Boise, ID

Wednesday was a rough day. I woke up late, had to skip breakfast and my shower (making my hair look ridiculous). Three separate customers yelled at me at work for things that were completely out of my control. I got a blister on my big toe from my new shoes, and to top it off, I spilled shoe dye on my favorite white shirt.

Most people might want to crawl into bed after a day like that. I was ready to hit the town. Thank goodness for Humpin’ Hannahs, the premiere downtown destination in Boise on Wednesday nights.

Being an old Air Force guy, and avid military enthusiast, I love all things with wings and/or hats. Spotting a pair of war birds parked nearby, I made a beeline towards them. As I reached the aircraft, I noticed an old man with a veterans ball cap. The lettering identified him as a Korean War vet.

Turned out the old fella’ worked at an operation field in Korea during the war. His main function was to identify enemy aircraft on the attack and call in reinforcements. The one thing I got out of the brief conversation, was that he was the only one in his outfit that could identify all 26 aircraft silhouettes’ of enemy aircraft! (And you wonder why we shot down some of our own guys)!

After our three young grandkids moved to central Idaho two weeks ago, our house has become silent. The pitter patter of little feet and giggling has left our humble abode, an empty nest for the second time in our lives.

The first week of silence has been unbearable. We find ourselves waking up early every morning, with plans on taking the grandkids to the park or other adventures, some of which have been posted here. But they are gone.

This past week, the wife and I joked that we would now have to become a couple again instead of grandparents. “What in the world are we going to do now?” I asked. We kicked around playing cards or board games, but fell back into the habit of watching mindless television.

Today, my daughter and I felt like being educated and inspired and so we went to the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. This is a beautiful place to visit. Since the memorial is outdoors and was built by the Boise River and the greenbelt, it is partially shaded by old trees, colored with a multitude of flowers, and filled in with peaceful green grass. Bicycle riders are moving every which way since this is where the greenbelt crosses from one side of the river to the other. The Boise Public Library is right across the parking lot, so the location also seems to be drop-off central for summer school day camps. It’s a busy little hub!

This evening my daughter and I walked down Capital Boulevard in Boise to read the streetlamps. Yes, streetlamps. History on the Lights is a public art project funded by the Boise City Arts Commission. Boise artist and preservationist Mark Baltes designed and constructed porcelain enamel plaques that are permanently attached to pretty, historical streetlamps that line the walking corridor of Capital Boulevard. Each plaque is at about eye level (for me, at 5’ 8”) and has a picture and interesting bit of Boise history.

“Opa!” This joyous exclamation sings through the air at Boise’s annual Greek Food Festival. It’s not really Boise’s festival. It is put on by Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church http://www.serfes.org/church.htm, but for the last 27 years, it is a Boise tradition that seems to belong to everyone who attends. If you’ve been in the area for any length of time you don’t even need to ask when it is. Just remember it is always the first full weekend in June. I don’t know when I went for the first time. I ended up there out of curiosity, loved it, and kept going back. This is a great way to get your Greek food fix.

The Festival is a cozy event at the corner of 27th and Bannock. I say cozy because the entire production—entry booth, food lines, tents, tables, marketplace, and dance area—is squeezed onto the pavement between the church’s two buildings. Every year more and more people come, so it gets really cozy sometimes.

On one of those spring mornings that look much warmer than it actually is, my boyfriend and I headed out Highway 21 to the trailhead for Shaw Mountain. I was excited to hike to the top of Shaw because you can see it from anywhere in Boise, marked by the large cell tower at its peak, and it’s a short drive. One of the trails starts just off of Warm Springs Blvd., but we drove out past Lucky Peak Reservoir to East Highland Valley Road. A short way up the road is a small parking area and sign just outside a cattle guard.

On the day my little brother got out of school, we decided that it would be nice to celebrate a little. I was actually at work when I got a call from my mom asking me if I had any plans for the day. I told her that I didn’t and she asked if I could stay with Jordan at Boondocks for a while. I thought, why not?

I opened the purple and blue notebook that I had given Cami, my friend and former roommate, for Christmas and looked at the first address. We had decided to hit the garage sale on Saranac first since it was the closest, but our route was delightfully interrupted by a sign on the side of the road that mentioned a Field of Arts up ahead. This was quite exciting. We hadn’t been gone for five minutes and we had already found a jackpot!

Yes, I know that thrifting is not a real word, but it has become one of my favorite activities. One of my brothers, Seth, actually came up with this name and it’s just stuck. Thrifting is just a shorter term for thrift store shopping.