Stateside With Rosalea
Boise, Idaho
When I told friends that I was going to Boise, Idaho, the response I got was illuminating. "They're all survivalists up
there." "White supremacist country. Beware." Coupled with my inkling that Boise (pronounced boys-ee) is the States'
fun-time equivalent of Eketahuna, I didn't expect much as I set off on my trip last week.
The only other thing I knew about Boise was that some of its buildings are heated by water from hot springs. Maybe I
would have as good a time as this lass in the Iceland Air ad on my BART train to the airport, I thought.
Well, I didn't get to soak in any hot springs (or meet any survivalists, for that matter), but one of the oldest
buildings in Boise is named supposedly for the Indian words meaning "healing waters"--Idan-ha. There is a wonderful
mural made of tiles, sculpted, on the rear wall of the hotel, and throughout the city there are many large painted
murals as well.
The city's name is a corruption of the French word for woods--bois--but the forest it was originally named for have long
since gone. Nonetheless, Boise bills itself as the City of Trees and is very reminiscent of Christchurch in its street
plantings, one way street system, and hills in the distance. Not only that, but the Boise River runs through town and is
flanked by a public greenway and parks.
Besides being a commercial centre, Boise is the capital of the state of Idaho, and has a very impressive
Jeffersonian-looking capitol building near the centre of town. Other public buildings are much more modern, but the
Capitol steps are popular for wedding photographs. Currently, the columns have huge yellow ribbons on them, because of
the nearby Air National Guard base.
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Other architectural gems around town include a State Supreme Court faced with travertine marble, and some quirky
buildings that still retain the stylistic frippery of their time. The Idaho Youth Farms Thrift Shop is housed in one
such building, with my favourite-ever public clock face.
Just like in any university town--especially one that is reinventing itself to attract tourism--Boise has a restored Old
Town, consisting largely of single-story brick buildings, and a Cultural District made up of re-purposed warehouses in
what used to be an industrial area.
For some reason, chandeliers are very popular in Boise. The theatre I went to--reminiscent of Circa in Wellington in
terms of size, professionalism and repertoire--had several odd specimens of these dangling light sources. And the Java
coffee bar, along with its Andy Warhol prints, also sported a couple of iron monstrosities.
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Boise is only a couple of hours' flight direct from Oakland on Southwest Airlines. The airport there is very modern and
just a $10 cab ride from town. The city has a population of about 185,000 and is nestled on a plateau at about 4,000
feet, so you have this wonderful combination of mountain air and sagebrush scent in the cool of the early morning.
--ENDS--