Weekend Wrap

When your clothes smell like smoke and you're nowhere near a fire, the air quality is pretty dismal, as is the scenery or lack thereof. 

My clothes do smell like smoke this morning after two trips outside. We cannot see any mountains, and the trees are blue. 

The air quality this morning is currently 176, which is deemed unsafe. 

The view is safe but not very exciting. 

We had smoke-filled skies over the weekend but did enjoy some fun times, especially yesterday when Bill and I went to Hall Mountain, north of Bonners Ferry. 

We knew before we reached the mountaintop, which usually offers a spectacular view of the Kootenai Valley, that what we saw would be limited and smoky. 

Still it was a nice, relaxing trip up the mountain and fun to get out and walk a bit. 

At least, we were treated to some stunning foliage which is getting its fall look. 

 Bill also asked for 15 minutes time to stop and catch a cutthroat in a small pool at Mission Creek. 

He met his goal. 

After driving back through Bonners Ferry, we took a short detour along the river west of town where the smoky scene was enhanced by a host of colored tents where firefighters are sleeping. 

It seems as if these scenes may be sticking around for a while with the fires around Bonners Ferry still going and growing in size. 

Also, over the weekend, Bill was searching for his stash of British money left over from our trips to Northern Ireland. 

When we were there in July and needed to pay the parking fee at a garage in Derry, Bill proudly pulled out his British coin from a past trip but soon found that it would not work in the machines.

Seems the currency had changed. Eventually, some parking attendants helped him out. 

This weekend, he found a piece of paper currency with the Queen on one side and Winston Churchill on the other.  

Next time we go to Northern Ireland, unless its before the next couple of years, he would not be able to use that money either, as noted in the interesting piece below. 

Of course, he plans to save it for posterity anyway. So, all is fine. 

Enjoy the article. 

 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/08/queen-death-cash-stamps-flags?utm_source=pocket-newtab

~~~~~

It was great fun spending time visiting with several members of the Sandpoint High Class of 1982 on Saturday.  

They held their all-day Saturday event at the City Beach hut.  A good crowd of classmates had gathered and more were coming as I left the party. 

I enjoyed some good conversation with several class members and some good hugs.

They were one of my favorites during the 33-year teaching career, and I appreciated the invitation.

My recognition of these former students was a bit challenging with all the sunglasses, but it worked out.  

Below are a few photos of classmates and spouses.

Great seeing you, Class of 1982.  You look FANtastic.   

The ducks were dancing on water when we visited at the cabin on Saturday, and Kenny was having a good time too. 

For the most part, it was a lovely weekend, filled with some quality visiting and good food. 

Now, back to the smoke. Yuck!

Happy Monday.