From now on, the last 10 days will be known as
The Post Pojos, Pre Epic Mountain Bike Ride Period. Or not. I s'pose I'll have to work a tad harder if I intend to give you, dear reader, a picture of the-last-10-days-of-josh's-life. Until that glorious day when I can sit down at my computer, plug myself into my Dell's harddrive, and have my memory directly translated and transferred onto a blogger page, I'll be forced to stay literate and shit. Oh, life
is hard.
When was it? 12 days ago? That was a Thursday I think. No, it was a Friday night when Fern and I went to Pojos on Fairview. That was two posts ago on her blog, if you care to read about it. Having established the time and setting, I'd like to present the WHOWHAT!?! of the evening. The WHOWHAT!?! matters most-it was Fern and I getin all hot and schweaty on the japanese dance game, bump'n and grind'n on the bumper car floor, and demonstrating our complete lack of ball-sport talent at the basketball hoops. It was also discovering that I'm even less photogenic in black and white (photo booth). Plus, we realized that it's a blast to shoot up dinosaurs and evil-doers, but its no fun bouncing off stone walls on your motorcycle. We inhabited the establishment alongside the requisite sticky lil' kids. Unexpectedly, there was a large contingent of sticky, mustache-wearing adults present as well, taking pleasure in their disproportionate masses as they bumped the crap out of little kids in their bumper cars. Yeah, that was Pojos 11 days ago, and it was
good times, as they say.
Next, it was Saturday and I had to work goddamit. This marked the beggining of the "Brother and Mother Visit" phase of the Post Pojos period. My brother Seth arrived in town first. Saturday night we made mighty tasty fish tacos at home. I think we went swimming in my pool.
Sunday I worked as scheduled. That was the day my mom showed up. After work, we all (including Jennifer) had dinner at Bardenay. Good food (tuna melt?) and good company (fam n' fern).
Hrm, my memory of the first half of last week is especially fuzzy. I remember that on Tuesday Mom, Seth, and I walked down to the Fish and Game nature center. I was rather shocked to discover that there is an indoor part of the experience, including stuffed and living creatures, as well as parts and pieces of creatures-that-once-were. And I'm pretty into that sort of thing. There was a stuffed elk, mountain lion, buffalo head, wolf, bat, and others. Learning to identify a bat at the Fish and Game Center would prove itself to be a handy skill later on in the week. Upon exiting the building and making our way into a lil' bird watching area we had one of the most serene moments of the Mom and Brother phase of the last 10 days. The temperature was like 10 degrees cooler on the bench among the bamboo shoots where we peered out and watched several kinds of birds feeding side by side; some apparantly fond of the company, while others engaged in a bit of tussling.
Next, we walked through the garden portion of the Nature Center. The pretty plants, as is always the case, were nice to gaze upon. As we made our way down the path we observed a blue heron perched atop a skeleton tree in the middle of the garden. For a while, it scratched itself behind the ear with one long toe. I began to worry that the heron might not be able to judge when it would be prudent to stop scratching the itch. Standing directly beneath the "tree", I quietly hoped that the bird would not take flight and drop a heron-sized bomb on my head.
That didn't happen, thankfully. Believe it or not, we became bored of watching the heron, and moved on. At one point, mom wandered into a patch of blossoming wild flowers. She remarked at how beautiful they were at about the same time she began sniffling and sneazing. Quickly, two and two were put together and she nearly ran from the offending pollen-emitting flowers.
Then we checked out the salmon-run displays which were a little dissapointing due to their lack of salmon. But the water was nice, and there
were a couple large salmon in the last pool. One that floated beneath a log looked especially old and tired. I became bored of starring at the inactive fish, so I decided to drop some very small rocks into the pool to see if they'd rile him up. I had a rock in hand perched above the window ready to be dropped when one of the Nature Center's workers emerged from around the corner. I did my best to put my hand down without a) drawing attention to myself, and b) looking like a guilty child. I think I suceeded as the worker said nothing of my behavior.
On Wednesday and Thursday Seth was away spending time with friends. Mom and I hung out. Wednesday, Fern accompanied us to the Flicks where we watched "An Inconvenient Truth" starring The Man himself, Al Gore. Thurday we went to Satchels and had a nice chat.
