Solar-tude

I never did catch up with Willie, Debbie and Debbie's friend last night, but I did catch a little summer-evening sun. 

They had invited me to join them out at Hope where Debbie's friend Mari Beth was camping.  I declined, since dinner was already mostly prepared.

After dinner, Bill announced some familiar words:  I think I'm going up to Grouse Creek for a while.  I told him I might take off with the dogs and snap photos.

Later, I decided to leave the dogs and go solo, headed for Hope to track down Willie, Debbie and Mari Beth. 

Searching Sam Owen campground for someone this time of the summer comes pretty close to the long-sought needle in a haystack.  The place is crowded with campers, and why not!

I could take a drop-dead beautiful photo at Sam Owen with my eyes closed.  It's hard to find "ugly" out there any time of the year.

Before I found these solar-tude scenes, I ran across a friend I hadn't seen in some time.  That would be Ann, the former museum curator.

She's taking coursework for a new career in the medical field, and it sounds pretty exciting.  We talked until her impatient pup would have no more . . . sorta like the kids at the supermarket when Mom talks too much.

We agreed to get together to do some real catching up soon.  Ann joins a number of folks on my list where I've promised to "catch up."  Lot of that to do, that's for sure.

My sojourn was nothing short of pleasant as I drove back through Hope on the old highway.  It's truly a magical place with all its roadside wildflowers (lots of sweet peas) and its jaw-dropping scenes of Lake Pend Oreille. 

From a photo that Debbie posted on Facebook overnight, it looks as if I may have been just a couple of hundred feet away from my family members.  

That plate of artistic, mouth-watering delight had to have come from Beyond Hope Resort, just around the bay from Sam Owens.

Sam, a pioneer who planted the first apple orchard in Clark Fork , and Nina Owens, a school teacher who taught a couple of terms at the Boyer one-room school house near present-day Kootenai, were married in 1897. 

They lived most of their married life on the land now operated by the U.S. Forest Service and enjoyed by thousands of recreationalists each year. 

Their graves sit alongside a trail on a plot of land just east of the campground. 

Lots of history out there, and a nice touch of history in this morning's paper.  Hat's off to Mark and Susie Kubiak, who have purchased the old St. Joseph's Catholic Church on Oak Street.

The story says they're restoring the building from inside out, and they intend to maintain as much of its historical flavor as possible.  

Their plan will make a lot of us local Catholic folk very happy, as some of us have experienced many life events in that church, dating clear back to Baptism. 

Nice to see folks with the wherewithal who appreciate and preserve our local history. 

It's supposed to warm up today, so I'm heading out to get my outside chores done before the heat.

Happy Wednesday.