Dream Shard Blog: The Scintillating Adventures of Our Household

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Tue
10
Jul '07

Idaho

This past weekend marked a monumental event in my life: The day on which I first set foot in the state of Idaho.

Really. I’ve never been there, even though about half the population of Utah was born there or has family there. But I’ve seen Napoleon Dynamite, which was filmed in Idaho. From the movie I remembered lots of fields and small towns, and that’s what we saw a lot of. Some parts reminded me of my home state, Iowa. Only browner.

We drove up with my in-laws and stopped off in Twin Falls. The city is built right next to a beautiful natural canyon with the Snake River running through it, and a beautiful non-natural golf course built into it.

Twin Falls canyonJohn and Shannon

Then we drove over to see the Shoshone Falls. As the sign we passed on the way there said, “The Snake River falls in thunder 210 feet over a rocky ledge higher than famous Niagara.”

I’ve been to Niagara Falls (twice), and Niagara’s definitely more impressive. But these were still nice.

Shosone Falls July 2007

On our way out of Twin Falls we passed a number of wildfires. The temperature has been so hot and the land so dry, and the lightning storms we saw and the wind we felt didn’t help. Here’s a picture of the smoke near Twin Falls. Notice the American flag near the Days Inn. It’s sticking straight out; that’s how strong the wind was.

Smoke near Twin Falls

Later that night my sister-in-law’s family got stuck near Twin Falls on their way to Boise because they shut down the freeway due to the fire jumping the interstate.

In Boise that night we met up with John’s oldest brother’s family and had dinner at Goodwood and hit the (very cold) hotel pool where I got to break in my new maternity swimsuit.

On Saturday morning John and I had breakfast together at our hotel (which I’m proud to say was a nice three-star place that we booked via Priceline for $45/night when it retailed for $90), then we spent the day together with John’s family at the Boise Discovery Museum. I wish I had taken my camera. John and I walked through a nice downtown park and discovered the campus of Boise State University along the Boise River. We also saw many, many geese and trod carefully over their droppings, which were underfoot everywhere. That afternoon we saw the movie Ratatouille and that night we opened John’s birthday gifts back at our hotel.

Family gathering
Everyone listening intently to John’s brother Robby’s wisdom.

Kids playing
Alec, Tiana, and Jared playing while the adults chat.

Kids watching TV
Abby and Aidan camping out by the TV while the adults talk.

Overall it was a good trip. I set foot in Idaho, our baby is 27 weeks along, and John turned _ _!

One last photo of us in Idaho:

Us at Twin Falls

1 Comment »

One Response to “Idaho”

  1. Salieri Says:

    You know, they say Idaho has three capitals. Boise, Spokane, and Salt Lake City. (I live in the Spokane part.)

    The best part of Boise is the Boise Public Library! Note that I’m not really that excited about the place, but the exclaimation point is part of the official name of the Library!

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