Olympia convention – August 14th to 18th

As per our usual timing, we left Rathdrum in Idaho a couple of hours later than planned, and so were rushing most of the way to convention in Olympia, Washington… It was a beautiful drive, and definitely showed us a different side of Washington than we’d seen when we first arrived in North America! That was fluoro green and wet, near the coastal mountain ranges, while this was rather dry and much less foresty, but still very pretty!

We had a wonderful 4 days at the grounds in Olympia, and met some lovely people there too! It was nice to see some of the visitors we’ve had in Australia and New Zealand over the last few years, now in their home territory (or in one case just visiting a different part of the States), and to meet a lot more over here too!

We noticed a few things done differently to home (ie. sleeping in tents with no men’s or women’s section (except for those in dorms), the food, a cafeteria line and trays, and disposable everything!), which was kind of exciting, but above all, everything felt exactly the same, which was great! It was nice to slow down for a few days too, and just appreciate everything – was had such a great 4 days, and as usual it was over far too quickly!

We also had a pleasant surprise when we ran into Wes & Lianna one morning before breakfast! So it was great to be with some friends we already knew a bit for the rest of the convention too J

In our little borrowed tent :)

Some of the tent area

Cafeteria area dining

Fern & David (& David's sister Hilda) - who sat next to us

New friends - Kendall & Krindee

Lawrie, Nicole, Wes & Lianna

Erika & Chris

Matt (from Newcastle), Luisa & Nicole

Lawrie & I with Debbie Peterson

3 Thom sisters - Luisa & Kimberley

3 Thom sisters - Kimberley, Luisa & Makayla

Rathdrum, Idaho – August 11th to 14th

From camping at Lake Koocanusa we finally had a chance to catch up with the Thom family, who we’d met when they visited Australia, and whose daughter Luisa we’d spent a bit (but not enough!) time with when she lived in Sydney for a year – we hadn’t really travelled anywhere near them yet although we really wanted to visit, so it was great when we discovered that travelling from Lake Koocanusa to the Olympia convention grounds in Washington would take us pretty much right through where they lived! So we left the lake with time to spend a few days with them before heading to convention, and we had a great time!!

As Luisa and two of her sisters, Kimberley and Makayla, are living in Seattle at the moment, it was just Bruce, Jeana and Kayleen at home, and they really looked after us!

We didn’t get too far away from Lake Koocanusa on our way to Rathdrum, as we were pretty exhausted from having fun! So we stayed in the town of Libby in Montana for the night, and it was great to finally talk to my family (who were almost all visiting together at home, wish we were there!). Then we headed to the meeting in Bonners Ferry the next morning, before discovering the 1 hour time difference (we could have slept for an hour longer!) going into Idaho – we got to Bruce and Jeana’s place in the early afternoon, and headed into nearby Coeur d’Alene on their boat, for a delicious dinner at a restaurant there. It was such a nice summery night too!

Jeana and I on the boat

Bruce, Jeana, Nicole, Lawrie

Nicole, Kayleen, Bruce, Jeana

Bruce

Jeana

The next morning Lawrie and Bruce went for a mountain bike ride at Beauty Bay nearby – a little more exciting than anticipated, with a couple of wasp stings and a close up moose sighting (as it stormed through the trees and across the track in front of them!), as well as plenty of uphill and downhill riding. In the meantime, Jeana and I had a little more of a relaxing time, heading to a nearby spa for a much appreciated massage!

Lawrie & Bruce about to head off riding

Lawrie checked out Bruce’s awesome workshop and machinery, right next to their house, and we were pretty impressed with it all! Bruce manufactures the actions for high class guns for target shooting, and the gun that holds the long distance record was made with his parts! We also checked out a few of their actual guns, which were pretty schmick!

Part of one of the machines in the workshop

Some of the guns made in the workshop

Because it had to be done....

That evening we headed for a ride with Jeana and I as well, and a couple of the friends who live nearby – awesome tracks not too far from home!

Riding at Beacon Hill - at the bottom...

Jeana & I at the top

Bruce, Jeana, Nicole & Lawrie

After another delicious dinner and very late night, we had a bit more of a lazy morning, then headed back into Coeur d’Alene to try the awesome Hudson’s Hamburgers for lunch – definitely worthwhile!!

Kayleen, Jeana, Nicole & Lawrie at Hudson's Hamburgers

Lawrie then rode along with the girls to the nearby Spokane Valley Mall, where we found a few great buys (so need to do more shopping over here!! Maybe we can leave behind all of our original things we brought over…) Then we headed out on the boat for the evening! Another beautiful summer’s night, with an awesome water temperature of 81ºF (27ºC!!!) on Spirit Lake. Lawrie and I had a go at wakeboarding (Lawrie immediately successful, and I finally got up after several tries, it was great!!). Then Bruce & Jeana showed us how single skiing is done, and Kayleen got up on a single ski and did awesomely, and then Lawrie had another go on a single ski and seemed to master it! By then it was getting pretty dark, and not so great for skiing without big headlights on the boat, so we stopped to cook our delicious dinner on the boat, before heading home again – we had such a great time!! So hopefully we’ll be able to come back and visit the Thoms before we head home, or at least catch up somewhere else over here!!

Lawrie wakeboarding

Almost succesfull!

Finally! But not quite the expression of joy you might expect...

