Year end at Colville and Eagle trip to Lake Pend Oreille.

Colville is about to welcome in 2014, along with our 36th anniversary at midnight. I am one lucky guy!

Colville doesn't lack in Christmas spirit...with lights across Main Street and this beautiful display at one of the churches in town. As I have mentioned before, Colville has a very large lit cross on a hill overlooking the town and its 21 churches, so you know it's a special place.

These guys love hanging around my driveway begging for apples, to which is usually successful as long as the fruit last.

When we moved here I had no idea that one of our neighbors was related to Ansel Adams. That might be a slight exaggeration on my part but Angie across the road from us emailed me this photo of our house. It may of been when we were in Spokane or out running around shopping...but I missed it!

Good for Angie or Paul to take such a beautiful shot and send it to us, we love it.

It was a grey and overcast day but we wanted to take our granddaughter to see some of the bald eagles that feast on a Kokanee salmon run that ends about January 1st. Lake Coeur d' Alene has in the past been the most popular spot for wintering eagles but the run on Lake Pend Oreille has increased so much  it is now the favorite of the eagles.

Donna spotted the first 5 in about ten minutes time. Ashley and I are having a hard time catching up.

First, I have to apologize for focus problems. I could never seem to focus just on the birds. I miss my SX 40 and wish I had it back even though it does not allow for lens changes, it still did a better job. Well then, there it could be a case of operator error too.

We had lost count at 50 eagles, some may of been counted twice but based on all the birds and our limited viewing area, there must of been hundreds. We watched them through our spotting scope diving, flying, playing and skimming the surface for fish.

 I get a little nervous when I see Ashley staring at me with those beautiful hazel eyes because I know her wheels turning, Opa will be doing whatever this angel wants...:-)

Near the middle of this bay was some kind of military barge or float for the Navy.

In Bayview, Idaho the eagles were not the only attraction. Seems the U.S. Navy uses the lake to test scale model submarines. The depth of the lake is more than 1000 feet with a flat bottom and constant temperatures below 300 feet, ideal for testing. The Navy has three or four large hangers on the water in the middle of the picture.

Here is the "which-ama-call-it" in the middle of the bay...it has Navy written all over it.

We drove around on the east side of the lake to find more eagles and saw through the trees above the Navy base, this  small submarine floating next to one of the large floating sheds.

Ok...back to eagle watching and as usual Donna is spotting them for Ashley and I.

Across from the Navy base is the Bayview Marina. Bayview is an older town that was explained as a place filled with retires. 

We drove down to the marina area because Ashley was getting hungry and a hamburger overlooking the lake sounds good to me too. $10 for a child's hamburger on the water? FAHGETTABOUDIT!

We did get to see some Canadian geese near the shore but if they are in Idaho...wouldn't they now be American geese?

This could be our fixer upper on the lake, right? Well, we had a great day on the lake and looking forward to this summer to see it under a different light. 

Happy New Years to all...........