I may occur to you that Idaho isn't anywhere near Florida. When I made my last post in 2012, I didn't know if I should change the title of my blog to "where am I?" because I have been traveling several places in North America since 2012.
Perhaps I'll go back to 2013 and blog about walking from Montreal to Quebec City in June, or spending two months in San Diego. But I also have some Florida Stories. It's time to get back on the blog block.
So, I'll start with the most recent trip.
Every year, I look at my travel goals and think about my travel bucket list. When I crossed off New Orleans and Savannah and Montreal off of my list, I had to revise my list.
My current list includes: Portland, OR, Charleston, SC, Yellowstone National Park, and Hilo, HI (on a local level)
My international travel goals include: Australia, Japan, Fiji, Brazil, and Morocco.
Never, on my list, did I ever consider Boise. Until my Sister-in-law Anna asked if I would go for a road trip to pick up Mustangs. Anna trains wild mustangs that are taken from the wild and adopted out through the Bureau of Land Management. Long story, short. Anna needed me to help her drive the 15 hours out to pick up the horses. If you want to know more about her horse, you can read about it on Know Your Horse on facebook and also Knowyourhorse.org.
But, from Wyoming to Utah to Idaho, it was beautiful.
Anna and I grew up in Central Nebraska, so it's normal to go West and think "Cowboy." We were planning to do a bit of sight seeing in Boise and I thought I should pack a cowboy hat. Well, I don't own one of those. But, I realized that Boise isn't so much cowboy as much as it was Urban and sophisticated.
Downtown Boise hosts an event called "First Thursdays" which means that on the first Thursday of each month, many art galleries, shops, museums, and restaurants are open and have special events going on. It was the perfect way to see the culture of Boise.
Art was everywhere. And it wasn't all highbrow or confusing or out there. It was, in many cases, simple. And down-to-earth. For example, the post a poem at one of the galleries. And the "Art Alley" on the streets was colorful and fun.
We stopped and sampled regional wines at the shops. We even had a roasted nut and wine pairing. That was a first. Apparently, at The Nut Shop, a regional Rose wine goes really well with honey glazed almonds.
Because Anna and I leave in a very rural area of Nebraska, I wanted Asian food. The nearest Asian food is an hour drive. When I travel, I tend to go on "Asian food benders". It probably has to do with the time I lived in China in 2001. Currently, I'm really into to Thai food. We tried out the Mai Thai restaurant and was not disappointed with their noodles and appetizers. The ambiance was awesome as well. The night we went, they had happy hour and $3 plates of food until 6:30 in the bar. But we arrived too late for that.
My sister-in-law has the need to touch everything... including the water feature.
Boise has a Basque Block with a Basque Museum and marketplace to celebrate the large Basque community in Idaho. The Basque Country has a special place in my heart since I've walked through it twice when I was walking the Camino de Santiago.. The Museum was free and they had a lively group of Basque musician playing there that night.
The next day, we drove 5 miles south of the city to the BLM office to pick up the horses and drive like hell to get them back to Nebraska.
During the 20 hours it took to drive back, we did stop at Twin Falls, ID for lunch and were very pleasantly surprised about the "Holy Crap, don't look down while we're driving over it" Perrine Bridge.
We'll be back to Boise in July, and I hope I can cross my Yellowstone experience off my list.
