Saturday Slightly Wet

It’s major-event day in Sandpoint.  No parades but folks are gonna get rained on. 

Bill said the Sandpoint Arbor Day celebration was moved to June because it’s always wet and cold in April. 

They thought they were gonna fool Mother Nature.

Well, today it’s wet and warm----very wet and comfortably warm.  So, Bill and a bunch of tree lovers will be wearing their slickers and hats for the Arbor Day festivities this morning.

It’s Prom Day in Sandpoint.  We all know all the highlights of proms---the dinner, the transportation, the pictures.  And, of course, prom pictures look a lot better outside on those beautiful green lawns.

Maybe the rain will stop by the time all those high school seniors and their dates head off to dinner this afternoon.  And, maybe, after all, family members can still line ‘em up out there in the back yard to capture the special occasion.

I was recalling Annie’s prom this morning.  Back in ’97 on her prom day, it was raining and blowing and striking and rumbling. 

A wild weather event led to electrical outages throughout North Idaho, especially at all those restaurants where the prom goers wanted to go eat.

As I recall, however, Annie and her troops made the best of it.

I do feel sorry for the hundreds of cyclists who are participating in today's CHAFE 150 (that's 150 miles of bike riding from Sandpoint to Troy to Clark Fork and home again).  

Can't even imagine the extent of that misery in pouring rain.  

They'll certainly deserve medals for their efforts, riding today and collecting thousands of dollars in pledges bound for the Panhandle Alliance for Education. 

Today is also the get-acquainted luncheon out at beautiful Hope for this year’s Women of Wisdom honorees and the Women Honoring Women committee.

And, yes, picture-taking is a major element in this annual event.  Regardless of the rain, I’ll still go down to Panhandle State Bank, donned in raincoat and Seattle Sombrero and snap some shots of their departure toward Hope

At least, the dining portion of today's luncheon has been set up inside.   Maybe the rain will stop in Hope along the Pend Oreille Shore just for those ladies.  They deserve a nice day.

My mother spent a couple of days in the hospital this week.  She's back in her apartment and doing much better. 

Feeling relieved that she was discharged from the hospital, several family members got together for dinner last night.  

We'd planned to go to Mick Duff's, but the 45-minute wait meant walking over to Jalapenos.  

As always, we enjoyed a great meal.  I even had Mexican food, and so far, it's not paying me back.  

Yesterday's late afternoon rain storm had stopped and the sky had cleared for a beautiful, pleasant evening.

So, we (all but two) Sandpoint natives took off on a walk around our hometown.

We Sandpoint products were all stunned with how much the area around Sand Creek has changed---in a lovely and pleasant way.  

We loved all the walking areas along the creek and even commented that it's starting to have a San Antonio-type feel to it----just a smaller area along a much wider stretch of water. 

We walked to the City Docks and to the end of the jetty, all the while Barbara was employing her new i-pad as a camera.  She captured some lovely shots of the sail boats and the jetty itself as an almost-full moon took over the sky.

Bill insisted that we walk over to Sandpoint's old train depot, only Amtrak stop in Idaho.  

Of course, we all talked about a nostalgic time when our mother got off that train from Chicago on Christmas night 1945 with our brother Mike and her English Setter,  Peggy.

It would be an understatement to say that her impression of Sandpoint has improved since then. 

As we walked back, a few imps in the crowd were urging us to do something illegal.  

Go over the railing, onto the new stretch of road and take a short cut through the Cedar Street Bridge back to our cars. 

Some of us countered that idea with the thought of how nice it would be to have a bunch of school teachers, a Girl Scout staffer and an Eagle Scout get caught trespassing and slapped with $300 fines.

Of course, we walked on and left ideas of illegal behavior behind----a good plan since two minutes later, we saw a police car cruising by.

As we walked the street alongside the byway, Bill looked over and suggested that they use the back of the Panida Theater as a big movie screen.  

Since the area across the street has been developed into a park, he thinks it would be neat for folks to sit along Sand Creek and watch an outdoor movie.

Eventually, we reached our cars and headed home, all content with the fun family evening and filled with some good memories. 

That rain is slowing down.  Maybe all of today's events can go as planned, only with cleansed settings and freshness in the air.

Happy Saturday to all.  Enjoy the wet flower photos above. 

I'll get to that Big Foot/Sasquatch stuff tomorrow.