Aberdeen Days

Every year in the town Michael grew up in they have a celebration for something, I'd imagine it was for being an awesome town. There is free breakfast in the park in the morning. Pancakes, eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, juices, all sorts of good stuff. And the food was really great, all you can eat, although after 2 pancakes that big I was more than stuffed. There is a parade down main street, lots of vendors set up selling stuff all day, a plane that drops ping pong balls on main street (this was way cool and some of the balls had prizes), and a fish fry at the end of the day. I have to say I'm pretty darn impressed with the festivities of the day, especially for a town with less than 2000 people. We got to spend time with Michael's parents and his good friends the Milletts. It was really really hot that day too.

There was a tractor and car show. 

Can you see the ping pong balls? They are right on top of the people. 

The guy in the yellow in the back of the truck is Michael's dad!

Of course Michael got some candy! Some people threw ice pops and bouncy balls, which was interesting, I just wanted the candy!

Apparently this climbing thing at the park is super cool. 

So I had to do it too... got halfway up and got really scared! It was really shaky and I'm higher up than it looks!

Ivan had to do it too. 

That kid is always photo bombing us!

This is Michael's best friend Ben and Ben's daughter Emma. Ivan and Emma are only a couple months apart and love hanging out with each other, especially if they get to chicken fight. I also really liked that I got both sets of grandparents in the background. 

The Falls of Twin City

Or is it just the Twin Falls of the city? Or the city of Twin Falls? Take your pick.

In the midst of our drive home from Boise where we bought our car, we had a little car trouble. Thankfully, Michael has some friends in town there and we were able to stay with them until we got the car fixed. And the guy we bought the car from payed for a large portion of the repairs. The bad thing about it was we were on our way back on Saturday, after any mechanics was closed so the soonest we could even get the car looked at was Monday, with work to do on it after that it was going to be a while before we could drive the car again. We stayed with Michael's mission friend Logan Lusk and his wife Heather. We went fishing and hiking with them. It was good fun.

This is our sweet new car. 2004 VW Passat

We dropped the car off at the mechanic's and headed home. Every time we drive south of Pocatello I see a sign for the City of Rocks. Sounds cool right? I always want to go there every time I see that sign. So since Michael was skipping school that day anyway, we might as well continue our scenic drivery. 

Right about now I'm getting a little nervous about just how scenic this will be. . . 

This one is called the Devil's Crack or something like that. That white spot on the rock is a person, if that helps add any idea of size. 

After we left Ivan had a huge explosive diaper. And we'd been in the car all day. For the sake of his bum, we decided to stop at this other place, can't remember the name now, and let Ivan air out. (Michael says it's called Massacre Rocks.) We were the only people there so we let him crawl around naked. He seemed to enjoy it. 

There were these beautiful wood peckers all over the place!

Scenic Drive to Boise

We found this car on craigslist for an awesome deal. Comes with snow tires mounted on their own rims, roof rack, bike rack, low miles, loaded interior to include leather and a sunroof, and it's a Volkswagon. The price was good and the return on fuel saved compared to either Michael's car or mine was quite the deal breaker. my car is pretty much on its last leg and to be responsible, we decided we should replace it before it got to that point, especially since Michael's car doesn't carry a carseat well and smells bad. We chose to get rid of my car because we could actually sell it for a reasonable amount and Michael's car isn't going to get any more out of it now so waiting wouldn't hurt. Now the only downside to this wonderful deal is that the car is located in Boise. That's a 5 hour drive if it's direct. And we would have to drive 2 vehicles home. And it was in the middle of the semester. So we packed up and headed out. Now instead of taking the 5 hour direct route, we chose the scenic route. And oh boy, was it scenic!

Direct Route

Route we took. You can see the direct route, just the interstate, by the yellow line below. 

Now what makes the scenic route not so direct is that there are a ton of mountains in central Idaho, which is why there isn't really an interstate there. Driving on mostly highways, lower speed limits, mountain roads, and lots of scenery, yep that's what I'd call a scenic drive. We did take the direct route home, that made more sense with both of us driving in different cars. Oh, the scenic drive added an extra 2.5 hours to the trip. Ivan didn't appreciate that.

First scenic stop on the route: Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. I wouldn't exactly call this place a pretty stop, but scenic for sure. If you ever want to see what the moon looks like, go to that place. Michael told me they did some astronaut training there, not sure if he was serious, can't ever tell with that kid, but it would make sense. It was really, really windy there. Always is, every time we go. And I don't mean a nice breeze, it's like a super wind. A tornado without the cyclone.

Proof of the wind. 

Real pretty, right? Still a pretty cool place to say you've seen it. Oh, for those that don't know, Craters of the Moon was made by lava flow. All the black stuff is lava rock and there are even tunnels made out of this stuff. 

This is in Carey, ID

The radio station called this place the Magic Valley

Ketchum, ID

Antelope! Probably my favorite to see in the wild. 

Redfish Lake, Stanley, ID

A rock! Ivan was pretty good most of the trip. He slept a lot. Ate a couple bottles. Played with some toys. And slept some more. He was wearing a different outfit when we were in Arco.... Thank you blowouts. Gotta say, I'd rather have a poop blowout than a tire blowout.

This is pretty close to Idaho City in the woods there. That tan part across the way is where the road is. 

Some reservoir right outside Boise. 

