Spraktes House Day One: "Janet learns new skills"

Jessica was nice enough to give up her bedroom for us. Poor girl, her entire floor was covered with all the bags we brought. The birds and sunshine woke us early and we went for a 3 mile walk in the surrounding hills with Mary and Matt. A good portion of it was uphill and got our hearts pumping. Mary cooked us a delicious breakfast of pancakes and eggs, and later in the morning she took us on a car tour to see Matt and Jessica’s school. Mary also took us to Lake Pend Oreille which is located about 6 miles from their house. During World War II, the south end of Lake Pend Oreille was the second largest naval training ground in the United States. Because of the incredible depth of the lake (as deep as 1000 feet) the US Navy used the lake to test large-scale submarine prototypes. The training station is now Farragut State Park where Mary does her cross-country skiing in the winter. On the way out of the park, a very large Moose crossed the road right in front of the car, but for once we didn’t have our cameras ready so we have no proof.

When we returned to the house, Dave was busy shoeing the horses so Kevin and Mary could go for a ride. We have enough trouble just trying to clip our dog’s nails. Dave did a great job! Kevin and Mary headed out on the horses and had a really nice 10 mile ride. While Kevin and Mary were racing up a hill on a narrow path, Kevin didn’t duck in time and got a nice slice down the side of his face from a tree branch. He looks like he was in a knife fight! I don’t think he minds it a bit! It just reminds him of all the fun he had riding with Mary. After the horseback ride, Mary made everyone lunch. Kevin was insistent that we use the hamburger patties we had in our ice chest even though they had been floating in the ice chest water for 3 or 4 days and were a nice shade of light green. While he was taking a shower, Mary switched them with some patties she had in the freezer, and threw ours away (thanks again Mary). She did the old “switch a roo” to keep us from getting sick on bad meat. Her replacement burgers were delicious. We all headed into town and tried to locate a Starbuck’s with wi-fi but had no such luck. However, we did get our fix of tea and coffee, and the Spraktes family enjoyed frappacino’s. After visiting the grocery store, we headed back to their house to get ready for dinner. We had steak and all the fixin’s and Jessica made us a delicious Greek tomato, black olive, and feta cheese salad. It was so relaxing to sit on their new deck and watch the horses graze while spending more time catching up on things that have happen over the last few years. Janet finally got up the courage to use the upstairs bathroom. She had been using the one downstairs because the one upstairs has a big window that looks directly out to the deck, but doesn’t have any window coverings. Just as she got the action going on the pot, Dave walked by the window and she jumped off that toilet like she sat on a hot stove. Janet was ok with Bo the Great Dane looking in, but she was a little shy around her brother-in-law. She didn’t realize she had the skills needed to stop the action mid stream but quickly found out she did. For the remainder of the visit, she used the downstairs bathroom.