2024 Salt Lake City, UT/Boise, ID

Saturday October 12

Salt Lake City? Boise? What I know about Salt Lake City could just about fill a thimble. And what I know about Boise is limited exclusively to a rancher who took on the Federal Government to graze his cattle on federal lands- in other words, even less. Hell, I don’t even know how to properly pronounce the name of the city! (Is it Boy-see or Boy-zee?) Nonetheless, when El told me a couple of weeks ago that she might be getting a training job in Boise for a week, I returned to my age-old question- can El and I have a good trip no matter where we go? Or at least, how much of a good travel experience has to do with who you are traveling with and how much is dependent on the destination? I have racked up a few vacation days and thought, well, if she is getting a trip to Boise on the company’s dime, maybe I could tag along just to hang with her in a new city. Once she got the confirmation the gig was on, I got to work seeing if this was practical- I mean Boise, my guess is that flight- from Albany, ain’t gonna be cheap. And I was right. But, I wasn’t going to be that easily deterred. I started looking at options. Maybe we could add another city that could be paired with Boise? My next realization was trying to figure out the geography of the mountain time zone. I figured, Denver, Portland, Seattle (I know two of those are not on mountain time), but how far could Seattle be from Boise? Far. That’s the answer...but, Salt Lake City? We’ve never been there. It’s on mountain time and, as it turns out, is a 4ish hour drive to Boise. Could it be cheaper to fly from Albany to Salt Lake, rent a car, spend a couple of days in the land of the Mormon son, drive to Boise for the job and then drive back to Salt Lake to fly home? El was able to prove to her company that it was cheaper for her to book this trip by herself than have the company book it. So, when all was said and booked, we are flying, one-way into SLC on Saturday, staying until Monday, diving up to Boise, and then flying home, one way from Boise to Albany. This first leg required a 3:00am wake up to meet our 6:05am departure to SLC connecting through Atlanta- and we’ve just started our descent to the Peach State. It’s 8:03am.

I haven’t had as much time to put research for this trip together as it was a bit of short notice and my time to read up on things to see, places to eat, and general what-do-you-do when you find yourself in these places has come up a little light compared to some of the places we go. But, it’s only three days in Utah and four days in Idaho, so hopefully we don’t need too much.

Our flight into Salt Lake City lands relatively early and without checked luggage we are through the airport and on our way to the rental car counter before anyone has even picked up their luggage. For business purposes, El needs to be the primary renter on this transaction. However, because we are married I can be considered a secondary driver at no extra charge. We run into a snag about 15 seconds after approaching the counter when I am asked to present my drivers license. Well, a few months ago I was asked for my ID and as I pulled it from my wallet, it cracked! It remained intact, but has a clearly defined ridge running along the barcode printed on the back of the card. I didn’t think much of it as, these days, I don’t get carded quite as much as I used to and put it back in my wallet. Then, this morning when I got to the airport in Albany and went through security, the biometric machine required my license. I carefully inserted it into the machine and even though I thought the crack might cause an issue- it did not. It registered and I was on my way. However, when I presented it, I noticed the crack becoming more pronounced and decided to keep it out of my usual spot in my wallet, just in case I needed to show it again when checking into a hotel or...a car rental counter. Well, the agent looked at the card, said matter-of-factly, “this license is damaged and I cannot accept it.” And since I do a majority of the driving when El and I are together, this was going to put a damper on the week, if I couldn’t be added as a second driver. Though, she did offer to ask her boss to review the ID for a second opinion. When the boss, AJ, came out he looked at the ID and reiterated that Utah state law prevents renting a car to someone with a damaged license! He asked some more questions about our rental and when he found out that I am the secondary driver and not primary, he thinks he might be able to make an exception but only if I can provide any identification card from my wallet that is NOT a credit or a debit card! Thankfully, I have a AAA card with my printed name and he was able to accept my ID as a secondary, but recommended a replacement, which I wholeheartedly concurred with...upon my return to New York. Once I was added to the rental we were on our way. It is just after noon and the food on the planes were limited to a small bag of snack mix and a bag of sun chips, so we are both hungry for lunch. Most of the research I did lists the finer dining spots in the city, but I don’t think we are ready to dive right into one of those spots just yet. I do remember though, a place called Bobby D’s recommended as a place to get an authentic Chicago style hotdog...which I fell in love with in Chicago and have not experienced properly since. This could be a good opportunity to reconnect if it is as good as the review makes it sound. Just one problem, I Google the address and I can’t find one! I see a link that shows South Salt Lake, but I also see Ogden. Are there two locations? Something is strange. I find a phone number and call only to get an answering machine that does not indicate it is a restaurant, just “this is Ritchie, leave a message”. I hang up and go back to my Google results. I get another phone number and try that one, this time someone answers, but when I ask for the address of the shop he calls out to someone, “hey what’s the address here?” And a voice shouts back an address and tells me they are in Ogden and open until 5:30 today. We hit the highway to learn the relationship between Ogden and SLC proper. It takes about 40 minutes to get there, though it is mostly highway driving and the address is easy to find as it is a strip mall. We park near the supermarket anchor and set off to explore the shops in the strip. As I get out of the car, another couple is loading their shopping into theirs and I ask if they know where Bobby D’s is- to my surprise, the blank looks on their faces tell me the answer before they confer and agree they have no idea. We set our sights on the shops and a pink box, about the size of a food truck catches my eye. That’s it!! It’s not a shop with an address at all! It’s a food truck that happens to be slinging hot dogs in Ogden today. We approach and the menu tells me they have what I am looking for...a genuine Chicago style hotdog! We place our order and chat up the couple inside, learning that he is from Chicago and imports his ingredients directly from the windy city! Including the mandatory sport peppers and nuclear green relish (IYKYK). I get one Chicago hot dog and one Chicago polish sausage and holy cow are they good! Totally worth the drive!! We chat for a while and get some touristy recommendations from them- though he being from Chicago seems to have more opinions than she who has lived here most of her life and evidently, doesn’t get out much. Nonetheless, he does recommend a spot called the Bountiful Bee which is some sort of landmark in the nearby mountains, but once his affinity for the spot includes off road driving and that he goes up there to go “shooting”, we tell him that the rental company (really did) warn us against off road driving and that for aviation purposes, we left our “shooting gear” at home. On the drive back towards SLC, we ponder what kind of public trails allow citizens who just want to bust off some caps in a public space, to do so? I guess we’re not in New York anymore though I am not convinced it couldn’t happen at home somewhere. No matter, reason #168 for me to avoid hiking in the mountains. I’ll stick to the cities, thank you. El runs into a shop while I sit in the car to map out our next stop trying to figure out what is on our list located between Ogden and downtown where the hotel is located. I came up with something right up our alley. A cemetery with the gravestone of a woman named Lilly Gray, who died in 1958 at the age of 77 whose epitaph mysteriously proclaims “Victim of the Beast 666”. 

