Quick Trip Home

I managed to keep the fact that I was coming home a secret until the day before I was to arrive home. It was great to surprise everyone.  However, jet lag really wiped me out this time. I was just about recovering when Mom got pneumonia and was out for over a week. My first couple of weeks home were spent sleeping, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, taking care of animals, and taking care of Mom.

After Mom had recovered, I headed up to Lewiston to visit Katy and Oliver and meet their new baby. It was fun spending the entire afternoon with them. It was especially entertaining playing hide and seek with their two year old son who is still learning not to shout, “Carmen, I’m hiding in the closet!”

After visiting them, I headed up to Moscow. It was a fairly calm week in Moscow. Everyone was very busy packing and working, so we were all too lazy to party and hang out at the bars. But this gave me time to do some shopping and get paperwork done.

I did a lot of driving around, testing out my new Nikon CoolPix P310 (a reward for surviving Russian winter). I took many of the back roads around Moscow and Pullman and realized, not for the first time, that the Palouse is my favorite place to be during the late spring and into summer. The sky is so blue in the morning with giant fluffy white clouds that cast shadows on the rolling hills covered in green knee-high wheat and alfalfa fields. In May, the green is usually broken by yellow canola fields. In late summer, the wheat and alfalfa turns a golden brown, and the winter wheat has grown into a green sea. There is always a wind blowing on the Palouse which makes waves in the fields. With the many rolling hills, the Palouse looks like an ocean on land. Of course, even the Nikon can only capture half of the Palouse’s beauty.

I took a trip to the University of Idaho Arboretum, sadly a little late in the season, but the trees were still beautiful. Also, unfortunately, I discovered that the battery indicator on my camera is a bit sneaky and doesn’t give enough warning that the battery is going. Luckily a friend had a back-up SLR to finish off the photo shoot.

One evening I headed on what would have been quite a romantic evening, if it had been on a date. A friend and I drove to Paradise Valley to the reservoir to watch the sunset. It is quite beautiful there this time of year, before the pond plants and scum overtake the place. The older goslings love to frequent the docks. No matter how cute they are, it is best to keep away from them, their mothers are still a bit protective and cranky. Just sit down at the end of one of the docks and enjoy the sun set over the mountain, but don’t go directly after the sunset, because you may find two bald eagles out to catch their dinner.

I came back from Moscow to find our old dog, Ebby, very sick. The poor Rotty mix was 15 years old, really old for a Rotty. Unfortunately, we had to put her down. She is missed.

Friday the household got up bright and early for a drive up to Joseph Plains. You access Joseph Plains by going down the Salmon River and drive up the side of the mountain. The switchbacks all the way to the top where the mountain flattens out and you are greeted with lush prairie. Most of it has been protected from agriculture because of the harsh winter, so it is one of the few places on the Camas Prairie where camas still grows. If you aren’t amazed by the prairie and grand vacation homes, perhaps you will be awed with the view across the Salmon River to the Seven Devils, or the view across Idaho to Eagle Cap Mountain in Oregon. 

 

Saturday morning, I got up early one more time to go to Missoula, Montana with Jess. The drive down the Clearwater River to the Lochsa River was quiet and peaceful dotted with several deer. The rivers were still quite high, turning the waters muddy instead of their usual clearness.  We avoided the music festival that crowded Lolo Hot Springs and headed straight to the mall in Missoula.

The mall was pretty much a major bust. Missoula was pretty much a bust. But Jess and I got our much needed girl time and a nice night swim in the hotel pool. On Sunday we gave up shopping early in the afternoon and headed back to Grangeville. Surprisingly, we saw a black bear right alongside of the road and even a coyote up on the prairie. Strange to see them in the heat of the day. What also might be deemed strange to some is the gathering of Mennonites we passed in Kamiah. Mennonites are a religious group who separate themselves, women dress in long dresses (much like pioneer dresses), and cover their heads—one might picture them as relaxed, modernized, Amish.

The last week passed quickly, with Mom hemming clothes for my trip and me hurriedly packing. We finished up my shopping in Boise, and I got on the plane to start my year-long journey through Taiwan.