Idaho Adventure Part 2-White Bird to Spalding
To read Part 1 of this adventure, go to http://boise.onethousandthingstodo.com/2008/09/04/idaho-adventure-boise-to-white-bird
Grangeville
We left White Bird and headed the 18 miles or so, up Highway 95, towards Grangeville. The town is unique in that it is centrally located, offering up several routes to explore our wonderful state. One can continue up 95 towards Lewiston or take 13 towards Kooskia then US-12 to the NW Passage Scenic Byway that runs parallel to the beautiful Clearwater River. Read the rest of Idaho Adventure Part 2-White Bird to Spalding »
Introduction
The swimming pool at Nampa’s Lakeview Park is a favorite for cooling off on a hot summer afternoon. One hundred degrees was forecast for the high, with temps cooling later in the week, and I spent the first half of the day arguing with myself about taking the kids out there. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it myself, but I was feeling sleepy and not really “in the groove” for putting forth the effort. However, the summer was rapidly coming to an end and I wasn’t sure how many more days the pool would be open, as it closes when Nampa public schools resume classes. Besides, the Tooth Fairy had promised, and who am I to mess with the Tooth Fairy’s plans? 
Growing up in Western Oregon, summertime meant berry picking time. No sooner had my sister and I finished school and planned to enjoy sleeping in on lazy summer mornings than my mom would rouse us out of our comfy beds, pile us into the car along with a stack of berry boxes, and haul us out to pick strawberries. As much as we might have liked to complain about this free labor endeavor, the fact is that strawberry picking, followed by blueberry, raspberry and blackberry picking and their accompanying adventures, make up some of our fondest childhood summer memories. And as far as free labor, that isn’t entirely accurate since Mom often bribed us with a small monetary compensation for the efforts that landed up in the boxes or buckets, rather than in our tummies. The berry scene is a little different here in Idaho and I had never ventured to check it out. This year, with my kids being just barely old enough to possibly be intrigued by the process, and my mom now living down the street from me, she and I decided to see what The Berry Ranch on Hwy 20/26 in Nampa had to offer.
Talent is a blessing and perhaps talent on film is particularly rare. This is why film festivals like Boise’s True West are so important. The Flick’s True West Festival is an opportunity for budding artists of the cinema to test the waters and introduce their work to a new audience. August 7th thru the 10th Boisean’s returned again and again to the Flicks off the corner of Capitol and Front Streets to enjoy the variety of films this festival offers.
It hit 98 degrees on Thursday and I suddenly became a lot more interested in that Sandy Point Park I had heard so much about. I swung by Andrew’s and Brendan’s houses told them to pack up swimsuits, sandals, and towels and headed out towards the Highway and the Reservoir. 
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On the first and third Tuesday morning and Wednesday afternoon of each month, the Deerflat National Wildlife Refuge hosts a story, craft, and snack time called “Reading at the Refuge” free of charge for kids at the visitors’ center. On July’s first Tuesday I decided it was time to revisit the Refuge. It’s been awhile since we had been and the kids needed to get out of the house, so off we went. 
Call it Murphy’s Law or just bad luck, but it seems to have become an annual tradition in our family that we plan to attend the Canyon County Fair, decide which day to go, get the kids all excited, and then have things go wrong all day before we can actually get out the door. One year the alternator went out on the faithful family vehicle which meant an afternoon sweating over that project before we could drive the mile from our house to the fair. This year things really seemed to conspire against us: mischievous children, beeper pages, holes in kitchen sink pipes, etc. By some miracle, we finally made it out the door and headed to our favorite parking destination, the baseball field off of Linden behind the fairgrounds, where normally a farm tractor-pulled trailer provides shuttle service to the front gate. For some reason, this year a school bus showed up in place of the tractor, but whatever, it got the job done. We paid our $4.00/person admission and voilá! The smell of cows and the sound of square dancing filled our senses. We had once again overcome all obstacles to arrive at the fair. 
This past weekend, my friend Alex visited from Seattle, to see his family and partake in one of his favorite activities: Frisbee. Andrew, Alex, and I took off Saturday evening to the best place in town for Frisbee, just in time to escape the direct summer heat. Camel’s Back Park is a great place for being active. Due to its flat expanses of grass, huge matured trees, large play area, picnic tables, tennis courts, and trails leading back into the foothills, one would be hard pressed not to find something to do here.
