The Fair

This past Saturday Bryan and I went with our friends Lee and Suzanne to the fair here in Boise. Someone asked us the previous week if we were going and we hadn't even heard about it. I didn't go to fairs very often as a kid so I kind of assumed we wouldn't but, to my surprise, Bryan really wanted to. He said it was a tradition in his family to go to the fair each year so we went. It sounds like a nice tradition to have. I really shouldn't have been surprised because a fair, rather than a carnival that just passes from town to town, is really a community oriented event. Bryan loves to feel like part of a community and give back to it, if he can. I was excited to ride a ferris wheel with him for the first time but he was more excited about seeing the animals and looking at all that was contributed from people in our community.

Here are a few pictures I snapped, mostly of animals.

I took these two for our niece Ava, who very much loves lambies and has already decided to be one for Halloween!

These ducks were simply massive!

Bryan got to brush this cow. I pet a calf who licked my arm! It was kind of sweet, actually.

What a tender little horse moment.

Piglets!

From the top of the ferris wheel! I didn't think it was scary and didn't realize how many people do think so. It has been so smoky here in Boise for the past little bit. We desperately need some rain and have been having some fires.

Of course you have to eat funnel cake when you go to a fair!

Then we caught a twenty minute illusionist show before heading home. He was actually pretty good!

I'm glad we went-- I'm sure it will become a yearly tradition for our family!

Camping

My parents didn't take us four girls camping very much when I was growing up. We went maybe twice, but I can really only remember one time distinctly. I did go to girl's camp for a week each summer from ages twelve to seventeen but, call me crazy, I really like air conditioning, showers, electricity, soft sheets and not getting eaten by bugs. I'm what you might call 'indoorsy'. Regardless of all this, I was pretty excited when Bryan mentioned to me that he wanted to go camping. It would be our first camping trip together!

We decided to do a short one night camp trip this past weekend and spent the week excitedly preparing. Bryan researched tons and tons of campgrounds to fit our needs. We went out nearly every night getting things we would need and making lists. The plan was to pick Bryan up early from work on Friday and go to the DMV (we needed to get Idaho licenses) and then pack everything up and drive to a campground near Lake Cascade. Then, we'd set up our tent and Bryan would build a fire using his awesome boy scout skills and we would roast hotdogs over the fire for dinner and then have smores and hot chocolate. Then, we were going to relax and just hang out until around midnight, where we would find somewhere nice and open to watch the Perseid meteor shower. Then we'd go to bed and when we woke up the next morning we were going to fry some bacon and eggs before breaking down camp and heading back to Boise. That's how it was supposed to happen.

Let me tell you what really went down. Everything at the DMV went fine and we came home, packed up and started out. To get to Lake Cascade we needed to go down highway 55. We'd been going on this road for a little while when we saw a sign saying the road was closed in 25 miles. We weren't ready to turn around yet and the drive was really beautiful. I thought that surely there would be a way around it and as long as we had our GPS it could easily find us an alternate route if it came to it. The closer we got the more information we received. It turned out that the highway was closed due to a fire-- we started getting a little more nervous but hoped the signs were old. We followed a camper driving that way hoping they would be able to get through. Well, we reached the road block and there was no way around. It had been an electrical fire and the man there said the best alternate route would add three hours to our trip!

We decided to turn around and I tried to find a new campsite on my phone even though the internet kept going out due to our more rural location. The other parks we'd been looking at were a couple of hours southwest of Boise whereas we'd already gone an hour northeast. We were also worried that, since it was getting later, availability would be a problem. We had thought most camping was first come first serve but now plan to make reservations in the future. I didn't want to give up and go home because of all the planning and preparation that we'd put into this. Finally, I found a campsite in Caldwell that still had some tent sites available and it was only about 25 miles from Boise so we decided to go there.

When we arrived we realized this wasn't really a great campground. It was right next to the highway so we heard cars passing the whole time we were there. It wasn't really in a forest either and there were a ton of RVs and we realized that a lot of the people actually just lived there. There wasn't really a forest around and not really any privacy between campsites. We'd been planning on making a fire but the person at the desk told us they were wary of fires right now and encouraged us to use the charcoal grill. So, with all these disappointments we settled down anyway and set up camp.

We had to go into "town" and buy charcoal. Because we'd had a plan for it with the fire but not the grill, we had to scrap the plan about the hot chocolate, bacon and eggs. We'd brought a skillet and small pot and Bryan was going to making a little stove of sorts but we realized that the grill wouldn't supply sufficient heat to these things. So, we just decided to go home earlier in the morning and make those things there.

Here we are, camping. Note all the RVs in the background and, if you can tell, limited privacy.

We played some card games on Bryan's Thai rice mat.

We had to reteach ourselves how to play golf.

We had meant to try and leave our phones alone for the most part but gave in just a little.

Around 10:30 I was really tired and starting to get a headache so I decided to shut my eyes just for a little bit. We didn't end up going out to watch the meteor shower. There were people outside randomly fishing in the dark so I felt awkward just going out there. We opened a "window" on our tent and looked out that way. I think I might have seen a shooting star earlier in the evening and Bryan says he thinks he saw one too.

We got up, packed up, headed home and ate delicious eggs and bacon. We decided that, even though it wasn't the greatest place and that the trip wasn't all we'd wanted it to be, it was at least practice. Next time we'll know better and plan better and, hopefully, it will go a lot smoother.

And now, in case you didn't click the link above, I've provided this hilarious clip for your viewing pleasure: