Boise: Idaho State Penitentiary, Freak Alley, Buffalo Wild Wings and The Stil Ice Cream Parlor

I slept bad for some reason but I had the whole bed to myself because Ben stayed up with Josh until about 6 a.m.  They both slept on the couch.  I got up around 9:30 and ate some cereal.  Sam came down and she had some food as well.  We hung out in the kitchen talking about random stuff and waited for them to wake up.  They finally did around 11:15.  Ben and Josh ate some cereal and we all got ready to get into Boise for the day.

We left around noonish in Josh's car.  We had to hit up the Dutch Bros before we got any further.  I don't drink coffee so I really didn't care.  I just wanted to go do something since we were stuck at the house all day yesterday.  I was ready for an adventure.  We got onto I-84 and headed east to Boise.

Since we came in the winter time there was really not a lot of outdoors stuff to do unless you headed north towards McCall and went skiing or snowboarding for the weekend.  Instead, we had to figure out things to do since most hikes were closed due to trail conditions and other activities were closed for the season.  I asked them what there was to do around here.  They said we could go to the Idaho State Penitentiary and check the place out.

We drove up to the prison.  We parked in the lot and walked across the street to the entrance.  We paid our $6 in admission and headed inside.  They were either self tours or you can join one that was already going.  We joined one that was going and just followed them from building to building.  We visited the dining hall, which the inmates lit on fire in the 1970s, we looked at what was left of it.

We toured several of the cell blocks, death row and solidary confinement and the gallows.  Many people were imprisoned over the active years of the prison and many stories of infamous inmates were also shared with us.

Afterwards, we went into the museum where we saw a lot of guns, war exhibits and swords.  We were probably there for about two hours.

Ben and I walked over to the woman's ward because it was a virtual cache.  Boise History Series #1 (GCA898) was pretty easy.  All we had to do was find the sign within the ward that described two years.  We had to find out what happened in those years.  Of course we got ourselves a picture to prove we were there.

We met back up with Josh and Sam and walked back to the car.

We drove back into downtown and found a parking lot to stash the car into.  We paid and walked the few blocks to Freak Alley.  Freak Alley is a notable venue for public art in the form of murals and graffiti located and adjacent to a service alley in downtown Boise, Idaho.  The largest outdoor gallery in the Northwest, and a Boise institution since 2002, it began with a painting of a single alley doorway and now extends from the alley itself to a gravel parking lot.  Extant murals painted over and replaced by new murals (or incorporated into them) every two years, collectively is the work of more than 200 artists.  It has featured prominently in a survey of ten mid-sized American cities with thriving artistic communities in which Boise ranked second.  The site, along with the back of the Union Block, received $500,000 renovation in 2018 from the city.

We spent about a half hour looking at all of the graffiti and murals plastered all over this alley way.  There were some really creative ones and some I was not really a fan of.

Freak Alley, More Than Just a Virtual Reward (GC7B9G5) was published last summer by Erin (Bluecanoe), a cacher who lives near the Shelton area.  To prove we were there, we had to find a mural we liked and get a picture of us with it.  I chose the sloth and Ben chose the human heart.

We wandered around a little bit before asking Josh and Sam if they were ready to eat.  We saw there was a Buffalo Wild Wings a few blocks away and just walked there.  It was getting colder.

It wasn't very busy so we were served pretty quickly.  We got drinks, perused the menu and made our orders.  Ben and I still had some gift cards from my birthday and Christmas so we used those to pay for our meals.  Ben and I ordered the usual.  We enjoyed Josh and Sam's company while we ate our delicious food.  I can now add another Buffalo Wild Wings to the list of ones I've been to.  This marks two for Idaho.

We paid and Sam wanted to take us around the corner to go get ice cream from this shop.  This wasn't just a normal ice cream shop but one who infuses alcohol into their ice cream.  It was called The Stil (the sweetest things in life) and I have never been to a place like it before.  I was so full from food I almost didn't want any ice cream.  I decided on the brownie batter without the alcohol.  The ice cream was pretty good.

We walked back to the car and headed back to Nampa.

On the way back, I checked to see if there were any geocaches near Josh and Sam's place.  There was a traditional down the road within walking distance from them.  We parked and Ben and I decided to go grab it before it got dark.  We needed to walk off all the food and dessert we just stuffed ourselves with anyway.  Hands of Hope Northwest (GC5GAAK) is an organization that accepts medical supplies and equipment from donors in the valley and prepares them for shipment to third world countries.  Luckily, we were the only ones around and we didn't have to see anyone while we grabbed this bison tube.

Ben wrote our names on it and we put it back for the next cacher.  We walked back to Josh and Sam's.

The rest of the evening we hung out watched Dale and Tucker vs. Evil and some episodes of Superstore.  I also worked on my blog as we sat there.  I thought it was some great downtime to catch up on the darn thing.  A little while later we got cleaned up and headed to bed.  This hour time difference sucked.

Next Adventure:  Boise Again:  Exploring Downtown, Geocaching and Pizza for Dinner

Game Night: Betrayal at House on the Hill, Jackbox and Taco Soup

We got up and ate some of the cereal we bought yesterday.  I had a banana as well.  The barber couldn't come to the house so Ben and Josh drove out to him.  That was Josh's birthday gift for Ben, having a professional shave and haircut.

Sam meandered her way into the kitchen and made some food and coffee for herself.  We spent the next hour visiting and catching up.  She talked about moving from Massachusetts to Idaho, finding a job in Idaho, being around her family again and just able to just stay put for awhile and start their life post military.  I told her about what we've been up to besides what she's seen on Facebook about Ben and my life.  I told her about my job, the job opportunities Ben has in front of him, he just has to pursue them, the fun trips we've been on, my upcoming one to Ecuador this March and other miscellaneous things that came up.  It was just nice to catch up and chat with her.

