Terrace Lakes Wine and Art

Every year Terrace Lakes holds their Wine and Art Festival.  There is live music, food,  and even beer.  You buy a wine glass, and then can sample all the wines being featured while wandering through the different booths with various art or crafts for sale. There was a variety of things to catch your attention. If you do not prefer wine, they offer a selection of beer and non alcoholic beverages as well.  It is a family event...and some people even bring their dogs.  This year we decided to have lunch in the lodge.  Good food...Great atmosphere...beautiful day.  First day this year that was sunny and warm.  We drove over from our cabin in Lowman in our Jeep with the top down.  First time this year we could do that.  Such a great time, fabulous day!

Custer County, Idaho

We have been spending the week at the cabin.  Today was the best day so far for weather, so we decided to adventure out . We traveled up to Stanley, and then on to the Sunbeam mining area the dam, and historical bathhouse.  From there we went to Bonanza's historical graveyard, up the Yankee Fork to the dredge. At the dredge we took a few minutes to look through binoculars at the mountain side.  We were so excited to see mountain sheep.  I had never seen one in the wild before.  Totally awesome.  On to Custer.
 Custer is a mining ghost town and we took a tour of the buildings left standing.  There was a gentleman from the  Forrest Service that acted as our guide.  Amazing how things were in the town back then versus now. At the gift shop we talked to a resident there for the summer that helps keep things up.  Got some gold flecks, and Sasparillo,  then headed home.  All in all it took about 2 1/ 2 hour's drive back home.  We did see deer, elk, antelope, cranes, and of course chipmunks.  All in all a great day. Highly recommend a trip to Custer if you are nearby and want to see part of Idaho history.

Awesome weekend

We recently traveled to Jerome for my nieces wedding.  Rachel was married in a barn setting.  The barn was a lavarock and mortar structure built in 1901.  The food and entertainment was wonderful.  On the way back we traveled through Thousand Springs.  The water was gushing..it was a beautiful day for a drive.

Spring is here!!!!  We are so excited to be able to get out and adventure again.
Not far from here is a unique man made creation, the Owhyee Glory Hole, which is part of the Owyhee Dam.  This Dam was a model for the Hoover Dam outside of Las Vegas. 
It is only about nd hour and a half drive from our home.  This year is the first time in 30 years there was water enough for the hole to act as the spillway.
We started out from Star, went thru Middleton, the outskirts of Caldwell to Parma, Adrian Oregon, and then on to the Dam.  On the way there we encountered a wonderful site, a rock tunnel in the road that you drive through!  It is only wide enough for one car. 
I am attaching pictures for you to see:

On the way home, we took a trip to Givens Hot Springs, and back through Murphy, and Nampa.  All in all it was a great adventure.  I recommend seeing this.

Labor Day weekend, 09-02 - 09-05-16

The Pioneer Fire has been raging for at least four weeks.  The roads were open to the cabin, so we decided to see what was happening and go home for the weekend.  We had been up briefly three weeks ago, and been evacuated out.  But the rating where we are was at a level 1, and the fire was headed in a different direction from the house.....
So, we headed out and decided to go the Banks/Lowman Highway.  It is our favorite route, very scenic, very rustic.  Once we got past Danskin Station and headed into the canyon, we knew .....the canyon was charred all around us.  No wonder the road had been closed.  The fire had jumped the river, and then crossed the highway into the steep sides of the canyon.  Closer to Lowman, there was more devastation.  Pine Flats was taken out, and they had closed that camp ground.  There was evidence of the fire right down into Lowman proper, but no structures had been compromised.  We did see some places that were still smoldering.  It saddened me deeply.
The cabin was fine, but you could see where the forest service had been in and cut down some of the trees, cleared some of the brush in the lots around us.  Our neighbor was having a wedding at their property, and there were people in campers and RVs all around.
It was raining so the smoke was minimal.  To our surprise, the neighbors started a fire in the fire pit and kept it going all weekend long, despite the evidence of fire.  Definitely added to the smoke issue.
On Saturday we headed to Stanley to check out how they faired in the recent events.  The fire there was not as bad, very little smoke, and a large crowd of campers in the area. 
The Valley started to fill with smoke on Saturday afternoon, and stayed with us to our departure.  Needless to say we did not go out much, and were not able to take the Jeep into the back country....probably will not be able to until next spring. 
All in all it was a good weekend, a little crazy with the festivities, and the noise, but we were home, and grateful the area had been spared.

4th of July...What a whirl

We traveled to Soda Springs Idaho for the 4th of July weekend.  Took the scenic route for part of the journey from Star.  Old Highway 30 through Hammett, Glenn's Ferry, and a few others. 
While in Soda we went to the Wizard of Oz play.  What a treat!!!  For a small community play, the acting was wonderful.  The actress that played Dorothy was amazing, and has a beautiful voice.  I say she is a dead wringer for the original Dorothy in the movies.
The witch was ever bit as good, and this was her first time in a major production of any kind.  Even though the play lasted 3 1/2 hours, it was well worth the price of admission.
Soda Springs, Idaho is only a little over 60 miles to the Wyoming border.  We actually took an evening drive around Bear Lake's North Beach and back home.  On the way to the Lake, we passed the bird refuge at Mud Lake.  I have never seen so many pelicans, and their size amazed me.  Spent a little time watching them fish...what a great view.
Ended up getting ice cream at the Bear Cove, just outside of St. Charles, Id.  Homemade ice cream...yumm. We left Soda late morning to travel back.  Drive was uneventful.
When we got home, we unloaded everything and relaxed until time for the fireworks.
This year we did something different.  Instead of joining the croud at the Park in Star, Idaho, we actually climbed out our upstairs bedroom window and sat on the roof of the house.......What a view!

Since the City was putting on fireworks at the park, and our neighbors were lighting off the same type of fireworks, we really had a display surrounding us.  Really beautiful display.  We sat and laughed, oohed and awed until all of the displays were done for now. 
There were actually fireworks being lighted well into the night, but I had to be up and ready to go to work at 5:00 am.  Still had a fabulous weekend.

Our last day!  We spent the day in Virginia City Montana.  What a treat!!! It is an old mining town that has Main Street as replica of the old town.  We could have wandered around all day, but only spent a few hours.  There is an old railroad that runs from Virginia City to Nevada City, but runs on the hour and we just didn't have enough time for both towns.  There was an Irish Parade in town while we were there.  What fun! Had lunch at Bob's.  Everything was in the old town décor.  We did drive the mile to Nevada City and it looks to be even better than Virginia City.  While we hated to leave, we had one more evening as hosts, and needed to start cooking.  Our last day, the weather did not hold out...it was cold and raining, but we pressed on, set up the canopies, and served dinner.  We had over 60 again tonight. Our niece and Nephew came with their families.  It was wonderful to see everyone.  Had a great time...now for the drive home tomorrow.  Hope the weather cooperates.  I don't care if it rains...just don't want the awful winds.