And the packing has begun...

With just 10 days left until departure for Roma this was the weekend to get my packing coordinated. I have to admit I didn't spend too much time on this task. It was relatively quick, I guess I'm getting better at this packing thing! So most everything I'm taking is now piled up in the guest bedroom. Next weekend I can do the actual bag packing and then it will be off to Italia!

24 pages of Rome Restaurants almost up in smoke!

I should have known when the computer was slow, very slow. Then I should have known when the mouse was "acting funny". But I didn't think anything of it , OK, I was ignoring it.

Then "it" happened. My hard drive died! Uggh! ALL my travel research! All my travel confirmations....up in smoke...well, almost!

As my trip to Rome gets closer, last week I decided I really needed to clean up my Rome restaurant list. It was 24 pages long and I had cut and pasted entries from varies sources and wanted to clean it up and re-format the list. So, I printed out the list one night and took it with me to Starbucks the next morning to edit. I must have had a premonition, because the next day the hard drive died! THANK GOD I have the hard copy!

Fortunately I have a computer "guru" working on retrieving any documents he can save and getting a new hard drive up and running and I do have some files backed up on an external hard drive. But I have learned a valuable lesson...back up files more often and pay more attention to a slow computer!

Post #250! AND...the Official Roma Countdown Begins

Holy Cow! Can it be...this is post #250...OK, so I know it's not a huge number given the fact that I started this blog several years ago and I know there are some very spartan entries, but hey, 250 is nice round, chunky number. :)

As I went to sleep last night, way later then I should have, the thought occurred to me that in exactly 4 weeks instead of slipping into my nice crisp sheets and laying my head down on my fluffy pillow I will be squeezed into an economy seat on Delta airlines winging my way to the Eternal City....Roma!

I'm doing it to myself again...getting excited, probably waaaaay to far in advance of my trip, but I just can't help it. Now that it's only 4 weeks away I'm starting to mentally go through all the stuff I'll need to get done before going. Is it really to early to start stocking up on mini sized toiletries? Who am I kidding....I'm ALWAYS stocked up! :)

This weekend will be dedicated to wrapping up my Rome restaurant research and getting that information entered onto my "master restaurant list". Ahhh...I can smell the espresso already!

A Presto mia amici!

Idaho....it's not just potato country!

I returned last night from a whirlwind 4 day trip to the great state of Idaho and what a state it is. Who knew what I was missing...BUT...shhhh...don't tell anyone else how fantastic it is there, I want to keep it all to myself! ;)

After 4 (or is it 5?) years of continually telling my friend Katrina I would come and visit her in Boise, Idaho I took the plunge and booked a plane ticket to visit over the Labor Day weekend.

I could not have asked for:


1) A better friend to visit!


2) More fantastic weather! or


3) More fun-filled activities!




I could have asked for:



1) MORE TIME THERE!!!!

On Thursday, September 3rd I started the trek to Boise by departing Savannah at 11:30am, and I'm happy to say that with 2 connections, one in Atlanta and another in Salt Lake City I walked off the plane in Boise right on time, out the door of the airport and into Katrina's waiting car.

True to her word Katrina had my Boise State tee shirt ready and waiting and we were off to the stadium for tailgating before the Boise State vs. Oregon football game. What an introduction to the great city of Boise. After doning my tee shirt we made our way through the throngs of people and found Katrina's husband and son at the tailgate party. Once I was full of delicious barbequed ribs, corn on the cob, and pasta salad and of course a cold beer, kickoff time was near. We made our way to our seats for the start of the game.

Wow...the Boise State Bronco stadium has, get ready for this, blue turf...otherwise known as "smurf turf". The place was packed...they even set an attendance record...over 34,000 people. And it was an action packed game.

Since it was being televised on ESPN, kickoff was at 8pm so the game lasted until about midnight, by the time we got to Katrina's house it was close to 12:30am and I was ready to hit the hay! The morning would be coming soon and Katrina had us scheduled for a fun-filled Friday!

Friday morning we were up early and it's a good thing Katrina is as addicted to Starbucks as I am, because the first order of the day was to stop for our morning java. After fueling up on caffeine, we were ready and rarin' to go!

We headed for downtown Boise and parked the car and walked over to Adventure Tours of Idaho for a Segway Tour of the downtown area. Oh My God...what fun! Well, after the first 5 or 10 minutes of feeling completely "unbalanced" we had a blast. The Segway did take a few minutes to get used to, but we took a few practice laps up and down the walkway in front of the shop and then we were ready to roll (no pun intended of course!) :) We got to see the capitol building, the Basque Block and some historical points of interest along the route. I would do a Segway tour again in a heartbeat!

When we finished with the tour guide, she let us use the Segways for another 20 minutes or so on our own and we rolled down a few blocks to check out the Boise Human Rights Memorial...a very nicely done spot.

