Saturday and Sunday [Boise]

After our Friday evening arrival into Boise, I pretty much put Lewis straight to bed while Emily, Joe, and I stayed up watching TV and enjoying some pizza and beer. The plan was for Lewis and I to stay at their house during our stay--however, I quickly realized that the Eastern time zone baby (Lewis) and the Mountain time zone baby (Juniper) weren't going to jive well under the same roof. Lewis went to bed around 6:30pm Boise time--and he woke up a little bit after I put him down, then again at like 2 something and 4 something--then he was ready to wake up for the day at 4:45am Boise time (6:45am back home) while everyone else was still asleep. I pulled him into bed for an hour and a half, trying to keep him quiet and not wake up the rest of the house until the hour wasn't quite as obscene. Needless to say, it wasn't a restful night--we tried, but in the end we decided to book a hotel room for the rest of our trip.

Saturday morning, we headed out to Art in the Park--a huge art festival in downtown Boise. We saw a lot of great art and craft items, a lot of dogs, and the best corn dog of my life (a Pronto Pup). It was freshly dipped, fried, and slathered in mustard right before our eyes. Very good stuff. We walked around for a few hours, then onto the Farmer's Market. We didn't actually end up going into the market--we took a slight detour by some fountains where Juniper could splash around.

This is the greatest thing ever!

Lewis watching the bigger kids run around.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to go to Donnie Mac's, a favorite place to go whenever we visit Boise. They specialize in 'Trailer Park Cuisine'--fun foods like Spaghetti-Os with a side of Cheetos, Kool-Aid, Macaroni and Cheese with cut up hot dogs in it, a 'trashy' sauce (marshmallow fluff mixed with something unknown) to dip your sweet potato fries in, Ding Dong sundaes, etc. A fun place--the best part? They have 40s on the menu. Well, my Bud Light was technically only 32 oz., but nevertheless, fabulously trashy. :)

Thanks for the memories, Donnie Mac's.

Only the 2nd 40 of my life, both enjoyed at your quirky establishment.

Lewis and I checked into our hotel Saturday evening and had a MUCH better night--he still woke up 2 or 3 times, but I didn't have the oh-please-don't-wake-everyone-up-with-your-noises tension. Much better, all around.

What's up, Idaho?

The shirt and shorts, both from his Auntie Em and Uncle Joe.

We had plans to drive up to Idaho City on Sunday--first Juniper and Lewis had a little morning wrestling sesh.

They successfully wore each other out with the wrestling and both slept through most of our drive up to Idaho City.

On the way, Joe pulled off the road to see if he could spot the Kokanee Salmon running upstream--and he did! Emily and I ran over to see them, too--very cool. In the picture below, you can definitely see the orange spot in the left/center, and there were some lighter ones all around that area, too. Joe estimated that there were a few hundred of them.

Kokanee Salmon

:) Cousin Love :)

We first headed out to an area of gold mining tailings just outside of Idaho City--in this particular area, Joe said Chinese miners came in and moved all of these stones by hand from the riverbed as they were searching for gold. Among the stones, we found old metal cans, a spittoon can, and some pottery pieces. It was incredible to think about how much time and effort went into creating the landscape.

Lewis among the gold mining tailings

We had lunch at Trudy's, a great home-cooking restaurant. Famous for their reuben and pies. Delicious (and sadly none of us had room for their variety of mile-high cream pies). After lunch, we walked around Idaho City for a bit--saw the old jail, old buggies, the old fire station, shops, etc. A very historic little town.

After getting back to Boise, Emily and I decided to walk to the grocery with the babies--we used their bike trailer which also converts to a double stroller (a Chariot--they were all over Art in the Park, too)--Lew and Juni got along marvelously the whole time.

Away we go!

And as was the case during our entire trip, we borrowed Juni's eating supplies, so Lewis ended up wearing pink and/or flowery bibs at mealtime. Behold:

Drama Queen, indeed.

Rocking the pink.

So that was Saturday and Sunday...next, Monday and Tuesday!