about a turtle that was trying to cross the road

It's not a secret that I love animals. That should explain the number of the turtle photos in this post and my uncontrollable excitement. Here's the story: we were driving back from Schweitzer mountain in the evening, when I suddenly saw a little head poking out of a shell at the edge of the road! I've never seen a turtle in the wild, I almost couldn't believe my eyes, but I started waving my arms like crazy and telling Ben to turn around and go back.

We parked nearby and ran to meet our new friend: this silly turtle was trying to cross the road, and it wasn't the best idea ever. I quickly picked it up, we took dozens of pictures and started searching the area for a safe place to let the turtle go. We figured it was travelling in search of a pond to lay eggs since it's that time of year. Google maps didn't show us any water close enough, so we hopped in the car with the turtle in my hands and drove for a few minutes until we saw a perfect spot. It was a big and beautiful lawn with 2 ponds in the middle with lots of cattails, we said our "good-bye"s and he or she took off and swam away under the mud instantly.

I hope it loves its new home and there will be lots of turtle babies soon. Oh, I get attached to animals too quickly! But seriously, it's so cool that I get to see lots of wildlife in and around town! I miss the moose from our backyard. Hopefully it'll be back in winter again to chew on frozen apples.

Sandpoint parade and Hope fireworks: how we spent the 4th of July

Have you had enough of a break by now from seeing photos of the 4th of July and the fireworks all over the Internet? I hope so, because today I'm sharing my part of the celebration!

In the morning of our first 4th of July in Sandpoint, Idaho we woke up late, quickly made coffee in our press, and headed out to the parade. The streets were packed with cars, bikes and people, it made us once again feel thankful for our wonderful little apartment downtown! It's great to just walk everywhere with no need to get there in advance in order to drive in circles looking for a parking spot. 

The parade was fun, we saw many familiar faces walking down the street with the flags, performances, vintage cars and horses. It was a bit too hot, and next year I'll bring a hat and a bottle of water. Something to sit on would be nice, too.

In the evening we met with Ben's parents and all together headed to a friends' beach house near the town of Hope on the other side of the lake. The place was gorgeous: a private beach, fantastic views of the lake and the mountains, lots of boats and people water skiing and boarding. We had a wonderful dinner which was followed by the Independence Day firework show above the lake. It's a new experience to me to watch a show in North Idaho: the sounds of the fireworks echo from the mountains and reflect in the lake. Breathtaking!

Schweitzer Summer Celebration

On the last day of June we headed up to Schweitzer mountain for Summer Celebration! I'm one of those rare people (especially around here!) who prefers grass to snow and summer to winter. I have to confess we didn't make it to the mountain this winter even thought we live in a ski resort town. I guess it wasn't among the reasons for choosing Sandpoint when we were moving, so I don't feel bad about missing the ski season. I still want to try it at some point, maybe next year... maybe..  

The cutest acorn pin from my friend Missy

How many ground squirrels do you see? 

But this summer we finally got to the top and awed to the spectacular views: you can see Sandpoint, Lake Pend Oreille, Montana and even Canada from there! Their Summer Celebration was so much fun, too! I'll just list a few things: free chairlift rides, live music, a food and art market, and lots of wild and not so wild animals. 

After we'd spent enough time at the top, we were trying to decide how to get back to the village: on the chairlift or just by hiking down the mountain like many people did.. we chose the lazy way and were enjoying the views going down when we saw the following:

On the trail on one side we saw a guy mountain biking downhill, and on another side running towards him was a bear! A pretty big bear! It all happened so fast: they just missed each other and the bear ran off as quickly as possible, everyone on the chairlift just went: "Wooooooooow!" That was when I realized that the lazy decision isn't always the bad one.

Even writing all of this now, sorting out and uploading the photos, I'm feeling so excited and happy to be in this amazing place, stunning nature and with the great people who surround me. I want to wish everyone a very happy and fun 4th of July! It's going to be a double celebration for us: Ben and I packed and hopped on a plane towards our new life exactly a year ago.

Happy and Merry Fourth!

Farragut State Park

There is so much going on every day in summer (and wherever I go I have at least one camera with me) that I end up not having time to post about all of the wonderful places we visit, people we meet and things we do! I can't complain, though, I like this kind of life. Today I want to share the photos from a trip we took last weekend to Farragut State Park - it's only 26 miles down south of Sandpoint, which makes for a perfect adventure with limited driving.

This Idaho state park is located on the southern tip of the Lake Pend Oreille and it used to be a WWII era naval training station: there is still a museum and a few architectural objects in the woods from that time. Other than that, there are plenty of camping sites, we spotted a few cute cabins right at the tip overlooking the lake and the mountains (as Liz Lemon would say: "I want to go to there!"), even camping places for people with llamas! I mean, traveling and camping with llamas - it must be the best thing ever! 

Well, at least we want to try and rent a cabin there. There is a big lawn in front of the cabins where I want to put a few soft blankets on the ground and do Idaho stargazing at night. I'm usually not brave enough to stay in the woods/mountains with wild animals and lay there watching the stars. But in this case it's ideal: the sky is clear in the park, there are no city lights, cars or other civilization messes, and at the same time, I'm not too far from the people and the cabins! I really hope we can fit this little adventure into our schedules, maybe in August or early September. It's hard to tell since we have so many plans and adventures in mind for this season.

Lomography Monday: Montana, farmers' market, blueberries and a cat

One of the many reasons I love film photography is that you can actually put a roll of film somewhere in the house and forget about it for a long time! Or sometimes you can just leave it inside the camera, put it on a shelf and not use it for awhile. This is exactly what happened to this roll of film from last summer! We have quite a few cameras around the house (I should count them and make a list when I have free time!), so it just happened that I took my Golden Half on a hike recently and without any thought opened it to load a new roll of film.. Luckily, I realized pretty quickly that it wasn't empty - I had to actually develop the photos to remember when they were taken! I absolutely forgot about all of these and I'm so excited to share them now!

So, here we have: Ben and I at the farmers' market in Sandpoint, pictures from our August road trip to Bozeman, Montana, our awesome friends, the house where Ben used to live, the blueberry farm adventures, Uno the furry cat and my ladybug garden shoes! I'm left to wonder what was on the pictures that I wiped out by opening the camera oh so mistakenly. From now on I'll try to stick something to each camera with a roll of film in it to avoid flashing the memories in the future.