Being in Boise

I use the word "being" as an emotion, a feeling of being somewhere that conjures up so many memories. Of feeling where you are and where you came from. Our family moved to Boise in 1965 right after my 8th birthday. I graduated high school in 1975 and left for college in August, only 17 years old. Although I only lived in Boise for 10 years, they were my formative years. The years of schooling, making friends, Saturday night dances, summer girls camp, first job, first kiss, learning to drive at 14, road trips in the family station wagon to Grandma's house in Manti, and summer trips to Henry's Lake.

No matter how many years I've lived in other places, I will always call Boise home. I've been back many times over the years. This last weekend Wally and I took our first post-retirement road trip to Boise. We stayed three nights at my sister's home. The main purpose of this trip was to see my friend Gail, whom I met in grade school that first year we moved to Boise when I was 8 years old. Gail currently lives in North Carolina and was flying to Boise to her older brother Bryan's Memorial service. Although it was a sad occasion, I was grateful for having some time to visit with her.

Wally and I left home on Thursday, lunched at our yearly summer road trip restaurant, Smokehouse Restaurant in La Grande, Oregon. Wally loves ordering breakfast there for lunch. We arrived at Sue's just before 7:00 p.m. and had dinner.

Friday we drove up to Sweet, Idaho for the Memorial service. It was a nice outdoor service with friends and family, a little wind and a little rain. It was fun to hear stories about Bryan from his son. And to hear that he had spent his last few months growing closer to his family and making peace with his life. He was 77 years old.

Late Friday afternoon Wally and I went to the Village at Meridian where we enjoyed pizza at Grimaldi's. It's so good there. The flowers at the Village were all in bloom and it was such a pretty spring day. Friday night Sue, Dennis and I played Rummikub and Yahtzee.

Saturday morning, Sue and I left Wally with Jack when we picked up our sister Becky and headed to a craft boutique. It was held in a model show home in a new subdivision in Eagle. The entire house was full of cute, fun and beautiful craft items, from outdoor stuff, to signs, to Easter items. Plus the house was absolutely gorgeous. Before we left we walked through the model home across the street.

Saturday evening Gail and I went out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. We had an hour wait for a table but it was time well spent visiting and reminiscing. We hadn't seen each other since our high school reunion in 2015 so it was fun catching up. And I'm always grateful that we can just pick up where we left off as if no time had passed.

It was bittersweet thinking about our friend Brenda who passed away in 2015. She was a part of our trio growing up and we had many fun memories..

Sunday morning we woke up to frost on the car window! We hit the road for home. Found a cute diner outside Yakima for lunch (where they serve breakfast all day).

Snoqualmie Pass was beautiful with all the snow. We had a pleasant drive home. Road tripping in April weather is actually pretty nice. It was a great weekend.

Vacation Anticipation

It's coming up and I'm looking forward to it. It's an annual trip we do with my siblings and their families. A week together at the cabin on the lake. They will be about 20 of us there. We're figuring out all the food and what days everyone arrives.

This trip I get to meet some NEW additions to the family since last summer, a new great niece and a great nephew. And I get to see my other adorable great nieces and nephews too.

On the menu is chili, pizza, Mexican food, chorizo w/rice and other good stuff. And don't forget bacon and eggs and pancakes every morning for breakfast cooked on the restaurant griddle that Dad bought years ago.

We have tickets to see Guys and Dolls at the Playmill Playhouse in West Yellowstone. And we even get to play tourist in town

(and pretend we haven't been going there for the last 40+ years).

There may be a trip into Yellowstone Park or there might not be.

Sometimes it's just nice to stay at the cabin and relax, sew, read, eat, eat fudge,

sleep, visit, play games, fish, sit outside in the sunshine,

sit in the cabin and watch the electrical storms at night on the lake,

chase bats out of the cabin and rescue an occasional hummingbird.

The trip never ceases to surprise me.