There is some speculation that her husband was responsible for the verbiage as she was mentally ill, but evidently, it remains somewhat of a mystery. Luckily we have great directions and easily find the headstone among the hundreds near it that look almost identical, save the creepy inscription. As with most American cemeteries, it is remarkably unremarkable and nothing worth strolling through to admire. We came. We saw. We moved on to the next. It’s getting on 3:00 and we decide to go check into the hotel before heading out for the evening. I need to park the car before we start enjoying cocktails and whatnot. There is another spot on our list of things to see called “Out Of The Blue” which is an art installation, located in the center of a rotary circle of a life size blue whale sculpture, depicted mid-breach. Periodically, they repaint the statue/sculpture in different colors, but the physical monument remains constant. It’s really close to the hotel, and it’s not much more than a drive-by, considering it’s location, so we arrive, do a couple of rotations around the circle and pull into a nearby parking lot to jump out and get a few more shots, but about three minutes is all we need until we are on our way to check in. 

No issues getting the room and we decide to take a nap before heading out for the evening. El is preoccupied with seeing a sunset here and finds a rooftop bar close by that allows us to start our night at 6:51 (sunset). She makes a reservation for 6:45. First stop, Van Ryder, which is the rooftop bar at Le Meridien Hotel. Thankfully we had the reservation as the place is standing room only when we arrive, but our table is on the edge of the roof allowing for a great view of the sunset, even if there aren’t all that many clouds in the sky- which can be the difference between a nice sunset and a spectacular one. This one turns out to be closer to the nice side of the spectrum and as if our timing couldn’t be any better...picture the scene, us on the rooftop with a straight view to the horizon where the sun is setting behind some mountains. Between us and the horizon, below us sits the buildings of downtown SLC and even a freeway that cuts through the city. 

