Boise or Bust

Every great trip begins with Stumptown coffee from downtown Portland! There is something comforting and familiar with getting that smooth rich coffee, I think it must be an addiction because we manipulate and contrive and go out of our way to get this coffee. The froth is just perfect as is the body. Needless to say we left town with a satisfied smile on our face.and coffee on our breath.

We were equipt with our new Honda Pilot with its on-board GPS, that is actually big enough for us to see. We plugged in Paul and Maria Sestero's address and told Tilly to route us there.

Fully anticipating a long and boring drive Edik and I had our DVD players. I have my McGyver series and my cross dressing favorite with Patrick Swazy and Wesley Snipes To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar this is a classic funny movie, with a fun message about being yourself. Oddly enough they are men dressed up like women so I am not really sure how that equates but they help the other people in the movie be who they really are. Anyhow that is a whole nother discussion!

I thought it would be fun to take photos at each of our stops. We were alloted a bathroom stop each 2.5 hours. Edik has an imature or shy bladder we dont know which but he needed to excersize his right to go more frequently. We had lunch at Subway in Pendlton, there was road work going on and traffic was a bear, but the sandwich was good. I was so board all I could think about was chocolate.

We stopped just a little out of our way at my friends car wash in Union Oregon. He had just started his laundry mat and dog wash coupled with the car was and a coin-op video rental, "Red Box". This detour really bummed Andy out because it made us getting into Boise later than he had anticipated. I think that it still worked out pretty good. Our dear hostess had just returned from 7 days in Coquille, Or. spending time with her young grandson. She was exhausted and I am sure the few minutes she had to reacclimate to her own home was appreciated.

The Sestero's greeted us with open arms and welcomed us into thier lovely home. We were given the down stairs suite to ourselves. Andy took the family room and Edik had his own private Golf themed room and our room was beautifully decorated by our hostess. The beauty was one thing but we later found that the strange abillity to sleep late into the day was a part of these rooms as well. We certainly got some good sleep there.

The meals the Maria prepared for us were out of this world. Full course meals each meal. Breakfasts were amazingly delicious, fresh fruit, quiche', eggs, thick french bread that was a pineapple upside down cakes, sausage, home made cinnamon rolls and did I mention fruit. We even got to enjoy the Stumptown coffee each morning. Life was good!

We all enjoyed each others company and had lots to talk about. Paul, Brian, Andy, Sophie and Edik went golfing at the course that Sophie works at. It was very hot that day, but a dry heat. Maria and I went shopping at all my favorite places and a few of hers. She is an incredible shopper much like Lori V. so we were well matched. I saw her shop and just got to get familier with Maria and Boise. We had so much in comon that if I lived there we would keep very busy.

Maria does flowers, works at a school making the hot lunches for the children, she was in process of painting all the cabnits in the kitchen at the school, she caters and does an amazing job, she decorates businesses and peoples homes for holidays, she decorates for wedding and events, she loves to scrapbook and she is always being thoughtful of other people and extending some sort of kindness to them. She really is a remarkable person. I had house envey and yard envey, I am inspired to do more and improve what I have. I think the most inspiring thing is that she makes it look so easy and effortless. It was fun to be with such a ball of energy! Oh we also had the same taste in tee shirts 50% off the clearence at Fred Meyers purchased about the same day :)

There was a big cook out and many family members and some friends came over to eat and meet us. We had a blast, everyone was so fun and easy to talk to. I sat with Maria's sister a lot of the evening hearing stories and telling stories. Once again the food was outrageous. I think the picture will represent what it was like.

Earlier in the day, Paul had taken more time off of work to take us rafting down the Boise River. Hundreds of people do it everyday. I have always wanted to do a lazy raft ride down a river, it looks fun and relaxing. Well, our raft was not quite as big as it needed to be for all of us, Paul, Brian, Andy, Sophie, me and Edik. I will never forget having my back down river, and hearing the roar of the river and questioning why is there a sound the water is flat and smooth. As I turned I saw the break in the horizon of the water. I started out afraid, now I was scared. Paul had said there are just three small drops. I figured they would just be slants not really drops. But as we approached the roar, I saw the drop. A long drop (3 feet) and then a big trough and a wall of white water, frothing and hungry to eat our boat and all of us. Now I am terrified! I tell the people in the boat I don't want to die but we go over the edge and we all survive but soaking wet. It was so fun! We wandered down the river and made it through all the drops and oddly enough, we ended up being forced by the currents to all the rapids as well. It did not come to my attention untill late in the trip that Paul was purposfully paddling to them. It just added another element to the trip. It was a lot of fun. Andy got to go in an innertube and free float, he had to go down two of the drops and the rapids, I was worried for him but he did great. It was very fun.

