Boise, ID

I, previous to last Saturday night had never been downtown on a weekend. When I told my fiancé that troubling news he quickly made up his mind to take me so I could see what I had been missing. I had definitely missed a lot. Obviously I couldn’t go to the bars or any of the clubs, but I could see the night-life.

We didn’t end up going till eleven because he told me that it wouldn’t be busy till then, at least. Parking wasn’t that hard to find, and we lucked out as the parking meters are free on the weekends. We met up with some friends and had to wait for them to turn around the block so they could park. When they accomplished that small feat, we could finally be on our way.

Since I had no idea what do, see, or where to go downtown I let them pick where we went. We started on a few cross streets and tried our best not to get run over by cars or by people in large groups that were walking on the sidewalks. We zigzagged through the crosswalks, finally making it to a sidewalk that actually appeared interesting enough to get our attention. It had a guitarist who had his case open; that I only ever thought existed on shows on television.

After shedding a tear, not really but it was close, I saw a sign labeled Expo so we figured we’d go in that direction. The area itself was nice because on the ground it had certain people’s names written on red bricks; it wasn’t completely covered with people’s names though. It appeared as if the area had been set up for an art showcase and other booths that at the time were closed. I wasn’t disappointed though, because there was a beautiful fountain/pond with a silver bird; I think it was a crane on silver branches. It was breathtaking; but I think I was the only one impressed.

Since it was almost midnight we all were getting hungry and I had told my fiancé at the beginning of the night that I had never been to a hot-dog stand we tried to look for a special one that our friend swore was the best in town. In our effort to find the ‘best’ hot-dog stand we walked passed an outstanding fountain with illuminated ice-blocks, or at least that what they looked like to me. We played in the water for a while on the bench right beside it and vaguely thought of pushing each other in because it was a hot night.

There was a guy by the fountain with a long snake draped over him that I didn’t want to know what kind it was and was quite frankly too afraid to ask. He had people hold it and even draped the snake over them. Our friend’s girlfriend wouldn’t get more than twenty feet away from the snake saying quite blithely that she hated snakes. It was fun to laugh at her expense until Andrew pointed out that I should definitely go hold it. In mock anger I splashed him with water until he relented, but that didn’t stop anyone else from pitching in and getting us all soaked.

Soon we grew tired of splashing one another and headed toward where we thought was the hot-dog stand. We walked passed a few till we finally arrived at the one we wanted. The hot dogs were delicious, only Andrew complained about me putting garnish, jalapeños, and ketchup on mine saying that it was gross. We sat down and consumed our wonderful food which took a good twenty minutes because the food was scalding hot.

To conclude the night we drove by a circular green illuminated sculpture. It was nice to look at; one side had a complete circle and the other an almost complete circle. I definitely enjoyed my first Saturday night downtown.