Day 13 of 21 - Psalms 42:1 ...As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.

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Our vacation just gets better and The Lord did not disappoint us today! We decided to go kayaking today and in Northern Idaho we had about 1000 choices of lakes, rivers & streams to choose from! But I had read about Priest Lake north of Sandpoint and that it was a beautiful lake and their was a "canoer & kayakers paradise" in an area called the thoroughfare that leads to Upper Priest Lake which is declared a Federally Designated Scenic Area and is restricted from development. We found a great sandy state beach to launch from and headed into the thoroughfare. It was gorgeous and completely flat and we all imagined seeing all kinds of wildlife taking drinks along river water through the lush beautiful wilderness, yet the animal we all longed to see was a moose.

About 3/4 of the way into the thoroughfare Jeff spotted something moving in the trees beyond the waters edge...yes, it was a moose but we could barely make it out so we all sat perfectly still waiting to see what was going to happen. All of a sudden she came out of the timber to an open area filled with green bushes and berries and she began snacking. We were all freaking out but sat perfectly still, then she made way to the water and waded right in NEXT TO US! Then we noticed her "girlfriend" came out of the timber and she climbed in too! I was so glad Jeff had his phone to take pictures!!! Wow, we were all delighted and amazed at how much God loves us by experiencing that cool wildlife up close! And we thought that this was a a once in a lifetime experience...but no!

At this point we figured we'd seen all that we wanted to see and flipped around for the paddle back and lo and behold we came upon another moose that was running back into the woods from the water. Then out of a neighboring meadow another moose entered the water (she seemed smaller) and she began making a repetitive noise like she was calling for the other moose. We all thought she might be a baby and was calling for her momma, but we sat and watched her for a bit as she snorkeled in the water and bit off a clump of something and then would chew on it! So cute!

So, not only did we see a moose....we two ACTUAL MOOSE ENCOUNTERS!

It doesn't get much better than this for us. This is the type of thing we get really excited about and our God orchestrated it ALL!

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