B&B’s all dressed up for holiday tour, open house
Members of the North Idaho Bed and Breakfast Association have been busy making decorations, creating displays and baking holiday goodies to share with visitors during the 18th annual North Idaho Bed and Breakfast Association Holiday Tour and Open House from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
This year, 10 of the group’s 19 members are dressing up for the holidays, and inviting the public in for a visit. Innkeepers in the Athol, Bayview and Rathdrum areas say they get from 60 to 125 people visiting during the tour, and all say they look forward to sharing their holiday decorations and homemade goodies with tour visitors.
Robin McKellar has owned Log Spirit B&B on Tiara Lane in Athol for more than five years. She chose “gingerbread” as this year’s holiday theme and has scattered gingerbread people throughout her home, including making a gingerbread-bedecked Christmas tree and placing hand-quilted gingerbread pieces on guest room doors. According to helpmate Lew, “She (McKellar) is a gourmet cook and enjoys offering a wide variety of gourmet foods – all made from scratch – to our guests.” In addition to meeting new people, he said they enjoy sharing their food.
“We don’t just put out coffee and store-bought cookies,” he said. “We put out a great buffet, and try to show the quality of the cooking Robin does.”
Daryl and Al Kyle run Cedar Mountain Farm Bed and Breakfast in the home Daryl grew up in. “I found out recently what I’m doing is called ‘agri-tourism’,” she said, of turning the family dairy farm into a bed and breakfast. “Isn’t that great?”
The Kyles have run the B&B for six years, and say they look forward to the holiday tours each year. They decorate with simple, natural things from woodlands on the 440-acre farm. “We use our old milk buckets for large bouquets of greenery and sometimes add rosehips and berries,” Daryl said. The most exciting thing this year, she said, is that an online friend from Oklahoma is sending chocolate marshmallow-covered stir spoons for the hot chocolate she will be offering visitors.
Ellen and Per Larsen, owners of Cedar Springs B&B in Rathdrum, also like to do things naturally. They will be decorating with cedar boughs and other natural decorations they find on their 100-acre property. Ellen Larsen grinds her own wheat for the gingerbread men she will make for both decoration and eating. And this year she plans to offer small tarts, each filled with a sample of the many jams and jellies she makes. Larsen agrees with the other innkeepers that meeting the people and finding out things they have in common is the best part of the tours. “I love talking to people. I take them on tours and then tell them about the history of the area. Then we talk about geology, travel, or whatever comes up.”
Jo Teske opened Tranquillity B& B near Rathdrum, just 1 1/2 years ago. Teske said she enjoys participating in the tours. “It’s a fantastic thing, and we really enjoy it.”
Teske’s decorations are more eclectic, with holiday trees decorated to match the décor of themed rooms throughout her home. There is a Polynesian room, a garden suite and a country suite for guests. The dining room will feature a Chinese-inspired tree, the kitchen sports a country feel, the large family room will hold a traditionally decorated tree and the library tree will “shimmer with gold,” said Teske.
As with the others, Teske will offer all kinds of holiday snacks and drinks including coffee, cider and hot tea. She said a few helpers help escort visitors through the home and then to the family room where they are encouraged to visit for a while, sample the holiday goodies and sign up for a drawing of one of the association’s new cookbooks, “Inn-credible Edibles.”
Participating inns include Log Spirit and Cedar Mountain Farm in Athol; Dromore Manor in Bayview; Cedar Springs and Tranquillity, Rathdrum; American Country, Katie’s Wild Rose, McFarland Inn and The Roosevelt in Coeur d’Alene; and Hemenway Manor in St. Maries. For more information, call (208) 664-9650.