Northern Idaho

I just got back from a trip to Northern Idaho, specifically to Sandpoint. Milen and I went for no particular reason... We just like to fly, and we sure had a great day for it in the Northwest today! And the flight was as perfect as the weather. Just about the only thing to deal with was the smoke from a wildfire near the north end of Lake Chelan. And that smoke did reduce the visibility enough to where we had to deviate slightly around it.

It turns out that Sandpoint is not super-close to town. But, folks at small airports are so nice sometimes!! There was a guy sitting in the FBO who offered us a ride into town, but because we thought it was a 10 minute walk, we thought we'd just walk along the road. Big mistake... It was hot, and the walk was much longer. After 20 minutes of walking we were nowhere close to the town. It turned out that just about that time, the guy from the FBO drove by, lowered his window, and said "are you still up for a ride?" We gladly accepted! Not only did he show us where the restaurants were - he also drove us to the City Park which hosts a nice beach on Lake Pend Oreille. The water was warm, and I couldn't resist getting my feet wet!

Check out the photos from the trip!

4.1 flying hours from Paine Field in Everett to Sandpoint - not bad! Airplanes sure beat driving - by car, that would have been a ~12 hour round trip (plus a chance of getting caught by the omnipresent Washington State Patrol.)