I spent the night in Boise at a hotel called the Safari Inn, a very charming, independently owned hotel that was clean and safe and full of Australian backpackers. This signaled to me that I was in a good place for travelers, and I am sorry to see that it closed in 2019 after 52 years of business.
Boise is a very walkable, safe and clean town, so Tamu and I set out to see the sites. Our first stop was the area near the convention center. I had spent time there three years before when I came to the city for an academic conference. On this day, I made contact with my friend who worked in the area and we decided to have lunch in the Basque Block later, so I explored the familiar city center and its environmental art. Tamu was less interested in sculpture and wanted to walk.
So we headed to the Julia Davis Park near the capitol building. At the time, it featured the Lewis & Clark Discovery Pavilion. This included a wonderful display about the expedition and its participants, including Drouillard, its French translator from Quebec, Sacajawea, the Shoshone teen who asssited the explorers, and York, an enslaved man who was the first African-American to vote in the US. Even more delightful, the displays included information about what ethnographers do.
It was a bright, sunny day and Tamu and I headed back for lunch with my friend in the Basque Block. Idaho drew Basque settlers because of the lure of mining and the ability to make a living herding sheep, which they did in their traditional lands between France and Spain. The attraction grew during the rule of Francisco Franco in Spain, and the community established themselves in this area of Boise. A number of restaurants offer Basque foods and there is a cultural center. I would come back for that because my friend and I met for paella. It was delicious.
In the afternoon, I decided to wander into the area outside Boise where a collection of wineries have sprung up. My first stop was at the well-established Ste. Chappelle Winery, where I bought delicious huckleberry wine. I drove the area looking for other wineries and found myself at Huston Vineyards, which was a farm with the tasting room in a nicely renovated part of the barn. I stopped in, and the children were playing with the new labrador puppies and scrambled to get their mom. When she realized I was there for a tasting and not a puppy, she disappeared in the house while I played with the pups, and then re-emerged to share a tasting with me. She could not have been more gracious, or fun to sip with.
The area was beautiful. I was meeting my friend and his family for a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints picnic that evening. About 5000 people showed up for delicious burgers and lots of potluck. It was fun to watch the kids running around in large groups, and I got to spend time with my friend’s wife again, and Tamu won many admirers. It had been a beautiful late summer day in Boise.
