Beautiful country . I really need to get up there before I die. Only part of the country I haven’t been.
Yep, get yourself up there and go hiking, rafting and spend some time in the Sawtooth's.
Of all the places I've lived, Idaho was the best by far. The topography and weather, 4 real seasons, are top notch. I moved to Boise in 93 and they were just going through their "Don't Californicate Idaho" movement so the long time locals were moody as hell.
I hired one of my Program Directors from Northern California and advised him to change his tag asap. He came in later that week laughing and said he'd waited too long, a nice old grandmotherly type flipped him off at a stoplight.
Downtown Boise was cool as hell back then and the high school kids still did the downtown cruise on Friday nights. And Boise was surprisingly cosmopolitan when it came to the arts. JR Simplot, the father of the frozen French fry and largest exporter to Japan, and the Albertson sisters, the grocery chain people, are the art benefactors to Boise and big contributors to Broadway and get some exceptional entertainment in Boise because of their money and influence.
If not for family in Austin, I would have retired in Idaho as close to the Payette River as I could get. Boise is a well kept secret because they don't want growth. They want it just like it's always been, bankers with their sleeves rolled up and trout fishing at lunch time in downtown Boise, rafting 45 minutes away and great skiing only 10 minutes away on the first lighted runs in the US, they installed them there to test them out before Sun Valley, another great place.
Damn me, I gotta stop or I'll start packing. I am missing me some Idaho and around July and August here, I'll really be missing it.