Kirsten's musings...

Winter in Boise

Sometime earlier this fall my friend Michelle told me that she had just gotten a notification that Gary Allan was coming back to Boise in early December along with the Eli Young Band and Jack Ingram, and that we should think about going.  Obviously I'm always up for a Gary Allan concert, and was interested in seeing the Eli Young Band as well, so I was leaning toward making the trip.

Sometime in October I got an e-mail for the same concert, stating that there was a pre-sale ticket event.  Just for fun I logged into the ticket sales site to see what was available.  It popped up with two seats in the perfect spot - directly across from the stage a few rows up.  Plus they were half-price!  I had to buy them.

Later that month I was getting tickets for our trip to California to visit family for Thanksgiving and I thought I'd just check on flights to Boise to see how much they were.  They were $50-$60 each way, there's no way I could pass that up, so I booked a flight.  I actually meant to just reserve them, since I hadn't asked for the day off, but I clicked the wrong button.  Oops. Fortunately my boss did give me the day off, so everything was set.

As the weekend got closer Michelle told me of plans on her end.  She had to do a training session on her bike Saturday morning and I was being encouraged to come as well by her trainer.  Since I'm a team player (and because I wanted to keep Douglas on my side) I packed my cycling gear.  She also was going to have tickets to the BSU football game Saturday afternoon, and thought we could go snowshoeing Sunday morning.  Much harder to pack for a winter trip than it is for a summer trip.  Plus my hiking boots took up so much space in my bag that I had to wear them on the plane.  Such fun getting through airport security with boots on.

Unfortunately not all of the plans worked as expected.  We got a late start Saturday morning, and in all of the excitement of getting clothes ready for the football game I forgot my cycling shoes.  All dressed up with no way to cycle.  I did what I could in my stocking feet, which included some time on a rowing machine while Michelle rode.  At least I got some cardio and weights in.  The football game was fun, although once BSU got on track it was a little lopsided.  New Mexico State only scored because of a strange turnover by the second string offense.

There wasn't enough snow on any of the nearby peaks so snowshoeing was out as well.  We decided to run some errands which included finding snow boots for her dog.  Always amusing watching a dog get used to having boots on his paws, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly.  We also swung by Home Depot to get a Christmas tree.  Didn't have time to decorate it, but at least it's at the house ready to go.

Finally it was time for the concert.  Woohoo!  We bundled up and headed back to the BSU campus (the concert was in the basketball team's arena) and made our way to our seats.  At least we thought they were our seats - turned out we were off by a row.  After some rearranging by several parties we settled in to enjoy the show.  The Eli Young Band did a great set, I'm looking forward to more music from them.  Jack Ingram did a great job as well, although he was a bit of a talker.  It was the last show of this leg of the tour, so it wasn't surprising that there were some practical jokes.  Jack has a song called "Barefoot and Crazy" so he takes off his boots when he sings the song, to get in the mood.  Someone from Gary's crew took one of his boots and put shaving cream inside, so when Jack put it back on he got quite a surprise.  :)

Gary was in great spirits when he came out, laughing and running around the stage, more than he usually does.  He's not a huge talker during his shows, but he did tell some stories, which was fun to hear.  One of his concerts this summer in Canada was rudely interrupted by a hurricane that destroyed all of his equipment.  Fortunately other artists and his sponsors provided him with some loaner equipment until he could get everything back in order.

I'm pretty sure he played longer than he originally planned to, although he didn't quite play all night long like he kept promising.  When he came out for his encore someone brought his dog on the stage which was quite amusing.  We were amazed that the dog didn't have a problem with the noise, as it was quite loud in the arena.  We filed out of the arena at close to midnight, ears still ringing and reliving the show as we drove home.

All too quickly it was time to fly home.  I made it to airport with plenty of time before my flight (unlike last time), and got home without incident.  Time to settle in for the holidays and enjoy the season with friends and family.

Boise 2009

Now that I've somewhat recovered from my trip to Boise last week I guess it's time to post all of the gory details.  :)

Day 0
I flew to Boise right after work on Monday to start my vacation as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately the Lyman house was empty - Michelle was still on her way home from Portland and Mika was on a training ride.  Okay, not completely empty - their new puppy Boon was home, but he was quite skittish about meeting me without his people around.  I'd work all week to gain his trust.

