Some Blog Site

I did not succumb to the temptation to title this post “The West of the Story”, since someone already used that. Also note that “West Side Story” is also taken.

A week ago we were in the Boise area, packing our things and getting ready to leave the next morning to fly back home. Now I’ve had time to download all 500 photos from the trip and go through some of them.

Here are some highlights of the first two days of travel:

Snacks on a Plane

Here is a rare sighting of Alpha and Gamma. They are not in their native habitat, and they are curiously awaiting to see what we do next.

Tumbleweeds

The first novelty of being out west was the tumbleweeds. The boys found some right away, which was not difficult since they rolled right in front of us at the park (the tumbleweeds, not the boys).

However, the kids’ tumbleweed-gathering skills varied:
Alpha got a decent tumbleweed

but then his cousin, the resident of Idaho and therefore more familiar with tumbleweeds, showed what a real tumbleweed looks like

Beta joined in the fun, and he succeeded in finding one about his size.

We all climbed the hill there at Camel’s Back park, played on the playground, and then went to dinner (pizza, in case you were wondering). Then there was evening and morning, the first day.

Playing the Slots

We had thought about going out and seeing some things in Boise that first full day, but, after a long day of travel the day before, we just wanted to stay close to the house. So our hosts broke out the slot-car track, which kept the older boys occupied for a while.

Attack of the Tumbleweeds

After lunch, we set off on a little adventure, just to get the older kids out of the house for a change of scenery. We got to see what happens when someone puts a fence across the tumbleweeds’ migratory route. Hint: they don’t like it. They attack the fence until they break through and can continue on their way.

Tackling

Since the weather was still nice when we got back, we took advantage of it. Of course, the children can’t play by themselves in the backyard when there is an able-bodied adult standing around. So I played football with them, as did our host (although he is not in the picture).

A-hunting We Will Go

The last thing we did before dinner was go on a black-widow hunt. The kids had been asking about black widow spiders, so we figured we’d see if we could satisfy their curiosity. At the end of the block was a drainage ditch that doesn’t get much use in the dry mountain weather there.

There were plenty, plenty, of rocks for the boys to overturn. They found a couple spiders, but no black widows. Some other boys saw them, and they came over to help too. The two packs of boys didn’t quite gel, but I did learn one thing: if you want to get the attention of a group of boys and get them to come to you quickly, simply yell “Hey! I found something!”

On our way back up the block, we ran across a few more neighborhood children. They had collected a hobo and we told them “No thanks, but let us know if you find a black widow.” A little while later, we heard a knock at the door. There were several neighborhood children and one of them had a plastic jug. Sure enough, the jug contained a black widow. I did not have my camera nearby, so I can’t show you the spider. Then all the kids ran into the back yard to play, and they took the black widow too. I’m pretty sure they did not release it in the back yard.

Take a travel alarm clock with you. I took my battery-powered one this time, and it was quite handy. It is common for hotel rooms in Europe not to have alarm clocks. In Germany and Spain at least, it seems that they expect you to rely on the hotel wake-up-call service. Having a battery-powered clock meant that I did not have to worry about electrical adapters.

Take a direct flight whenever possible. I had a couple of connections each way on my last trip, and they caused problems. On the way there, the middle flight was late, so we missed our flight for the final leg of the trip. We got booked on the next flight, but that an extra two hours of sitting in the airport. On the way back, the flight for the final leg of the trip was canceled, so we got booked on the next flight. That meant an extra three hours of sitting in the airport.

I recommend against using US Airways (and those surveyed by Zagat agree). See above post for background information. For some humor, see the survey outtakes. And on the last flight, the one that was three hours after the original flight should have been, someone decided to wait for another plane that had passengers connecting to our flight. So we sat for another 30 minutes for this other plane’s passengers. After that time, the pilot announced that the other plane had not yet landed, so we were going to take off. But since we were just sitting and waiting, the ground crew for our plane had been pulled off in order to assist another plane, so we had to wait for them. It was a long day of waiting. But the flight itself went smoothly and safely. However, I have not had the logistics problems on other airlines that I had on this trip with US Airways.

Take plenty of cash, in Euros probably. Many places in Europe don’t like credit cards. Even a restaurant in the Barcelona airport would take Visa but not Mastercard. If the card reader prompts the cashier for a PIN and you don’t have one because it is a credit card not a debit card, then just press Enter without entering a PIN. This one threw me off for a few tries, which is why you need to have cash on hand, in case something is not right with the credit card transaction.

Tomato soup in Spain may be served cold, so if you don’t like V-8 juice, then ask about the temperature of the soup beforehand.