Editor’s note: this article comes at an amazing time, since my own first trip to Boise was a couple months ago and my suite of four articles will be coming out in the coming weeks. Sam, however, has spent much more time in this truly terrific city, and does an incredible job summing up just why it is sure to exceed your expectations. For more of Sam’s writing, click here to visit his index page.
When I was a bachelor, I wondered where my future spouse would be from. After all, whoever I married, I knew that wherever they were from would be a place we would travel regularly to see her family, and where our future kids would visit their grandparents. While many cities crossed my mind, I did not anticipate that I would marry a Jewish girl from Boise, Idaho. I did not know a whole lot about Boise; I had driven through it as a kid when we did a family trip to Sun Valley and remembered the city being fairly non-memorable, and so I was not sure how I felt about the idea that I would be traveling to Boise regularly, especially when I moved only a five hour drive away in Salt Lake City.
The first time Jill took me to Boise I was in shock to discover that Boise is one of America’s best kept secrets, a secret that is getting out as the city is experiencing rapid growth. My first evening in the downtown area of Idaho’s largest city and capital I was astounded; the nightlife scene rivaled Los Angeles’. Street food stalls abounded as nightclub after nightclub and bar after bar were packed with young people having the time of their lives. Jill took me into a local favorite, Humpin’ Hannah’s, an establishment filled with hundreds of people, pool tables, different rooms and levels, and a live cover band singing classic hits while people sang and danced. While a place whose décor is hundreds of pairs of bras hanging from the lights and rafters is not the classiest joint on earth, it is a guaranteed fun night out. Perhaps the young vibe of the town could be related to Boise State University being right in the heart of the city. With a legendary football program and no professional sports teams, the whole city rallies around the team with everyone sporting blue and orange on game days. Good luck getting tickets, as everyone in town is trying to grab them, especially to cheer the Broncos on at one of the most famous and unique fields in the country at Albertson’s Stadium with its bright blue field that is dubbed “smurf turf”.
Downtown Boise also has a great restaurant scene, but what stands out is its Basque district. Boise has one of the largest Basque expat populations in the world dating back to the late 1800s when Basque immigrants left southern France and northern Spain to work as sheepherders in the nearby fields. In this district, there are numerous Basque nationalist flags hanging from restaurants, a cultural center and museum, as well as several Basque restaurants. Though I have not been to the Basque Country, I have spent time in Spain and had its world-class food, but the Basque Country is considered to be the nation’s culinary capital. Trying the Basque food here is not only a classic Boise experience, but something that you cannot do in every American city.
There are numerous cultural activities such as museums, a birds of prey center, and botanical gardens, like you might find in other towns. The domed capitol building dates back to 1905, but completed a two year renovation in 2010, and stands prominently in town and can be visited. It is not only appropriately stately, but is unique in that it is the only capitol building in the country to be heated by geothermal springs, which are abundant in Idaho.
As a Jew, it is surprising that Idaho and Idaho politics have a special role in my heart. At the beginning of the 1900s, Moses Alexander, a Jewish businessman, served two terms as mayor of Boise and then became the first practicing Jew to be elected governor of anywhere in the United States when he was elected to be the chief executive of Idaho in 1915. Boise’s synagogue, Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel, is also worth visiting, as its sanctuary is the oldest continuously used synagogue building west of the Mississippi. The structure was built in 1896 in a Moorish style with a famous rose window that is depicted in artwork and Judaica designs. When the congregation expanded with a modern building and in a different part of town in 2003, the old sanctuary was lifted and moved across town and placed at the new property, a spectacle many in Boise fondly recall. Finally, there is one other Jewish attraction in Boise that all should visit and that is the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. The memorial features a bronze statue of Anne Frank, stone walls with quotes from her, and water features; it combines Anne’s love of nature and faith in humanity in its design and is part of the larger Wassmuth Center for Human Rights located in the town.
