Cherry Picking

So...while Phil was at work, Fi went cherry picking with a lovely family across the road. Fi had fun picking cherries starting cherry fights that the boys got blamed for and all sorts of fun...

Fortunately Phil now has pleanty of beautiful fresh cherries, yummy.

Batter Up!

Randall and Hurley (Phils employer) generously took all their staff and spouses to see the Spokane Indians thrash the Vancover Candaians.

It was a blast.

Hike on Lake Bead

There are approximately 76 fresh water lakes within driving range of Spokane. We are really spoilt for choice in deciding where to go for a day hike and swim. Phil was recommended a lake 20 minutes outside of Newport called Bead Lake so we jumped in the car and made the 90 minute drive there. Upon arrival it took us a while to figure out where the car park actually was - signs are not a strong point of the American nation unless it is advertising something - and 30 minutes later we had parked and prepared to hit the trail.

We met a park ranger in the car park (who had a large rifle packed in his truck) who advised us about the local wildlife - make lots of noise and the bears will run away, if you see a moose be prepared to run because they are stupid, blind and mean and will trample you. So with this advice in mind we descended upon the trail.

The trailhead enters through a cedar forest which was dark, cool and beautiful. The trail then leads towards the lake. The first mile of the hike was on a smooth and broad path lined with trees. Both sides of the trail are quite steep the whole way. Often we would be 10 metres from the water but it would also be about a 10 metre drop!

Past a campsite created by the scouts the trail was a little steeper, bumpier and not as wide. We followed a side trail to another camp site and made sandwiches. Quite hot by this time but the amount of crumbs dropped made us feel nervous about bears while we swum so we powered on - up hill for a long way - to find another swimming place. Along the way we found a chipmunk and so many beautiful wild flowers. After about 30 minutes we scrambled down the steep embankment completely determined and ready to swim in the cool, deep, turquoise water. It was amazing, completely isolated apart from a few boats towing water skiiers and so clean!

We scrambled back up the embankment and made our way back. After another hour or so we jumped back in the water before ending our hike, exhausted but satisfied!

Beverly's

Beverly's overlooks the beautiful Lake Coeur d'Alene.


We took Grandma on the 5th of July to enjoy the food and scenery (sorry there are not more pics of the beautiful view).

The view is amazing, the food both generous and delicious and price reasonable.

A must!

The Black Sheep

The Black Sheep sells guns, knives, bows, bullets, camping & fishing gear...

Guns, rifles, pistols and semi automatics (as seen with Phil) can all be purchased over the counter. Bow, knives and even crossbows are just on the shelf...

The Moose

Over here Moose are a big thing.

They are both big animals and some what rare.

Some people see them every day, but most have never seen a wild moose (thought we are not sure if it because people do not get in the wild very much).

Well, Phil and Fi have.

On Tuesday we went canoeing down the little spokane river at dusk. Some friends from church invited us for a paddle, and well, who says no.

We loved getting out and paddling down the river. We saw some deer, some ducklings, a beaver and of course our moose.

Moose attack more people than bears and wolves combined (so Wikipedia says) which made everyone quite nervous. But we do not think the moose even knew we were there, they are big, ungraceful, ugly but some how charming. Fi has denied Phil's request to hunt one as a trophy for our home office (you are only allowed to kill one moose in your life in the USA...).

We also got to see a beaver. They are HUGE! Kind of like a giant pillow covered with fur. They are massive. So it was really cool to see one and chase it down the river.

All in all lots of fun... (PS sorry for the terrible photo of the moose)

Basketball All over - Hoopfest

On Sunday we watch the breaking of a world record!

We saw a few, of the nearly 7,000, teams play bball in downtown spokane. Hoopfest is an annual 3 on 3 basketball competition that literally takes over the town. They close nearly every street down town and fill it with basketball rings. Then they play ball all weekend.

Spokane seems to be the perfect size, big enough to draw a crowd, but still so small that they can literally stop the city for a weekend.

So here are some numbers:

• 40 downtown blocks closed in downtown Spokane; and
• 428 half courts
  
• 6,700 teams comprising of over 20,000 players compete in at least 3 games each for the champion of their division.
• Nearly 200,000 people in total.
  

All in all it was great to go hang out and enjoy the festival. We both felt quite short the whole time...