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Lots of this going on today. Shawn and I stood and watched it from the “Frendship Bridge,” which stretches from BSU to Ann Morrison Park. Photo by Fokket (Search on Flickr)

My partner and I just moved from Jerome, a pretty small town in Idaho, to Boise, the largest city in Idaho.  The reason for this move is that I will be attending Boise State University.

Until now it’s been all about unpacking and getting numbers changed.  So today we decided to go out and check out the town.  We moved to a house which is only a few blocks from BSU, and BSU is right near the Green Belt (Boise’s walking/biking path along the Boise River).  So we’ve been trying to hit the Green Belt and walk every day since we’ve been here.

Today was First Thursday, a Boise celebration that takes place in the evening of the first Thursday of ever month.  I was reading about all the things that were going on and Shawn and I decided to walk to the Green Belt and visit the Boise Zoo.  There was supposed to be a little evening zoo stroll called “Maggie Moo’s Ice Cream Zoofari,” which sounded kind of cool.  We got there and discovered that it was $4/person to get in and another $3/person to have ice cream.  That seemed kind of spendy, so we walked to the art museum and saw that that was $5/person to get in.  Too spendy again.  But we did discover a free bus.  So we took it and it dropped us off in the downtown district of boise. 

Boise is a wine town.  Every grocery store has a humungous section dedicated to wine.  Downtown isn’t any different.  There are wine cafes, restaurants and bars every 30 feet with people drinking and smoking.

Shawn and I wandered around, looking for a restaurant that didn’t look too alcoholy.  We ran into my Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Bennick.  That was cool.  She said that she hadn’t changed much but that I’d changed a great deal in the last 30 years.  Not surprising.

We went to the Emerald Club, a local gay bar with which I have many, many years of acquaintance.  We were trying to figure out what to order when the bartender noticed that Shawn’s ID was expired and we were politely tossed out on our ears.

So we wandered again. Coming to rest at a place called Proto’s Pizzaria Napoletana.  It wasn’t the kind of pizza Shawn was used to in Jerome. So we ordered just a regular pepperoni and cheese.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The food was not too spendy at $9 for a medium pizza.  I ordered a root beer and Shawn ordered a Mr. Pibb.  His came with free refills and mine, though delicious, was a one-shot deal.  The mozzarella was really fresh and the sauce was very tasty.  It got a glowing review from both of us. 

After that we had Maggie Moo’s, which is a Cold Stone ice cream place just down the street.  I wasn’t too impressed.  They didn’t ask us if we wanted cones or anything in our ice cream.  Shawn had the mint, which was an unnaturally bright color and I had the cake batter, which is my fave.  I did wind up asking them to put Nilla Wafers and Butterfingers in it.  But we still didn’t get offered a cone.  We both regretted the ice cream later.

We walked home overall we probably walked about 6 miles or so.  Good exercise ruined by unfortunate ice cream experience. :) 

Tomorrow I’m going back to Atkins.  No more ice cream for me.