The Modern Hotel

Let’s talk about how lovely my lodgings are, shall we?  The Modern Hotel is a renovated Travelodge  in the “up and coming” (?) Linen District.  Some of the reviews I read (after I made my reservations) criticized it for being a sort of “lipstick on a pig” place and said the walls were thin.  I found the renovations to be handily done and the only place I could hear that other people were next to me was through the bathroom wall. It was quiet, clean and in a great location.

My room, looking all mid-century modern.  The bathroom had a tile shower with a rain shower shower head.  The room was very aesthetically pleasing.
 

This courtyard was a great place to pass the time, even in the 100-degree heat.
 
The bar made top-notch cocktails and the food was good too.
 
Overall, it was a very pretty place.
 
At night, there is fire!
 

Sesqui-Shop

The city of Boise is 150 years old!  The Sesqui-Shop is downtown and has exhibits about the city’s history.  There is also a celebration on July 7 which I will miss, and am quite sad about.

This is a fabulous map of the city limits through the years.  I learned that my house only became part of the city in 1963.
 

A taxi map from the 50s doesn’t even include my childhood neighborhood.   Probably because it was still the gleam in the eye of the developer who built it.
 
Idaho Blueprint and Supply is still in existence!
 
I would be to the left of section 140.

I had a good time at the Sesqui-Shop and even bought a pin to wear on July 7. Happy 150, Boise!

Greenbelt

For those not in the know, the Boise Greenbelt is a 25 mile tree-lined (although not so much after you get out of the city) path that follows the Boise River.

My mother was the kind of mother who planned outings for us during the summer and so I have happy childhood memories of walking down the Greenbelt to find a nice place to play in the Boise River.  And the memories just keep on coming.

Here’s the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial that was built after I left town.

Before that section of land was claimed for Human Rights it used to be a dead end street with a lot of parking spaces.  I spent way too much time watching a certain boyfriend skate.  Which was boring even then, and I liked him.

I can remember after they got the new bridge built and this became a pedestrian bridge how we marveled that it had ever been big enough for two lanes of traffic.
 
The Greenbelt is heavily utilized, as evidenced by these mirrors, handy for merging.
 
First sight of the river.  It has a smell to it I had forgotten about.  After I grew up into a teenager, we started floating the river, first with parents, then on our own.  And one very hot night, sometime in high school, four of us came down in the pitch dark and went swimming.  It was an exhilarating relief.
 
Despite the heat, it’s pleasant to walk beneath the trees.
 
I had completely forgotten about these signs and was happy to see they are still here.
 
The Discovery Center placed them to scale along the Greenbelt. As you walk you get a sense of how far apart the planets are.
 
Walking back to the hotel, I learned that my current hometown band will be visiting my former hometown quite soon.
 
And I could not resist taking a picture of this green car which was revving his engine in a very familiar (and still annoying) way.
 

Three sentence movie reviews: Before Midnight

I did a good job of keeping myself in the dark about this film so everything was a revelation, which made it that much more fun to watch.  So I’m not going to tell you any details, but that this was enjoyable, if uncomfortable and I loved how real it was.  Linklater/Delpy/Hawke said on the Fresh Air interview* that they have zero ideas for a sequel, but how could they have any idea where these characters will be in another  nine years?**

Cost:  $8.00?  I was blithely spending vacation money at this point, so I didn’t pay attention.  The web site doesn’t tell me the prices either.
Where watched:  At the Flicks with Sara.

*Very good, but reveals much about the movie.  I saved it for listening to after I viewed.
**And I’ll sit back and wait patiently for them to think of something.

Before and After Before Midnight

The Flicks!  Still the same!  Still has video (and now DVD) rental!  Still has a cafe!  Still has two theaters where I saw so many very good movies! (Secret of Roan Inish, Jeffery, Kids, Dazed and Confused, Emma, the list goes on.)
 
Sara and I in front of the movie poster.  We saw the first movie in the series together (with Cindy at Cindy’s house) and it was her idea to wait and see the newest one when we were in Boise together.
 
After, Shawn met up with us and we went to the Modern Hotel Bar for some cocktails.
 

Findings on the road. Road collage

I love this space-age sink at one of the rest stops on I-84.
 
Stopping in Bend, I see that a historic building was once owned by the Woodmen of the World.
 
I first learned about them last year when Matt and I were on vacation and found one of their distinctive tree-stump gravestones in a cemetery.
 
Random photos from the road.  No looking because I was driving. I just pointed and clicked.  I can’t get enough of the high desert.  It’s so beautiful.