Adventureland- day 2

After a restless nights sleep, I got up the next morning and packed my bag for the trip to the hatchery.  I'm always amazed when I drive through Idaho at the diversity of the landscape.  As we left scalding hot White Bird, we drove through Grangeville where my husband grew up.  Everytime we go through there I try to imagine him as a young boy growing up there.  I am always in awe at the vast expanses of farmland and especially all the wheat fields.  I don't believe I had ever seen a wheat field until we moved here and I keep hearing "Amber waves of grain" going through my head and I realize I never knew the honesty of this line until I witnessed it myself.

We had a bit of a goose chase looking for our ride, but when we realized it wasn't the Dworshack hatchery, but the Ahsaka hatchery down the street, we were on our way.  Now, I honestly had no idea what to expect out of this trip, so the entire way up to the station, I picked that poor guy's brain who was instructed to haul us around.  I asked every little thing that came to mind.  He once said he was beginning to think he needed to take some refresher courses so he could better answer the questions we were throwing at him.

Prior to my trip, the manager of the hatchery asked me what I would be interested in doing when we got there and had told me that the huckleberries would be ready to be picked.  Now for those of you who don't know what a huckleberry is, think blueberry, but smaller, but sweeter, and much more rare.  These little bushes are unable to be grown commercially and are sought out by gatherers in great numbers as they fetch a pretty penny on the market.  They are also well-loved by the local bear population.  My husband made it very clear that I was NOT to come home without some.

So berry picking was on the agenda again.  This was perfectly ok with me.  Before we went to the sweet spot, we drove up to an overlook and peered out over Walton Lakes and a view that was spectacular.  Its amazing how refreshing it is out in nature like that.  I could feel it was where I was meant to be.

The berry picking went smoothly, all my chattering with the assistant manager kept bears at bay and I was able to ask more questions.  This guy, Brad, was such an amazing guy.  He lives like I would love to live someday.  The majority of his food comes from the land.  His entertainment is the outdoors.  When I hear how he and his family lives, it makes me wonder how anyone can truly be happy living any other way.

After we gathered our berries we headed back to the cabin and our chauffeur-turned-chef grilled some fantastic steaks and made a wonderful salad.  Then we all gathered around the campfire with the rest of the crew and watched the Perseid meteor shower and various satellites fly by and located various astrological signs and planets.  It was truly refreshing.  Knowing that the morning would come quickly and tomorrow would be a busy day,  we all retreated to our various beds, tents and sleeping bags for the night.  Thankfully the babbling stream outside our tent helped lull me to sleep as I was worried my excitement would keep me up all night.