Bollywood & Freezing Toes

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We arrived in Boise late afternoon yesterday - what a terrific city!! We have had a lot of fun and celebrated Jim's 36th birthday in style! We arrived a bit too early to check into the hotel, so we wandered down 8th street and discovered a section with restaurants, a fountain and shops. We wandered around and stopped into a Mexican place called The Matador for pre-dinner drinks. Jim had a cadillac margarita and a shot of Clase Azul - his favorite. I had a fresh Tamarind margarita with a cinnamon-sugar rim. It was so good and so unique. I had never had anything like it. A perfect way to start our celebration!

Jim selected Prime Rib as his birthday dinner, so after we freshened up and got all our gear unloaded into the hotel room, we went to an early dinner at Lock, Stock and Barrel, a local steakhouse known for their famous prime rib. Having only ever had prime rib in Vegas casino buffet lines, I had no idea what a true prime rib cut would be like. We started with cocktails and an appetizer and then ordered our prime rib. It was amazing! It was fork tender, cooked medium with horseradish sauce and au jus. My eyes were far bigger than my stomach and I took half of my dinner back to the room with me. I hope Jim had a great time! We decided to take in a movie and went to the 7:30 showing of the final Harry Potter film. A really beautifully shot film and a good movie to boot. We also watched an in-room movie and stayed up pretty late for movie night.

This morning was a very lazy morning. Having lost an hour with the time change, we awoke at 10am. We made final arrangements for the anniversary party, called the caterer with our final headcount and showered up for the day. We decided to try a local Indian restaurant for a lunch buffet and boy was I happy that we did. As I write this, I am fully acknowledging that I provide far more details about food than I do with any other feature of our trip! The restaurant was nestled in a strip mall - ALWAYS a good sign for an Indian restaurant!! The restaurant is called Madhuban Indian Cuisine. Nicely decorated with a two panel buffet station. I want to be sure to capture some of the items I tried for the first time - here's what I had: Baigan Bhartha that was a little disappointing as I typically enjoy mine much, much more spicy! A pepper chicken that was absolutely divine, a tangy red sauce with fresh bell peppers, onions and chicken. Chicken Makhani with a spicy/creamy sauce, vegetable biryani that was so flavorful and filled with peas and carrots. Tandoori Chicken that was filled with oven roasted flavor. Aloo Chana - chickpea and potato salad that was out of this world - a cold, crunchy salad with tomato, cucumber, coriander, chutneys, fresh red onion and perfectly cooked potato that absorbed the delicious spices of the dressing. Sag Paneer, always a nice staple and mildly seasoned (with cinnamon??). What made this place extra special was that there was Bollywood music playing and we were really enjoying it. We asked the waitress if she knew of the name of the CD and she said the owner burned in from MP3s. After several attempts to use an app on my phone to identify at least one of the artists or tracks, we gave up and enjoyed the lunch. When we were paying the bill, the waitress left us, all of a sudden the music stopped and she had pulled the CD from the player and gave it to us! She said they could always burn another one and she hoped we would enjoy the music. Super nice! The rest of the afternoon, we toured Boise with Bollywood tunes playing.

After lunch, we toured the statehouse including the Senate and House chambers. A spectacular rotunda with marble staircases. We nosed around a bit and enjoyed the gardens there. We then went down to the Boise River and found a sandy embankment where we could dip our toes. Burr! The water was ice cold and was actually rushing much faster then I realized. There were a few brave souls who were floating down the river in tubes and canoes, but with thunderstorms pretty much all day - not sure I would have braved that water with no sunshine to warm me up.

Tonight, we hope to go to bed a bit earlier and get a jump start for Salt Lake. Three quarters of the way on our drive is a sleepy little town called Honeyville, home of Crystal Hot Springs. Jim brought me here the very first summer we were dating and it was wonderful! Both hot and cold mineral spring pools - a perfect detour for our six hour drive tomorrow. Can't wait!

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