So, just as we wrap up the photos we want to take and sit to actually enjoy our cocktails, all of a sudden, we see a car fire on the freeway! Directly between us and the horizon. Well, this was a serious car fire that included a significant fire, an extraordinary amount of thick, black smoke, and several emergency responders with flashing lights to aid in traffic rerouting and incident response. This is a couple of miles away, but if it happened a few minutes earlier I expect that our sunset experience would have been marred by the plume of black smoke. I hope the driver and passengers made it out. We opt to make this a cocktail-and-split-an-appetizer stop instead of ordering more food. I work to map a few of the nicer restaurants on our list to see what makes the most sense to try tonight. I want to end our evening at a metal bar called Aces High Saloon. Some of the places are out there and we would need to drive to them, while others are just a little further than we want to walk tonight. One strikes my interest, but we decide to make a brunch reservation for tomorrow morning and agree to just start walking towards the Aces High and stop along the way should anything strike us. The walk is about three miles and we do pass several places I remember reading about, but we press on. Once we hit South Street, it’s about a two mile straight shot into the darkness as there appear to be less and less street lights as we head away from downtown. More massage parlors, more pawn shops, and more people doing questionable things on the street. As El and I walk at a good pace, the way we are dressed and our backpacks make us stand out like sore thumbs. While, we did not experience anything negative directed at us, we just thought it might be best to Uber back at the end of the night instead of walking. We finally make it to the Aces High Saloon only to find they have a live band with a $15 cover tonight. Sadly, our destination, while looking promising on other evenings, tonight is a bust. We had passed a couple of food places on the walk down, so we started to backtrack and go to Cafe Guanaco la Oaxaquena, a Mexican place that is still open. It is about 8:45 and he says he is still open, so we order a couple of tacos and tamales. The tacos are OK and the tamales are disappointing as they were recently frozen and steamed, leaving the masa molten, and the core still rife with ice chips. Thawed enough to melt in your mouth, but it’s not that far from frozen to not notice its chill. We eat without dawdle as their closing time of 9:00 has passed and as the neon “OPEN” sign in the window is switched off and the Mexican music coming from the radio in the kitchen is silenced, our cue to wrap it up has been heard loud and clear. We are in a relatively well lit spot and figure this is a good place to order an Uber and call it a night. As we step out and before we can order the car, the taco shop is locked and lights put out. The Uber takes three minutes to arrive and the experience is great. We are back at the room before 10:00 and beat from the long day behind us. 

Sunday October 13

I wake up around 5:00am and know I won’t get back to sleep, so I throw on some clothes and head to the solitude of the hotel’s breakfast area. While the preparers are working, the guests are still sleeping. The smell of bacon wafting through the room gets me thinking about our brunch this morning. I take advantage of the quiet time to journal and periodically Google some to do thoughts for the day. As I look back, we are already making the most of our time in this new city. Our first stop today is our breakfast/brunch reservation at Oquirrh Restaurant (pronounced ochre) (pronounced o-ker). They open at 10:00 and it’s less than a mile. We could walk it, but I think we are going to use the car to see stuff out of town today, so we drive the short distance to eat. We arrive about a half hour early, so we take some time to quick fire some potential spots and map them. Me with the list of things to do and El with the map and when we find something in our range, we stop and Google it to see hours of operation and an overview of the place and make some notes on our notes. Then, over breakfast we discuss where we want to go and speak with the waitress (as we are the only customers in the place right now). It looks like Antelope Island is the winner of our next stop. Meanwhile, we order brunch. I get something called “hangover pasta” which is bucatini and sausage in a whipping cream reduction with a spice, lemon, and hot sauce, all served over a poached egg. The serving is not terribly big, but afterwards, I am not sure I would have wanted to eat another bite. I am quite full, but not uncomfortable. We are glad we came to experience this very creative menu. 

Next stop is Antelope Island which is an island in the Great Salt Lake where you can drive around and get views of the lake from points surrounded by water...and bison. The bison roam freely and there are warning signs to not get too close, but with a good camera lens you can get some good shots without breaching their space. We drive most of the drivable roads on the island, skipping the dirt roads (not wanting to deal with potential paint chips on the rental) and avoiding camping sites. We follow one road that gives beach access on the west side of the island. El makes the 500 yard trek on foot from the parking lot to the water to get some pics while I hang back and journal.

It’s getting pretty nasty in the sun- and I find a pavilion with picnic tables to sit and wait for El. There’s not much to do this far out to the north of the city, so after this we will head back towards the city with a couple of stops before dropping the car off at the hotel and heading out for the night.

On the way back to downtown SLC we make a stop at the ‘This Is The Place’ monument. Knowing pretty close to zero about the whole Mormon history, I realized pretty quickly that I continue to revel in my ignorance. In the 1840’s Brigham Young made it to this spot, or hereabouts, and proclaimed after a 1300 mile trek that this is the place that they were to settle. 

