As many of you know, Ben and I have been trying to buy a “short-sale” house in Eagle since last March. Well, this week we canceled our offer on the house in Eagle. In light of the financial crisis in the US and around the world, we decided to play it safe and stay where we are. The whole process has been pretty interesting, so below is a timeline of how it all happened.
Our House: Short-sale House:
Apparently so…
Found it in the valley between Squaw Creek trail and Cobb trail. I didn’t roll around in it though, maybe it’s just poinsettia.
I brought my kite/camera gear along too, mostly just to see how hard it is to bring the whole setup on a challenging bike ride, in preparation for trying the same thing in more interesting out-of-the way places. The kite stayed up just long enough for me to attach the camera and then floated back to earth. It was too hazy for good pictures anyway.
If you read our blog, or any other blogs, you might find yourself checking them frequently only to find that nothing has been updated. Or you might forget about them and then later when you remember to check there’s 6 months of posts that you’ve missed. This is why you should setup an RSS reader.
Last weekend we spent an hour or two playing around with the kite and camera at Barber Park
Somehow these must have been accidentally left out of the Ruttgers post.
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Making your own kite might sound a little dorky.
However, a few points to consider:
Last weekend the Albertus family (plus us two Scott’s) took a weekend trip to a lake in Minnesota. We stayed at a nice resort called Ruttgers on Bay Lake and took advantage of tons of available activities including: water skiing, swimming, fishing, jumping on the water trampoline, tennis, campfires, Clay’s birthday, board games and yard games. We had so much fun! Here’s some of the highlights… (more…)
Tonight there was a huge fire in Southeast Boise in a neighborhood near our house. We first noticed something when we heard a lot of sirens outside. The wind was really strong and we had headed out on our bikes to try out Ben’s new kite. But we saw smoke in the distance and decided to head that direction to investigate. There was a huge fire spread out across a large open field off of Amity Road and houses burning on the ridge above. It’s so dry here, and with the strong winds the fire spread like crazy. We got there pretty early so we saw it spread and multiple houses catch on fire. It sounds like about 10 houses burnt down and a bunch more damaged. Luckily it doesn’t sound like anyone was hurt. Anyway, our video and photos probably tell the story better than I can… (more…)
I’ve already posted about some of our activities in and around Coeur d’Alene. But we also had a fun time along the way. Here’s two google map snapshots of our route, and some photos of the trip:
A = Boise B = Grangeville C = Coeur d’Alene D = Route of the Hiawatha E = Moscow
Ben, Beth and I rode a “rails-to-trails” bike ride in Northern Idaho called Route of the Hiawatha. It’s an old train route in the mountains, going through 10 tunnels and over 7 trestles (bridges). The coolest part was a 1.66 mile long tunnel! The tunnel was pitch black (bike lamps required), and super cold. It was damp and only 40 degrees F inside. We were warned ahead of time to go slow, because if you go fast you’ll get mud splashed in a straight line up your back. Sure enough, a few guys sped past us and they all had thick mud streaks right up their backs! Anyway, the scenery was gorgeous and we had a really fun time. The trail is 15 miles long downhill, then you take a bus back up to the top. Here’s a few photos from the ride.
Start of the adventure: The view:
