It is hard for me to not travel! Only thing i guess i look forward in life is to travel to new places, see different culture/lifestyle and try new cuisines.
Honestly admitting, I am not a fan of group travel to new places because that limits the flexibility of how I plan to explore the city. My small family fits the need of my travel in most sense. One of my vacation last year was to an unusual state - Idaho. It is not a very tourist famous state, however i must say that, it has been one of my best experience so far. I dont want to see a crowded place and take a selfie or a family pic and put it on facebook to show the world. I would rather enjoy the places that has many things to offer, isnt crowded and allows to take a selfie/pic for facebook ;)
As always we preferred driving down rather than flying and covered the length & breadth of the state in a week due to its proximity from Oregon.
We drove for about 8 hrs to our first stop Mccall lake front, there was a nice live band playing. It was a wonderful place to hang out for drinks. Spent our evening enjoying and when it started to get cold we started for our night stop that was in Boise. Boise is just like any other big city with tall buildings, same stores and offices.
Next day, we headed towards Bruneau Dunes state park. The idea was to try sand boarding, something we had never done before. It was a perfect sunny day to practice, we rented the boards and drove towards the sand dunes, saw some adults & kids trying it and it seemed like they were having fun. We parked our car, and started climbing the dune to get to some elevation, it wasnt fun! Climbing up is always painful no matter what. This one in particular as when you put your feet in sand, it slides down leaving you with no grip and making you put more energy to carry yourself further. After we reached some height (not at top) it was time to try the board.
Don't know about other humans, but I always start with an assumption that I am pro and wait for reality to hit me! When i sand boarded, I slided smooth for first 15 seconds and being a novice I did not know which direction the body weight needs to be adjusted for continuity, so when my sand board needed me to adjust, i applied the wrong logic and next 30 seconds were rolling down the sand dune. It did not hurt all, only felt a little embarrassed. "Dont give up" my inner voice said to me and i climbed up again but only to put myself in more embarrassment. I tried third time and results were great, i was rolling much better! I tried and tried until my body & soul told me "Give up"!
What better excuse can i have than saying "It became very hot & we were dehydrated". Returned the rented gear to the state park officials and told them it was fun. It indeed was fun if you minus the embarrassment. Our next destination was Twin Falls that was couple of hours drive. We grabbed lunch and drove endlessly. Best part of Summers is that the days are really long, giving more time to explore. I had researched the place and a blogger had highly recommended a restaurant to try "Elevation 486". It is a wonderful place to enjoy lunch with a very beautiful backdrop. We also were privileged to attend a wedding that happened 10 feet from where we sat and saw the whole ceremony take place. Did not want to leave until "I do" and "You may kiss the bride" was said. Our first experience of an American wedding that we were not attending but yet attending!
We loved the place so much that we also had next day dinner to see how it looked in the night!
Next morning we went to check out Shoshone waterfall. It supposedly is Niagara of West, and they posters said it is higher than Niagara falls. I doubt but then who am i to question ;)
The last day before we started was reserved for White Water Rafting, my son is a water baby and loved every minute of it. He was enjoying class III rapids to my surprise. He wanted to do it on every trip he said!
There were only two weird thing that happened in the entire trip. One we did not see any diversity at all, we looked like aliens everywhere. Two, for some weird reasons, the restaurants in small towns kept the doors locked from inside and opened only after they saw from the glass who it was to let in.
I loved the change in landscape!
Beautiful landscape of Idaho!
Honestly admitting, I am not a fan of group travel to new places because that limits the flexibility of how I plan to explore the city. My small family fits the need of my travel in most sense. One of my vacation last year was to an unusual state - Idaho. It is not a very tourist famous state, however i must say that, it has been one of my best experience so far. I dont want to see a crowded place and take a selfie or a family pic and put it on facebook to show the world. I would rather enjoy the places that has many things to offer, isnt crowded and allows to take a selfie/pic for facebook ;)
As always we preferred driving down rather than flying and covered the length & breadth of the state in a week due to its proximity from Oregon.
We drove for about 8 hrs to our first stop Mccall lake front, there was a nice live band playing. It was a wonderful place to hang out for drinks. Spent our evening enjoying and when it started to get cold we started for our night stop that was in Boise. Boise is just like any other big city with tall buildings, same stores and offices.
Next day, we headed towards Bruneau Dunes state park. The idea was to try sand boarding, something we had never done before. It was a perfect sunny day to practice, we rented the boards and drove towards the sand dunes, saw some adults & kids trying it and it seemed like they were having fun. We parked our car, and started climbing the dune to get to some elevation, it wasnt fun! Climbing up is always painful no matter what. This one in particular as when you put your feet in sand, it slides down leaving you with no grip and making you put more energy to carry yourself further. After we reached some height (not at top) it was time to try the board.
Don't know about other humans, but I always start with an assumption that I am pro and wait for reality to hit me! When i sand boarded, I slided smooth for first 15 seconds and being a novice I did not know which direction the body weight needs to be adjusted for continuity, so when my sand board needed me to adjust, i applied the wrong logic and next 30 seconds were rolling down the sand dune. It did not hurt all, only felt a little embarrassed. "Dont give up" my inner voice said to me and i climbed up again but only to put myself in more embarrassment. I tried third time and results were great, i was rolling much better! I tried and tried until my body & soul told me "Give up"!
 |
| Why am I not in pic? I was already rolling down when camera clicked! |
What better excuse can i have than saying "It became very hot & we were dehydrated". Returned the rented gear to the state park officials and told them it was fun. It indeed was fun if you minus the embarrassment. Our next destination was Twin Falls that was couple of hours drive. We grabbed lunch and drove endlessly. Best part of Summers is that the days are really long, giving more time to explore. I had researched the place and a blogger had highly recommended a restaurant to try "Elevation 486". It is a wonderful place to enjoy lunch with a very beautiful backdrop. We also were privileged to attend a wedding that happened 10 feet from where we sat and saw the whole ceremony take place. Did not want to leave until "I do" and "You may kiss the bride" was said. Our first experience of an American wedding that we were not attending but yet attending!
We loved the place so much that we also had next day dinner to see how it looked in the night!
 |
| Elevation 486, Drink - Snake River Special |
Next morning we went to check out Shoshone waterfall. It supposedly is Niagara of West, and they posters said it is higher than Niagara falls. I doubt but then who am i to question ;)
 |
| Shoshone Waterfalls |
The last day before we started was reserved for White Water Rafting, my son is a water baby and loved every minute of it. He was enjoying class III rapids to my surprise. He wanted to do it on every trip he said!
There were only two weird thing that happened in the entire trip. One we did not see any diversity at all, we looked like aliens everywhere. Two, for some weird reasons, the restaurants in small towns kept the doors locked from inside and opened only after they saw from the glass who it was to let in.
I loved the change in landscape!
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment