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!