Priest Lake Reunion
Mike ponders his next move while Dave looks on
My sister Diane and her husband Dave live in Northern Idaho. When they sold their business a few years ago and retired they bought a summer house on Priest Lake. Last summer they invited Sandy and I to come up and visit for a few days. I had to admit that I was envious. It's a beautiful spot. So when they invited us up again this September, we eagerly accepted. But this time she also invite my brother Mike, who lives in Illinois, and my sister Lorri, who lives in Wisconsin. Both Mike and Lorri said that they would be able to make the trip. Unfortunately their spouses would be staying home. But it was still pretty cool, as the last time the four of us got together was back in 2018. Our family has never been big on large family gatherings, so with the four of us spread across the country, we don't get together very often.
While we are gaming the ladies enjoy the view outside
The drive from our house takes about eight hours. We were familiar with it from our trip the previous year. It's pretty easy because it's interstate highway about two thirds of the way. We left in the morning and with the time change we were able to make it there before dinner time. That's very important in my opinion! Lorri was already there. She had flown in from Wisconsin the day before. Mike flew into Spokane that afternoon and arrived late that evening. It was great to see everyone again.
It was a great place for everyone to gather. Priest Lake is a large mountain lake, almost twenty miles long and varying from one to five miles in width. It reaches a maximum depth of 300 feet. It lies between two long, north/south ridges of the Selkirk range, with heavily forested mountains surrounding it on both sides. My sister's summer home is only about fifty feet from the lake shore, built into a hillside. They have a huge patio all along the back of their house that with a fantastic view of the lake.
Sandy made delicious cinamon rolls for breakfast one morning
Priest Lake is pretty remote so we just stayed there for several days. There aren't even any restaurants nearby. Instead, Sandy and my sisters took turns making dinner, and we had some great meals. Home made cinamon rolls for breakfast. Good dinners (spaghetti and meatballs was my favorite) and of course, lots of snacks. I'm not much of a cook so I always volunteered for cleanup duty. And we always had Happy Hour out on the patio. It's a great place to sit any time to enjoy the view but is especially good for watching the sunset with a glass of wine.
I brought a copy of Second Fallujah, the wargame that I designed that was published in Paper Wars. I wanted to play it with my brother. A long time ago he was my first ever wargame opponent. When we were kids we started by playing the old 1965 version of Battle of the Bulge. I worked for several weeks, watching my baby sister for twenty five cents an hour, until I had saved up the eight dollars I needed to buy the game. Later we played most of the old Avalon Hill classics: Stalingrad, Afrika Korps, D-Day, Guadalcanal, Jutland and Blitzkrieg. While I have continued as a wargamer over the years my brother hadn't played for a long time. Still, I wanted to show him the game that I had designed and gotten published.
The sunset was pretty even on a cloudy day
We spent a couple of afternoons playing and got in two full games. Mike played the US/Coalition both times. That was his preference. I offered to switch after the first game but he preferred not to play the "bad guys". Dave was an observer for both games, which I managed to win. Not really surprising that I won since I know the game a little better than Mike does. But winning/losing isn't really the point of wargames. Just playing the game, spending time with friends, and learning the history are the main things. Mike and Dave both said that they were impressed. It was like a real game! I'm pretty sure Mike enjoyed it since after he went home he played the game several times using the solitaire mode. I could tell because every few days I would get a text message with a rule question. So I think he approved.
Surprisingly Sandy, Diane and Lorri didn't seem too interested in the game while we were playing. Sandy had brought some craft stuff along and for some strange reason they preferred working on crafts to joining us. Weird, huh. No accounting for taste.
Me and my siblings with their new tshirts
A couple of afternoons Sandy and I took walks along the lake shore. It was pretty walking through the woods near the lake. Evenings we usually watched Brewer baseball games on MLB.com. We all grew up in Milwaukee so even after all these years we are Brewer fans. After the games, we continued the baseball theme by watching Major League. It's nostalgic because although the team in the movie is the Cleveland Indians, it was filmed at Milwaukee County Stadium. My brother and I watched many games from the bleachers there back in the day. It was torn down years ago so it is fun to see the old ball park again in the movie. And as many times as I have seen that movie, I still love the scene where Wild Thing comes in to pitch in the ninth inning with two outs and the bases loaded.
I did bring along a little gift for my siblings, something I found on the web a few months before. I got each of them a tshirt that said "If at first you don't succeed, try doing what STEVE told you to do the first time". I'm sure they will wear them a lot (-:
The time went by fast. Pretty soon it was time for all of us to head home. Hopefully we can make a reunion like this a regular thing every year.
