state park. A bit of interesting history for this area and its role in WWII.


Yesterday, we took Peggy's pontoon boat out onto Spirit Lake to do some fishing. Well, it wasn't "real" fishing, according to Dad, because we didn't get up at the break of dawn. In fact, we didn't get out on the water until almost noon. Oops.

But it was a lovely, if not a bit hot, day and the lake was beautiful.

Peggy let Bruce drive. Really, we didn't steal her boat! Here she is!

In fact, she made a delicious quiche and banana bread...uh oh. Where's the banana bread? She forgot it back at the house. No problem! Let's just motor over there and get it...

























Another great advantage to living on the lake.

Dad got ready to fish...

Angel found a nice spot in the shade...

And the waiting began.

We saw plenty of fish jumping all around us, but nary a one would bite.

Whoa! Is that a crocodile?

No, just a log. Whew. I thought maybe we had made a wrong turn and were on the Disneyland Jungle Ride.

Peggy pointed out the old log cabin she and Dave owned on Shields Bay up until about 25 years ago.

They had many pleasant memories there. The only way they could get to it was via boat in the summer or snowmobile in the winter. No roads!

Let's check in with Dad. Are you still having fun, even though you didn't catch any fish?

All in all, it was a fun day.

We end this episode with a forest "heart", left on a mountain side overlooking the west end of the lake. Whether the lumberjacks did this on purpose or not, we don't know. But it's a nice momento of our day on Spirit Lake.