Day 1
Michelle had to work, but Mika and I had some time to kill so we ran a couple of errands and went out for lunch before she had to go to a training for her new job.  So glad she finally found one in this economy.  Once Michelle got home from work the real excitement began - the main reason I went to Boise!  (After seeing the Lyman girls, of course!)  Kenny Chesney was performing in concert that night, along with Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert.  Lady A was great, while Miranda was a little disappointing.  I really expected more from her.  Kenny was fabulous, as expected.  I hadn't been to a major concert indoors for a long, long time so I was unprepared for how loud it would be.  Not the music or instruments but the crowd singing along.  Kenny's music is very sing-alongable and the Boise fans didn't disappoint.  On our way back to the car we passed by his tour bus - very cool!

Day 2
Michelle took the day off from work to recover from the concert so we did some work in her backyard.  She had a pile of twigs, vines and 2x4s that we loaded into her truck to take to a recycling center.  The pile was significantly bigger than it initially appeared, completely filling her truck bed and then some.  She had me climb on top to try and compress the debris as much as possible so we didn't lose any during the trip.

After getting cleaned up it was off to the movies - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opened today.  Due to a little bad planning we were a little bit late getting there but we only missed a couple of the opening minutes.  Michelle liked the movie a lot; I thought it was just okay.  Not nearly as good as some of the previous offerings, but it was hard material to work with.  I'm looking forward to the final two movies.

Days 3-4
Michelle was back at work and Mika was still in training so I had a couple of days to kill on my own.  I spent some time working in her backyard, washing the bug guts off of Michelle's truck, playing with Boon (he was warming up to me) and watching TV.  I stumbled across a 'Joan of Arcadia' marathon - I always liked that show, and was a little bummed that it didn't last longer.

Day 5
On to the next big adventure of my visit - the Boise Twilight Criterium.   We spent the day cheering on Mika's old team (BYRDS) and her new team (Kristin Armstrong Academy) in the blistering heat.  Someone said that the temperature on the course was 112, and standing in the shade it was probably 103.  Way too hot for me.  Mika certainly held her own, but a 17-year-old going up against an Olympic Gold Medalist is expecting a lot.  We were very proud of her race.

Day 6
Today was another big race for Mika - the Idaho State Crit Championships.  She raced in her age group as a warm-up, winning handily, and then competed in the Cat 3 race.  She and her teammate Savannah raced a good race, earning compliments from other riders.  Neither won, but they are setting themselves up for future success.

All of a sudden it was time to go home - where had all the time gone?  Not wanting to spend too much time waiting around the Boise airport I left a little bit later than I should have.  I found out that 30 minutes before the flight takes off they close check-in and start giving away empty seats.  I got there four minutes too late.  Fortunately they were able to get me on the next flight so I didn't have to have Michelle come rescue me and let me sleep on her couch.

The flight home was uneventful and I made it home in good fashion.  Then fell right into bed, and dreamed about next year's trip.

Boise, part two

This last weekend was my return visit to Boise for my annual girls' weekend with my best friend.  Nice to get away from work for a few days and just play.

Day 0
I flew in on Saturday afternoon, so not much to report.  However, I was a little bummed that we wouldn't be taking this plane for the trip.

Day 1
There were vague plans to go for a bike ride on Sunday morning, but Michelle wasn't feeling up to it and Mika was still resting after her very successful trip to Nationals.  Instead we slept in, did some chores around the house, got the cars washed, and watched the Olympics.  Gotta love watching men's beach volleyball, although it's not quite a fair trade with the women's game.  The women are wearing bikinis while the men wear board shorts and a tank top.  Plus there are female "cheerleaders" in bikinis for both sexes.  What's up with that?

Day 2
We went for a quick bike ride (10 miles with a nasty hill in the middle), but had to cut it short to take Mika her lunch.  (Silly, forgetful girl)  Then it was on to the second best part of the trip - the water slide park!  Yes, we're really too old for that nonsense, but the tickets were free.  We hit all of the rides in the park (there are only about 6 adult rides, so it didn't take long) before deciding on a favorite.  It wasn't one of the new cool rides, so the line was pretty short, but it was definitely the most exciting.  I think by the end of the day we had ridden it four times, the last time we managed to capsize our raft as we entered the pool at the bottom of the slide.  We came up spitting water in every direction, laughing our heads off.  I even managed to talk Michelle into riding the "no raft" slide, even though she was a little nervous.  Luckily it wasn't too fast, and she admitted that she did enjoy it.

Day 3
Finally, G-day had arrived.  The whole reason for the timing of the trip - Gary Allan was playing at the Western Idaho State Fair.  Woohoo!

After lazing around in the morning we headed out to the fairgrounds.  We didn't have a hard timetable in mind, just that we needed to keep an eye on the line for the concert to make sure it didn't get out of hand.

