I Can See for Miles and Miles

Las Vegas, NV   High 88  Low 63

After saying goodbye to Boise and family, all we have done is head south. We stayed in McDermitt, NV, Winnemucca, NV, Hawthorne, NV, Beaty, NV and are finally in Las Vegas for a few nights.

Those of you who have driven Highway 95 through Nevada will relate to the title of this post. For me, this drive was a wonderful relief from all the trees. Don’t get me wrong, I do not want to live out here in the middle of nowhere. But I love being able to see for many miles in all directions.

The only break we took from our drive was in Hawthorne. Our good friends, George and Sharon live in Walker Lake which is only a few miles from Hawthorne. We had plans to to take them out to dinner, but we found out that Sharon was in Nashville having a good time with her sisters. That meant we got to take George out to dinner and had a great visit with him.

A lonely cloud

Fun clock

Hopefully I’ll have a blog or two to post from Las Vegas but after leaving Las Vegas we will take two days to return to our home park in Apache Junction. I know I’ve overwhelmed you with blog posts while we traveled but you’ll be getting a break because we will be doing the normal routines of life. If anything fun or exciting happens, I will post a blog; but I’m kind of looking forward to not being on the go so much.

Capitol Punishment–Part 2

Boise, ID

My last post covered the Capitol, and this post will cover the Punishment. This is our final tour in Boise.

Old Idaho State Penitentiary

This site was a functional prison from 1872 to 1973. Very interesting and very depressing as all prisons are.

Notice what this young man’s crime was.

This was a self guided tour and we were disappointed to find out that the J. Curtis Earl Memorial Exhibit of Arms was closed because they did not have enough volunteers.

Capitol Punishment–Part 1

Boise, ID   High 58  Low  44

There is so much to see and do in the Boise area and we barely put a dent in my list even though we were on the go all the time. There were three more places we just had to visit.

The first one was a quick stop at the Idaho Candy Company. They have been in business since 1901. They have the best chocolate peanut clusters I’ve ever had. They don’t use a lot of chocolate which is what I like about them. We also had to pick up some peanut brittle for Jim. Good stuff.

Parking in downtown Boise is at a premium but I’m married to a man who can always find a parking space really close to wherever we need to be. We had lunch at Andie’s Deli and Jim parked directly across the street from the deli. At the candy company he also found a spot directly across the street. After all these years it still continues to amaze me.

Sure enough at our next stop he parked right by the entrance. Welcome to Idaho’s State Capitol Building which was built in 1905.

The great seal of Idaho. This is the only state seal designed by a woman.

The Senate and House hearing rooms are located in the wings of the building. They have kept the original basement vault doors from the record storage rooms.

The dome in the Rotunda

This was a private elevator which transported judges to the Supreme Court Chambers.

Senate Chambers

Can you see Jim?

Two statues flank the entrance to Statuary Hall. The George Washington Statue was carved from a single piece of pine.

The second statue is a replica of Winged Victory of Samothrace. Idaho received this replica from the Merci Train which was sent to the United States by the people of France in 1949 to express their appreciation for the food, medicine, fuel and clothing Americans sent to France following WWII.

Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I found this very interesting.

We really enjoy touring the Capitol Buildings and Idaho’s is a beautiful and interesting building. This post is long enough, so we’ll continue with the next one.

Family Time

Emmett, ID   High 60   Low 43

We were able to spend a couple of nights visiting with my nephew Wade and his family which was so much fun.

From the left – Katie (doing student teaching), Nikki (the Mom), Karissa (12), Karlye (16), and Wade. Kody was missing as he was at college.

Wade is my sister’s oldest child and is the principal at Emmett High School.

He gave us a tour of his town and the surrounding area. It really is a very pretty place and far enough away from Boise to not be part of the big city but close enough for good shopping and medical.

He also gave us a tour of his very unique high school. The first monolithic dome school building. I took this picture from their website.

And this one is an aerial view. Absolutely no windows.

The auto repair section.

The music room

The center of the dome

The gym

Wade’s office with Karissa

 We are looking forward to coming back to this area for more visits.

Nose to Beak

Boise, ID   High 60  Low 47

Sometimes we really luck out when we go to see an exhibit. Such was the case when we visited the World Center for Birds of Prey.

