Boise (West Coast Van Trip – Post 3)

The drive from Las Vegas to Boise was tedious at best. A lot of 2-lane highway with infrequent passing lanes. We were exhausted and grumpy by the time we arrived. Luckily, Serenity didn’t mind that we checked straight into the hotel with plans to meet up with them the next morning. The kids had just finished a family reunion with their dad’s side of the family, and everyone was tired.

Laura was sharing our hotel room with us and had arrived earlier that afternoon. Turns out it was an excellent hotel! We had a balcony overlooking the greenway path along the river. After our Lake Las Vegas disappointment, I was texting her, “Are you sure we have a balcony? And it overlooks the river?” So she texted me proof, lol.

Yep, sure enough, that is a real balcony, overlooking the river. It was fun to watch the river flow by. I snapped these shots during a brief break in passersby, but the path was well used by walkers, bikers, rollerbladers and scooters. It was fun to people-watch too.

We walked and jogged on the path multiple times during our 3 days in Boise. It was so nice to have it right there!

The next morning we met up with Serenity and Chirstina to float the river. The float is between two parks, with a shuttle bus between them. We parked at the lower park, shuttled to the upper park, rented a raft and tubes there, and floated on down. It was great!

The float trip was actually the first time John and I met Chirstina in person, but I didn’t fully realize that at the time. It seemed like I already knew her from Zoom and Facebook and everything.

Life has been so surreal because of the pandemic – I actually have several friends I’ve never met “in-person” yet. I would have to stop and think to even be able to name which ones I’ve met and which ones I haven’t met. They are all definitely “real” friends either way. Anyway, meeting at a park for a river float trip totally beat the proverbial, awkward “meet-the-parents” at Thanksgiving Day dinner by a long shot!

Here’s John and Laura at the park while we wait for Serenity and Chirstina.

Here’s comes the shuttle!

Serenity and Chirstina on the shuttle:

The kids had floated the river with their dad’s side of the family a few days earlier, so they knew it was impossible to stay together as you’re swept along in the current. So we roped ourselves together. Serenity and Chirstina were in the raft out front, John was next on an inner tube, and then Laura and I were roped to John.

The water was freezing, but it was a super hot day, and it was tons of fun.

John and I often travel with an inflatable kayak, so next time we’ll probably skip the tube rental and just float the river in the kayak. That would eliminate the long line for equipment rental.

After rafting we got cleaned up and went out to eat, but I totally forgot to take pictures. I’m kicking myself, because I don’t have very many good pictures of Serenity and Chirstina.

We went over to Serenity’s house that night and John did some needed handyman work. Serenity and Chirstina were very grateful. John is both generous and skilled. In addition to various kinds of drilling and tightening and adjusting things, he even crawled around below the house in the crawl space to verify there were no water leaks. That’s because the linoleum in the downstairs bathroom was lifting, so we thought, uh-oh, water leak. But it turns out the builders just installed poor quality flooring, so that will need redone at some point. Luckily they only had that particular type of flooring in just that one small area.

I was super excited to see Kira, but I forgot to take her picture! She looks the same as ever. All wiggles and wags! And as usual, all she wanted to do was play ball! I miss that dog!

I was somewhat less excited to see Kai, but grateful that he’s getting good care. It’s mostly Serenity’s roommates taking care of him. Chirstina told me that Kai has snarled and snapped at them a few times, but it doesn’t seem to bother them like it bothers me. Maybe it’s because they didn’t know him before he got mean, so to them, that’s just the way he is. Whereas I take it personally and it’s upsetting. Plus, I am actually a little bit afraid of dogs that will bite.

John stopped by Home Depot to pick up a couple paving stones to create an intermediate step between the doggie door and the patio paving. Kira wasn’t having any trouble with the step, but Kai is getting arthritic. Kai seemed very old. Here he is in the car after a recent trip to the groomers.

The groomer did more of a schnauzer cut than a poodle cut. At one time I would have cared, but I’m sure he doesn’t mind. And as long as the people who look at him every day are happy, I’m happy! And the dogs both seemed very happy.

The next day the kids were working (remotely), so John and I headed to the botanical garden. It was so hot, we were almost the only ones there. It was nearly 100°. We have been getting used to those temps ourselves this summer, but most people in Boise would not be used to heat like that – that’s really hot for Boise! Plus, Boise’s not as dry as Tucson, so the sweat just drips off rather than evaporating instantly. Yuck! In Tucson and Albuquerque you can’t even tell you’re sweating because you never get wet! Here I was definitely glowing, lol. We still enjoyed the garden.

Another highlight of the trip was our hotel itself. At the moment, Serenity has two roommates in addition to Chirstina, so there’s no room for us to stay with them. But turns out our hotel was so excellent that I just want to always stay there on visits, regardless of how many people may or may not be living at Serenity’s house!

In addition to our great balcony, it had two restaurants, both good, one of which had a huge area of shaded, outdoor seating near the river.

The other thing I loved about this hotel is how pleasant all the staff were. They were short-staffed (I think everyone is short-staffed right now), but even so, they were not frazzled and not grumpy, and surprisingly easy to interact with. It made the entire stay extremely pleasant. https://riversideboise.com/ (No, I’m not being paid to do an ad, lol.)

All in all an excellent visit in Boise – my only regret is not taking more photos of everyone. I guess we’ll have to go back soon!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

July 4 at Lake Las Vegas (West Coast Van Trip – Post 2)

In the morning we decided to go kayaking on Lake Mead, which we’ve enjoyed before. But as luck would have it, right when we got there a strong wind picked up and it was threatening to storm. It was over 100° out, so plenty hot, but it just didn’t look fun trying to fight the wind. And the water level is disastrously low, with nothing but crumbling gravel and smelly mud where there should have been a nice shoreline. Bleak!

