August 7, 2017. Sewage, shopping and sushi!

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Boise, Idaho

WEATHER:  Warm but pleasant.  High about 90.  Hazy, due to continued forest fires in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia

 

Each morning, we water the flowers and play with the dogs.  The puppy has so much energy that we want to give her a good workout while we are around the house.  George took her for a walk, too, and she gave him a run for his money.  

Then, we went to the Boise water treatment center.  We had read an article about it, and it sounded interesting.  They have an indoor and outdoor education center that is high-tech and really well-done.  There were several school field trip groups in attendance.  The landscapng is beautiful..

 

After lunch at home (BLTs), we went to an upscale shopping center nearby.  We stopped at a very nice grocery co-op to stock up on unique beers and wines to take with us next week to Canada.  

 

Back home, we played with the dogs some more.  The puppy just doesn't wear out!  She loves to fetch.    

For a treat, we went into downtown Boise for dinner to a well-known sushi restaurant.  It was really top-notch.  We sat at the sushi bar, watching the 2 Japanese sushi chefs make artistic and delicious creations.  Too many times, sushi places don't have authentic sushi masters.  These 2 chatted to each other in Japanese the entire time.  We shared a sushi platter....

Downtown Boise is very vibrant.  There were lots of people strolling around, sidewalk musicians, and people enjoying dinner and drinks in outdoor cafes.  

Still jet-lagged, I fell asleep at about 8:00 (after waking up this morning at 3;00 AM). :-(.   

 

August 6, 2017. Wineries, breweries and elk burgers!

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Boise, Idaho

WEATHER:  Still hot, but very tolerable.  Highs in 90s

 

I took the rambunctious Addy, our puppy, for a walk around the neighborhood.  She enjoying checking out all the smells.  I got a real workout tryiing to keep her from running away.  Then, we spent time in the backyard playing fetch.  She has lots of energy!  The older dog mostly observes.

 

This afternoon's plan was to visit a few wineries and breweries.  Boise is full of them!  We went to one that has an industrial vibe...

This area of Boise is called Garden City.

From there, we went to another winery that had been recommended.  This one is located on Boise's "Greenbelt"  - a paved hiking/biking trail following the river that goes on for miles and miles.

Along the path are lots of places to stop - pubs, wineries, breweries.  What a great idea.  This is the one we visited....

 

We have a long list of breweries and wineries to visit here, based on people's recommendations.  We will certainly run out of time before we can hit most of them.     DINNER:  Our homeowner is a hunter.  He has a freezer full of elk burgers and steaks, and encouraged us to try the meat.  George grilled some burgers this evening.  They were delicious.  Side was a salad and sauteed mushrooms.  Yum!    

 

 

August 5, 2017. 4-year "on the road" anniversary

LOCATION:  House-sitting in Boise, Idaho

WEATHER:  High about  95.  Hazy as there is smoke in the air from forest fires in Oregon

 

Jet lag is still bothering us.  We woke up at 3:30 AM, so the dogs were happy to get an early start on the day.

 

We went to the downtown Boise Farmers' Market in the morning.  Lots of people.  Fun foods to sample.  Fun to people-watch...

 

Then, we toured the Boise Basque Museum and Cultural Center.  We hadn't realized that the Basque culture is so strong here.  The Basques settled in this area in the 1800s.  Most were sheepherders.  There are Basque restaurants around town that we want to check out.  We stopped in one of the Basque boardinghouses where they used to live together.  

In the afternoon, we rested.  George watched TV with Rusty, the older dog, quietly resting with him.  Then Addy, the puppy, had to join the fun....

In the evening, we visited George's cousin and her family and had a wonderful time together.  Delicious porkchops on the grill.  I made a potato salad (of course with Idaho potatoes) for the dinner.  

 

Four years ago, I left my office, said goodbye to my co-workers and hit the road.  We have been traveling since August 5, 2013. Wow!   

 

August 4, 2017. Recuperating from jet lag

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Boise, Idaho

WEATHER:  Hot but nice.  Cool in the mornings and evenings

 

We took the homeowners to the airport to catch a morning flight.  They are going to Wisconsin for a family reunion.  On the way home, we stopped at the grocery and stocked up.

 

George took the dogs for a nice walk.  When they returned, the dogs and George were all pooped out!   They are really sweet dogs. 

Here is Addy, the puppy, trying to look innocent....  

By mid-afternoon, we were flagging from jet lag.  We napped a bit.  Hopefully we will be back to normal in a few days.

 

We enjoyed the evening by watching PBS news shows that we have missed.  

DINNER:  Chicken thighs on the grill, stir-fried veg and good ole' American corn-on-the-cob.  Yum!  

August 3, 2017. Starting new housesit in Boise

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Boise, Idaho

WEATHER:  Hot and dry.  High 100.  Unusually hot for Boise; perhaps we are a hot weather jinx?

 

We lazed around the hotel, fighting jet lag and catching up on telephone messages, computer stuff.  We found a brewpub for lunch and signed up as "members".  Two coupons for 2 free meals arrived almost immediately via email so we'll be returning to that particular restaurant/pub.  

We then met our new homeowners, a delightful couple from Wisconsin, now Boise residents and fans.  They live in a very nice subdivision, reminding us of our former neighborhood in Rochester.

Our charge here are two hunting dogs, one 12 years old and one still a rambunctious puppy.  They seem very sweet.

We got oriented, then went out to dinner with our homeowners to a brewpub in the country.  Very nice and relaxing.  Bed early as who knows what time our bodies think it is!  

August 2, 2017. Two sunsets in one day!

