Thoughts on Boise:
- + side:
- The people are incredibly friendly and helpful. I’ve yet to experience and exception.
- Greenbelt (25 mile paved riverside trail that runs right through the middle of town;
- Excellent library with huge kids’ section
- Nature preserve
- Tons of well maintained parks
- Forthcoming “Jump” center – community center funded by Potato Family money
- Easy mountain biking trail access from downtown
- Established downtown area with lots of foot traffic, bike lanes, restaurants with patios, coffee shops.
- Only 500,000 people in the metro area, 250,000 in Boise but all big city amenities are here
- Large enough airport
- Tons of bike lanes all through town
- Skiing 30 minutes from downtown at Bogus Basin
- Only $100 season lift pass at Bogus Basin for mountain biking, hiking
- *next time we visit stay in the North End or pretty much anywhere really close to downtown
- Great farmers’ market with lots of produce and grass fed beef
- Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s
- Mobile farmers’ market
- Good church that Tucker Maile leads: Calvary Chapel Boise
- Man-made pond for paddle boarding and kayaking and more to come
- Planet Kid – huge indoor playground, good until Kyle is 7 or 8
- Children’s Discovery Center
- Very little traffic, even at rush hour
- – side:
- My allergies are bad here – there’s a cottonwood in the backyard of our house and of course others throughout town – don’t know if it’s that, that + something else, or just something else. In any case, it’s not ok for me.
- The airport is small and not easily accessed from DFW – it’s a looong day to get here.
- The ski area is a ways away and quite small
- My grocery experience here was awful. I spent about $125 on produce at Albertson’s. About half of it was rotten within 3 days, poor quality, gross. The irony is that the Albertson’s lady is from Boise. WTF? I was also trying to save a little money by not buying everything we needed at Whole Foods. I’d say I learned my lesson.
- Major heat wave @ beginning on June – got up to 101 one day.
- Looks like it regularly gets up to the mid 90s in July and August – that’s a pretty strong no-go for me.
- The trails are made up of finely ground rock, not quite sand, but close. You pretty much sink in it mountain biking. Not cool.