So we went on a short hike along the river instead.

It was a very short hike because it was hot, and once the trail got down to the river it was overgrown with seasonal river reeds and brush. All in all, disappointing, I had hoped to get out on the water, but the reality is, we were just very tired.

So we got Thai food instead. There’s a Thai food restaurant in Las Vegas we really like. That perked us up a bit, but I ended up laying down in our room while John took a walk through the neighborhood in the 106 degree heat. I was wondering what the heck is the matter with me, taking afternoon naps. But then when John got back from his walk he fell asleep, leaving me to wish I had actually managed to sleep during my little rest. We are getting old!

Here’s a quick video of some other people out on the water:

We used to really like Lake Las Vegas, but it’s changed and we are less impressed than we once were.

They always used to set off fireworks over the lake right outside our condo, so we often went out on the 4th of July and New Years. We didn’t realize that the fireworks were going up on a completely different part of the lake. Once we found that out, we don’t know if we’re going to be able to see much. I had mentioned the fireworks to the front desk clerks at check-in, but unfortunately they didn’t say, “Uh, lady, we don’t do them here anymore, you’re at the wrong hotel.” Urg.

If you had kids though, this place would be really fun. There’s an entire inflatable playground on the water. Wow, wouldn’t we have loved something like that when we were kids!

It is pretty and we like being on the water.

That night we watched to see if they were going to do fireworks or not. Sure enough, they weren’t setting up where they used to years ago. Uh-oh. Would we be able to see them?

On the hopeful side was all the people lined up on the shoreline and party music blasting over the loudspeakers. They were clearly expecting something to happen.

It was pretty while we waited.

Yay, fireworks! Not nearly as close by as they once were, but at least we could see them.

I love watching fireworks from my own balcony (or in this case, window). It was just as well we were indoors because even this late in the evening it was ridiculously hot.

I hope everyone had a good July 4 holiday! Next stop…Boise, Idaho…

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

And We’re Off! (West Coast Van Trip – Post 1)

As we started on our latest van trip Saturday morning, I fought an unexplained sense of unease. If I believed in such things, I would say it was a premonition. Instead, I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure out what might be causing this unnecessary worry.

Usually I’m quite upbeat the morning we head out on a van trip – relieved that the packing is done and excited to be at the beginning of a vacation and heading toward fun places to be. And this trip should be much easier than towing a boat to Florida!

I think we’re just not in the mood for a road trip. We planned this trip a few months ago, back before John ended up having to work in Albuquerque more than expected. With all the driving back and forth between Tucson and Albuquerque, we are actually getting tired of road trips. Not a great mental space for starting another road trip.

I’ve been having some trouble with my back for a couple of months, so John bought me this bead thing for my seat. LOL, remember back when these were popular? I’m guessing circa 1970’s, but John’s thinking more like 1990’s. As we get older, it all starts running together.

Our first stop is Lake Las Vegas, in Henderson, Nevada where we once owned a condo. It’s a little resort area with a hotel, casino, shops, restaurants and golf courses around a small lake. We first stayed there shortly after the real estate crash of 2008, when the place was in bankruptcy. John fell in love with the area because it was all new and fancy but also completely deserted. I thought it had a bit of a dystopian feel, with coyotes ambling across dead putting greens. But we were able to pick up a nice condo with beautiful views for next to nothing, which we enjoyed until we sold it in order to afford our move to California in 2012.

We have occasionally gone back since then. Many of the condos are vacation rentals, but this time we are staying at the hotel. We have gotten tired of airbnbs, which we felt were safer during the pandemic – some of them were great, but some were terrible. Usually with a brand name hotel, you can at least expect a fairly consistent experience. This delta variant of covid is worrisome, but John and I are going to trust in our vaccinations, as well as take decent precautions.

After driving through 4th of July weekend traffic for 7 hours (yep, America is on the road this summer), we made it to Lake Las Vegas at 4:00 PM. Big snafu at check-in; no room! Our reservations were for a lake view room with a balcony but they had given them all away. More rooms were coming available and we were willing to wait, but they refused to assign us a room before it was cleaned because – what if there was something broken? They wouldn’t know until they had the housekeeper’s report. They would not guarantee anything and we wondered if we’d end up scrambling to find a last-minute room in Las Vegas for the holiday weekend. Dozens of people milled around in the lobby with suitcases waiting for a room. What a fiasco.

I think the new question to establishments nowadays, instead of asking about covid-prevention practices, should be, “Are you paying your staff sufficiently such that you are fully staffed and are operating smoothly, or are you unable to keep your establishment running properly due to a critical lack of staff?”

After about an hour wait we were given a room with a beautiful view (but no balcony – I hope they don’t charge us for the balcony that never materialized). There’s no housekeeping available during our stay (another new-since-covid), but the room is clean enough and we’re only here for a couple of nights.

Here’s the view out our window. The hotel lobby is practically as far away as those buildings in the right hand section of the picture. It’s 280 steps just to get down the hall from our room to the elevator, and another 100 from the elevator to the lobby! (Yeah, I counted, lol). All told, about 500 steps from our hotel room to where the van was parked, which roughly translates to a quarter of a mile!

At least the view is excellent.

It costs an extra $25 per night to park our overly-tall van that doesn’t fit into the parking garage.

Here’s a funny picture of John trying to clean the outside of the very dirty window with a wash cloth tied around a coat hanger. The window only opened a few inches so he couldn’t reach very much of it. I was surprised it opened at all!

We decided to have dinner outside because at first it seemed nice out, but by the time we were done eating I was really hot.

Mango mochi ice cream to the rescue!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com