Friday was the big day. Mom had rented a car and we were going to set off on some kind of adventure. I was troubled, because the destinations I thought off were, to me, far from perfect. Seth and Mom wanted go to the mountains. That's what you do when you visit Idaho; especially if you live in New York City like Seth does.. So I thought we might go to Idaho City and beyond. Idaho city is neat and all, but I wasn't at all excited about the idea, because its nearly ugly, contrary to the beauty we sought. I was also thinking of driving up to Bogus, which is more beautiful and cool temperature-wise but is the farthest thing from exotic and exciting in my opinion, having already been there a million times. Thus, we were going to head to Cascade Resevoir that morning and see what we could see. Aesthetically, the area is one of the best in Idaho. At the last moment I remembered Blue Lake. Jennifer had been wanting to take me there ever since we met. It's her favorite place in Idaho, I think. Over the last year and a half, I've learned enough about the lake-including how to get there-that when the idea popped into my head Friday, I decided it was the only satisfactory place to take my mom and brother.
In the car, on the trip north, the three of us engaged in a lively discussion about happiness and morals and such. Also, Seth entertained us with outtakes from a comedy show that I'm remiss to not remember the name of. It made the drive a little more bearable. Also, throughout the week and along the drive, mom would perk up from time to time when she saw a home or place that made her think about moving to Idaho. Her heart is in Idaho, you could safely say, and I think she's entirely justified for loving it here so much. Just look at the pictures from any of the adventures Fern and I or my family have had here and ask yourself if this isn't a kick-ass place to be.
Yeah, so we stopped in Horseshoe bend and stocked up on supplies. Seth, with new recommendations for a low-fat foods in his possession, went ahead and bought two cheese filled hot dogs for lunch. Hey, its vacation, time to splurge! We drove north on the windy road along the white n' roaring Payette River. Accidently, we passed the turnoff for Blue Lake and entered Cascade. We spied a giant flea market at the side of the road and decided to check it out. There I aquired a large straw hat perfect for keeping the sun off my face, neck, and shoulders during outdoor adventures. Other than the hat, the flea market was filled with silly crap, as flea markets tend to be.
Back on the road, we made it to the Blue Lake turnoff and quickly became awed by the beauty of the area. All the way up the switchbacks and steep gravel road we remarked at how amazing the scenery was. We could see the valley below us throughout most of the drive up the mountain. Finally, we caught a glimpse of Blue Lake and pulled to the side of the road to check it out. The view of the lake below us was quite nice. We walked to the other side of the road where a large snow drift lay slowly melting in the summer sun. Ofcourse, I had to mount the drift and construct a mini-snowman. My hands nearly froze off, which is an unexpected experience in Summer. While screwing around on the snow, my new straw hat got caught by a gust of wind and was launched through the air and down to a spot below the drift. Afraid that at any moment the hat which I had just spent five dollars for might blow even farther away, I threw caution to the wind and thrust myself down the snow, sliding on my flip-flops, faster and more out of control by the moment. By the time I hit the dirt I was going way too fast and nearly tumbled head first into some rocks. I was able to recover and slow down before making my way to the hat and shoving it back down on my head, just like Indiana Jones. The adventure was underway!