That sums up the drive there. Absolutely loved Stanley. I have never seen a more beautiful place. Even compared to Glacier in Montana, I'd say Stanley, ID is my favorite beautiful place. We finally got to Boise about 8 or 9 hours after leaving Rexburg. We did stop somewhere for lunch and let Ivan crawl around and get some energy out. When we got to town we went to the hotel, checked in, then went on a search for food. It was just before 9 and a lot of places were closing. I also have this thing where when I visit somewhere I want to eat somewhere I can't eat at home. You know, you're visiting somewhere new, everything about it might as well be new. So we went to the Westside Drive In. Apparently this place had made it onto the show Famous Dines and Drives or whatever it's called. We tried the "famous" dish at this place which happened to be deep fried finger steaks. Oh and it was weird! I did not like it. To add to it, Michael didn't like it! That's really saying something. Thank goodness we had plenty of tater tots and we got some popcorn from the hotel market. You remember earlier when I said I changed Ivan's outfit? Well, I stuck his poopy outfit in a grocery bag to keep it from smelling up the car. I also stuck his dirty diapers in a grocery bag because it's not like there are trash cans in the middle of the woods. So when we got to the hotel, we took the grocery bags and tossed them in the trash, not even thinking there were clothes in one of the bags. Dang it! We threw away one of Ivan's cutest outfits! The funny thing is, when I realized this (the next morning) Michael searched through the garbage cans for those clothes! What a good man. He didn't find the outfit, oh well.
We went to check the car out, turned out to be everything we hoped for! Well, except the guy hadn't stored the tires right so only 2 of the snow tires were actually usable. Oh and it's beautiful. We feel like real people when we drive it. Like real grown-ups. And since Michael and I both had our previous cars without making payments, we were able to save some money and put up a fairly good sized down payment. We just got our house paid off as well, so instead of adding another debt to our list we just traded what bill we were paying.
On our way back we stopped in Twin Falls, about halfway home. Michael has a friend there that he met on his mission so we were able to visit with him and his wife. They took us stergin fishing at 2 in the morning. We did catch a fish, but the rules with these guys are so weird. You can't take them out of the water and they are definitely strictly catch and release. So by the time I got out of my seat and down the cliff side to see the fish better it had gotten away. Slippery little buggers. Then we were able to go to the ice caves of Shoshone. Now since this place made it onto the map we were using, including our gps, you would think it's gotta be something really awesome. Here I am thinking it's going to be like the caves back east where there is a real building and gift shop set up with cave tours being between 15 and 30 dollars a person because the cave is well lit and the walkways are safe. Instead we get there and wonder if this really is the place.

The inside looked like a really really old house that hadn't been cleaned in ages. And the people were really scary! They were all missing some teeth, and I don't know how that correlates to cannibals, but that's what I always think of. Missing a couple front teeth? Must be a cannibal. See? rational. The guys all had beards and long hair, like a Lynard Skynard thing, or Duck Dynasty. And they were wearing old army camo, that always makes people look homeless and a bit scary, admit it. It really didn't help that we get there and are debating whether we should go in and get eaten or just leave and find something else to do and a guy walks out, looking as described above and comes straight to our car! I felt a little confronted and my first instinct was to lock the car. The guy turned out to be harmless, as far as I know, and just wanted to know if we were trying to go on a tour because a group was leaving right now and the next wouldn't be for an hour. We hurried and got our coats and joined up with the group. The cave is just a lava tube that got some water in it somehow and since caves stay the same temperature year round, it has ice in it year round. The tour guide kept telling us he had so many stories to tell that he just didn't have time to tell them all and didn't tell any. Ok. The lighting was really bad inside the cave. Caves are dark by nature and the roof of the cave was only about 10 feet high. They had some spot lights, really bright spotlights pointed toward the walkway at just the right angle to be in your eyes and actually inhibit your sight more than help. And the lights were spread a little too far apart and made dead spots with no light between the bright spots of too much light. The walkway was a boardwalk about 2.5 feet wide suspended by cables attached to the roof of the cave. It was rickety and swayed with every step. And it was wet and slippery from the ice drippings. The boards were a little too far apart and your foot could have easily slipped through the crack. The distance between the boards and the ice was only have a half foot, so not a far drop. At the end of the 50 feet deep cave, we got to stand on the actual ice, which wasn't as slippery as the board walk. Then the tour guide turned the lights off and we got to see the "rock show." This was a literal rock show because they had a shadowbox with a couple rocks inside it that glowed in the dark. While the lights were off the tour guide told us the names of each of the rocks... repeatedly. Then we left the cave. At the mouth of the cave the guide made us look in every direction and would ask, "what do you see?" I saw nothing but a bunch of lava rock. Then he said there was some sort of snake shape in the lava tubes and he made us look at each spot he was pointing until we all said we could see what he saw. Pretty sure we just agreed so it could be over with. Ahh, the best 20 bucks we ever spent. 

See what I mean about the lights? 

That water looking stuff on the ground is ice!

This is more of what I was expecting. This is an ice cave just outside of Rexburg that isn't owned by anyone and doesn't cost anything to get into. The ceiling is covered in really cool looking ice crystals and all of what we're laying on is ice. You can see why I was so disappointed.

 And that concludes the festivities of the trip. After that was just the drive back to home plus a stop in Almo, Idaho to see the City of Rocks... I almost forgot about that part. To be continued...