Day Up North

Yesterday I went to Sandpoint for my dad's birthday. After twenty minutes on the Long Bridge, I must say my patience was tested. I even said in a fairly loud voice out the window once, SURE GLAD YOU DON'T NEED A BYPASS IN THIS TOWN! There was a non-ending line of cars, and so many semi-trucks, the line had to be backed up to Westmond!! As I sat there, excited when I got to move at the pace of 2 mph, I thought that if Starbuck's were smart, they would put a shop out on that little pull out area, where the walking bridge starts to head down to the ground. Think of how much money they could make, as everyone is backed up on the bridge!! After finally making it to the corner of First and Superior, I headed to the back route, only to find it was blocked by big trucks unloading things for The Festival. All I kept thinking was how much I really miss trying to get around that town. I picked up my sister and nieces, headed to our parents, and once everyone was ready, we headed back to town where we overstuffed ourselves on a great lunch at the Hydra. We took dad and the nieces home, and let grandpa have some quality time with his granddaughters for his birthday, and mom, my sister and I went shopping. We hit Super Drug and I got to see many faces that I haven't seen in a long time, which was really nice. One thing I miss down here are seeing all the locals and getting to chat while shopping. Yes, there are a lot of times when I see people in Costco from up North, but it's just different to be in the local stores and see local people. The three of us had a great time, and the long-time clerk in the store noted that as we checked out. She said how we kept laughing, and checking out all the sale items, and having a good time. We also hit Starbuck's, where first, they hit the wrong key on my mom's chai and it ended up a double chocolate latte, which they told us to just take. We took that back to dad. My sister is not a coffee drinker, so she ordered an iced steamer with hazelnut. Not sure what she ended up with, but it was STRONG coffee! I'm sure she is still buzzing today. She was adding cocoa to it to try to get it to taste better, but then she would get a pure clump of cocoa in her mouth and would really get a funny look on her face. We had a lot of laughs, and lots of good memories. Even with the delay of traffic trying to get into Sandpoint, it was a great day!