Road Trip

We left Thursday morning, Sept 11th. Keep in mind that Wally can't drive cause of his eyes. I did all the driving. We took Wally's small S10 truck loaded up with furniture for his daughter. We stopped to visit the Shasta Lake Dam, the second largest in the country. We had to ask what the first was and was embarrassed to learn it was the Grand Coulee here in Washington. We got to Bart and Autumn's about 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. Harper is just wonderful, adorable, smiley, just fun. Bart brought pizza home and we spent the evening visiting. They live in a small town outside Medford. They are one house away from the city park. They can walk to the grocery store. They really like it there. Friday morning we went into Ashland and had breakfast at harper's, which is Autumn's Mom's new restaurant that opened on Wednesday. She had the Avenues Bakery in Salt Lake, which they closed in August. Ashland is a great little town.

We stopped at The Olive Pit in Corning to do some shopping. Then we drove in to San Francisco and arrived at our hotel about 6:30 p.m. on Friday night. We were 30 miles away from the city and it took 1 1/2 hours to get into it. Wally's daughter picked us up at the hotel and out for Italian food for dinner. Saturday morning Wally and I walked down Union Street to a café for breakfast. Then we went to Carla's place in the Mission District. We lucked out and a got a parking spot right out front. We unloaded furniture and then spent hours putting it together. I walked over to the French bakery on the corner for treats. Then we walked around the Mission district, had lunch and looked at shops. We actually stood outside on the sidewalk for 15 minutes to get into an ice cream shop, which was really worth the wait. It was called Bi-Rite Creamery. I had toasted coconut ice cream and salted caramel ice cream with home made caramel sauce. It was delicious.

Later that night we went out for Chinese food at a place called Alice's restaurant. It was very good.Sunday was the same breakfast routine, check out of the hotel and then the afternoon spent in Sausalito, it was my first time on the Golden Gate Bridge. We basically spent 48 hours in San Francisco. Sunday night we drove about 3 hours north and spent the night in Corning. Monday we visited my friend Gail who just moved to Eugene in August. We've known each other since we were 8 years old. I hadn't seen her for a couple of year. As always it was great to see her and catch up on things.

From Eugene we drove to Corvallis then headed west to the Oregon Coast and 101. We arrived about 1 1/2 hours before sunset, which I anticipated watching on the beach. However when we arrived in Newport it was all fogged in. We found a nice hotel and a restaurant on the beach where we had dinner. I had crab cakes and brought a slice of cheesecake back to the hotel for later.

We woke in the morning to fog and headed north on 101. We did stop at Cannon Beach to go see the ocean.

We visited the Tillamook Cheese factory, had lunch (grilled ham and cheese on sourdough) and ice cream (rocky road on a sugar cone). We also visited a quilt/textile/museum/shop, which was fun. We made a brief stop in Astoria, the crossed the Columbia River to head home. We stopped at Black Angus for my free birthday dinner, which expired the next day. We were home by 7:30.

I had Wednesday to catch up at home and Natalie arrived Thursday morning. We had Wayne's portfolio review on Thursday, then we walked around Pike Place. Friday was graduation in the afternoon at Benaroya Hall. He now has his Associates Degree in Graphic Design now. Saturday, Wally, Natalie and I went to the Puyallup fair where we got very rained on but enjoyed the food. We visited Ian in his booth and thanked him for our free parking and admission. I hadn't seen him for over a year. He is doing good.

Natalie flew home Sunday morning. And Monday it was back to getting up at 6:00 a.m., working, cooking and cleaning. Back to routine. Vacation is great but routine can also be good.

Road Trip

Tomorrow Wally and I begin our road trip to San Francisco. I am really looking forward to it. We will visit Bart and Autumn in Oregon. Meet Harper who is now three months old. Spend a couple of nights in San Francisco and hang out with Carla. On the way home we visit my friend Gail who just moved to Eugene, Oregon from Virginia. Great timing, except her furniture hasn't arrived yet!

We may drive a little along the coast, depending on how we're feeling by then. The weather should be great and I'm looking forward to a great trip.

I'll share pictures later. I bought my new digital camera about three weeks ago so I could learn how to use it, but let's just say I'll be bringing the instruction manual along, just in case.