I took a couple of pictures of the statue and took a whip through the Pioneer Museum that visually depicted the journey, but with a lack of photographic evidence, it boils the entire journey of 1300 miles down to the arrival in what is today, Salt Lake City. We don’t spend all that long here. The next stop, much closer to the hotel, is the International Peace Garden, which is a free park that features mini-installations, each signified by the nations flag that it represents. It is unclear to me if the nations donated the exhibits or if there is some significance to which countries are represented and which aren’t. I don’t know how many countries had displays, but 90% were European nations, with the other 10% making up the rest of the world, each named by country, with the curious inclusion of Africa. I mean, which of these things is not like the other? Ireland, Greece, Norway, Germany, China, Africa? That’s kind of messed up. Don’t you think? As we stroll through the gardens, most of it is not exactly remarkable. At the end of the summer, much of the flora is dead or dying and some of the displays look pretty lame- pedestals with nothing on them. Or a bench overlooking a dead patch of grass. There do seem to be a lot of people in the park, so, maybe I am hypercritical as the outsider vs. the people who can see this refuge all the time. After our visit, I did read about a vandalism problem that the park has experienced recently and the city removed some of the key statues and displays for safekeeping until they can come up with a more secure plan. Sounds reasonable, but leave it to a small group of assholes to ruin it for everybody. There doesn't seem to be a reason to linger in the park once you've made it around the path and we jump in the car to press on to the Gilgal Sculpture Garden which is located in a residential neighborhood. It’s the work of a guy named Thomas Battersby Child, Jr. who, along with his son, developed a method of sculpting with an oxyacetylene torch which allowed for him to cut rock and created a unique sheen to the finished product. He dedicated his life to finding, excavating, sculpting, and installing his works on his property and since his death in 1963, the garden is open to visitors to enjoy his art. It’s a little weird. Very religious. And not too big. It was just the right size for my interest in the subject matter. One of the centerpieces in the garden is a Sphinx with Child's face sculpted on it. 

We aren’t here all that long and head back to the room to take a nap before going out tonight. I only sleep about an hour, but it’s enough. Around 7:00 we walk to a place called Kilby Court which is like some sort of art collective/DIY concert venue where the band Local H is playing tonight. I have seen them a couple of times over the years and considering I’d like to see a show in a new city and the other option of Korn wasn’t going to do it. Also, I thought El wouldn’t hate it. It's less than a mile from the hotel, though, one of the downsides to visiting a new city is not knowing where the good blocks/bad blocks are- and from our experience, we are starting to get a sense that our hotel just might be straddling the two. Luckily, it’s still light out, and honestly we were not made to feel uncomfortable by the homeless woman speaking to her dog, the people who I am pretty sure have just scored and are enjoying their fix right there in the easement, or those transactions that I need not know too much about going down. Meanwhile, I ponder our best method of getting back after the show. The doors open at 7:00 and this has to be a first, the door prices for tickets are actually cheaper than presale! What a concept! The room must have been a car repair shop in its former life. The opening band, Radkey, was really good. A pop-punk outfit from Missouri. They went over really well with the crowd. The room, complete with rolling bay doors is starting to get pretty hot and I fear that if more people show as the evening wears on we could be in for an uncomfortably long evening. In between bands I start to feel some very welcome cool air. It turns out that they have an air conditioner pointing directly into a duct pipe which allows the cool air to flow throughout the small room. Add to that the sound system sounds great, it makes this one of the best rooms I have seen a show in in a long time. This is the last night of the Local H tour and they play a couple of extra tunes in comparison to previous few nights. We are out of there about 10:30 and try to get an Uber to our next stop which is the restaurant/pub row of Main Street. Being Sunday night, during the set break, I checked in to see which places are closed Sundays, closed for the evening, and more importantly, which are still serving food at this hour. I came up with 3 spots that could work for us. The first is the Green Pig. Sadly, knowing this is less than a mile journey, I am disappointed to find that this is an $18 Uber ride. As I contemplate the limited options we see not only is it less than one mile, 90% of the route is on the street we are standing on. A straight shot with a quick last leg at the end. Before I know it we are shuffling towards dinner on foot. No issues safety wise. We make it to the Green Pig with a 15 minute window for the kitchen. However, the volume of the unacceptable music blaring from the place gives me pause to use this as a last resort and we move on to the White Horse around the corner. Looks good. Music not too loud. Kitchen open for 15 more minutes. Bar open for another hour and 15 minutes. I think we found our spot. We quickly get some food orders in before checking the cocktail menu. We split an order of burrata with Calabrian pepper paste with fruit, and split a smoked pork belly, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. Put together with a beer, everything hits the spot. Not too much food and a creative menu. It was a very good last stop for us after being on the go most of the day. We walk back to the room with minimal issue- just a group of loud drunks exiting a club. They don’t interact with us and we just pass them by. That’s the end of our last full day in town and we get back to the room to talk about tomorrow.  