We walked around the barns talking to the animals that were there (a lot of them were being packed up and moved, which was confusing because the fair was going on for a few more days), and the expo halls to check out the vendors.  We had a quick snack of cinnamon almonds (yum), and then decided to really take stock of the rest of the afternoon.  We decided to see the African Acrobats show, ride a few rides (whee!), get the stadium seats from the car, which should put us in line at a good time for the show.  We figured we could take turns getting ourselves some nutritious fair food for dinner.

The African Acrobats show was pretty boring.  It lasted for about 10 minutes, and it was just some tumbling on a small stage, and a bit with one of the guys going under a limbo stick.  Yawn.  Off to the rides.

Okay, enough of the rides.  We both decided that we are officially too old for carnival rides.  I LOVE roller coasters, and Michelle likes to spin, but these rides were just too hard on our bodies.  My stomach was unhappy with me for quite a while.

Off to the show!  The line to get in grew quite a bit while were were wandering around, but it wasn't too bad.  The whole arena was free, but Michelle's knee wouldn't handle standing at the front for that long so we headed for the grandstands.  Just a few rows back, dead center.  Works for me. 

The show was great, although it was a little loud.  It would have been nice to have his slow songs be a little quieter, but it was all worth it.

I took a couple of pictures from where we were sitting, but my camera phone doesn't do well with long distances.  I finally decided there was enough room up front to work my way close to the stage to take a better picture.  I got to what I thought was a good spot and took one picture, then I felt a tap on my shoulder.  A woman guided me to an empty spot right in front of her that had a better angle.  That was so sweet of her.  Unfortunately my heart was racing from all of the excitement and jostling around, so the picture isn't great, but still worth the effort.  :)

Day 4
Sigh...time to go home.  Michelle had to go back to work, so I had her drop me off at the airport on her way to her office.  Not surprisingly it wasn't very crowded, so I had plenty of time to have some breakfast, do some shopping and read my book.  I tried to lose my driver's license (again) but luckily I figured it out about 10 seconds before they paged me back to security for a "lost item."  Whew.

Another successful girls' weekend.  I'm already looking forward to next year.

They call her "Flipper (okay...Toby)

(originally posted May 27, 2008)

Growing up I was always fascinated when the characters from my favorite TV shows made a special trip to Sea World and got the chance to ride a dolphin by holding on to the dorsal fin and being dragged around the pool.  It never really occurred to me that I might have the chance to do the same thing, but I've recently discovered that this experience is available to regular people.  This past weekend I realized part of this dream - the rest will have to come at a later date.

Jim had to go to San Diego to take part in a conference as a representative of Get Your Guts in Gear (www.ibdride.org), and we had a coupon for $200 off of a flight on Alaska Airlines.  It seemed that all of the pieces were sliding into place, so the plan was that I would fly down to meet him after the conference ended and we would take part in the "Dolphin Interaction Program" at Sea World.  For a reasonable price you would get the opportunity to be in the pool with some of the park's dolphins, touch them, and give them some simple commands to follow.  I was like a little kid as the date approached, telling everyone who would listen that I was going to San Diego to "swim with the dolphins."

Finally the day arrived, and even the early morning gray skies overhead couldn't dampen my enthusiasm.  Unfortunately the gray skies were later joined by cold breezes and rain showers, very uncharacteristic for this time of year in San Diego.  Very few areas in Sea World are covered, so we would be watching another show and getting wet, even though we were well out of the "Splash Zone."  Only the knowledge that dolphin time was approaching kept me from just bailing on the park altogether.

We made our way to the designated location with the rest of the guests who were signed up for the program and were taken inside for a short classroom session.  (I was sitting in my chair bouncing my legs so much that Jim had to put a hand on my knee to get me to stop).  We learned some basic dolphin anatomy as well as an overview of how they are trained, which is very similar to training dogs.  Once the classroom time was finished we were directed into the locker rooms to change into wetsuits provided by Sea World.

We were split into groups and teamed with a trainer who had us get into the water and then brought one of the dolphins around to work with.  We all took turns doing cute behaviors with the dolphin and getting splashed by the very cold, very salty water.

It was over all too quickly, though.  I believe we spent about 1/2 an hour in the water with the dolphins, which was definitely too short for me.  Sea World has another program called "Trainer for a Day" which is much longer, more in-depth, and includes the elusive ride on the dolphin's dorsal fin.  I've already talked to my best friend who wants to do it as well, so look for that entry in the near future.