My husband K got up at 6:30 and took a shower. He pointed out that his body thought it was 8:30. So, he'd actually slept in.
When I got up at 7:29, I noticed the efficiency of the chair on K's side of the room. It had a table attached, making it a desk. I also saw more of the design aesthetic of the room.
When we got downstairs for breakfast at 8:20, we found a decent spread. I was pleasantly surprised by a kiwi and strawberry drink that I enjoyed in addition to my usual orange juice. Some oatmeal, scrambled eggs, and a banana would serve to fortify me until whenever we would find lunch.
We found a play area in the lobby area, which would be helpful to families, since the room is so small. There was also a helpful info board.
We checked out at 9:32 and headed for Boise with the odometer reading 24039 and K driving.
The hotel location had indeed been a good choice. We were at the Idaho State Capitol at 9:52. We put $1 on the parking meter, figuring it would give us enough time. As we tried to figure out how to get inside, we admired the landscaping.
Like so many state capitols and even the US Capitol, there was a dome in the center with legislative wings on either side. When we did get inside, we found the visitor's desk and got my state capitol book stamped and picked up a guidebook for a self-tour.
The booklet called this the "Capitol of Light", because the architect, John Tourtellotte, designed the building in 1905 with light shafts, skylights, and highly reflective marble to direct natural light to the interior. I have to say that the marble hallways were almost blindingly bright.
The tour actually starts on the first floor, which was one floor up. I found the elevator to be interesting, because the speaker holes for an emergency were really rather close to the floor.
Upstairs, we first checked out the rotunda first. There was a lovely compass rose on the floor. I have no idea why they chose to put this. A lot of other capitols seem to have the state seal or a map there. Anyway, looking up into the dome was impressive. This inner dome was made of wood and plaster. The one outside is steel and concrete with terracotta tiles on top. According to the guidebook, we were supposed to see some significant stars, but we couldn't find them. We thought that maybe they were on the giant flag hanging in the center, which is the line in the center of the photo. Nope, just a normal flag.
The next stop was the Treasurer's Office.The book said that the original safe made in 1905 of manganese steel was still in use. However, the safe was open inside the vault. So, I don't know how it is still in use.
There was an old-school phone booth complete with phone books not far from the beautiful antique elevator. That was a private elevator that used to transport the judges to the supreme court chamber that used to be on the third floor.
We decided to go up to the third floor for some reason. From there, we could see a spiral staircase that went from the inner dome to the outer one, as far as we could tell. And, looking down, we saw the nice marble on the second floor.
We were very disappointed to find that the House and Senate Chambers were locked tight. They aren't in session. Why would they do that? I know some other capitols do, but I don't understand it there, either.
We found a long public lounge that was marked as overflow for the galleries. It didn't look like it would hold many people comfortably.
Another sign of how old the building is, was the mail drop that we found up here.
We couldn't help but notice that the marble of the staircase matched that in the rest of the building.
As noted, the supreme court of Idaho used to meet here. Now, it is where the twenty members of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee of the House and Senate meet. They get a pretty large room for that. The guidebook noted that there was still judicial symbolism in the room. The lights on the side walls are the "torches of justice". Do you think people coming to this room when it was a court knew that? I doubt it.
I'd noticed a distinct lack of art in this building. There were no paintings or statues to tell the history of the state. We went up to the fourth floor, where there was a Statuary Hall. I have no recollection or pictures of what was in there, nor can I find any on the internet. They did have two statues on either side of it. Neither told you anything about Idaho. One was George Washington by Charles Ostner, an Austrian immigrant, and made in 1869. The other was a replica of Winged Victory of Samothrace. This one was a gift from the Merci Train from France in 1949. The boxcars delivered gifts to the capital city of each state to thank Americans for aid sent after World War II.
From Statuary Hall, we did look out to Jefferson Street. We had a good view of the ornate capital right outside the window. We could also see the Steunenberg Memorial across the street. It saluted their governor who served from 1897 to 1900 and was assassinated in 1905. Nothing in the guidebook indicated why an out-of-office governor deserved this honor.
Our next stop was the second floor. Here, we found the modern version of the state seal and the flag. We noticed that there were still some old-fashioned doorknobs around. The Governor's suite was down here and the closed door and fancy front of it did not make it look inviting.