While less formal, there are a few spots down the street from the capitol worth visiting. A few blocks away is the Freak Alley Gallery. Boise has beautiful murals and street art, many depicting nature, but Freak Alley Gallery is a must-do for any street art lover. Located between 8th and 9th Streets and Bannock and Idaho Avenues, these couple alleys contain the northwest’s largest open air, multi-artist mural gallery. It is fun to explore the alleyways next to a pedestrian street and see the different designs. While downtown Boise has many high-end dining establishments, another must-do in town is to go to the Westside Drive In, a fast-food joint, which has the famous Idaho ice cream potato. This dessert homage to Idaho being America’s spud capital is vanilla ice cream covered in cocoa powder and topped with whipped cream and Oreo crumbs, which looks like a baked potato.
An interesting and fun spot to visit in Boise is the Old Idaho State Penitentiary. From 1872 until it was closed after significant riots that damaged much of it in 1973, this was the state prison that included housing for death row inmates and was where executions took place. The building is a Romanesque fortress with guard towers. Upon walking in, you will see a beautiful rose garden, which despite its beauty is where several executions took place. Going into the buildings where the inmates were housed is a haunting experience as you see rows of cells stacked on top of each other, bars closed and the layers of paint peeling from the wall. The tiniest cells, which are likely only a couple hundred square feet, had a hole to slide in and out a bucket that the inmates would use as their bathroom, and housed two inmates on a bunk bed, while slightly larger cells that shared one toilet and no privacy would house four inmates. As you walk through the various cells in general population, maximum security, and death row, you will have the opportunity to read about the different inmates who were housed in those individual cells. Perhaps the most evocative place at the prison is the gallows, where some of the death row inmates met their demise. You will get to see the room, the trapdoor, the witness room, and the drop room where it all took place. The grounds of the penitentiary are lovely and some of the buildings, despite their sad past, are beautiful. There are guided tours of the penitentiary, and the museum does a nice job making the displays engaging. Just behind the penitentiary are other historic buildings as well as hiking trails and the botanical gardens are next door.
Boise is a city where nature and urban life collide. It is home to numerous lovely parks, and the Boise River cuts right through the town. A favorite summertime activity for locals is to float the Boise River with an inner tube starting at Barber Park. Three hours and five miles later, you will end up at Ann Morrison Park where a shuttle can take you back to Barber Park to retrieve your car. While you cannot float the river in the wintertime, you can drive a mere 18 miles from the city to Bogus Basin, a ski mountain with seven chairlifts.
Boise is also a great jumping off point for some good day trips. A couple of hours north of the city is McCall, a resort town on Payette Lake. For fun, there is swimming and boating in summer, while there is a public ice sculpture competition and festival in the winter. In between Boise and McCall is the Payette River, which has world-renowned whitewater rafting and kayaking with various degrees of rapids and great flyfishing. It is common to see deer and herds of elk, and even occasional moose in this area too.
A fantastic half-day trip from Boise is to Shoshone Falls, two hours south in the town of Twin Falls. As you go to the falls, you will cross over the Snake River and go over the Snake River Canyon, a striking canyon that received national attention when in 1974 daredevil Evel Knievel attempted, and failed, to launch himself across the canyon. Shoshone Falls is the self-proclaimed “Niagara Falls of the West”, and it actually measures up fairly well to this boast, as it is actually a taller drop than Niagara Falls (Shoshone Falls is 212 feet high, while Niagara Falls is a 167 foot drop); however, Niagara Falls is far wider and produces about 25 times as much flow per second as Shoshone Falls. There is a nice park with different viewpoints of the falls, with the best time to view the falls in the spring as the snow melts and gives it tremendous force. Go in May when there is a light show of the falls at night.
While Boise might not come to mind as a vacation getaway, if you want nightlife, culture, cuisine, and a city that combines nature with urban life, then book yourself a long weekend in Idaho’s capital and largest city, or spend a few days of a larger itinerary in the beautiful Gem State exploring this town.
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