Priest Lake, ID

Shad and I had an AMAZING anniversary weekend together!! We were given a condo up at Priest Lake, ID by a family in our ward, who couldn't use it. It was totally free, and totally awesome!! We had the condo to ourselves right on the lake! We packed up on Friday afternoon and got there around 4, its about 2 hours away... ish. I made sure to come totally and completely prepared with food and snacks for the entire weekend, so the first night we made DELICIOUS foil dinners and explored the new diggs. Then Saturday we woke up early and found a hike we wanted to try, it was about 4 miles round trip and was pretty steep, but doable. However, the WORST part was that we ran into a forest of mosquitos!! It was AWFUL, they totally ate us alive. Which consequently made the hike less enjoyable. The next day Shad counted 45 Mosquito bites on me...yup 45!! It looks like I have a rash on my back. EW! PLUS at the top of the hike, when we finally escaped the mosquitos, I got stung by a bee!! So if you ever go to Priest Lake, make sure to stock up on bug spray. Seriously... Sheesh! After the hike and some lunch, we headed over to the beach!! The water was SO beautiful, clear, and clean! I have NEVER been to a lake that was this clean. I am usually not a lake/ocean swimmer, but the water there was SO inviting I just had to go in! Plus it was in the 90s outside, so the water was perfect. After a nice long day hiking and beaching it up, Shad and I decided to try the local cuisine for dinner. We found a place in the tour guide and ventured out. It was called "Ardy's Cafe", it was cute, small, and quite delicious. Huckleberries are a big deal up there during the summer, so Shad HAD to try the homemade Huckleberry pie. But they had everything from Huckleberry ice cream to shakes to jam! I wasn't brave even to try it, but Shad sure scarfed it down! Then we explored the lake some more and drove around while the sun was setting and took some pictures. It was so beautiful up there. Sunday before we left we decided we wanted to have a little bit more beach time... so we headed over the beach and had it to ourselves for a little bit in the morning, and reluctantly we came home Sunday afternoon. Overall a VERY memorable trip and anniversary. We're thinking we will have to go back there sometime soon. 1.5 - 2 hours away is just too close to not enjoy!

The View from our condo window!! Beautiful!

The dreaded Mosquito hike:

The nice thing was we were the ONLY ones there on the hike.

The awesome view:

The Beach:

Now you cannot tell me that water doesn't look SO inviting!!

Shad swimmin'

That's his head there poking out of the water!

Ahhh... the beach!

Ardy's Cafe, cute huh?!?

Diggin' into some Huckleberry pie!

Pretty Sunset: