Priest Lake, ID

Monday, Sep 9

Travel Day

Long travel day today. Flew Delta through Salt Lake City arriving in Spokane, WA around 6pm local time. Drove the winding road to Priest Lake arriving around 8:30pm. The drive was nice but, unfortunately, the last hour was in the dark so missed seeing the nice scenery.

As I was pulling up looking for the correct house, Lorri and Dave had just come out to see if I was coming! Great timing!

The gang was all here. Steve, Sandy, Diane, Dave, Lorri and me. And Gort their sweet dog.

Tuesday, Sep 10

Weather: Nice late summer weather!

Priest Lake

Diane and Dave's Lake house is awesome. High up, overlooking the lake with a huge deck and big house with 5 bedrooms so everyone had their own sleep space. These were taken from the deck, what a great view!

In the morning we had lots of tasty treats for breakfast and we exchanged some gifts. Sandy made us all table runner quilts for fall decoration that are so nice, Steve gave us all "Listen to Steve" tee-shirts (better than the Orange wig I was expecting!). Diane and Dave gave us their very well stocked house for the week, Lorri made hand knitted dish clothes and me a book, I gave Steve a few baseballs from when we went to Brewers batting practice when we were kids and, Kathryn sent with me honey for everyone from her honey bees. It was nice.

Spent the day relaxing on the deck catching up on what everyone has been up to this year and reminiscing a little about the past. Lunch was fend for yourself with lots of things to choose.

For dinner Dave cooked up some great burgers and the girls made salads and sides. Everything was very tasty. My contribution was dish duty. After dinner it was time to watch the Brewers (Steve and Sandy watch nearly every game all season, true blue Brewer fans). It was fun.

Wednesday, Sep 11

Weather: Nice late summer day.

Breakfast was anything we wanted and Diane made breakfast sandwiches.. tasty!

Second Fallujah War Game

A couple of years ago Steve designed a war game based on the Second Battle for Fallujah in the Iraq war. It is extremely well researched and excellently done. It is published in the magazine Paper Wars #103. He sent me the rules and a couple of videos ahead of time so I could get familiar.

I played the coaltion, Steve played the Insurgents and Dave watched me get killed! Lot's of fun but I was not much competition for the game designer himself.

The ladies hung out on the pier and outside enjoying the weather.

For dinner Dave made meatballs, and the girls made spaghetti (Sandy made fresh bread). Everything was delish! We had heard the Brewers game was a blow out loss so, instead we watched the movie Major League. A great movie. Another nice relaxing day with fam.

Thursday, Sep 12

Weather: Rain today.

Breakfast was anything we wanted and Sandy made some awesome omelettes.

Steve and I played another game of Second Fallujah with Dave helping me. I again played the Coalition and did better but still got killed. I am going to play solo on Vassal and be a more respectable opponent next time. It was still a lot of fun.

The girls did some craft projects while we battled away.

For dinner the ladies made tacos with all the sides - fantastic! After dinner it was another Brewer game and we took a few pictures of the gang.

A few pics of the Gang

Friday, Sep 13

Weather: Good travel weather

Travel Day

I got up about 5:45 for some coffee and final packing before heading out. A nice surprise... Steve, Diane, Dave and Lorri all got up at 6 to say goodbye (or make sure I left..). This time I got to see the country on my way back to Spokane, then to Salt Lake City, then to O'hare where my sweetie picked me up and finally, Home Sweet Home.

A really nice trip to see family.