Sandpoint, Idaho

Hello! Sorry it's been so long, really I should have written this a week ago, but I was caught up in the Harry Potter books and I've only just barely come back to earth to tell you about my trip to Idaho to visit Ben and Kris... oh, yeah, and Elijah too, I guess. I just want to tell you, that everything is about a ten to twenty minute walk away from Ben's house, except the Super 1 which is just three minutes walk, the Air Port which is about one hour and forty-five minutes drive, and their church which is a fifteen minute drive.
On the first day we went to the beach where the lake was at. It was very pretty, and if we had planned things a bit better it would have proved very enjoyable. As it was, we grew rather tired of the walk and the heat. That night Ben made us steaks, which were very delicious.
Saturday morning we went huckleberry picking, which I enjoyed, though not at the time, as is how many things I do for the first time are (I am fully aware that that is a confusing sentence, Mother). But when I look back on them I find that in reality I rather enjoyed myself. The main problem was that I was sleeping very badly and I couldn't think straight and got mad whenever someone else "hit the jackpot" and got jealous because it wasn't me who discovered it. So I went up the hill to get away from everyone, and enjoyed the scenery, picking a few here and there that I found were ripe. Then we went up the mountain to where my parents hotel was at and ate lunch there, followed by a game of chess between my dad and me on a big chessboard (each square was a bit less than 1 square foot I'd say). We came to a draw. After this we got "smoothies" which would have been better named "icees" for the lack of milk. I didn't like mine very much. I was ruined by the smoothies at camp.
Sunday we went to church there. It was like our church when it came to what to wear and when it started and ended, but the songs and sermon (which was done by a guest speaker) were different. Not knowing the songs, I'm afraid I sang rather badly. But no matter. Ordering pizza at a place just about twenty minutes walk away, we started at once and got there when they said it would be ready, though it wasn't ready until ten minutes later. I liked this place very much, mainly because it had an old fashioned look about it and a juke box in the corner, something I'd only seen in old movies. The pizza was good, and I won a game of Settlers shortly after that.
Then came Monday. That morning we walked around the downtown area* and looked at the shops, and we stopped in a Lighthouse store (Ben works for the Lighthouse company) and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. They had huckleberry everything basically! I mean it! Huckleberry kettle corn, huckleberry chocolate (white, milk, and dark), huckleberry pops, I could go on, but at the moment I can't remember. They had corn there that you could pop off the cob too! Sarah was very interested in the cheese section which held no interest for me at all. Anyway, then we got some smoothies, which were more satisfactory than the other ones, though they still didn't hold up to the ones at camp. Lunch hour had approached at this time and knew it would take forever to get lunch at that moment, so we looked at the shops which were built over the lake. Once we finished we ordered lunch at Joel's, a mexican restaurant, and the others drove home while, Dad, Sarah, and me walked back with the food when it was ready. It was good, but they put unnecessary tomato and lettuce in my burrito, and I said I much preferred Mom's burritos. We played Settlers with the expansion Sea Farers of which Sarah won, and I skyped into Awana on Sarah's laptop, as Awana is my number one priority and I wouldn't dream of missing it if it were in my power to participate in it. Mikaija and Josh have smart phones, see, and they could do video with me on their Skype apps. I rather enjoyed it.
The next day we woke up at 3:00 am to get ready and my Dad picked us up at 3:30 to drive us to the airport. I was glad to be home, but at the same time, it was one of the first vacations I was sad didn't last longer.

*The downtown area is probably my favorite place in the world right now. The shops consisted of coffee shops where you could hang out, clothes stores with clothes I actually liked, restaurants with food that actually tasted good, a bike shop, a hair salon, an old fashioned theater (which excited me the most) a rock store, a store with very strange looking games, and all sorts of other odds and ends.