Family days in Idaho

On the morning of July 3, we reunite with Juliane’s host parents in Homedale Idaho, at their house, for breakfast. We walk over there from our campground with a feeling of joyful anticipation, as it has been over 20 years since my wife and her host family last met. The early morning sun is shining with a friendly warmth already announcing that it will be less friendly when it stands up high over Idaho on midday. The night has been short, also because we are now in the “Mountain Time Zone”, one hour ahead of the Pacific Coast.

A first very special day

‘Here it is’, exclaims Juliane, while approaching a friendly charming sage green 1920s wooden house across its front yard with flowerbeds, little American flags sticking in the ground in preparation of the 4^th of July festivities.

The door swings open, and Juliane’s host mother Nancy appears, together with Olli, a Golden Doodle (cross breed between a Golden Retriever and a Poodle), who will grow a companion to our children over the next few days.

Nancy and her husband Stephen greet us all naturally, somehow as if Juliane had only been away for a walk and not for over two decades. I quickly realize that Juliane really is their German daughter and that they treat us like family. We jump right into conversations over a wonderful breakfast with French toast, ham and coffee and are set for a great day.

We jump into cars and drive through Owyhee County farmland and along the Owyhee Mountains to Celebration Park, Idaho’s archeological park on the Snake River. Here, about 40,000 years ago, rocks the size of little boulders were spread around in the valley like gravel stone due to a huge post ice age inundation. The Native American’s who later lived in the area and supposedly set up their winter camp there, left inscriptions on some of those rocks, that remain unresolved until today, which are called petroglyphs.

Before we explore these Native American “tweeds”, we engage in another activity, which we, not to mention our little boy and girl, find highly fascinating: Throwing spears with a spear thrower, an ancient weapon also used by early Americans and also known as “atl-atl”.

The sun is rising high and beating down, and when we get home from our field trip, Stephen throws on the water sprinklers in the garden and hands out all sorts of water guns, and we spend the rest of the day on the lawn, enjoying some special and easy family time together, until the moon stands high in the sky and our first day comes to an end, as we await the 4^th of July.

Happy 4^th!

So today is July 4. I get up early, and my first task of the day is to sear a seven-pound brisket on the grill, before it spends the rest of the morning in the oven in a garlic, onion, brown sugar, Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar and soy sauce and will be served later for lunch together with baked beans and several salads before we head out to a demolition derby. Quite an alternative to starting the day than my normal cup of coffee…

As everyone is breakfasting around in the kitchen, father Stephen reminds us to get ready for the parade which will take place at 9 a.m. We then all stroll a block down and await the parade on the opposite side of the local nursing and rehab center, a row of older ladies and gentlemen in wheelchairs looking as if they were getting ready to run their own demolition derby, some of them wearing stars and stripes Uncle Sam hats. When the parade finally pulls around the next corner and approaches, two police cars ahead, one of them approaches a bit faster. The driver gets out of his car and distributes candy to every patient, one by one, patiently and friendly, whishing everyone a happy 4^th.

Riders on horseback form the head of the parade, followed by the veterans, then the ambulance and firefighters in their trucks, some other public institutions like the public library, then some old timers and finally some of the cars taking part in today’s demolition derby.

The parade probably doesn’t take more than 15 minutes, but my children collect so much candy that they could live of them until the end of the year. Inspired by their mother, they take a few pieces for themselves and then reach the rest to one of the nurses for distribution to the patients.

Later that day, Juliane’s host sister Toni arrives with her and her husband’s family and after a late lunch in the garden, most of us head to the event of the afternoon and evening, the demolition derby in Homedale, modern gladiator games where young men in their very special vehicles try to bump into one another as much and as fast as they can to destroy each other’s car. Very loud, very crazy, very hot, very colorful, a little weird and certainly dangerous, but somehow fascinating.

Serendipity

The 4^th of July festivities have been long, and we sleep in and just hang out the next day. Toni stops by to visit some more with her host sister Juliane and us, and we spend a very relaxed summer day at the house and in the garden, taking time for conversations and for mutual appreciation until late at night while the children jump through the water sprinkler, draw and do handicrafts together with their “American grand-parents”.

As the sun sets, the light creates a golden rim around everyone’s silhouette, and the radio in Stephen’s pick-up truck plays songs from the 60s and 70s that float through the summer air. Some of us play Ladder Golf, some modern version of throwing horseshoes, and drink one Bud Light after the other.

We already know that parting won’t be easy when we continue our journey further East to Colorado the next day. We have grown to each other’s heart over these days together, and Juliane’s host mother expresses it just right, when she says to Juliane while the two hug in great emotion: ‘I didn’t realize how much I missed you!’.

The last 72 hours have been a gift. As we were able to snuggle under the warm and loving shelter provided to us by Juliane’s host parents, we were able to just live through the day, not having to think about the next thing to organize, but just being with loving and caring people, enjoying time with them and with one another, in great spirits and light joy.

We leave with hearts filled with lots of love and laughter and – my new favorite word I learned from Stephen on this trip: – serendipity, and take these precious Homedale memories with us to Colorado, our next destination, and beyond.