We piled back into the car and drove for approximately 1 minute up the road before arriving at a parking lot and trail head. We were all overjoyed to see that an outhouse had been supplied by the Forest Service. Ladies first!, so mom walked into the outhouse. Five seconds later she walked out, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. She kept saying "you won't believe this". It took Seth and I several guesses before she told us that there was a bat in the toilet. Being a lover of wildlife-even wildlife sitting atop a pile of excrement-I just had to check it out. Sure enough, there was a bat crawling amongst the toilet paper and unspeakables. There was no choice in the matter. I had to save the bat from a terrible,
terrible fate. I grabbed a stick and tried to fish the little guy out. To my dismay, the bat fell further down the pile of crap and dissapeared from site. I thought it was over. The three of us gave up on the idea of using the outhouse and prepared to hike down the trail to the lake. Before we hit the trail, we checked the toilet again. Low! the bat was back atop the pile, seeming more eager to escape than before. Mom told me to grab a stick with smaller branches, but I had a better idea. I went back to the car and unrolled several swatches of paper towel. I rolled these up like a tube, allowed the bat to grapple on; and pulled the bat from the toilet, out into the open air, where it took flight and fluttered about, free at last, thank god almighty! [before the bat took flight, it raced up the paper towel towards my hand...which was a little worrisome]
Ok, so we hiked down the trail to the lake. We found a good spot on a rock at the shore to set down our stuff. I became committed to go swimming. Thankfully, the water was not as cold as I expected it to be, and after a few torturous minutes, I was able to lower myself into the water completely. Seth managed to do the same-however, his technique involved getting in the lake half way, pretending some kid was drowning, and diving in the rest of the way. We swam around carefully for want of not bashing our knees and feet against the rocks. Then, while mom watched from the rocks, Seth and I discussed ways to swim out to the islands in the middle of the lake. Not being very confident in my swimming ability, I tried to disway Seth from taking the route directly to the middle. But when he did anyway, we discovered that it wasn't that long of a swim, and not that difficult. I became very nervous about attempting the swim myself. I even began to swim out, but chickened out and swam back for shore. Finally, with some coaching from Seth, I very calmly made my way across the expanse to the island. I was rather elated to make it across without becoming too exhausted and without feeling panicked. With my confidence renewed, we swam to the two other, smaller islands. The smallest was probably just 15 feet in diameter. A small evergreen tree grew on it. We swam back to shore after posing for photos.
Back on shore, on the rocks, we thought about changing out of our swim trunks. I walked to a part of the rock that formed a cliff 10 feet or so above the lake. Below the cliff, the water was rather deep. I stared, knowing what must be done. I couldn't leave without jumping from the rocks first. I'd regret not doing it. Seth noticed me staring into the water, walked over, and looked at me. We both understood that, yes, we were going to jump in. After we made sure mom was ready with the camera, we counted down from five and jumped into the lake at the same time. It was great-just like a Coors Light commercial! Or, a double mint gum commercial. More accurately, a
gay double mint gum commercial... Ofcourse, we had to do it again, and again, and again, and then one more time, higher up the rock, one at a time.
The hike back to the car was a bit steep, so we stopped to rest and talk a few times. The flora along the path was very beautiful.
We drove to Cascade along the resevoir. We ate at Grandma's Kitchen. The service and food sucked, reconfirming the fact that home cooking is far superior to going out. We drove back to Boise and went to bed.
That was the big day, Friday.
Saturday, the three of us went to the market downtown, met up with Seth's friend Chris, had dinner at Table Rock (soup and salad), browsed around in the consignment furniture store, Renewal, and went to the Art Museum. I bought a framed print at Renewal for $19 (Joan of Arc). Somehow, I managed to carry it while piloting the tandem back home. That night we watched "Major Barbara" at the Shakespeare Theatre. We dined on cheese and fruit on the grass while we watched the George Bernard Shaw play which pit Machavellian and Christian morals against each other.
Sunday I worked goddamit. After work, I cleaned up and met Fern (who had returned to Boise after a weekend camping with her friend Elizabeth) for sushi at Koi. Then I came home and coralled Mom and Seth onto the bikes (tandem and Shaft) and to Camelback park where we threw the poof football around (even mom joined in), and Seth and I threw the frisbee (I need practice). When it became dark, we had a sit at Lucky 13 in Hyde Park. Fern and I drank Corona's while Seth enjoyed a Seven and Seven and Mom had some water. For a while, we actually talked about politics! On the way back, Mom had us stop to look at some small homes in the North End that were advertised for sale. They were cute, but not $289,000 cute. Again, mom's dream of getting a place in Boise was crushed! Poor mom.
Monday morning, I drove Mom and Seth to the airport and said goodbye. I dropped off the rental car and went to work. It was rather busy. Fern and I rode our road bikes up and around the Mesa that night. Later, Fern came over for some much needed R&R (conversation and drinking).
Today, I'm looking forward to an epic ride with Fern. I've managed to clean the house and spend way too much time recounting my week, so I feel accomplished. Till next time, ciao!