Monday October 14

Take our time getting up and out today. We head to grab some breakfast in the hotel, but we still had a tamale left over from the other night. El heats it in the microwave for me and I take it out to the eating area. As we grab our utensils and whatnot, I see one of the bands from last night at a nearby table. I stop to tell them that we really liked their set. They were friendly, but I didn’t need to bother them more. I got my point across. Over breakfast, we look at our research to see if there was anything we needed to see before we left town for the last time. When all was said and done, we decided that our plan to stop at Promontory at the Golden Spike National Park, was going to be the best way to end our time here. We call them to confirm they are open on Columbus Day and not only are they open today, but we learn that there is a locomotive demonstration that takes place four times a day every day between Memorial Day and Columbus Day! 10:00, 10:30, 1:00, and 4:00- hopefully we get lucky! The drive is about 1.5 hours outside of SLC and once you get beyond the city limits, it is barren out here. Sure, we are on the highway, but I’d hate to break down out here! Once we get off I-15 we still have another 30 miles to go to the museum. As we drive I can’t help but compare the surroundings to the scene in the film Seven when Kevin Spacey gets Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman to drive him to get the FedEx delivery. There is just dust and tumbleweeds out here. As we end the journey to the park and we get within ¼ mile from the parking lot, we see some activity as a train engine is revving up releasing plumes of smoke that billow from its stack. It’s not moving as we carefully cross the intersection of road and track. But, just as we clear the crossing, the engine starts to move. 

A glance at the clock tells me this is the 10:30 demonstration of the train! The chances of us hanging here until 1:00 are slim and this is probably the only chance we will have to see the train in action. As we pull into the lot and get into the museum, El runs out the back of the building to get some video as the train makes its way into the station, coming to a halt. Meanwhile, I stop at the desk to pay the $20 per car entrance fee and ask about how close we can get to the train cars. He says that as long as the engineers are out there, which they are, you can go out and take pictures and ask questions. We do go out for the up close treatment asking our questions, learning a bit about the exhibit. Once we were done outside, we went in for the 20 minute video presentation that explained the history of the transcontinental railroad and the significance of the golden spike driven at Promontory Point. The entire museum is not much more than one room. In fact, the gift shop is bigger than all of the exhibit space combined! Once we saw the trains, the movie, and the exhibit, we didn’t have any reason to hang around here without getting on the road. We still have a 280 mile drive ahead of us and agree to stop for lunch as it’s about noon now. The options are limited out here in the dust bowl and the Golden Spike Burger in Corinne, UT will work for us. It’s a little diner feeding mostly local workers and truckers. We order a cheeseburger and fries. It comes with their “special sauce” which is similar to Russian dressing. That, with the fact it is served on a sesame seed bun with lettuce, pickles, and onion, the similarity in taste to an actual Big Mac is remarkable...and pretty darn good- though the special sauce makes for a poor dipping sauce for fries. We get on the road and the only saving grace for this trip is that there is no sizeable town between Corinne and Boise to slow us down with traffic and the fact that the posted speed limit almost the entire way is 80mph, so cruising at 90, we are able to make it in good time. It gives us enough time to Google some stuff to do in town. Our plan is to get checked in to the hotel and find a rooftop bar before sunset. However, it looks like Boise, at least where we are staying, is not all that walkable and we are limited to the spots we can walk to, until we can get out and explore downtown later in the week. It turns out, coincidentally, one of the spots is a three minute walk from our hotel! It is called Barbacoa and they have a happy hour and a rooftop bar. We head over after we drop our bags in the room. Sadly, the rooftop has been closed for the season, so we head to the bar to investigate the happy hour deal, that is BOGO drinks until 6:00. To go with my gin and tonic, I order a Mediterranean octopus which is grilled and served with chimichurri and chipotle aioli. The aioli is out of place- but the octopus and chimichurri are pretty good. The list of entrees, while looking inviting, is also on the expensive side, so we opt for the tableside made guacamole. The mixer? guacmaster? guacologist? comes and starts his thing, introducing us to the ingredient options. We choose our mix-ins and he mixes it, presents it to us and asks for tweaks. We sample, give our requests- more salt, more heat etc. and the new presentation is quite excellent. By the end of the food, I was actually pretty satisfied and didn’t need more food or drinks. After dinner we walk to the Greenbelt. This is a 25 mile paved path that you can walk/run/bike on and El wants to run tomorrow morning before work. So, we go to the closest entrance and acquaint ourselves with it. We then retire to the room for the evening, after all, El’s job is the reason we are here this week.

