I’ve written before about the idyllic summers I spent as a teenager on Coeur d’Alene Lake. And I’ve written about waterskiing. I recently found some old pictures of those days—pictures of my father, mother, brother, and me all waterskiing. As I looked at these pictures, I remembered how each of […]
Continue readingTag Archives: Idaho
Fort Boise
In my current work-in-progress, which takes place in 1864, some of my characters are traveling toward Fort Boise. In 1864, Fort Boise was in its second location, where the current city of Boise, Idaho, is located. In 1834, the original Fort Boise began as a fur trading post on the […]
Continue readingA Story I Couldn’t Tell Before: The Time Dad Cussed At Me
I only remember my father swearing at me once. I heard him curse in general on occasion—a “hell” or a “damn” when he pounded a finger while hammering or the like. And he’d call politicians “damn idiots” sometimes. But he didn’t even say these things often in my presence when […]
Continue readingFighting Fires: Now and Then
Many of the forest fires raging in the West this summer are not far from places I know—outside of Twisp and Omak and Okanogan near Lake Chelan in Washington State; Clark Fork near Lake Pend d’Oreille in the Idaho Panhandle; and other fires in Oregon. I remember fires from lightning […]
Continue readingA Picture I Wish I Had: A Baby and Huckleberries
A friend of mine in Washington State recently posted a picture of huckleberries she had picked. Now those of you who don’t live in the West may not even know what huckleberries are. You’ve heard of Huckleberry Finn, but did you ever wonder where the Huckleberry in his name came […]
Continue readingHarrison, Idaho, and Summer Parades
I’ve written before about the idyllic summers I spent during my teenage years on Coeur d’Alene Lake in Idaho. Some of my memories are of boating to Harrison, Idaho, a small town across the lake from where my parents’ cabin was. Harrison had the most accessible Catholic church on the […]
Continue readingThree Island Crossing on the Snake River
As I mentioned in my August 15 post last year, by mid-August the wagon trains to Oregon were following the Snake River. At the time, the Snake was called the “Lewis Fork” of the Columbia River (named after Meriwether Lewis). The Oregon Trail followed this river for 300 miles from […]
Continue readingSummer Rains and Memories
The past two days we have had rain in Kansas City. Monday felt almost autumn-like – cool, with a steady rain that lasted all day. Tuesday was warmer, steamier, but still grey and dreary. I sat writing in my journal on Tuesday, the room dark, no sunshine streaming in my […]
Continue readingFourth of July Creek: Laura McPhee’s Photographs at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Last month I went to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City to see the special exhibit of Laura McPhee’s photographs of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. I don’t like a lot of modern art, but I do like photography, and the exhibit of McPhee’s work was outstanding. The […]
Continue readingMemories of Desert and Lakes . . . and Our Rainy Respite
As a desert-born girl, I hate the rain. I don’t like it dripping on me. And I hate the Midwestern humidity – I’ve never adapted to it in 33 years of living in Missouri. This hot, dry summer of Midwestern drought has brought back many memories of the hot, dry […]
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