Friday, December 28, 2018

McCall in Fall

Josh had golf course meetings in McCall on October 1 & 2. Since I was off for harvest break, I decided to go with Josh to McCall, too. I was so excited! I hadn't gone with him to the fall golf course meetings for years, and I absolutely love when it's in McCall! He is back on the Idaho GCSA board again, and they always meet the night before the semi-annual meetings start, so we had to be there on the evening of Sunday September 30. There was a golf tournament at the Salmon course that Sunday morning, so before we could leave to McCall, Josh had to go in and get the golf course ready.  I went in to work with him on Sunday morning first to help him get done faster. The wind had blown during the night, so branches were all over the place. Josh was pretty stressed out about getting done what he needed to, plus picking up the branches, and be done in time for the morning tournament to start. It was raining and we both got soaked while trying to get everything done! 

By the time we got home from work, the younger boys had already gone to church with Grandma and Grandpa. We thought we would have time to say goodbye, but we didn't realize that Josh's parents were going in to church so early (probably for choir practice). We took a warm shower, and headed on our way. It's about a 6 hour drive to McCall from Salmon, but the time passed quickly in the car with Josh. I love having time alone with him! We stopped a couple of times on the way to take pictures of the fall scenery that we passed--it's such a beautiful drive!


On Sunday night, Josh met with the IGCSA board, and they went out to dinner together to a really nice, upscale restaurant. He had meetings all day on Monday, and I just stayed at the hotel. I worked on blogging, watching TV, and relaxing in the hot tub. We went out to a gourmet pizza place for dinner that night together. 

On Tuesday, I dropped him off at his meetings that morning so I could have the car for the day. I checked out of the hotel, did some shopping in town, and met up with my friend Ellen who moved to McCall over the summer. We ate lunch together along with her youngest son Grayson. It was wonderful catching up with her! I went for a drive up to Riggins and back, and then through Ponderosa State Park. It was an overcast, drizzly day, but the scenery was so peaceful and I really enjoyed myself! I picked up Josh from the golf course--after his meetings he'd golfed 18 holes with some other Superintendents, and he was quite soaked and ready to go! 







We decided that we would stop at Kirkham Hot Springs near Lowman on the way home. We've talked about going there before, but never had. On the way to McCall, it was overflowing with people, but it was also a Sunday afternoon, and we thought it would be a lot less busy on a Tuesday evening when we came back through. Thankfully, we were right. There were only a couple of other people in the hot springs that evening. The nearby campground was closed for the winter, so we just changed our clothes in the car. The hot springs felt wonderful--they have several waterfalls, and different pools are different temperatures as a result of the nearby river and water flow currents. We got there just in time to enjoy the last bit of sunlight. We stayed for about an hour. When we were getting ready to leave, we began the hike back up the mountain side and I about passed out. I don't know if it was from the heat or from bending over trying to climb, but I couldn't catch my breath, and I had to sit for a few minutes on some nearby rocks until my head felt stable enough to finish the short but steep hike back out to the car. I'm glad we decided to stop at the hot springs--it broke up the drive home, and it was something we've wanted to do for quite sometime along that drive but never had before.  


The whole getaway was so relaxing for me, and was just what I needed! I was grateful for the time spent with Josh, and for the chance to have a few days without any schedules or demands! It's nice having older kids that we can trust at home, so that we can have opportunities to do things like this once in a while!

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