Bruce on a single ski

Gliding to a stop after letting go

Jeana on a single ski

Kayleen after getting up on a single ski!

Success at last! Single skiing for Lawrie :)

Dinner (supper?!) on the boat - delicious steak, baked potato and salad :)

Lake Koocanusa, Montana – August 3rd to 5th, & 7th to 10th

We had 2 trips down to Lake Koocanusa, near the town of Eureka in north west Montana – the first after our car trouble in the rain, and the again after horse riding at Pincher Creek. Both times we stayed for a coupe of days, and we met so many of the friends from Pincher Creek, High River and Didsbury areas in Alberta (we even remember some of their names!).

When we first arrived at the campsite, which we were given forwarded directions to from Wes & Lianna, we had no idea who we were looking for, or what cars anyone drove, other than Wes & Lianna – however, they had left that morning to head up into the Canadian Rockies, we found out later! So we drove and walked around the campsite and found a lady who looked like she could be one of our group… And then we were all set – we camped in our car, while others had trailers or tents, and we met Robin & Kim, Robin’s brother Berwin, wife Sandra (from NZ!) and 4 kids Micaela, Annika, Luke & Joel, we met Gary from Montana, his daughter Cindy from Idaho, and her son Gary, and then a few others kept arriving overt he next day or 2 – many more of Robin & Kim’s extended family from Pincher Creek, as well as the Stewarts from Didsbury, and their sons and daughters in law.

Setting up the boys' tent

Just a few of the friends

It was so nice to have a campfire and relax with some friends, even though we’d never met before! On the Sunday morning we headed to the meeting in the tiny town of Rexford, just across the lake from our campground, then Lawrie and I stayed for lunch with Paul & Mertie, the lovely couple whose home we were in. After a couple of hours of chatting with them, and a delicious lunch, we headed to the gospel meeting in Kalispell (1.5hours back towards Glacier NP) with Paul and Mertie, as well as the rest of the campers!

Paul & Mertie

The next day we went out on the boats and while most of the others were pretty pro at water sports, Lawrie & I hadn’t really tried many before, and so were a little less skilled…. (quite an understatement!) – Lawrie being a natural picked up the basics pretty quick, while I was happy just to actually make it up out of the water when forced to have a go! (We haven’t yet found out how to say ‘No’ to a Canadian!) We had a great time trying to ‘skurf’ (essentially surfing the wake on a small board behind the boat, hanging on to a rope to start with. Mind you, the rope was pretty much a life line for me, I had no plans to let go of it!) – then some storms rolled in so we got off the water in time for dinner.

Lake Koocanusa from the campsite

Sarah skurfing

Lawrie skurfing

Lynley skurfing

The Wake Setter

After some pretty heavy rain hit in the afternoon, we headed back up to Robin & Kim’s place at Pincher Creek to go riding the next day, with plans to come back afterwards! On our way up there we ran into a few more friends heading down to the lake, from High River (small world!), and saw them back at the camp a few days later, along with many more friends! So many people we’d never met before, but it was so nice to feel like we knew them straight away!

We spent a couple more days there, and met the rest of Robin & Kim’s family – Carma, who lives in Saskatchewan, and Jaclyn, her husband Chad, and their 4 little boys. We also caught up with Alex from Christchurch (living in Pincher Creek for a while) and her boyfriend Nathan, which was great! We watched Carma and Boyd tearing it apart on the ski course that they set up, and Lawrie had a go at skiing on a single ski, but was unsuccessful (having never actually tried skiing on double skis before!) and had a go at wakeboarding for the second time ever - picked it up again really quick, but still felt pretty basic compared to some of the Canadians’ skill!

Boyd single skiing (didn't get any good pics of this though...)

Lianna while the Canadians were skiing at night

Someone brought along an ‘air chair’, which was pretty cool – kind of like skiing, except you’re sitting down strapped to a ‘chair’ that is meant to go along above the water (hence the air part of the name…) – so it’s a little different to balance for getting out of the water, as you can’t really push of your feet or balance sideways, so that was kinda funny to watch! We watched Nevin and Logan trying to do back flips on it, and many others struggling (but succeeding) just to get up and go. We gave skurfing another shot, and I managed to stay up a lot longer than before, but was still basically skiing on the board rather than surfing – so much fun though! After swallowing most of the lake, we decided to go for a much easier swim in a quieter spot with Carma, Jayden (from NZ), Trent & Dena, and Anna (from Ontario), and also gave the double skis a try – MUCH easier, Lawrie got up straight away, although I still struggled a lot – pretty close, but not quite… Next time!

Some of the other friends

Lawrie on the wakeboard

Jeremy wakeboarding

On Robin & Kim's boat with Carma & Jayden

Carma on the air chair

Nevin on the air chair

Pro Nevin

Chad on the air chair

Micaela on the air chair

Lawrie on the air chair

Logan getting some air on the air chair

Me attempting skurfing

Lawrie & I on the boat

We also had some pontoon bikes that Paul & Mertie had at their house nearby, so gave those a try out too, lots of fun! And with volleyball on the beach, a roaring campfire every night, complete with marshmallows and smores (mmmmmm!), we may not have gotten a whole lot of sleep, but we had such a great time!!

Sandra on a pontoon bike

Volleyball on the beach

Robin & Kim

Nathan & Alex

Wes & Lianna

Beau with Kim

Boyd, Brittany & Beau

Boyd & Beau

Lawrie & I