Other uninteresting executive branch offices were on this floor, but what was here of interest was another look up into the dome. We finally realized that the guidebook had been trying to say that the stars of interest were in the oculus and the top of the inner dome. Using zoom on the phone's camera, I was able to get a clear view of it. There were thirteen large stars to represent the thirteen original colonies, as well as thirty smaller ones for a total of 43- Idaho was the 43rd state.
Quite happy to have solved that mystery, we went down to the Garden Level. Here we looked at the historical displays arranged in a circle in the center. Here are some of the most interesting ones:
I was reminded that Albertson's was founded in Boise. Our Albertson's closed years ago, along with all the others in Florida.
In the center, we found the original state seal, which had indeed been in black and white.
Back outside, we looked at the front of the building with its copy of the Liberty Bell. We also appreciated more of the landscaping, including some spiraea and roses. The photo with the white rectangle in the plants actually shows one of the skylights that are over the underground wings of the building.
As we headed back to the car, we looked back and could see a glass dome over the wing nearest us and figured there was one on the other side. Another effort to bring natural light in. I suppose that in winter that would be pretty important.
We left our parking spot at 11:24 and drove just four minutes to Trader Joe's (24049). Our younger daughter likes their bags. Unfortunately, the store was too new to have Idaho bags. I did see a neat painting on a building not too far away.
It was 11:31, when we left the Trader Joe's lot. It was not hard to find our next destination, but it was hard to find parking, because it was in a park that also had a zoo. But, at 11:41, we got lucky and parked in Julia Park (24051) and walked over to the Idaho State Museum. Two senior tickets cost us $16.
Here we got a lot more about the history, geography, business, etc. of Idaho than we had at the capitol. We started with the geography of Idaho. I have to admit that I don't think of mountains when I think of that state.
They had a really cool exhibit of rocks from the state. I was particularly taken with how the cellular quartz looked. As for malachite, I always like that.
In discussing the first peoples of the area, they had a rock with ancient petroglyphs and plaques telling you about the tribes. There was a statue of Sacajawea that used to stand in front of the building, because she was from near present-day Salmon.
There was a discussion of missionaries in Idaho, and, of course, I was most interested in the Catholic ones.
Since they'd gotten into religion, they also touched on politics. They were pretty proud of getting rid of the Aryan Nation, but there was no discussion of the fact that the woman who was assaulted was Indigenous or that her 18-year-old son was with her and was also attacked. There was also nothing about the growing number of far right adherents, anti-LGBTQ protests and bills, white nationalists moving back, etc. Perhaps it is too recent or, perhaps, they are worried about being challenged and threatened as so many libraries have been of late.
There were exhibits on industry in the state. I didn't realize that Sun Valley was here, but I did know about potatoes, of course, especially since years ago, we visited the Idaho Potato Expo, which is now the Idaho Potato Museum, in Blackfoot.
There were exhibits on the people who traveled to or through Idaho in pioneering times. There was also information on the Basque people who'd moved here. We found them interesting, because we'd been in their homeland Bilbao, Spain several years ago and even attended a Mass said in Basque.
There was a kids' area called Boomtown, where they could explore buildings and occupations. There was even a gem mine for them to blow up.
There was a display on outlaws that had hung out here. I was surprised to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid among them. I was reminded that Newman and Redford were umpteen degrees more attractive than them.
Before we left, we stopped in the gift shop, of course. We also asked for a recommendation for lunch from a docent. She told us about the Basque area of restaurants a few blocks a way and we knew we just had to go.
When we left the building, we saw this lovely Japanese tree lilac and the nicely painted utility box.
We were on our way at 12:55. We saw a lovely mural on a wall in the Basque area of town, as well as the old Egyptian Theater.
We'd had no trouble finding the Basque area, but we circled it looking for parking. Finally, at 1:08 (24052), I pulled into a spot on Main. We put $3.25 on the meter and went around the corner to the next street south and found Basque flags and The Basque Market at 1:15.