When we finished with the Segways it was close to lunch time, but we didn't have to meet Katrina's aunt and mom for about an hour so we popped into a PF Chang's for lunch. My first time at a PF Chang's and I really liked it. We sat at the bar and had a couple appetizers...the lettuce wraps and the crispy (tempura fried) green beans...both were excellent and I now have this place on my "go to" list for when I'm in other cities.

Next on our itinerary was the trolley tour of Boise. We met Katrina's mom (who I met for the first time) and her auntie (who I had met on our trip to Ireland in 2005) at the Julia Davis Park and we hopped on the trolley and had a really nice tour of the historic houses around the city as well as some other interesting sites (the penitentiary!).

The trolley tour lasted about an hour, give or take and when we were done we walked over to the Basque Block to check out the Basque Museum. Boise has a very large Basque population and the museum, although small, was very nicely put together. ($4 entry fee).

After the museum we wandered across the street to check out the Basque Market. There were all kinds of speciality foods there but the big draw was the wine. We ended up sitting there tasting a few wines and ultimately Katrina and her mom bought several bottles. I found a new favorite wine called New Age, it's Argentine (I think) and it is slightly bubbly, but it's served in a rocks glass over ice with a lime wedge...very refreshing and light! :)

When we were winding down at the Basque Market it was just about dinner time and one of my requests for something to do in Boise was to eat at Bar Gernika, a Basque bar/restaurant. This place was featured in an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network a few months back and it looked interesting.

We had a great time there! After a couple glasses of wine, and the potato omelet appetizer we were ready for our sandwiches! I had the lamb grinder which was out of this word Yummy! Katrina and auntie had the Solomo sandwich and Katrina's mom had the grilled vegetable sandwich which looked incredibly good and by all reports, tasted as good as it looked! One of the best things about this meal was the side order of croquettas. OMG...a little ball of fried chicken and cheese goodness...it was heaven, I tell you!

Things were winding down and it was time to say good-bye to auntie and mom and Katrina and I went back to her house. A good night's sleep was definitely in order because in the morning we would be taking on the rapids!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early, off for our morning coffee and then a 9:30am white water rafting adventure. Since it was fairly late in the season the water was low and the rapids were not very wild. I knew when we were getting our equipment together and getting our raft assignments that it wasn't going to be very rough since we weren't given helmets! Nevertheless, we had a great raft ride. There were 6 of us in the raft plus the guide, who was just terrific, friendly and chatty and just an overall nice guy.

We rafted for about 2 hours and when we were finished, dressed and purchased the "requisite" raft photos we hit the road towards McCall, Idaho.

Katrina has a friend who has a cabin near McCall and she let us use the cabin Saturday night. Our original plan was to finish rafting, get to McCall and bike around Lake Payette. By the time we got to McCall it started raining. Not "all out" torrential rain, but enough for both of us to say, "hey, lets just drive the car around the lake". So that's what we did and a pretty drive it was. The rain was intermittent and by the time we made it all around the lake it had stopped, but by now it was wine time.

We parked the car and walked over to Bistro 45, with a nice outdoor seating area. We ordered a couple glasses of wine and the baked brie appetizer and chatted. As the sun went down Katrina asked if I was hungry. Although not starving, we decided to walk over to one of Katrina's favorite places, Steamers for another round of appetizers and wine.

At Steamers we had an order of steamed clams and a fabulous dish of baked scallops with parmesan cheese. Along with a glass of wine it was perfect. We topped the meal off with dessert, creme brulee for Katrina, apple cobbler for me...a great way to end the evening. And we waddled back to the cabin.

And about the cabin. Katrina's friends built this log cabin entirely by themselves and it is a thing of beauty! A four bedroom custom made cabin...I was sleeping in mountain luxury!

Sunday was our designated "zip" day! We got up and went into McCall for coffee at Moxie Java, a coffee shop chain I saw throughout my visit to Idaho. By 10:30am we were at Tamarack near Lake Cascade and getting strapped into our zip lining harnesses and we were off to zip line through the mountains overlooking the lake.

WOW! This was a thrill a minute.

We did a total of 8 zips, the first 2 were really orientation zips to just get us accustomed to what we would be doing! After those first 2 we hopped in a van and were driven to the location where we would start the zip course.

The course was great, there were some zips that were ground landings, some that had ramps we could run off and some where we landed in tree stands. The longest zip we did was 1000 feet and it was 250 feet off the ground...phenomenal views! The only time I really got nervous was the zip that landed in a tree stand that was 150 feet in the air and we had to wait there for everyone to finish their zip before doing the next zip...zipping off that tree stand was wild...just one step off and there you go....ziiiiip!

We finished zipping at around 3:30pm and after stopping for a quick snack we were back on the road to Boise. We had dinner with Katrina's husband and then spent the evening on the patio with some wine and great conversation!

All too soon Monday morning rolled around and I was back on a plane heading home. Unbelievably I had no flight delays and landed right on time and was home by 9pm.

Idaho was great but the best part was seeing an old friend after too many years of only phone calls and emails!