This is a very small bird sanctuary but it houses the world's largest captive flock of California Condors which are housed in nearby breeding chambers to raise young for release to the wild. They have built the Condor Cliffs for the birds to hang out in when they are old enough.

The California condor is the largest bird in North America. It has a  wing span of nine and a half feet! The bare head is an adaptation for hygiene since they eat dead and rotting meat and must stick their head into the carcasses to feed.

The California condor population steadily declined during the 20th century until there were only 22 known to exist in the world. The last of the free-flying condors were taken into captivity in 1987 in order to save the species from extinction. There were no California condors in the wild between 1988 and 1991, but reintroduction efforts began in early 1992 and continue today. As of May 2013, there are approximately 435 California condors in the world, about 237 of which are free-flying in California, Arizona and Baja California, Mexico.

The other bird that they have helped to bring back from the edge of extinction is the Peregrine Falcon. The Peregrine population was decimated in 1950-1970 because of DDT poisoning (which was banned in 1972) and were declared an endangered species. They were removed from this list in 1999 because of the hard work of the Peregrine Fund.

A beautiful view of Boise from the outdoor amphitheater.

The Peregrine Falcon is a very fast flier, averaging 25-34 mph in traveling flight, and reaching speeds up to 69 mph in direct pursuit of prey. During its spectacular hunting stoop the peregrine may reach speeds of 200 mph as it drops toward its prey.

Powerful and fast-flying, the Peregrine Falcon hunts medium-sized birds, dropping down on them from high above in a spectacular stoop.

This is where we really lucked out. Normally they only do bird flights on the week-ends but they had two young birds that they were training and we were there to see it.

One of the birds was a Peregrine Falcon who had been raised by her handler from a very early age and was five months old. Monica put Cinda through her paces as she is teaching her how to kill her prey. Monica used quail meat and would swing it around like it was flying so Cinda would dive for it. She would try to keep it away from the falcon but as soon as the falcon hit the prey she would drop it to the ground and let Cinda enjoy her prize. It was fascinating to watch.

The hood is used to keep her calm and to stop her from trying to fly away. However, if she should take off, that is a GPS tracker that you see on her back so they can go get her.

The second bird was a tufted owl (closely related to the Great Horned Owl). Wally was gorgeous to watch in flight and has been trained to fly to different perches with food placed on them.

Just look at those eyes.

Beagles, Blue, Basque, and Freak

Boise, ID    High 60  Low 43

Todd and Michaela – you need to check this out. This BnB is located in Cottonwood, ID. Your room is in the belly with a loft in his nose. Their website - http://www.dogbarkpark.com/

We followed Highway 95 south through Hells Canyon, North America’s deepest river gorge, We also had to climb White Bird Summit at 4,383 feet which meant we had to come down an eight mile 7% grade. It was a beautiful drive but Jim was glad that we broke it into two days with an overnight in Council, ID.

My nephew and his family live in Emmett, ID and we stayed at an RV park in Sand Hollow called Country Corners RV Park. The owners are the nicest, most accommodating folks we’ve ever met. Highly recommend this park if you are in the area.

Boise is about 35 miles from the park and, of course, everything I wanted to see was in Boise.

Our first stop was at Boise State University. I had read about a Sports Humanitarian Exhibit that I really thought would be interesting. It no longer exists but we were still able to have our picture taken with the “Blue”. It was the first non-green playing surface in football history.

Next on my list was the Basque Block in downtown Boise. The volunteer at the Blue is a Basque and he recommended that we eat at Bar Gernika pub and eatery. After looking at the menu I was glad we weren’t there on a Saturday. My Grandmother would have loved it.

I had a chicken kabob and Jim had a chorizo sausage.

We stopped into the Basque Museum but they do not allow any photos taken. In this picture you can see how small an area the Basque homeland is. They don’t have their own country but inhabit the area surrounding the Bay of Biscay in southwestern France and northern Spain.

The Basques are a genetic and cultural anomaly in Europe and speak a language unrelated to any other known tongue on earth. The Boise Basque population is the second largest in the United States with Bakersfield, CA being the largest.

After leaving the Basque Block, we went to Freak Alley. At least we tried to but traffic was horrendous and there was no place to park. So here’s a picture from the truck.

Time to head home and feed Skitz. She’s going to think we’ve totally forgotten about her. After taking care of Skitz, we went to my nephew’s house for dinner and didn’t get home until 10:30. That’s really late for us old folks.