We didn't want to eat outside, even though we are still careful indoors. Inside, we found a counter and quite a few tables crammed in between it and a wall of wine and grocery products. We were told to sit and a menu was brought to us. We chose several items- with their menu descriptions included: Jamon Serrano and Manchengo Cheese (dry-cured Spanish ham sliced paper-thin with creamy Manchengo cheese and a fruity Spanish olive oil sandwich) for $6.99, Green Olive Tapenade and Manchengo Cheese (briny chopped green olives mixed with olive oil and garlic and paired with goat's milk cheese sandwich) for $6.99, and a Tortilla Espeziala (a potato and cheese omelet topped with cheese and a second seasonal omelet) for $7.99. We gave our order at the counter and it was delivered to the table. Since I was going to drive, I drank a Diet Coke, while K had a Grand Teton Pilsner. The food was excellent and reminded us of our trip to Spain. We decided we had to have dessert and chose Arroz con Leche (Amuma's creamy rice pudding with a hint of cinnamon) for $4.99. It did not disappoint.
To get to the restroom, we walked through the kitchen and out a door that opened into the restaurant next door. Really unusual.
When we headed back to the car, we noticed the Basque Center down the street.
At the corner of 6th and Main,we noticed an obviously old building called Pioneer Tent Building. It dates to 1910 and is part of what is now considered Old Boise. The style is Romanesque Revival.
At 2:15, we were on our way and heading off on what we knew was a long drive. At 3:05 (24106), we stopped at the Welcome Center in Oregon near Ontario, Oregon.
K took over driving, when we left at 3:21. We thought it best to find a gas station, as we didn't know what was ahead of us. Just 5 minutes later, he pulled into a Chevron (24108), where gas was $5.299 a gallon. The car took 6.104 gallons and we were on our way again at 3:33.
It wasn't long before we were well off the interstate and on US20/26 driving along fields growing unknown crops. I really wish farmers would put up signs.
We left US 26 and stayed on US20, the Central Oregon Highway. The road did a lot of curving as it basically followed along the Malheur River. At times, the hills around us looked like something out of the Badlands, just without the great colors.
We came out of a long winding gorge at 3:54 to find that we'd switched to Pacific Time. Evidently, it happened sometime after we left Malheur County. Our phones switched us from 4:54 to 3:54 about 10 minutes before we finally saw a sign that we were in the Pacific Time Zone.
At 4:24, K pulled over to let me take over driving. We noticed that the other side of the road had snow fences along it. We were east of Burns, a town I wanted to avoid as much as possible. We did not like some of the political things that had happened there in the not so distant past.
At Riley, I turned south onto US395. At 6:03, we saw a tell-tale cone in the distance. Those always mean volcanoes, usually dormant. We were getting closer to the volcanic features we'd be exploring the next two days.
Just a few minutes later, we caught sight of Alkali Lake and shortly after that Lake Abert. The latter is definitely shrinking. It was actually mostly dry in many places.
After winding along Lake Abert's "shoreline", we rode through valleys until at 7:07 (24376), we pulled into the Best Western in Lakeview, Oregon, which is pretty much the last town north of California. They were hosting wedding guests, but I'd reserved our room-147- quite a while ago. It wasn't a new hotel, but it was clean and good for a night.
Dining choices were a little sparse, but at 7:30, we headed out to walk to Jerry's Diner. As we left the room, I noticed beautiful roses.
Along the way, we saw a very unusual Safeway grocery store sign and the nice painting on the town's water tank.
Jerry's, sad to say, was not a great restaurant. K ordered blueberry pancakes($7.950, because his stomach was iffy. They were fine. I ordered a Southwestern club with a salad ($12.95). The sandwich was messy and had just one slice of lunch meat on it. The salad came with ranch dressing, which was an odd choice. Service was slow, too. You'd think they would have been more prompt, since they supposedly close at 8. I did not give them a great review on TripAdvisor, needless to say.
When we headed back at 8:35, at least we were treated to a lovely sunset. It looked great on the clouds to the east, too.
We discovered a white building with windows on two sides that was a museum with exhibits about the MC Ranch. It was fascinating.
The wind came up and we found ourselves getting cold. So, we hustled back to the room arriving at 8:45. It was chilly. So, we actually turned on the heat.
My phone said that I'd walked 6,515 steps for a total of 2.1 miles. Not bad for a day with so much driving.
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