Exploring Sandpoint

The water of Lake Pend Oreille seemed quiet and peaceful as we drove across the Long Bridge on Highway 95 into Sandpoint.

The bridge cuts across Lake Pend Oreille near the mouth of the river by the same name. This is the fourth bridge to be built here. The first one, just 200 feet short of two miles, was completed in 1910 and promoted as the “longest wooden bridge in the world.”

Our diesel truck, with boat in tow, bumped easily along the bridge’s paved surface. The sky above us was dark and stirring. Rain and lots of it was coming our way.

We had planned to find a dog-friendly park or a nearby hiking trail for Kah-less. We didn’t want to get soft before ski season. But the rain was just too much for our spirits.

Our taste buds would do the exploring this trip, with me making all the choices – what to eat and what kind of wine to drink with it.

Rain, rain, rain … it never seemed to let up. We tried to make the best of it. That’s why my husband John, and Kah-less were outside in the pouring rain, walking around, killing time, so I could browse through the Litehouse Bleu Cheese Factory.

The factory was set up in 2001 by Litehouse when the company was faced with the loss of its bleu cheese supplier. It needed the cheese to make its original-recipe salad dressing. The dressing had humble beginnings in the mid-1940s as the creation of a Spokane chef who later served it from his own establishment: the Litehouse Restaurant in Hope, Idaho, not far from Sandpoint.

A small shop fronts the cheese factory, where old photos from the building’s early days as a laundry hang on the wall. Open refrigerator units lining one wall of the shop hummed as they displayed cheese and dairy products from the Pacific Northwest and the world.

I followed a short hallway to peek through foggy windows where small batches of bleu cheese are made by hand. Several tall, stainless steel milk urns were grouped together on the floor. Hundreds of metal containers with draining holes held a white substance that will be blue cheese at the end of the process.

A cheese maker entered the room and began to rapidly flip the metal cheese containers. Details and photos of the cheese making are posted in the hallway on simple, standard 81/2- by 11-inch sheets. Interesting fact: Bleu cheese ages a minimum of 60 days.

I sampled Litehouse’s famous bleu cheese. It was very pungent alone, but good with veggies and crackers.

I chose to purchase cheese curds, a byproduct of cheese-making. If you like salty flavors, you’ll like these curds. I also bought a hunk of Oregon smoked cheddar and, of course, dressing for salads later. John’s not a fan of bleu cheese, so I picked him up a single-serving packet of ranch.

Before heading back to the hotel to get out of the rain, I stopped in the Pend d’Oreille Winery to find a companion for the cheese curds. John and Kah-less sat outside in the truck while I went to taste wine. I felt a little strange sitting at a bar before lunch, but the casual way of the wine servers behind the big concrete bar put me at ease.

The Pend d’Oreille Winery buys grapes from around the region. The winemakers have won some awards for their efforts.

My wine adventures, I must confess, started in college with Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill. But I’m happy to say my palate has advanced way beyond Boone’s. My wine experience includes a long love affair with rieslings, especially Johannesburg riesling and even sweeter late harvest versions.

I had several Pacific Northwest brands of these tasty wines that I bought faithfully. (Thank goodness, one regularly appeared as the “supersaver” buy at my local grocery store.) But, it wasn’t until my friend Liz said that they were too sweet for her to drink that I realized how immature I was when it came to wine. My husband was happy to hear that I was ready to venture into chardonnay and merlot country.

Sitting at the Pend d’Oreille wine-tasting bar, I searched for a new chardonnay for us to try. I also was looking for a red that I could swallow (I’m still not too fond of them). The wine server talked about acidity, process and other things that didn’t stick with me. I read about fruity fragrances and hints of butter from labels.

Showing off my limited knowledge of wine, I told the server that I heard you should drink wine out of a glass with a stem, holding it by the stem, to keep from heating the wine up with body temperature. She said you should drink wine out of whatever you want at whatever temperature you prefer, and showed me popular new glasses that look like little bowls.

“It should be what you’re comfortable with,” she said.

That’s good, I thought, as we sipped the wine from the complimentary plastic cups in our hotel room.