That's Right, Boise!

I had the opportunity to take a training course for work in one of four locations; Seattle, WA, Bellevue, WA, Portland, OR, or Boise, ID.  Seeing the opportunity to add one more state to my list, I naturally chose Boise.  After about 5 minutes of driving away from the airport, I was ready to write Boise (and the rest of Idaho) off as the most irrelevant place in the nation.  But a couple of things changed my mind.  First, the people.  I was humbled by how much of an effort the locals made to reach out to me.  Second was the handful of sites I did end up seeing in the town.

My first stop was Boise State University.  They have a great football team and their homefield is know for its blue artificial turf.  I had to see the ‘Smurf Turf’.  Unfortunately, the team didn’t play a home game until I left the city and no tours were available during the days I was in town.  As I walked around the stadium, I couldn’t help but notice the low fences and lack of security.  It was all I could do to not try to sneak in.  Luckily, there were a couple of places outside where you could still get a good view.

The most spectacular site in Boise is definitely the state capital.  It is an imposing building from the outside, but the recently renovated interior is elegant.  The first floor is completely composed of marble with marble columns extending to the top floor.  While walking around, I ran across a security guard that was describing some of the recent renovations to a couple of locals.  When I mentioned that this was my first visit to Boise, they invited me to the discussion and the guard gave us all an impromptu 30 minute tour of the building’s court rooms, congressional halls, and statues.  Along the way he peppered in factoids and historical notes about the capital.  It was very impressive.

To get a better sense of what the town has to offer, I decide to participate in a 4k scavenger hunt put on by a local running club.  Once again, when a few of the contestants realized I was from out of town, they invited me to join their team.  Along the way, they recommended local restaurants (Red Feather was their favorite because the owner does a lot of work to support the community), described the Basque heritage of Boise, and recommended a couple of other local attractions.  It was a lot more interesting than the playlist on my ipod that I was planning to listen to.

Ok, so New York it is not, but what the town lacks in size, it more than makes up for in hospitality.

Pics:  http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/Boise