LOCATION:  Boise, Idaho

WEATHER:  Hot, but we were inside all day

 

Super long day of travel.  We got up at our hotel in Bangkok.  We had a great location - next to the subway, convenient for last night's arrival from the train, and next to the light rail transport to the airport.  

 

We got to the airport about 3 hours early, which is necessary with Bangkok Airport's long lines.  They don't have self check-in, so we had to stand in line for about an hour, along with people with huge mountains of luggage to check.  As we got close to the check-in, a sweet attendant gave us a pass that would give us speedier processing in immigration and security.  We don't really know why we got this, but it was great.  We sped through immigration and security, then had a nice breakfast.  

With so many international travelers, the bathrooms have posted interesting (and self-explanatory) photos...

 

The flight from Bangkok to Shanghai was 4 hours, with one hour time zone difference.  We couldn't see much of Shanghai other than lots of tall buildings and smog.   We flew Shanghai Airlines, a partner with Delta. 

 

 

We finally boarded the plane to LAX.  We were assigned seats in the very back row.  As George said, at least it was close to the toilets.  We left 2.5 hours late, making us a bit nervous about our LAX connection.  We saw the sun set as we were leaving Shanghai.  The 12-hour flight was actually not too bad, with movies, a good book, then a nap.  Since we were in the far back, it took us a bit to exit the plane in LAX.  We were given an express pass, as Delta knew we had a tight connection.  The pass let us go to the front of the immigration line.  The LAX airport is not very well-designed.  We had to exit the international terminal and walk to one of Delta's national terminals, resulting in the need to go through security again.  We were really hustling.  We had visions of sleeping in LAX.  But, we made the flight to Boise, with just mintues to spare.  As we were departing from LAX, we saw the sun set for the second time today.  

We made it to our hotel at about midnight.  LONG day!   

August 1, 2017. 12-hour train ride through Thailand

LOCATION:  Bangkok, Thailand

WEATHER:  Hot outside, I'm sure, but we were cool in A/C train

 

We stayed last night in a hotel next to the railway station.  At about 4:00 AM, we were jolted awake by announcements of trains arriving and departing.  The station was a beehive of activitiy.

 

The train station is quite nice.  

 

 The supervisor gave the crew a pep talk before the train left....

 

Some peasants were enjoying a meal, waiting for their train....  

Our train is a 2nd class one.  It is air-conditioned.  Yay!  We had originnally planned to take the first class overnight one, but the timing did not work.  Ours....

At least  it was not a 3rd class local one with no A/C and terribly slow....  

The trip from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was about 12 hours.  We went through a lot of jungle....  

A young lady served us coffee and snacks...

Later, she came around and served us lunch.  Quite a surprise.  All for less than $30/ticket

The toilet was just a big hole in the floor.  Not too luxurious!

After about halfway through the trip, we started seeing flooded fields.  We later read that there have been devasting floods in this area.  Houses that are on stilts are barely above the water line.

We passed a lot of poor-looking huts.  

We arrived in the Bangkok station at about 7:45 PM, and found the subway to our hotel.   This is a map of our S.E. Asia trip  

    DINNER:  Korean kimchi tacos and a craft beer.  Since it is the beginning of the month, I will recap July and tell you our August plans.....  

A look back - July 2017

 

We started the month finishing up a housesitting assignment in Walla Walla, Washington.  We spent the 4th of July weekend in Hell's Canyon, on the border of Idaho and Washington.  

 

The RV park gave us permission to leave our Airstream in their parking lot.  We left it there, somewhat uneasily, and drove to Boise, Idaho where we caught a flight to Seattle, then to Seoul, and then to Bangkok, our destination.  We had a housesitting assignment there for a young professional woman and her very large Maine Coon cat, Bronson. Bronson is 14 and diabetic.  In her orientation with us, she told us that this NEVER has happened, but gave us instructions for dealing with diabetic shock.  Sure enough, the day after she left, Bronson manifested all the signs.  We took him to a pet hospital and had lots of interesting experiences dealing with everyone from the front doorman, to the taxi drivers, to the hospital staff regarding our situation.  We got to know the light rail system of Bangkok and did a lot of exploration.  After our assignment, we flew from chaotic Bangkok to sophisticated, rule-abiding Singapore for our next assignment.  There we took care of Sita, a rescue cat that lives both indoors and outdoors.  She decided to run away one evening after dinner.  She was gone 30 hours and I was in a terrible state.   Thank goodness she returned.  The homeowners would have been devastated had she not....me, too.  We did a lot of sightseeing in Singapore during the week we were there.  From Singapore we flew to northern Thailand, to Chiang Mai, home of about 650 temples.  We saw our fair share, and spent two days traveling around the city and the surrounding mountains with a fun taxi driver.  We then did our own tour of far northern Thailand to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle.   This part of Thailand is still very rustic.  July ended back in Chiang Mai.  

 

Up next in August, 2017...

 

From Chiang Mai, we traveled by train to Bangkok, a 12+ hour train ride.  Then, a LONG flight back to Boise via Shanghai and Los Angeles.  We have a one-week housesit in Boise where we hope to meet up with some friends and cousins.  After the assignment, we will drive up to Lewiston, Idaho to pick up the Airstream, then drive XXX miles to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.  We may have to go the long way, via Banff and Jasper, Alberta, to avoid the forest fires in B.C.  We will meet up with our friends Tony and Jenny from Nova Scotia in Prince Rupert, then take a ferry to Haida Gwaii for a few days.  This has been on both couples' bucket lists.  From there, we may tag along with Tony and Jenny camping in other parts of British Columbia.  After that, we have no firm plans other than needing to be in our new tiny house by early October to welcome our first house guests, Tony and Jenny.