Tuesday October 15

We set the alarm for 5:30am. Throw on some clothes and go to the Greenbelt we found last night. It’s pretty quiet and El plans to run for 40 minutes, so I plan to walk the same. She goes running for 20 minutes in one direction while I move at a much more pedestrian pace for the same 20 minutes. Then I turn around and walk back through the path I just came from, mostly along the Idaho State University campus. At this hour there are few people out, though El is able to chat momentarily with some fellow runners about the general safety of the trail at this hour. They assure her that the only safety concern any of them have is running into deer along the path. It is unclear from my knowledge, if a deer would be actively aggressive towards a runner or if it was just a concern about being startled. Either way, we haven't seen any deer yet. After grabbing a bite at the hotel we head off to Nampa to get El to the job site. Nampa is a city about 20 miles outside of Boise, which allows for a reverse commute for us. As we bypass all of the rush hour traffic heading into downtown we make it to the factory in good time. Once she heads inside to meet her contacts, I am on my own. I head to the local YMCA for a morning workout before heading back to the hotel to figure out what I am going to do today until I have to be back in Nampa to pick her up at 4:30. After some quick research, and based on some recommendations from a local, I head to Sockeye Brewing, a local brewery that will let me eat, drink, and journal for a majority of the day. When I arrive, I reach out to a local contact friend-of-a-friend named Neal and let him know where I am hanging, should he be available for a meet up. Turns out he is free and after a little bit of a miscommunication (who knew there are two Sockeye locations?) we meet up for an excellent chat for the rest of the afternoon. I use some of my time to ask him what he knows about the Idaho State Penitentiary. Neal admits he can't understand why anyone would visit the place. It really seemed to confound him when I expressed my interest and mentioned that I thought this would be something for me to do tomorrow. Though, as we spent the afternoon together, by the end, he started asking questions like, when did I think I might be going tomorrow. I knew he was warming up to the idea. 

At some point, knowing my role on this vacation, I pick a dinner spot for El and I. I arrive on time to pick her up at 4:30 and we head directly to Alyonka Russian Cuisine. Not only is it a Russian kitchen, but it gets very good reviews. We arrive around 5:00 and are seated right away. It’s a small dining room and I can hear as the waiter tends to another table and introduces his trainee. When the customers ask where her accent is from, she says Ukraine! So, when they make it over to take my order I am so excited to ask her which city in Ukraine she is from. This starts a quick exchange that ends with me ordering our dinner in Russian! I haven't done that in 11 years! The food was really good. We ordered a beet salad, a chebureki, and a plate of beef stroganoff that was really tasty. 

We didn't have room for dessert, but it was a great recommendation. On the way out I questioned the waiter about some of the menu options telling him I was a little surprised to see chebureki and plove on the menu as those are not typically Russian- I don’t think. He admitted that the chef is actually Khasakstani and that most people don't know the difference. We all laughed and I headed out for the hotel. I was in for the night, but El ran out to get some photos of the moon…and also a cross- a local landmark of sorts that's existence has caused some issues in the community.

Wednesday October 16

A similar routing to yesterday with a few tweaks. We wake at 5:30 and get out to the Greenbelt before 6:00. Again, El runs 20 min out and turns around while I walk the same and we meet back at the beginning. She has purchased a headlamp to make it easier to see the path, though I'm moving slow enough with my walk that I don't need extra light as my eyes adjust quickly. Again, taking El to work out in Nampa and then heading to the YMCA for a morning workout. I have some issues with the machines, but all in all it was a decent workout. I head back to the room to shower and wait for Neal to come pick me up. He arrives at noon and we go to the Old Idaho Penitentiary. Neal has said that he can’t imagine visiting a penitentiary, and living here, it has never crossed his mind to check it out. However, he seemed intrigued when I said it was something I would probably do while I was here. So, we went today and checked it out. Having been to a couple of penitentiaries around the world this one was good, but I have seen better. Neal, on the other hand, seemed to really enjoy it a lot more than he thought he would, which I was thrilled about. I especially liked hearing his local perspective on some of the things we saw or heard about on the self guided tour. There were several places that featured mugshots from notorious criminals that were incarcerated here, and we got some good laughs over some of the crimes that some of the prisoners were charged with. Most notably “crimes against nature” and “pimping”. We spent longer here than I thought we would and I was happy for it. Afterwards, Neal and I head downtown to grab a beer at Boise Brewing. It is a place he has been to, though not for a while- in fact, so long that there seems to have been a complete remodel since he was here last. We chat for a while before heading back to the hotel so that I can grab the car to go pick up El. I plan to leave at 4:00 to get her. However, even though I wind up leaving closer to 3:50, as the GPS accounts for traffic and roadside snags, I am told that my arrival time is considerably later than I expected. I message El to let her know of my delay. A ride that should have taken 25 minutes, takes a total of 70! Instead of heading back to the room, when out with Neal today I spotted a sign for trivia night tonight at Boise Brewing. We find Basque Market, but their kitchen is closed for the day. They tell us that there is an event going on just outside their doors and they are remaining open because of it and that any other day, they would have closed the shop for the night by now. We each get a txakoli and peruse the shelves, but don't buy anything else. The women working are friendly and suggest a bar down the street if we are looking for food- going so far as to recommend specific menu items that we might like. After our drinks, on their cue, we go to Bar Gernika for a glass of white wine and a small plate of shishito peppers, blistered and tossed in salt. It’s more like a dingy bar than a restaurant, but we do see where they are selling some entrée type food, though I am not interested. The small plate of shishitos is just fine with me. We walk over to the Boise Brewing for trivia night. One pint of Oktoberfet Märzen is enough for me. They have a reasonably big beer selection, but a lot of IPA’s and stouts that don't interest me so I stick with the same beer I had this afternoon. The game moves along quickly and even with the “this has never happened before” moment when the battery died on the quizmaster’s laptop and he actually had to leave to run home to get his power cord and return to finish the last round- we were done relatively early. The two of us came in 4th place (out of 11 teams) and we head home for the night.

