Spraktes House Day Two: "Free Ice Cream"

Once again we all woke early, not a lot of rest on this roadtrip. Mary and Matt joined Kevin and I for another morning hike. Mary made arrangements to have her good friend, Joe, take us out on a tour of Lake Couer d’ Alene with his ski boat. Joe is a practicing cardiologist at the same hospital Mary works at and their two families are good friends. They both have children around the same ages. Joe was so good to us! He took us out on the boat and the first thing he showed us was an Osprey nest complete with mother, father and babies. These birds are huge and amazing to watch. After viewing the birds, Joe took us along the shoreline for miles where we saw all the large homes along the lake. John Elway’s home was especially large and had a water slide off the roof of his boat house. Nice! Joe took us all the way to Harrison (a 2.5 hour drive by car) and we got off the boat and walked through this charming small town where Joe bought us all an ice cream. Everyone but Joe forgot their wallets. We all felt bad that Joe was buying us ice cream and chauffeuring us around the lake…we couldn’t even pay for gas. He was so kind to all of us and we had a really fun boat ride! Walking back to the car, we saw a lot of tri-athletes who were warming up for the Iron Man Triathlon being held on Sunday, June 24th. It’s amazing to see so many seriously fit people in one place. Joe and his family are renting their home to a group involved with the race and will get $7000 for a one week stay at their place.
After Joe dropped us off at our cars, we went out to a late lunch at “The White House Restaurant”. It’s a Greek restaurant and the food is outstanding. When we got back to the Spraktes house, Kevin and Mary went for another horseback ride. Mary gave Kevin and an A grade for his riding abilities…not bad for a city boy. They reached speeds of up to 33 mph on the horses and rode another 10 miles in the hills above Mary’s home. Meanwhile, Dave took Janet, Jessica, and Matt for a ride up into the hills on the ATV. When they were climbing a very steep hill, Mary and Kevin came charging up behind them on the horses with the two dogs Bo and Buddy running behind. The horses passed the ATV quickly and Kevin and Mary galloped back down the mountain. Later after everyone showered, we all sat on the deck and talked some more. The weather was so beautiful and everything is so green. We headed off to bed around 10pm and woke early in the morning for our final walk. Kevin let Matt take some pictures with one of our cameras and he did an excellent job. Mary fed us lunch and we left their home around 1pm, headed for Canada.