During our visit to Sandpoint we camped on the eastern shore of Lake Pend Oreille in an RV Park located on the very tip of the Hope Peninsula. The park’s dock allowed us to leisurely enjoy the dramatic sunsets ... and for Danny to produce a splendid panorama.

The RV Park is unique in that it is located in the middle of the David Thompson Game Refuge … this meant that deer and turkeys wondered at will. It also meant that Sherry had a hard time "coming to terms" with all the deer poop!

The counterculture vibe is definitely alive and well in the tiny hamlet of Hope. The Old Ice House Pizzeria and Bakery, once an ice house in the early 1900’s, now lets patrons lay back and chill out. We enjoyed the food ... the fresh-squeezed lemonade ... and the eclectic and funky interior.

Sherry was captivated by these colorful cottages in Hope.

Looming over Sandpoint is the spectacular Schweitzer Mountain.  We drove up to the mountain top ski resort where Danny took the lift to the summit.

We love the Sandpoint area. Our concerns regarding northern Idaho’s reputation as a haven for racists and extremists were put into perspective. There were enough gentle souls in Sandpoint to counter the close proximity of the Aryan Nations Headquarters in Hayden Lake and the 1992 shootout at the Ruby Ridge. Even Mark Fuhrman doesn’t live in Sandpoint anymore.

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