Touristy Boise, Scenic Boise and a Recipe

We're nearing the end of our stay in Boise. It's been the perfect place to start our life on wheels: a friendly, well situated RV park, great neighborhoods to explore via the awesome Greenbelt Trail system, every kind of shopping we could possibly want to outfit the rig, plus some beautiful scenic byways for exploration of the surrounding area.

The only thing that has marred our stay here has been the smoke from nearby forest fires. We are in the Treasure Valley and it has held smoke from various fires across Idaho for the past couple of months. Some days, the temperature was 10 degrees cooler than forecasted due to the smoke keeping the sun from beating down upon us. We happen to prefer cooler temps, but the smoke was not the best trade-off! On a couple of days we could actually smell smoke, but usually it was just a heavy haze across the valley.

Since my last post we've seen a variety  of interesting sites...

We did our own personal walking tour of downtown which included a visit to the state capitol building. Originally started in 1905, the building underwent major restoration for 2.5 years and reopened in 2010. It is full of marble from all over the world. A beautiful building, with a good display of state historical information.

Interior of the Capitol dome

Floor of the Capitol dome room

Capitol of Idaho

We visited Zoo Boise on Thursday, discount day. It's a small zoo but it had some pretty good displays including an excellent bat enclosure and the red panda's were adorable.

We walked a good portion of the North End neighborhood, which boasts some lovely old houses on tree-lined streets.

A cute house in Boise's North End

We've been eating healthier than ever in our new home. One of our lighter meals turned out to be quite tasty; a Quinoa-Chickpea Pilaf with grilled veggies. The combination of smoked paprika, fresh garlic and citrus juices in the pilaf made for a delicious vegan meal!

Quinoa-Chickpea Pilaf

We took a drive that was a combination of three Scenic Byways: the Payette River, Ponderosa Pine and Wildlife Canyon. At about 160 miles, it was a long days outing, taking us up into the mountains through canyons cut by several rivers. Since we drove on Saturday, we happened upon the local farmers market in the cute little town of Crouch, and we were able to check out a few state campgrounds along the way.

We've been told Idaho is full of natural geothermal hot springs. We checked out the one at Pine Flats campground during our Scenic Byway tour. It was a perfect setting for a soak and a picnic on the South fork of the Payette River.

Soaking in Pine Flats Hot Springs

South fork of the Payette River at Pine Flats Hot Springs

During this drive we saw little pockets of the leaves turning; fall is here!

We also took a dirt Nordic ski trail and tried out 4-wheel drive on our truck; it worked like a champ!

Early next week we'll head a little South and East, closer to the mountains for a little more nature and a little less big city.