Nine years ago Lisa and Tom Guscott gave up the corporate life in New York and started their new life in Sandpoint, Idaho. Theirs was a storybook romance. Lisa had been a model and Tom worked the corporate world. They came here looking for a simpler life. The early years were fun and trying, Lisa with a new baby and the two of them starting a new life opening Arlo's Ristorante right next to the Cedar Street Bridge on Sandpoint's main drag, First Avenue. They originally opened the restaurant with Lisa's brother, Chris Arlo, but soon the couple took over the reins, and Arlo's has become a Sandpoint landmark.
Many of the menu items come from recipes that Lisa inherited from her grandmother. How cool is that?
They had not been open long when a pair of geese started nesting on their balcony overlooking Sand Creek. At first they would close off the area, but eventually built them a nesting box after it became apparent they would return year after year after year. I am told geese mate for life, and soon the pair were named Sweetie and Sinatra. See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8oNAWtPQyY
Every year Sweetie and Sinatra have between six and ten goslings, all except for one year, and eventually the eggs hatch and when the first one falls off the rail, thirty feet to the creek bank below, the parents nudge the others off until all are down by the water.
Sweetie sits on the eggs at Arlo's Ristorante
Sinatra stands guard over the nest
Patrons in love with the geese have made art that hangs on the ristorante's walls, and a sign and box that the pair nests in.
Every year people predict when the eggs will hatch. It usually occurs around Mother's Day. Thinking I still had some time, I headed over today to check on the chicks. I was having lunch to sample wine between writing up an offer for a waterfront property and listings two new parcels. I was meeting with Mike Scott, an area wine rep, to sample some new wines I might be bringing in to Yoke's Fresh Market. That's my third job, wine buyer for Yoke's, and we tried a great Oregon Pinot Noir and an Italian Rose. I will have those on the shelf soon. The other wines I tried didn't make the cut.
Anyway, I digress. The truth is, as I walked with Mike to Arlo's I told him the story of Sweetie and Sinatra. Entering Arlo's, my fav waiter and bass player Robin called out to me, "You missed it. They hatched yesterday, and they just fell off the rail a few minutes ago." I raced out and down to the water, and the pictures I snapped are just as the goslings were experiencing the cold creek H2O for the first time.
The other pictures are self-explanatory.
Anyway, isn't it a great story. Two lovers, Lisa and Tom, are adopted by two other lovers, Sweetie and Sinatra. It doesn't get any better than this, and all in America's Best Small Town: Sandpoint, Idaho.
Cedar Street Bridge and Arlo's Ristorante in Sandpoint, Idaho
ary Lirette, featured in Where To Retire magazine and host of the Tuesday noon local radio shows: North Idaho Business as well as North Idaho Arts.
E-mail Gary or call 208-610-1384
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For more detailed local info & real estate
Tomlinson Sandpoint Sotheby's International Realty
200 Main Street
Sandpoint, Idaho
208-255-3474
www.SandpointID.net - To learn all about Sandpoint and North Idaho
www.RealtySandpoint.com - For Sandpoint Realty
www.SkiSchweitzer.net - To visit Schweitzer Mountain's Community Web
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