Waterfalls

Sara and Joe had a poker party, which I missed because I was gone, and they hung white lights from the tree to the garage and the house. They're not the little white lights, they are big and round, more like circus lights, and when they are on it looks awesome. I hope they leave them up for a while.

Saturday was about waterfalls.

I drove from Boise to Bliss and then turned down the 30 towards Hagerman. From Bliss to Hagerman there are cliffs full of waterfalls,


There were not very many due to the time of year, and sorry it's not a great picture. I was not too interested in the Hagerman fossil beds, so I did not stop, but this is the scene out of Hagerman, towards Twin Falls,



That is the snake river and most of the scenery around the snake river looks like this, with a patchwork of yellow and green.

Then I went on to Twin Falls and the Shoshone Falls. This is where Evil Knievel tried his jump,


You can see part of a rainbow that seems to always be there at the base of the Falls.




Then I went over the Perrine Bridge which is 1,500 feet long and 486 feet above the Snake River. It might be impressive to look at from below, or to look down from, but it wasn't much to drive.

Then I went straight through from Twin Falls to Idaho Falls. That part of the trip was almost all yellow and sagebrush, until you get to American Falls, which is on a reservoir. After all that sagebrush it was quite a surprise to come up on all that water. Idaho Falls is not much, with a failed attempt at a revitalized downtown which just looks sad. My hotel was next to a green belt and more falls. I do not know what was originally there, but Idaho has harnessed the falls for energy and it looks man made,



That is a Mormon Temple in the background.

I had some time to relax and eat and then I went to the "Idaho Paints Idaho" reception at the Art Museum of Eastern Idaho. There was the usual about half nice work and political award winners. I was surprised to see some really nice, and really expensive, oils and one of them done in the spirit of Sargent won best of show, so it wasn't all political, although the subject had nothing to do with Idaho. The museum had a patio with a great view and I was out on the patio thinking I would rather be out photographing the great sky that was rolling in that be at that reception when I met the wife of one of the museum directors. She was pretty interesting and helps put on the The HeART of Idaho Century Ride,

http://www.theartmuseum.org/Century.htm

When I met her husband he said he would buy my painting of Glenn's Ferry if he had more room and he might get his sister to buy it. Overall my paintings were smaller than everyone else's and some of the few watercolors. My favorites were two pastels, but my favorites tend to always be pastels lately. Here's the view from the museum patio,


Then I went out headed for higher ground to try to get a picture of that dramatic sky that was rolling in and it started to rain big raindrops. Then it started to thunder and lightning. In So Cal I wouldn't think about driving to the top of a hill and walking around with lightning, it is really too far away, but I don't think that is true in Idaho. I took a few pictures, but it got dark fast,




But I did get a better shot of that temple,



It was too much driving and not enough sleep and I am glad to be home. I stayed in the same hotel both nights and they had a door issue. Heavy doors that loudly automatically slammed shut. It was a long day of driving on Sunday and someone came in after 10 pm and made four trips up and down the stairwell, in the stairwell door, which is next to my room, slam, into their room next to mine, slam, then up at 6 am, slam.

The Grand Tetons post tomorrow.