In late October, I headed to Boise to visit a very good friend of mine and her wonderful family. I was pretty stoked, because living in Dallas, our “fall” does not exactly produce the warm jewel tones of foliage that the better part of the country gets at this time of year. First, my friend took me to a lookout point called Table Rock. It has a wonderful view of the city.
If you look close, you can see the yellow and rust colors of the leaves turning. It was absolutely beautiful. Boise is technically an “elevated desert,” so at Table Rock when you turn around, you see this surreal landscape that stretches for ages of brush and rolling mountain hills. (Bigger than hills, smaller than mountains = mountain hills. You can reference me later for coining the term.)
I’m a bit of a sucker for landscapes that look like they belong to another planet, and the juxtaposition of this bustling mid-sized northwestern city to the stark and beautifully empty landscape leaves me a little jealous that people that aren’t me live here to take it in whenever they want. Of course when you live somewhere, it’s beauties are oft overlooked and seen as plain and normal. I’m sure Dallas has some of that, maybe I should go looking for it.
After a night of heavy umm… after a night, we took the kids to a wonderful little fall festival outside of Boise. This fall festival made me think of all the photos, stories and other accounts of fall of which Dallas falls a little short. There was a real pumpkin patch. This may not seem like a big deal to most people, but I have only lived in Texas and while I travel, I have never traveled within the US during the fall season. In Texas, a “pumpkin patch” consists of a roped off area of parking lot with bales of hay set up and they set down a bunch of pumpkins, usually for sale. Now that I have seen a real one, I do understand the attempt of nostalgia over the so-called pumpkin patch.
Do you see this? This is where pumpkins grow. The do not pop up out of concrete and hay bales. And look at the corn rows and red barn in the background. Yes, this is what fall is all about.
After another night of heavy…. after another night, we left the kids with my friend’s in-laws (thank you in laws!), picked up a few of their friends and headed into the mountains. You hit the mountains roughly an hour’s drive outside of Boise and it is what you expect in the Pac northwest – trees and scenery at every turn.
This wasn’t even a particularly good view and it’s strikingly beautiful. And (in case you read my blogs from Colorado), from the looks of it there is some pretty stellar fly fishing to be had. I will remember to bring my rod next time. We were headed to the Gold Fork Hot Springs, about a two hour drive from Boise which seems a little long but is worth the drive. Boise’s hot springs vary from a public hole in the ground on the side of the road to nicer facilities like this. I didn’t take any photos (sorry about that) because we were too busy melting away our problems in the natural hot tubs. The great thing about this place is that you can pack a picnic lunch, bring some beer/wine/whathaveyou and relax. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful long weekend. Thank you so much to Kelly and her family for putting up with me!
We tried to do a little photo sesh, but alas, everyone was a little keyed up and cranky from the events of the day. I managed to snag exactly one photo of everyone somewhat looking at (or at least facing) the camera. On the other hand, there is something to be said for photos of what your family really looks like every day, no child bribing to sit still involved. I love it.
