East of the Mountains

We spent last weekend at my parents' farm in Northern Idaho. When we left Seattle on Friday evening the weather forecast looked great, so we tossed our sleeping bags and tent in the back of the Jeep with the idea that we'd bunk outside.

Soda Lake, Columbia National Wildlife Refuge

We planned to make the drive in our customary five hours, but after four hours in stop-and-go traffic over Snoqualmie Pass (I'm sad to say that NYC apparently has nothing on Seattle in this department), we were thrilled to collapse around midnight at the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge just outside of Othello. It was surprisingly warm and there was not a cloud to be seen so we slept without the rain fly. The night sky in the middle of the Eastern Washington desert is incredible and the sunrise in the morning was beautiful — it took what seemed like hours for the light to seep over the 360-degree horizon. The photo above is the view from our campsite in the morning.

Some birds had made their nest at the information center in the
campground, and didn't take too kindly to Strath taking this photo.

The stated purpose of the trip, other than just getting away for the holiday, was to help my parents with some work on the little cabin on their property that they saved from collapsing last fall and are now slowly fixing up.

We did some work, but there was also plenty of time for relaxing — reading, taking some walks, eating some good food, sitting around and shooting the shit, and just enjoying the scenery.

The cabin looks out into some woods. This is the view looking back.
At some point the beams sticking out will be a porch
that wraps around three sides.

Cocktail hour (beer and peanuts) started promptly
at 5 p.m. every day.

The late spring is a beautiful time of year in this part of the state — everything is green and in bloom.

Looking east from the cabin to Potato Hill,
just outside of Deary, Idaho.

In the end, we got a little accomplished, and did a lot of nothing. All in all, a pretty nice way to spend our first Memorial Day weekend back in the Northwest.