Thursday October 17

El is not feeling well and thinks she is coming down with something, so she opts to sleep in instead of running. We get up at 7:00 so we can still grab breakfast and make it to Nampa for the start of the work day. I, again, stop at the YMCA after dropping her off. Today I am not feeling 100% either, so I only ride for 40 minutes instead of the hour I had planned. I head back to the room to work on some personal stuff for a little bit, but I am in touch with Neal who invites me to his house which is only a couple of miles away. He has built a fire in his back yard fire pit and is burning some brush, taking advantage of the recent wet weather that will lessen the wildfire risk that is very real out in this region of the country. I get a tour of the compound and we sit in his back yard listening to tunes while he stokes the pit occasionally. It’s not long before I have to head out to pick up El. We don't need to stop at the room and instead and we head to the Flower Power Happy Hour at the local botanical garden. I got the suggestion at the hotel where each elevator had a rundown of local events in the area if you wanted to get out of the room for awhile- and we did. It is free to enter and they have food and drink available while the gardens are accessible. A lot of locals bring their kids and they have a couple of fire pits going to hang near if it’s a little chilly- which, this evening it is. 

So, we stay for a bag of chips and a local wine (local beers and ciders in cans, and pours of local wines- which was surprisingly good). Not sure why I am surprised as I think Washington and Oregon have some drinkable wines. Why shouldn’t Idaho? Anyway, i think the fact that the botanical gardens are free for this event, the fee is probably built into the price of the wine and beer! El takes a quick walk through the grounds while I hang back at the fire keeping comfortable. I could see this being more fun if the weather was more cooperative. We move on to drive back downtown for dinner at Fork, which keeps coming up on lists of decent local eats. The place is crowded and without a reservation, we can only get a spot in the bar area, which is fine. We start with asparagus fries. They are lightly battered spears served with ranch dressing which really does not fit with this dish. The asparagus is really good and well done. Next is a carne asada salad which is a little busy and bland. Lots of greens and a large piece of sliced beef. However, the beans and corn and (some other mystery ingredient) it is a little much I think the description of the salad was better than the execution. For the entrée we split a braised short rib over mashed potatoes with a side of cheese grits. The grits were very good. But there were way too many mashed potatoes under the rib. The beef was sizable, and pricy. But, it was tender and cooked very well. All in all, it was a pretty good dinner, but I will admit, I was hoping for a little next level, and it just missed. Skipping dessert, afterwards, we head back so El can get out and take some pictures of the moon, before calling it a night.

Friday October 18

Our last full day in Boise. El is getting better with the meds she has been taking for her cold, but feels that one more morning not running in the cold would be beneficial. We each sleep in a little waking around 7:00. We get ready to get her to work grabbing some breakfast at the hotel before taking off. I am planning to meet Neal after I get back from the YMCA. Today he wants to take me to Highlands Hollow, which I think is the oldest craft brewery in town(?). It’s a good place with a decent menu of both food and beer. He says it’s popular with the skiers who drop in to warm up once they come off the slopes. I order a bowl of poutine and a pint of Oktoberfest beer which is very good. The poutine is OK, but instead of the gravy melting the cheese curds, the gravy is a kind of cheese sauce- making it more like an order of cheese fries than an actual poutine. Neal and I chat for awhile before I need to get back to the hotel to go get El.

