What We Love Wednesdays!! Idaho? No - U'daho!

Happy WWLTh!!!

We have some very exciting news to share with you all!!!

We just booked flights to go to Idaho for Christmas this year!

Christmas, you say? We’ve barely passed this Christmas!! – We agree, but when it comes to international flights to relatively small places, the earlier you book the cheaper the flight! And so, we’re already singing Christmas tunes. *Fa-la-la-la-laaa, la-laa-laaa-laaaaaa*

Christmas in Idaho!!

Don’t worry, Laura promises to keep the Christmas wrapped up until October (wrapped up, get it?? Hilarious!), and enjoy the summer. But we realised, we haven’t yet told you all about the wonderful magical place that is Idaho, where Laura grew up, and as it is where we want to eventually end up together, we thought there was no better time to do a WWLW on it!

Laura:

Laura and her favourite little girl, Abby!

Laura has lived in Boise, Idaho since she was 8 or 9 years old. It is grouped in the Northwest states in the USA (NOT Midwest, okay guys? Get your Iowa away from my Idaho!) and is an absolutely beautiful place. We could go on about it for hours (Sarah can think of even more reasons why Idaho is amazing than Laura can!!), but we’ll try to pick out our favourite things about it.

The mountains. Idaho is lucky enough to be part of the Rocky Mountain range, which means there are amazing views and skiing everywhere. Laura grew up with a ski resort only an hour’s drive away, and 2 more 3-4 hours drive away (very short distances in the US, British readers!!). When Sarah came with Laura home to Idaho for a month after we left Australia, we got to go skiing together at our favourite resort, Brundage Mountain in McCall, Idaho.

We love Boise downtown. That’s the capital of Idaho, and where Laura lived. It’s an amazing little city, with a small, but vibrant and alternative downtown area. One of our favourite places is Flying M Coffeehouse, where our friend Julia Green’s art ***see her work HERE*** has often been displayed, and Laura spent many evenings there growing up drinking hot chocolate on gay Wednesdays (coincidence or prediction of the future?? We'll never know)!! Sarah and Laura did a photo shoot at 'Freak Alley', where local artists paint the buildings in downtown Boise.

Our photoshoot at Freak Alley, and bottom right, one of Julia's window displays at the Flying M Coffeehouse

The river is wonderful. Boise River runs right through the centre of the town, and throughout the summer, it’s a Boise tradition to float down it in rafts, inner tubes, even air mattresses! The most ingenious thing Laura’s seen on it is a cooler full of drinks, floating in the river alongside its owner’s inner tube, tied by a rope – it keeps the drinks ice cold, even on the hottest of days!! Laura hasn’t gotten the chance to take Sarah to Idaho in the summer yet, but we are sure she will love it!!

(Photos from Pinterest + Tumblr)

We bleed blue for Boise State football. In the American football season, the whole town goes crazy for our University football team. We are the first team in the country to have a field that is not green – we love the ‘smurf turf’!! Even better than watching the boys play is the city of Boise on game day. Every car flies blue and orange flags, everyone wears the colours, people tailgate (In the USA, this is a party that happens at the open tail gate/boot of a car/truck/campervan – much more fun than a British tailgate!) for hours beforehand, and some restaurants even do BSU game day specials! Sarah has gotten into the fun – she’s attended a few games (sat next to Laura’s Dad for the American football crash course), hung out at a proper American tailgate, and now owns much more blue and orange clothing than the average Londoner!! Go big blue!

The single best thing about Boise, and about Idaho, is something that Laura has really missed living in London – seasons. Where in London you seem to get cold and rainy, or warm and… rainy, and occasionally beautiful sunshine, Boise gets 4 distinct seasons. Summer is hot (100+ degrees F, 35+ degrees C) and perfect for festivals, river floating, ice cream and hiking, autumn is picturesque with bright coloured leaves everywhere, crisp air, a classic American Halloween and American football, winter is snowy and cold, and people enjoy skiing, snowboarding, and sitting by the fire drinking hot chocolate, and finally, Spring is gorgeous – it gets warmer, the flowers come out, it is a wonderful time of year. 

Bottom left - that is a lake in the summer, and the snow was up to Laura's thighs!! And she is TALL!

Sarah:

Giddee-up cowgirl!!

Boise was actually the first place Sarah's visited stateside so of course that makes her more than just a little biased when she says that 'Boise is the best place in America'.  Sure, she thinks Vegas is amazing, but as far as a place to grow up or live goes, Boise wins hands down. From Sarah's point of view, she was on to a winner from the moment she found out that it was the 'Potato' state (and we all know how Sarah loves her spuds!) it also helped that it had every kind of landscape - from beautiful hills to rivers, from beach to ski slopes, Boise was like something out of the movies. When people ask Sarah about Boise now, they get a sales pitch that starts with 'OMG you have to go!!' and ends with 'It's such an amazing place!'. As with all American states, it has more food outlets than you will ever need, 24 hour access to pancakes, milkshakes and fast food, but Boise also has the Treefort alternative music festival (oh, it's officially the 'City of Trees' as well) and Sarah's nickname in school was Tree! (Random fact!!!) As yet, Sarah has only seen the city in autumn/fall and winter but that has led to her experiencing a Corn Maze ***See our homemade horror short film HERE***, a Festival of (Christmas) Trees, a trip to natural hot springs - even with snow on the ground, singing round the city Christmas tree, a Christmas parade, skiing on slopes that have just opened and witnessing 3 Boise State home games- tailgate included! She's spotted elk, moose and deer crossing the road - oh and hanging out in the front yard. And been to her first American high school and as expected she thought it was just like the ones on TV!

So as we're sure you can see, Idaho is a wonderful place and you all should go there. 'Real America' is often overlooked in favour of places like L.A. and New York: as wonderful and unique as those places are, we'd always recommend going to a place in the USA that is less touristy, and more how the rest of us live to get the 'true' experience. We are so excited to get to spend another 2.5 weeks in Boise, Idaho this year!!

Have a great Easter weekend!!

Love always, 

Laura & Sarah xo