Skip to main content

2013, November: Idaho Falls, First Impressions


I visited Idaho Falls for the first time last week. Christian is already there, settled in a wee studio apartment on a "numbered street" in town (apparently that's a cool thing) and loving his job. My first impression was quite bleak. The weather was cold and the sun and the mountains were nowhere to be seen. On closer inspection, however, I quickly fell in love. The historic downtown is artsy and quaint, with great restaurants, coffee shops, and artist-made benches. The Snake River winds through town surrounded by the Greenbelt, with walking/biking trails, views of the river and falls, and more awesome benches. For a small-ish town (population is almost 60,000) there is a lot of culture. I explored the Museum of Idaho, The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho, and the Idaho Falls Arts Council, which includes two art galleries and the Colonial Theater.


House-hunting in Rigby, 20 minutes north of Idaho Falls gave me the distant view of mountains that I needed, and we found great old farmhouses surrounded by fields, fruit trees, and potato silos. (Side note, Rigby is known as the birthplace of television, due to famous high school student Philo Taylor Farnsworth, who drew up his first blue-prints of a television while he was a resident.)

The best part of the entire experience for me though was driving up to the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park. We couldn't go into the park since the roads were closed with drifting snow, but I needed to prove to myself that it is close enough for a day trip, and it is! On a less-snowy day I can be at Old Faithful in two hours (the same amount of time as my current commute, one-way), drinking coffee at the Inn, wandering the boardwalks around the hot springs, or hiking through the forest. My absolute favorite place in the world.


Christian's new workplace - the Caribou-Targhee National Forest - is beautiful too, especially in the snow, though we only peeked at a fraction of its 3 million acres.

It looks like I'll be making the big move several months earlier than planned, since I got a great job and they need me to start in January (more on that soon). This is terrifying because there is so much to be done, never mind the 2,200 mile drive in the middle of winter with five cats, but I cannot wait to get back out there to continue our western wilderness adventure. You can see all of my photos from this first visit on Flickr.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016, January: Who Should Pay for the Arts

Working for a small nonprofit after the Goliath that is the Smithsonian has been an eye-opening experience. We're constantly doing - as my boss likes to call it - "the hustle." A great deal of time, energy, and resources is spent (and stress, sleepless nights, and several tears are experienced) while chasing funding instead of working on the mission, while the mission remains crucial to bringing in the money as well as being the reason we're all here. It's difficult to maintain that balance while keeping the organization afloat and the staff (mostly) sane. It's made me think a great deal about who should pay for what we do. I believe the arts are critically important and I am incredibly proud that a town the size of Idaho Falls (serving a population of around 100,000 in the city and surrounding rural areas) has art galleries, a large, historic theater that brings in nationally touring productions, and the-first-of-its-kind interactive art and technology cent...
Post a Comment
Read more

2018, August: Idaho Falls Mom's Blog!

I'm incredibly proud to be a contributor for the new Idaho Falls Mom's Blog , which launched today! I'm hopeful it will be a great motivator for my writing, but also a way to meet local moms. I'm useless at meeting new people and this group should force me to be social - it already has once when we took our headshots (which look amazing, btw). Writing a post or two each month for the mom's blog means I will definitely be neglecting this site - so check out my posts over there. I plan to write about ARTitorium stuff, crafting with a toddler, and general parenting topics (next post - potty training!).
Post a Comment
Read more

Guns, Art, and Cowboys: A Visit to The Center for the West

My family headed to northwest Wyoming for Spring Break, spending time in Thermopolis, Cody, and Dubois. The primary reason for our trip was to visit the Buffalo Bill Center for the West in Cody. Having worked in museums for most of my professional career, I am a complete museum geek, so I was excited to discover that the Center for the West was not too far away from here (and even closer when the roads in Yellowstone are open!). This facility is amazing! It’s actually five museums in one - Cody Firearms Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, Buffalo Bill Museum, and Plains Indian Museum. It really does have something for everyone. Now before my next statement, you need to understand that my kids are 6 and 3 and generally insane. They cannot sit still, are incapable of being quiet, and completely lack patience: We spent almost six hours at the Center for the West. Six hours. Can you believe it? I cannot. Each of the five museums is the perfect size. Not so b...
Post a Comment
Read more