Seattle Trip – Day 3 – Boise at last

By morning I had a sore throat. Was it from the air conditioning blowing a few inches from my face, or did I contract covid? We’re supposed to be visiting the kids today! We spent last night in Twin Falls, only two hours out of Boise, where Callan and Chirstina live. I’ve been really looking forward to hanging out with them. Was I going to have to quarantine instead? And does it count as quarantining if I stay “home” at our airbnb? Or do we need to turn around and drive home? Home being, I suppose, Albuquerque?

Have I recently been exposed to covid? The truth is, well, sort of probably. It seems like everyone has been getting exposed recently. My contractor’s son had symptoms last week, but hadn’t actually tested positive last time I heard. I didn’t interact with his son, just the contractor himself, who didn’t have any symptoms. It’s only a tenuous connection and right now, covid is so widespread that at any point any of us are likely interacting with someone who has recently interacted with someone with covid.

Covid seems so common right now. I guess the only reason that it’s not a big deal on the news is because it’s mostly not deathly anymore? And everyone is bored with reading about it. Plus, I don’t think anyone has any idea how widespread it is anymore, because we’re all just testing at home and treating at home. I don’t know if anyone is reporting their positive tests.

So was I sick or not? We decided to hang out at the campsite for a bit this morning to see how I’m doing. We’re only two hours from Boise and can’t check into our airbnb until 2 pm. We had assumed we would hang out in Callan and Chirstina’s house, but not if I’m sick. Normally we’d be happy to hang around outside in a park, but today’s forecasted high is 105º. Pretty nuts for Boise. Our van’s portable air conditioner can’t keep up with temperatures that high.

Luckily we have covid test kits with us so we don’t even have to drive into town to look for one. That’s the advantage of being a heavy packer! True, it’s a nuisance to have to drag tons of potentially unnecessary luggage around, but when we want something, I’m likely to have packed it. Actually both John and I had packed test kits.

I opened a test and jammed that stick as far up into my sinuses as I could stand, and twirled for a count of 15, ugh, and…now we’re waiting 15 minutes…and drum roll…it is…negative! Whew! I know those home tests aren’t much good, but I’m feeling fine now too. My throat is fine. I guess I was just snoring last night and got all dried out! Lol.

Time to see the kids! We arrived in time for lunch. We told the Callan and Chirstina we’d bring take-out. John was in favor of just grabbing some breakfast burritos, but I had spotted a Russian restaurant that sounded interesting. Plus, I didn’t have covid so it was time to celebrate!

The restaurant was closed the next day, so today was our only chance. John and I tend to prefer to eat our main meal in the middle of the day and eat lightly in the evening. Russian food isn’t light, so I voted for Russian food for lunch. We got a number of items and it turned out to be fairly expensive, but we had been eating bread and cheese (and Greek fast-food) for two days. Plus, we planned to cook our own barbecue at Callan’s house for the next day, so we went ahead and splurged. It was yummy and the kids really appreciated it.

The Callan and Chirstina have a roommate (a good one this time) in the downstairs bedroom, and the guest room is set up as the kids’ office, and the guest bathroom has been taken over by their two new cats. So John and I stayed in an airbnb. It’s such an excellent airbnb! I want to stay here every time I come to Boise!

There’s a café right outside our front door, and the river is about 10 steps away. The greenbelt trail goes right by our windows, so we can watch the bicyclists, walkers, rollerbladers, strollers, dog walkers, and everyone passing by.

Here’s the views out the windows:

And here’s the view from the front steps. This whole area is newly revitalized.

There’s no cars allowed down here at all – it’s all pedestrian and bikes. But there was a place to park the van on the backside of the building reserved just for us. It was a tight squeeze but we fit.

That’s the river right there.

The airbnb apartment is brand new inside. It’s rare to find a new, centrally located airbnb that allows dogs. I brought two large flat sheets to drape over the bed and the couch to keep Biska from shedding all over, because there’s no way I’m going to be able to keep that dog off the furniture.

It’s a good thing we brought the sheets because, yep, puppy prints.

Biska unexpectedly walked right into the river on our first walk. I don’t know what she was expecting, but a deep river with a strong current obviously wasn’t it. She was more surprised than we were. Luckily John was able to hold onto her leash and get her back out.

Once she was wet, she was a dirt magnet. We tried to keep her out of the dirt but of course she got muddy. When we got back, John wiped her paws off with a towel at the front door, but it didn’t really do the trick. She got her feet the rest of the way clean on the bed, lol.

Here’s a picture of Biska right before she jumped into the river: