39 years!

Tom and I were married on August 3, 1979, 

and for the last 15-20 years, we have not been together to celebrate.

Tom is always on the Youth High Adventure and I am usually at Girl's camp.  

Well this year we made it happen.

We had wanted to explore northern Idaho and retrace Lewis and Clark's trail,

so I planned a trip up north.

We left on Friday morning and drove up through Riggins, ID

and Tom showed me some of the places he rafted at "Canoe Base" 

with the BSA many years ago.

We drove along the Salmon River.

We also stopped for a picnic along the Salmon River.

You can see the haze in the air from the nearby forest fires.

We then drove up to Kamiah, Idaho where Lewis and Clark spent some time with the Nez Perce Indians on their way back east from the Pacific coast. 

There is lots of Native American history in the Kamiah area.

This mound behind Tom holds some mythical meaning to the Indians.

Our 5 star hotel in Kamiah.

You can see Lewis and Clark and company up on the roof.

Saturday morning we got up early and drove along the Clearwater river

retracing Lewis and Clark as best we could.

Lewis and Clark realized that they couldn't float on the Clearwater river because it wasn't deep

enough so they stayed up on the mountain tops and hiked on foot and they traversed northern Idaho.

It was a beautiful drive as we headed to Missoula, Montana.

Tom knew of a hot spring (imagine that) along the way, Jerry Johnson hotspring,

so we stopped for a hike and a dip in the hot springs.

This interesting warning sign greeted us.

Thankfully we did not see any nude hikers.

It was a beautiful hike with perfect weather.

Look at that clear hotspring.

We had it all to ourselves.

Tom tried out a few others.

Then we hiked back out.

This cool bridge crosses the creek.

We drove across Lolo Pass and into Montana and found our hotel in Missoula.

That night we enjoyed going to a movie, Mission Impossible,

and then to dinner at a local pub/brewery.

Sunday we went to church in the Missoula 3rd ward,

then explored Missoula and found the University of Montana.

We drove to a nearby bird refuge on our drive south and stopped and took a hike.

It was breathtaking scenery driving from Montana into Idaho.

Who knew there was a Lake Como in Montana?

Now we do ;)

It was named by a Catholic priest back in the 1800's who was from the Lake Como region in Italy

and this lake reminded him of home.

We drove down into Idaho and to our next destination, Salmon, Idaho.

 Salmon also holds lots of Lewis and Clark history,

as they stayed here on their way to the Pacific.

 

We checked into our marvelous Bed and Breakfast 

that we had stayed

at a couple of years ago and had a night out on the town.

Actually I'm not sure that's possible in Salmon.

As you can see from the arrows in this owl,

people get bored in Salmon, but it is a beautiful place!

With a really cool fountain along main street.

Tom's Mom lived in Salmon when she was growing up and worked at this store.

What a view from our Bed and breakfast.

Monday morning we left Salmon and headed west.

We stopped in Challis 

Then we stopped at this Idaho Minding History display along the highway.

We had a fabulous picnic and eventually made it to Redfish Lake.

We rented a boat (Taylor used to work at the marina at Redfish)

and headed out for a 3 hour tour.

It is so gorgeous.

They call this the gates of heaven.

 We actually only stayed an hour in the boat but what fun it was exploring the lake.

Afterwards we swam in the lake, 

then got in the car and drove back to Boise.

What a wonderful weekend exploring Idaho and celebrating 39 years of marriage. 

Together!