Lakehouse Vacation

For the past few years Stewart's family has been renting a cabin at Priest Lake in Idaho for a few weeks every summer. Stew's dad, Russ, and his wife, Patty, decided that they love the lake so much that this past winter they purchased a lake front home on Cavanaugh Bay, and they spent the spring remodeling it to their liking. Stew and I decided to tackle the seven hour drive and headed over for a four-day weekend to relax and ignore life for a while. It was well worth the trip!

Whenever I'm at Priest Lake I feel like I've stumbled upon a lost paradise. The sun is always shining over crystal clear waters and a bright blue sky with fluffy clouds. You can lay on the dock basking in the sun and a cool breeze for hours. Because the lake is so huge it never feels crowded with boats or people, and everyone you pass or meet is super friendly.

When we arrived we started with a tour of the Alway's amazing house, which is situated up on the hill above the lake with several sets of stairs leading down to the beach and dock. It really has the feeling of a Swiss Family Robinson tree house! The inside is comfortable and homey and I'm not surprised at all that Russ and Patty decided to move themselves and their two cats to the lake for the entire summer.

On Friday morning we headed out for a hike to explore a place we'd heard of called Slippery Rock. We drove up a long windy dirt road before arriving at the trail head and beginning a gorgeous hike through the forest. Although as I hiked through the backwoods of Idaho I did have a fleeting thought that what we were doing was eerily similar to a movie I once saw... Creepy thoughts aside, we waded through a section of the river and shortly after arrived at Slippery Rock, which is an amazing natural rock water slide! This also reminded Stewart of a movie and I expected him to immediately slide down shouting,"Hey you guys!!"

Saturday was my self proclaimed "lounge around the lake" day. I sunbathed and read books and wedding magazines until poor Stewart couldn't stand it any longer and begged me to go out on the boat with him. That silly boy just doesn't appreciate sunbathing! We spent the afternoon driving around in the boat exploring various shores, islands and coves before heading back to have a delicious dinner at Cavanaugh Bay Resort, which is just a ten minute walk away. There is also live music and we got to meet lots of the Alway's super friendly neighbors.

Another reason we were anxious to get to the lake was to give Russ his birthday present: a guided fishing trip. We arrived at the dock to meet our guide at 6 a.m. on Sunday. He was the epitome of an Idaho fisherman sporting flannel and a droopy mustache. We soon got used to his gruff demeanor and spent the next couple hours getting to know his life story... but unfortunately not catching any fish. I was worried that Stew's bad luck had followed us out onto the lake when suddenly we got a bite. From then on we started hauling them in! We ended up taking home nine of the biggest trout I have ever seen. And grilled up on the barbecue they made an amazing lunch, yum!  

I spent the rest of the day either in the boat or on the dock trying to decide if I really needed to rejoin the real world... or just stay at the lake house forever and maybe turn tricks occasionally to make ends meet. Our lives have been so busy and stressful lately that it really revived my soul for a minute to spend a few days just doing whatever we wanted... sleeping in, watching movies, cooking, eating, hiking, reading boating, fishing and just spending time with each other doing nothing. 

We can't WAIT until the next time we get to go back!