Summertime

 Dave and I saw two elk up at Upper Payette Lake. 

 Love buying flowers at our farmers' market (Wednesdays and Saturdays all summer long). Also the best tomatoes I've ever tasted and they have fresh eggs, local beef, earlier this year morel mushrooms, and bouquets of gladiolas.

 Mom and Dad came to visit, and saw McCall in a leisurely summer pace.  Thank you for driving such a long way to see me.  Love you!!!!

 We took the scenic boat ride on our lake, which just started operations last summer.

 Upper Payette Lake before our scenic drive up Secesh summit to Burgdorf Hot Springs.

 Sharlie's gardens in full bloom (we're in the Japanese garden here with Mom).

 We rode the chairlifts up Brundage Mountain, and the top was full of springtime flowers! What great views all the way around.

 In one of the aspen groves in Ponderosa State Park before our hike at Lilly marsh and overlook.

 Osprey Point overlook at Ponderosa State Park of our beautiful Payette lake. And below is the Finnish church on Farm to Market road near Lake Fork.  That area is the first settlement up here, the Fins picking East Mountain because it had less snowfall during the winters and some very fertile soil.

 Scenic lookout on Brundage road, on a very clear, smoke free day.  What a wonderful visit passed way too quickly...please come again soon!

 The day after my parents left, I flew to the San Juan islands in northern Washington to attend oil spill response training with coworkers from Antarctica; most of them from McMurdo Station.

 Sunset view near our hotel.  We were on Lopez Island, which was stunning.

 Lopez Island view in the daytime.  It's one of the least touristic islands in the San Juans, and chock full of blackberries, bunnies and gorgeous views.  Below is our group photo from our last day of training.  I was happy to get a lot of time driving small boats and maneuvering them in a variety of currents and winds while we were pulling oil spill containment boom around.

 Straight away, Em and I drove to Missoula to attend Wildland Firefighting Safety Training.  We spent the night and visited some lovely places on our drive home.  This was the DeVoto Memorial Cedar Grove near the Lolo Pass.  We also picked a bunch of blackberries and wild plums!

 Dave finally home, we went right away to the Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival for two days.  We had been ten years ago, and this time around was just as grand.

 Lots of great musicians, day and night.  That was one of my favorites, eating breakfast and sitting in these seats watching the show on the second day. What a great breakfast sandwich too!

 This time at the Harmonica Festival, we camped right in town so we could see the late and early morning shows.  Our first time camping this year, shockingly.

 The Secesh river had some falltime colors on the rocky sides.

 Dave on a photo break from driving home.

 We hiked a few hours along the Salmon River (where we drove earlier this year for the Salmon fishing peak).

 Mountains at the top of Lick Creek summit.  (Surreal from the brief hail storm that happened, even though we didn't experience it.)

 On a 3 hour hike up the East Fork of the Lake Fork River on Lick Creek.  It's a newly maintained mountain biking trail chock full of huckleberries.

 View from our East Fork hike.

 Views toward the Lick Creek Summit from our East Fork Hike.

 We got to cross this river at the end of our hike.  All our rivers are so clean, that it's easy to see the bottom and the fish in them.

 We went exploring toward the end of our hike.

 The pile of huckleberries we picked on this hike.  We're going back for more, as they are tart and delicious on cereal and with yoghurt!

 This was at North Beach of Payette Lake, after our 3 hour paddle-board trip up the river.  It was so awesome, and great to have this as our post trip lunch and beer spot.

 Echinacea flowers at the local bank in town.  McCall is stuffed with flowers in pots and hanging baskets!

 We went to the Valley County Rodeo in Cascade (40 minutes south of McCall).  We had been one time before ten years ago, and this trip was just as fun.  We didn't stay for the whole event, but caught a lot of it, as well as visiting all the 4H winners (like this goat above, first place, for being beautiful!)  Below is a picture of one of many dishes I got excited about making, this one was an internet sensation listed as "wet burrito".  A burrito covered in enchilada sauce, chili, olives, sour cream, salsa, avocado etc. 

I love this picture, both of us before a beautiful bike ride in front of our condo door.  Dave has been loving the mountain bike I got him for his birthday and we both went out for a 2 hour ride on trails to the mountain bike park and an easy ride there before coming home to hang out with our 80 year old neighbor Lilla at the piano bar outside at the Bistro. 

 Dave on his new bike at the East Fork of the Lake Fork Trail off Lick Creek Road

 And me on Dave's old bike.  I picked a half liter of huckleberries on this trip!

 Check out how many fish are in the Lake Fork river!!!

 One of the fantastic new hikes in our new trail book, to Brush Lake off of Warren Wagon Road, was amazing the whole way!  9 miles of stunning views. Here Dave is leading the way.

 Lots of Indian Paintbrush and purple Fireweed (Fuzike).

 The hike to Brush lake is in the Payette National Forest.

 Beautiful Brush Lake!

 Louie Lake, another scenic hike surrounded by heaps of huckleberries.  The mountain above the lake is Jug Handle Mountain, which is memorable from Highway 55 or anywhere in the valley.

 A grassy area on the far side of Lake Louie.

 Dave working hard on our beautiful book shelf, which turned out amazing!  And on the left is the mountain bike hanging system that Dave put up so that we can store both bikes out of the way, now that we have two.

 We spent a lovely afternoon at North Beach on Payette Lake, enjoying the sun and playing bocce.

 Our last hike was up to Lake Serene off of the Brundage Road.  Also amazing, just like the other two from the new book.  Chock full of wildflowers and stunning mountain views the whole way.

 Lots of mountains on our way to Lake Serene.  The ones in the far distance are the Seven Devils, where we did our 4 day backpacking trip in the fall 9 years ago.

 Lake Serene, was also surrounded by a bunch of delicious and huge huckleberries.  What a treat. And below is the return hike from the lake with incredible wildflowers and mountain views.

 Brush Lake (took a bit of cross-country, off trail hiking).  So worth it!

This summer has been fantastic and packed with so many outings for us.  Lots of mountain biking, hiking and live music shows.  Although our three weeks together flew by, we tried slowing them down by taking often two trips a day.  I think we saw more this hitch than in years of living here.  And we're thankful that I haven't been called out to work on a wildfire. (I'm on call as a water truck driver for wild-land fires).  I have training in Denver in September, and will meet Dave right after in Reno to visit my parents, Grandma and Tibor's family, who will be coming through on their way to New Zealand.  Thanks for looking at our photos.  Love you!