She still needed a few more things at the store for tonight's taco soup so she asked me if I wanted to go with her to the store.  I said sure why not.  I'll go so she has some company.  She knew what she had to get so we really weren't in the store for very long.  We got back and I helped her bring the stuff into the kitchen.  She finished adding ingredients into the crock pot for the taco soup.

Ben and Josh got back about a half hour after we did.  Ben said it was so nice having a shave and a haircut from a professional barber.  We chilled out for a bit before their friends started to trickle in.  It was weird meeting so many new people all at once.  They were definitely the nerd gamer types.  Some of them worked with Josh at Best Buy.  All together about 10 people showed up.

We ate the taco soup with tortilla chips and the other assortment of stuff people brought over.  I ended up eating an apple because I needed something somewhat healthy for dinner.

We got all set up to play a board game called Betrayal at House on Haunted Hill.  I was one of the first groups of people to play so we took some time to try and figure it out.  There were a lot of scenarios.

In a nutshell, players all begin as allies exploring a haunted house filled with dangers, traps, items and omens.  As players journey into new parts of the mansion, room tiles are chosen at random and placed on the game board; this means the game is different each session.  Eventually the "haunt" begins, with the nature and plot of this session's ghost story revealed; one player usually "betrays" the others and take the side of the ghost, monsters or other enemies, while the remaining players collaborate to defeat them.

Each session took a while and throughout the evening they played it three more times.  The second time I watched instead of play.

We shifted gears for a while and played Jackbox TV.  It is a series of party games you can play through many platforms through your TV.  All the players need is their phones and their charging cables.  You play through your phone.  The games were interesting and there was a lot of laughing.  We played several rounds throughout the evening.

While they played another session of House on Haunted Hill and some sort of Mario video game on the TV while I worked on my blog until about 12:30.  I told Ben I was heading to bed.  I got ready and fell asleep.  I didn't sleep very well and they went to bed around 6 a.m.  Ben and Josh ended up sleeping on the couch.

Next Adventure:  Boise:  Idaho State Penitentiary, Freak Alley, Buffalo Wild Wings and The Stil Ice Cream Parlor

Dave and Buster's, Grocery Shopping, Chimichangas and Deadpool

We got up pretty late but then again we are on vacation so it really didn't matter, plus we were an hour a head of our time.  Sam had to go to work so we wouldn't see her until later.  Josh and Ben were suppose to see Josh's barber who did house calls but he had an emergency so it was scheduled for the next day instead.

Josh told us what kinds of stuff he had to make breakfast with.  We ended up having some really thick bacon and fried eggs.  I had some milk while they had coffee.  It hit the spot.  Josh asked if we wanted to go to Dave and Buster's for a while today and we said sure.  The last time we went to a Dave and Buster's was Ben's birthday last year in Auburn.  I, for one, am not really a video game player per say but I did find plenty of stuff to do while I was there.  This time was the same.

We got ready and headed to the mall in Boise.  The weather was weird during the drive there.  It tried to snow and then it hailed.  It stayed clear and cold most of the day.  We parked the car and headed in.  We each paid for a few hours worth of points and had at it.  I did a lot of the skill games like throwing a football, shooting free throws and other games like that.  Ben and Josh did some of the more hard core games like Star Wars and first person shooter games.

I used up all my points and found out how many tickets were on my card after I was done.  I went into their prize store and found a bright orange narwhal.  I still had to come up with a name for him.

I went over to the bar to watch some TV and to get a drink or two while I waited for Ben and Josh to be done.  I finished two Pepsi's and the bar tender told me they were on the house.  How nice of them!  I told Ben I was going to go out and try to find some of the caches in the area and he said okay.  They were just about done with their points.

The one that was nearby was either not there or really hard to find.  I spent at least a half hour looking for it.  Then I started walking the quarter of a mile to the next cache on the other side of the parking lot.  I had to turn around before getting there because Ben and Josh were done and were waiting on me.  We were at Dave and Buster's until about 4ish.

I asked Josh if we could find a cache on the other side of the road and he said sure.  It was a lamp skirt in front of the Ross store in the parking lot.  We had to be somewhat sneaky.  I had Josh and Ben look for it as I looked on.  Black Cache (GC3894T) was Ben's first Idaho cache and a new county in Idaho for both of us!

On the way back to Nampa we stopped at the Winco just off I-84 on the way home.  We grabbed some snacks, soda, beer and some breakfast foods such as bananas and cereal since we were going to be there a few days.  Josh picked up a few things for the weekend since people were coming over tomorrow for game day/night.

We got home and unloaded the groceries.  We watched some stuff on TV specifically Fail Army videos while I got on my computer and updated some of my blogs since we had some down time.  Sam came home and we all decided to do chimichangas and Deadpool for dinner.  Sam called in the order to a place called Jalapenos, since she said that they are the best Mexican food in the area.  I honestly didn't care where it came from as long as it was delicious.

Our food came about a half hour later and we ate our food and watched our annual Deadpool "Valentine's Day" movie (even though it was a day late.)  We watched a little bit of a TV show called Grace and Frankie and ten a zombie movie called Bloodlines and then Sam decided she was tired and went to bed.  Josh, Ben and I watched one more movie called Swiss Army Man and it was bizarre.  I can't believe we watched it.  We still have no idea what happened.

We stayed up until about midnight and then got ready for bed and fell asleep.

Next Adventure:  Game Night:  Betrayal at House on the Hill, Jackbox and Taco Soup