Dart's View of Life, the Universe & Coffee
I managed to awaken before the sun rose today and drove down to Ann Morrison Park to capture some images of the Hot Air Balloons taking off into the Boise sky.
I attended the 17th annual Warbird Air Museum air show this past weekend, where vintage WW-II planes flew through the crisp blue skies. The gallery below features some of my photographs.
Visited the Nampa, Idaho airport today where The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) was displaying a B-17G and a B-25. These WW-II bombers are huge and awesome. Below are some photographs I captured of the B-17. The B-25 did not fly today.
Eagle borders Boise and Garden City and is pretty urban. But if you keep driving straight after leaving town, you quickly enter the foothills, and you can drive for hours and only see one other vehicle. It is a quick place to go if I need to get away from people and concrete.
The gallery below has six of the photos I captured today. Most along Willow Creek Road, a few near Emmett, Idaho.
Originally we were heading toward Stack Rock, but the road we were planning on taking, Cartwright Road, has been blocked off. Huge metal gate, several “No Trespassing” signs, warnings that the entire area is under video surveillance, etc. I have seen less secure areas at the National Guard base! I’ve contacted Ada County Highway District for clarification. Both Google maps on my Desktop and and my smartphone GPS guided me toward this road, so I doubt it is a private road.
Anyway, we backtracked and took Bogus Basin Road up to Bogus Basin, and from there took the extremely bumpy dirt and rock road to Shafer Butte Campground. The road and the campground were beautiful!
Click on the photos below to see full size.
Drove up Idaho 55 along the Payette River. Caught these crazy people on kayaks and rafts blasting through white water and might I add, boulder filled rapids! Amazing job they did!
The annual Lavender Festival in Kuna, Idaho is a must-see event. It is not just a magnificent field of lavender, which is enough in my book. It is actually a U-Pick Lavender field! People can sign up and receive a pair of scissors and a basket so that they could then enter the fields and snip their own lavender. There is a modest charge for this, $5 a bundle.
But there is more! It is indeed a festival. Plenty of tables and chairs line the fields where people can sit and relax under the umbrellas and watch all the butts of the crowds amidst the lavender as they bend down to snip the flowers. There are probably more than a dozen booths in the shade under the trees where people sell everything from lavender bread, lavender cookies, to jewelry, hats, photographs, and artwork of all kinds.
There are food and drink as well as live music. A young woman, Renee Ross year played instruments and sang beautiful calming melodies.
The festival is produced by The Lavender Merchant in Kuna, Idaho. Depending on where you live in the Boise area, this is usually a short fifteen to thirty-minute drive.
Note – Since this event takes place usually in early July when the Idaho sun is attempting to burn its laser rays through the earth to China, wear sunscreen and big floppy hats!
It being a beautiful cool day in Idaho, we drove north on N. Eagle Road through the town of Eagle. We kept going until the road became a poorly maintained one lane paved road and then became just a rock and dirt road. Our favorite way to get to Emmett, Idaho. Eagle Road became Willow Creek Road. We weaved through the empty hills with blue skies and white puffy clouds keeping us company. Eventually, we turned left onto Chaparral Road which took us to Idaho State Highway 16 which flowed into the town of Emmett, Idaho.
Along our route we saw a beautiful deer, a caterpillar, many flowers, a few butterflies and magnificent blue skies with brilliant white clouds. In the tow of Emmett we stopped at our favorite coffee shop in all of Idaho, HeBrews, a wonderful Christian coffee shop.
A terrific drive!
