We were speaking to someone in the hot tub the other day who told us that Sandpoint has a couple of great Antique malls, a yummy Pie Shop and a brewery that offers tours and tasting. Sounded like a pretty good way to spend a day! And so…off to Sandpoint today!
As we entered Sandpoint from the west, we saw a sign indicating the Bonner County Historical Museum so we decided to check it out first. http://bonnercountyhistory.org
Sandpoint is situated on Lake Pend d’Oreille, pronounced Ponderay, which in French means “hanging ears”. You may wonder how that has anything to do with a lake so I will tell you. Many years ago when David Thompson was exploring and mapping this vast frontier, he came upon the Kalispel natives. Traders referred to certain bands of this tribe in the lake area as the Pend d’Oreille because of the large pendulous shell earrings they wore. Thompson would draw from their expertise in building canoes and their intimate knowledge of the lake as he explored the area.
This museum is a wealth of information about the whole area and I was most impressed with the large selection of clothing from past eras, in particular clothing from the 1920’s when life was good and people could afford the finery of beaded dresses and purses, beautiful silks and furs. Being a seamstress, I always marvel at the details in that era of clothing when only simple sewing machines existed and so much of the minute and tedious details were sewn perfectly by hand. You could feel the suffering of the 1930’s after the crash of the stock markets in 1929 when you realized that some of these beautiful dresses were eventually used as insulation between walls of old homes!
Well, all that reading brought on a thirst so it was time to check out The Laughing Dog Brewery, http://www.laughingdogbrewing.com/taproom_sandpoint. We were disappointed to hear that they only do tours on the weekends and this was Tuesday. Nevertheless, we decided to sample one of their fifteen beer flavours. The 219 Pilsner was so tasty that Jim bought some to bring home to share.
The Antique malls were next on our agenda for the day. Jim loves going through all the old vinyl records, cars and games. I like going through all housewares and furniture. Such fun stepping back in time.
Soup for lunch at the Antique Mall and then pie for dessert at the Pie Shop…yummy!
A fun day…finished off with a drive through the lakefront districts to see the houses. Not sure why but we both love imagining ourselves living on a lake in a beautiful home with grandchildren running around the professionally landscaped grounds or being pulled on water skis by our beautiful speed boat that we keep moored at our private dock on the lake! Haha! Only in our dreams!
