July's Big Adventure -- McCall, Idaho

In mid-July, we drove up to McCall, Idaho, where Virginia and her husband Ben live.  Cindy and Jerry came along to, and we spent an unforgettable week together in this charming, extremely scenic area of Idaho.  Here's a shot of adorable downtown McCall:

And here's the small docks area at McCall's main draw -- Lake Payette:

Here we are at the very beginning of the vacation, so excited!  

 

We were there for 6 days, and Ben and Virginia planned a different unforgettable activity for each day.  And then, each day, after our fun, we returned to the condo to enjoy an amazing culinary creation by Jac:

 

Jac cooked us delicious meals, while we sat on the deck each night and did this... :)

 

Here we are enjoying dinner #1: Jac's delicious spare ribs

Wow, the food was AMAZING!  We ate:

• Saturday: impromptu quesadillas
  
• Sunday: bbq  pork ribs with fresh vegetables
  
• Monday: tacos de Jac
  
• Tuesday: firecracker salmon with lo mein noodles and ginger broccoli
  
• Wednesday: pork fajitas with refried black beans and spanish rice
  
• Thursday: (dinner out)
  
• Friday: grilled ribeye steaks with grilled vegetables (including yellow squash from Betsy's garden) and delicious potatoes

 

Here's dinner #2 -- the firecracker salmon:

After dinner each night we played games or went swimming, and always had SO MUCH FUN:

Here's what we did each day:

Saturday (the evening we arrived):  sunset at the lake in Ponderosa State Park

 

 

Sunday:  white water rafting on the Salmon River

 

 

 

 

Monday:  the guys went on a motorcycle ride in the mountains:

 

 
And the girls went to a local cafe to drink and play the game Guess Who. (It's a little blurry because after 2 sangrias each, so were we):

Tuesday:  rode waverunners and kayaks at the lake:

Wednesday: rode motorcycles and razors in the mountains:

We drove by fields full of wildflowers, including these enormous amazing ones:

 

 

This was our beautiful view at the top of the mountain:

 

 

Here's some more random shots from the day:

 

 

 

  

 

Thursday: kayaking at the northern end of Payette Lake 

 

Then relaxing along the shore afterward:

After kayaking, we gave Jac a break from cooking and went back to our new favorite place--The Bistro--for some sangria and wine, some (very forgettable) tacos, and some bocce ball:

Friday: We went boating around Payette Lake (well, kinda)...

Due to boat issues, some of us boated to our beach meeting spot and some of us hiked along this beautiful trail:

 

It was SUCH a fun trip!  We all got along great and *hopefully* will  be going on lots more summer adventures as a group. :)

Last Thing: Side Trips En Route

Because we are Jac and Betsy, we made some side trips on the way to McCall and back.  On the way there, we visited Thousand Springs State Park, where we hiked a short distance to this beautiful waterfall:

and paid $7 to see this deep gorge (which we surely "do not regret"):

On the way back, we stopped at Minidoka National Historic Site---the site of a relocation center where more than 13,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during the Second World War.  It really could have been very fascinating, but it was 100 degrees.  And not air conditioned.  So we came, we saw, we checked it off and left.   Here's the obligatory shot--the guard tower at the entrance to the center.

 

In all, it was a fantastically fun time.  We are already SO excited for next year's trip!