Day 11

Thursday October 22 2009

Woke up at 8am, ate some breakfast and left at 9:30. We drove through Montana and then into Idaho. Stopped at Idaho Falls. There is a really wide waterfall that is also extremely short. Very pretty – the trees are all orange and red. We left the mountain area and hit more prairie full of cows and sagebrush. Idaho has 3 buttes –solitary mountains in the middle of nowhere. (A butte is a hill with a flat top) The first one had pointy things on top – lots of antennae, radio towers and other equipment used for research- possibly a weather station. We passed all 3 of the buttes. In the distance on the horizon are some mountains – a pale pink and purple shadow with pretty clouds on top. Stretching all the way to the bottom of the mountains is brown prairie grass. We stopped in Arco Idaho and had lunch at “Something” Pickles. It was ok food, they make their own blend of seasoning spices. We had to watch out for the attack waitress, she has an ice cube and knows how to stuff it down people’s shirts. They had a giant green rocking chair. Mom got Laura a cool pickle shirt. A giant hill near town was covered in giant white numbers. The graduating class each year paint their year on the side of the mountain. We continued to Craters of the Moon National Park. It was awesome! A volcano exploded millions of years ago and coated all of North America with volcanic soot and ash. The lava flows hardened into lava rock. The area of the volcano is now a giant mountain of cooled lava. Lava rock comes in many varieties – Aa is one of them. We drove up on a road that twists around the park and stopped at various places for pictures and further exploration. The whole landscape looks like the moon – because not much can grow on lava rock. As far as the eye can see is piles of black rubble resembling bits of charred wood. Some are very cool looking – you can see how the lava flowed and then cooled down forming large bubbles and ripples. Streams of oozing lava frozen in mid-ooze. Some of the lava formed caves and crevices which can be explored. We went spelunking in one such cave. We weren’t dressed appropriately in spelunking gear, so it was a bit difficult. The rocks were loose and strewn everywhere. Lava rocks are very sharp and spiky, mom cut her hand on one of them. We had a flashlight, but it was small and not very bright. It was also a bit cold, there is a strong wind on the lavabeds that makes it seem chillier. I explored a small shallow cave and caught it on video. I stole 2 pieces of lava rock despite the many rules posted saying that this is not allowed. I blame it on Mom, she convinced me that no-one would notice such a small rock went missing. The lava rocks are filled with air bubbles and tiny holes. They are charcoal grey.

I got more post cards and we continued on our way. We were thinking of stopping at this fossil bed museum – but by the time we got close to it, they were closed. We didn’t feel like going a bit out of the way to Twin Falls either so that was our last stop. We drove through Idaho along the Snake River valley, which is actually very pretty. Surrounded on two sides by mountains, with the river down the middle all curvy and beautiful. On the way to Boise Mom got pulled over by a cop She was speeding!. The speed dropped from 75 to 55, but we didn’t catch the switch. A cop was waiting for us. With the sun setting over the mountains, we arrived in Boise. We are staying at the Hyatt. Ate dinner at this great restaurant –Romanios. It was greek and Italian, my two favorites.