McCall Wooden Boat Show

August is my favorite month. And this is just one reason why:

There are few places I'd rather be than up here. Back to Lala land and my alternate reality tomorrow...

Reason #17 why this is my Favorite Spot Ever.

backflips off the dock. I don't do 'em, but tlowe does.

My Favorite Place on Earth

Yeah, yeah, I've been outside of the blogosphere for the past... um... year. One of my goals this past year was to update my blog with tales from travels in recent years that never graced my tiny eensy weensy itty bitty little corner of the world-wide-web. But alas, I am a Master Procrastinator. Someday I will whip out my photos and stories from Ecuador, the Amazon, and Honduras.

In the meantime, I'm back in my favorite place in the world. This is a bold statement, I know. And I'm definitely open to suggestions of places that might challenge that title-- in fact, I'd be thrilled to scour every nook and cranny of the globe to find a place I'm more in love with than here. But for now, McCall, Idaho is the champion. Our family has come to consider McCall as our second home. It is truly a paradise on earth, and I think heaven must be just like McCall. (It would be if it were up to me, anyway.)

We can usually manage to get the entire family together for at least one week in the summer, and this may be the last time we're all in one place for a while, so we snapped some family shots.

I'd like to point out Andi, my youngest sister second from the left. We refer to her as Star Child, because she's always perfectly posed in our family photos: head slightly tilted, hips turned, knee bent, never an awkward smile, and just look how her hand is placed gingerly on dad's arm!

Hey-oh! The whole fam-damily together again!

River of No Return.

some reasons why Idaho is one of the greatest states in the Union:

just a few miles up river from Riggins, Idaho and we found some fabulous sandbars, like this one.

half of the fam-bam enjoying the river bank.

So we took the long way home on this road, called the French Grade. It was built in the 1930s by the CCC and is a series of switchbacks ascending out of the Salmon river valley. Lots of hairpin turns like this one:

And then a DAY after watching "Into the Wild" we happen upon an abandoned bus. Just a little too coincidental. I'm glad we weren't in Alaska (although I still really wanna go someday).