We had so much fun with the Sestero family, they truly are fun, real people. We hope to go back for another visit.

Disneyland July 2008

Here we are in the parking garage at Disneyland. A stranger passing by saw us trying to get a complete family photo, so this is what we look like. The trip started all with Amy needing to return to the mother ship so she could make it through another year. She is re-charged and encourage by the magic of Disney. Peter and Amy were planning a trip and asked us if we would like to go, of course we said yes. Andy did not want to come at all, he "hates" Disneyland. But he decided to come along so that he could see the expression and excitment on Ediks face when he saw the wonder of Disneyland.

So Edik was fearless, unlike Andy and I we were fearful! The first place Peter and Amy and of course Brian headed was the roaller coaster "Screamin" Edik was holding Brians hand so naturaly he went with him to the line for the ride. Andy and I had more common sense than that and we went to a smaller less scarry ride. Edik loved the ride and was not afraid at all. The number of rides we rode that first day was staggering.

We had gotten up at 3 am and did not go to bed until the next morning at 1 am. I was on vacations so I could just keep going and going. Brian felt like he was coming down with something because he was dizzy and nauseous. Turns out after a good night of sleep and not being on twisting, turning, dropping, soaring rides he felt better, but to avoid this feeling again he took some motion sickness medicine that made him not able to recall the second day of our trip. He was not too much fun, we came home from Knottsberry Farm at 5pm and in our room at 6:30pm and he was out untill 6:30 the next morning. Better living? through modern chemistry.

Knott's was so disappointing after being in the well run and efficient Disneyland. Peter and Amy kept us going and able to ride an amazing amount of rides because of the FastPass system they developed. So the first day we did: Mulhonland Avenue 2x,Screamin 3x,Tower of Terror1x, Muppet Movie 1x, Monsters inc. 1x, Soaring 2x, Splash 2x, Pooh 2x, Star Tour 1x, Malibumer (just Peter, Brian, Edik)1x, Grizzly Rappids 1x,Space Mt. 3x, Matahorn 1x, Indiana Jones 1x (thank goodness because it was shut down the rest of the time), Pirates of the Caribbean 1x. That is a lot of rides for having gotten up at 3 am!

Tuesday was the day of the Earthquake 5.8. Everything shut down. We were using one of our Fast Passes to get on to Screamin. Oh! Andy and I were initiated into riding Screamin Sunday night and we were hooked. As we were standing there I heard a rumbling and I thought to my self is that the ride,I don't remember it from the last 5 times we had rode it. I looked at the young lady taking our fast past and said that is not the ride is it? She said no, I think that is an earthquake, we came to the same conclusion at the same time. Naturally the rides were all shut down and they had to inspect each and every joint and system. The park shut down for 5,5 hours. We waited it out by the Grizzly Rapid ride for a long time because there were benches and shade. People just walked around and looked at things and others just sat. We met a fun guy from New Jersey that we kubitzed back and forth with. Amy made the call that we would go back to the hotel and swim or take a nap. We all ended up taking naps. When we came back to the park we had to eat dinner and we had some fast passes to use but really not to many rides were available. We watched the parade and it was amazing.

The sad last day, we did Tunetown for Edik and all the fairytale land, because we had not had time to even look at it. They were not thrilling but they were cute and fun. The trip home was uneventful fortunatly. We had a great time, Andy was converted to be a Roller Coaster junkie like his dad, brother and sister-in-law. Edik was in awe of all the rides and the sights and the thrills of the roller coasters! Peter and Amy were re-charged and ready for another year.

I think we will have to go back, I loved having breakfast with the Characters, Pooh made me feel thin!