On the way to the hotel, Neal drives me past his “local secret parking spot”. He knows that El and I are heading to the Knitting Factory tonight and he points me to a spot on Capitol Blvd. with no meters- just a 2 hours free parking until 6pm (after which is free). The parking situation is frustrating in this downtown area. There just seem to be as many variations of meters and free for a short term spots. However, the parking enforcement is always working and we saw them doing their thing at points. There are meters that you can pay coins for up to two hours, but if you need up to two more hours, you can only use your credit card with the parking app. Nonetheless, Neal takes me to his spot and points to a stretch of about 7 cars that, if we can get here after 4 pm, we will be able to park free all night and it is within walking distance of the concert. After the drive by, he takes me back to the hotel and we say our goodbyes. El is done a little early with work, and I am there when she gets out. Again, without going back to the room, we head for Neal’s parking spot and sure enough, only one of seven spots is taken. We grab one and head off for a bar/restaurant. Boise has a significant Basque community which includes the Market and bar we went to last night, but El is looking for more Basque food. I am still full from my poutine, so I will probably only get a glass of wine. She finds a restaurant called Luka Ora that has a happy hour going on. $2 off drinks and half price small plates. We split a patatas bravas and I get a glass of Albariño. The spicy tomato sauce on the bravas is almost too hot...almost. It is great and goes well with the excellent wine. I am done for food, though El hasn’t eaten substantially since breakfast and needs more. She really likes her salad and “Basque mac and cheese” (made Basque by the inclusion of chorizo and tomato sauce). She enjoys it and afterwards we walk over to the Knitting Factory. The doors open soon after we arrive and we are in quickly. It’s a nice, big room with a high stage and good sound system. We get a decent spot and settle in for the night. 

The show is very good and gets over about 11:15. The walk back to the car is short and the drive back to the room even shorter- as we wave goodbye to the downtown area for this trip. We are tired and still need to pack before we leave around 9:30 tomorrow morning. Most everything is ready and we head to bed a little bit beat from a long day. 

Saturday October 19

Our flight leaves at 12:30 and the weather is cooperative. El goes out for a walk when she gets up leaving me to shower and get finished packing. United Airlines sucks. Let me just go on record with that. Even though we flew here on Delta we were able to bring our standard one carry-on and one personal item. All well and good. United, well they charge you for the carry-on. $65. So, when you check in, you are required to put a credit card on file so that if you show up to the gate with too much baggage, they will check your extra bag and charge your card. Just a money grab. Not to let the airline get one over on us, we work very hard to consolidate our two carry-ons into one. You see, El’s company bought her the upgraded ticket so she was allowed both carry-on and personal, while I was not because I only bought the cheapest fare- while I understand some of the level differences between basic economy and the next level of economy (which she got), some are not reasonable, in my opinion, and the carry-on is one of them. Well, I packed well enough and was able to reconfigure everything to fit into the three bags between us. We are checked out and on the road to the airport around 9:00- stopping at the gas station to fill up the rental before returning it. One of the benefits to flying out of a small airport like Boise is that you can usually get through much quicker than a large airport. This is no different, rental car dropped, checked in at the counter to see about getting our auto-assigned (thanks United) seats reassigned to be able to sit, at least, near each other, and then through security and to the gate in 15 minutes. We now sit and wait for our flight to Chicago, which is on time at 12:30. 

In conclusion

We know for a fact that there are a lot of people who, if they were here on a work trip, would check into the room, and never leave the room except to go to the job or the hotel bar. El and I are different. We both have the mentality that we may never get back here again- so what does this town have to offer? Is it historical? Is it cultural? Is it a great culinary scene? What are the people that live here proud of about their city? While I don’t get the sense that Boise is going to win any awards for its historical, cultural, or culinary achievements, I would say that there are enough pockets of each to easily sustain a person visiting for a short time for work. As I always do before travelling, I tried to get a guidebook for both Salt Lake City and Boise, but I could not find one for either and had to rely on my own research (which did include speaking with local residents) to guide us. I am glad we added a long weekend in SLC on the front end and think we took advantage of the fact that it was the weekend to cram as much as we could into our time- heck we knocked three things off our list just on the ride from the airport to the hotel! Not everyone can say that. I am not sure what a full 8 days in Boise without El working (meaning that we together would be on the go each day) would look like for us. Probably more museums and day trips out of this city. Though more time in SLC would surely have included more culinary adventures for sure as there does seem to be some decent options in town. Overall, I would say we made the most of our time here, probably don’t need to come back, but could find some more stuff to do if we did. Hoping she gets more jobs like this and can take advantage of the company dime to explore new places.