Boise, ID

It was another quick and pretty drive from Walla Walla to Boise. My sit was located near downtown, a few short blocks to shops and restaurants and breweries, a perfect location. My first adventure was getting my windshield repaired. My brand new windshield was attacked by flying debris (no, not my sister). But insurance covers that, so hopefully, it will not lead to another brand new windshield. Unrelated, driving up the Oregon coast, a seagull hit my windshield! He hit the edge and then bounced off. Scared the crap out of me!! There were a few feathers stuck on the windshield afterwards. I don’t know if the little guy made it, you gotta wonder if he was high. It was such a foul situation. Too bad he just couldn’t wing it. 🙁

After the windshield adventure, I stopped by the Boise Whitewater Park, right in the middle of town. The park has cool bridges, trails, a swimming beach area, an open water swimming area (like for real swimmers), and a little section you can surf or kayak in. I got some nice pics, but then I found the webcam, so you can see for yourself! Boise White Water Webcam. I went back to this park several times during my stay, and my daughter did several runs along the Boise River Greenbelt, very cool area.

Sometimes in my travels, I have a moment of clarity, when I’m so grateful for what I’ve had in my life in the past, and so excited about what my life will have in the future. I was drinking my coffee, watching the squirrels dart around and the cats hungrily chasing them, when all of these feathers started slowly drifting down. It was early, so the sunlight was just breaking through the trees and highlighting these feathers, they were glowing. It almost looked like snow falling. It was pretty and calm and peaceful, and I just had a moment of complete contentment. Then I heard loud squirrel chattering and I’m pretty sure the stupid squirrel upended a bird’s nest. What an asshole. I hope the cats get him!

My daughter came to visit at this sit, and we had a blast exploring the area! The Bosie Jump Slide is a ‘community gathering space’ with a free 5 story slide!

There is a beautiful downtown pedestrian mall with shops and restaurants and the Freak Art Gallery in the alley. We were also able to find the elusive Idaho Spud candy bar! And of course, no trip to Boise would be complete without a visit to the Smurf Turf, the most photographed place in all of Idaho (so they say).

Next on the agenda was the Boise River Float. So cool! The sun doesn’t set until 9:15 up here at this time of year, so we went after work, when it was still a balmy 95 degrees. The water was freaking cold, so it was a good combination. We rented a double tube, and they gave us one paddle. This thing was impossible to steer; it would have been better with 2 paddles or no paddle. I was trying to maintain control of this behemoth float nasty to get over the extremely dangerous Class II rapids and having no luck. Finally, I just gave up control to Sacagawea who navigated us down safely and easily following her mantra: “The river will take us where it wants to take us”. Way fun, awesome trip.

The next day we headed up to Bogus Basin, a local ski area about 20 mins away. Apparently, back in the old gold rush days, a lot of fake gold was being manufactured here, hence the name. We did a hike that looked like an easy 2 mile loop. The first part of the hike was pretty much straight UP. It was HOT and there wasn’t much shade, but we did get some really nice views, and some gorgeous blue skies!

The ski area had a summer ski lift and a mountain coaster running that was pretty fun!

The next day we headed to Shoshone Falls, the “Niagara of the West”. The entire area was very pretty, big falls, nice lakes, great views. We opted for another ‘easy’ hike up to see Perrine Coulee Waterfall. Once we hiked all the way up there, we saw that there was actually a road pull off nearby so it was packed with a ton of people. The falls were cool and wet after our hike up and my photogenic daughter insisted on me getting some cool pictures of her, standing at the very slippery, death-defying edge of the cliffs of insanity! She of course was fine, but scrambling up to get the picture, I slipped and got a really nice gouge on my shin. I stopped the bleeding with dirt & grass and milked it for all it was worth, but it didn’t get me much.

Also in this area is the Perrine bridge, and the location of the Evel Knievel Jump Site back in 1974. I mean the Kirk Knieval jump site.

Once we got back to Boise, we had a great dinner at Front Door Taphouse. And then, we checked out the Re-Pop store. OMG! Kirk had a blast! The place was filled with all that stuff your parents threw away when you moved out on your own, and an entire corner of Star Trek stuff! Way fun store.

After my daughter left, I had to get caught up on work and sleep, and let my poor disfigured leg heal.

Its always a little sad to leave a place when you’ve had some great times there, but next up is Denver, where I will get to annoy my kids and see some old friends!