Vandrea Does America: Day 28 (Wednesday 7/18/12)- Emmett, ID + Boise, ID

We spent the majority of our time in Emmett with Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Rich, enjoying home cooked meals, all the chocolate candy bars and cookies I could eat and all the Moutain Dew Isaiah could drink. Even a SHOWER! We also had some learning experiences. Bonnie and Rich have been married for over 2 decades and are clearly still crazy about each other. We saw "love is patient, love is kind" in action. I know that when we are on 5 hours of sleep we aren't so nice to each other. It was clear they have some excellent communication skills. We also learned a lot about self determination from Uncle Rich's stories of his past. Hearing how, despite his childhood tribulations, he made a dramatic and positive change in his life, was truly inspiring.
After Uncle Rich had searched the entire home for any possible thing he could give us, made sure our van was in perfect shape (he is incredibly gifted with anything mechanical- cars, electronics, steel work...you name it) we were ready to head to Boise.

On wednesday nights Boise holds free outdoor summer concerts at the Grove Plaza. We got to hear the Black Lillies who were great, though I did take a nap through most of it. It was a crowded event with a small fountain in the middle of the plaza. After all the children had left I took my turn cooling down from the 90 F heat (lucky for us last week was 105). We walked around the town of and stumbled upon $1 beer at one of the local bars. We stopped in to cool down on some Budweiser and Rolling Rock and eat our fill of free popcorn.

Afterwards we continued our walking tour of the downtown area and found some cool artwork like the light river sculpture on the side of the Grove Hotel. We also saw a statue of a former governor who served from 1897 to 1900. The strange thing was that he was assisinated...in 1905, five years after he was governor.

Though Boise is a college town it just doesn't have the same charm as Missoula, MT or even the charm Corvallis holds for us. We got, despite the heat, a decent night's sleep at the Walmart. -A