I feel like a bear who has finally awoken from hibernation. Being on the road again, being in a new place, being with family, swimming in the cold, deep water of the Idaho Panhandle — I feel like life has finally hit the play button again.

Day 1 - We hiked for a bit at Falls Park in Post Falls, ID, and then swam in the cold currents of the Spokane River at Corbin Park. One of my favorite things about staying in Newman Lake, WA at the Obendrauf Gardens, or Pemberly, is that my Aunt Jeanette always has a plan for us — that and eating our meals together outside.

Day 2 - Swim in Coeur D’Alene Lake at Tubbs Hill. We hiked into our little beach cove at the perfect time to have a sweet spot in the shade and to enjoy the lake without so many people. The lake did get very busy, but when water is that pretty I tend to forget that people exist. We had a picnic lunch and swam for hours. Erica and I swam out to a rock which is now “Middle Rock” and we sang our siren songs the entire time. This is the only photo I took — one of the best things about not having Instagram is that I don’t pay too much attention to my camera when I can enjoy a place in the moment instead.

When we got back to the house, we jumped in the pool and played pool games until it was time to eat.

Day 3 - I skipped the morning hike to the Liberty Lake cedar groves to sleep in and get over a bit of a headache. In the afternoon, we went for a swim at Hauser Lake. Erica and I swam out far past the swimming beach to get away from the crowded, designated swim area. She wanted to swim to the other side of the lake, and it was hard to turn her down. After we swam, we got out the watercolors and painted for a bit while we dried off in the sun. After a shower, we returned to Hauser Lake to eat pizza at Embers by the Lake where we learned about Huckleberry Hard Seltzer and honey pizzas.

Day 4 - We finished packing up for Priest Lake and hit the road. Erica rode in the car with me, and we listened to The Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle (my favorite of the Time Series). It rained most of our drive, and we sat in the car until it slowed down enough to set up camp. When we went to check out the water in the evening, we had to run back to camp to avoid the total downpour that blew into our cove.

Day 5 - We packed a lunch and headed to the other side of the lake to see Granite Falls and hike up to the old cedar grove. The hike to and through the cedar grove was beautiful, and distanced us from the traffic at the falls. There were huckleberries all along the hike, which meant that Erica and I got very distracted during our hike picking and eating wild huckleberries. The cedars were really beautiful and tall, and made me forget for a moment that we were among the true giants of the Redwoods the year before. It was also important on our excursion to find warmer clothes for the adult women (Linda and myself) who did not think about the cold weather at night and did not have their moms pack for them. We also stopped by Hunt Falls on our way back to camp.

Day 6 - Kayak day! After a frustrating morning, patching and repatching my inflatable kayak, we set out to kayak from the Lionhead Campground (Mosquito Bay) through the Thoroughfare to Upper Priest Lake. The Thoroughfare is a no-wake channel that connects the developed Priest Lake to the undeveloped Upper Priest Lake. Against a strong wind current, we made it to UP, beached and had lunch, enjoying the views. On the way back, Jonathan paddled with me and we were able to find a long stretch of glassy water to enjoy without any other paddlers or boats. The full kayak was about 7 miles, and ended with a somewhat scary paddle across the middle of a very deep, very choppy Priest Lake. The whitecaps were a little intense, and it felt like the ocean. I told Jonathan that if we tipped, we would throw Eustace (the dog) onto the boat and swim the rest of the way. We made it, and the others made it not too long after. There is nothing like taking a nap in your kayak in the sun after paddling through the cold. Priest Lake definitely has some magic to it.

Day 7 - Thanks to some of that good ol’ fashioned heartburn, I was not feeling well on Sunday morning — so I missed the hike to the popular natural “slides.” As I took a five hour nap in my hammock, somewhere down a rough road, Linda and Erica were sliding into a beautiful pool on one of the smaller natural slides. From the videos and subsequent screams, I can tell you that the water is unbearably cold and feels like death. Once everyone got back, the swimming sirens, Erica and myself, swam out into the bay, singing nonsense, convincing Linda to join us. It felt so good to clean out my dirty camping hair and swim in the cold, deep — just my favorite thing, especially after swimming in what felt like 100 degree water in Texas back in July. In our last night at camp, we sat around the fire and told a person-by-person, paragraph-by-paragraph story about Macaroni Eustace, her robot dog Pepito, and her arch-nemisis/special fire friend Dr. Archibald Funkelstein. Before bed, Jeanette and I walked down to the boat dock to see the sky full of stars.