For a while now we have been wanting to take a trip to Idaho. We had originally planned on going during spring break, but with John's wisdom teeth, broken jaw and arm issues it wasn't possible. John only had two vacation days left for the year, so the only way we could squeeze the trip in was on 4th of July weekend. Friday was a paid holiday for the 4th since it fell on a Saturday this year and then Monday and Tuesday he used his last two vacation days for the year.
We left Thursday afternoon after work and drove to Elko. We had some interesting weather that day. We had rain, wind and dust, something you don't expect in July. We arrived to Elko a little after midnight. Long enough to get some sleep and continue on early in the morning again. From Elko we went to Shashone Falls in Twin Falls Idaho. Very pretty place. Lots of green grass, trees and a nice lake/swimming/picnic area too. Very clean too, nothing like you would see at a lake at home.
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Mikayla and Ashlee at the state line just outside of Jackpot
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Shashone Falls. Notice the rainbow?
After a brief stop at Shashone Falls we went to Idaho Falls to Dave and Diantha's home and spent a couple days at their house with them. We went up to Rexburg so Ashlee could see what BYU Idaho looks like, did some site seeing around Idaho Falls, watched the 4th of July parade, watched fire works along the Snake River in front of the Idaho Falls Temple.
Rexburg Temple
Ashlee and Mikayla in front of the Rexburg Temple
Rexburg Temple
Rexburg Temple
Rexburg Temple at sunset
Fourth of July Parade in Idaho Falls
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| Snake River in front of the Idaho Falls Temple |
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| Idaho Falls Temple |
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| Fourth of July in Idaho Falls. Mikayla, Ashlee, Madison and Gavin |
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| John, Mikayla and Ashlee along the Snake River in Idaho Falls |
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| Idaho Falls Temple in the background along the Snake River |
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| Snake River |
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Idaho Falls Temple
Sunday morning we left Idaho Falls and drove to Mountain Home Idaho to Pam's house. Pam prepared a nice lunch and delicious homemade ice cream. We vistited with her and her family for a few hours and Carl and Pam gave us a tour of Mountain Home. I screwed up and didn't get any pictures of our visit. From Mountain Home we went to Boise. We spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night is Boise and checked out the Boise, Kuna, Meridian, Star, Eagle area. We had a little bit of extra time on Tuesday so we went and toured the state capital in Boise. Nothing like our state capital here. Very clean and quite, the area it was in was clean, no security to go through, no metal detectors, nothing. Mikayla took lots of pictures of the capital.
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We enjoyed our trip to Idaho. It doesn't get dark in Idaho until after 10pm at night so that was weird.
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| After 9pm in Idaho and still daylight |
It was nice to see green grass and trees, since everything back at home seems to be turning brown and dying because of the drought California is in right now. We didn't see any graffiti, or streets littered with homeless people, the towns were clean, the malls were bright and clean and rather empty, in comparison to our malls. Complete strangers would wave at you and say hello to you. A gentleman at the capital offered to let us park in his space since he still had time left on his parking meter. The van door accidently got left open at a mall in Idaho Falls and when we returned our car and all it's contents were still there, along with a nice note saying that they found the door open, didn't see anyone in the van, so they shut our door and wished us a happy 4th. At home our car would have most likely been gone! Totally different environment there compared to California.
Makes you wonder what makes places so different from one place to the next. The people, the culture, the local government, beliefs, social services, etc. I believe it is all of these things. Makes you also wonder how come the states that are suffering so badly, don't ever stop and take a look at what other places are doing right and implement some of those things as well. Unfortunately too many of the states in bad shape, think that what they are doing is right. We are living in a society that views right as wrong and wrong as right and everything is so twisted and turned that many have forgotten what they believe and what truly is right.
