Another adventure from my Summer of 1994. Shortly after arriving back home from school in nortern Idaho to work and be with family for the summer, our friend Anita calls me and invites me to spend the day with her and her husband Sam…Read More

Another adventure from my Summer of 1994. Shortly after arriving back home from school in nortern Idaho to work and be with family for the summer, our friend Anita calls me and invites me to spend the day with her and her husband Sam fishing at Lick Creek, another hidden gem outside of McCall, Idaho. I don't fish, but I relished the idea of spending a day in the great outdoors with a good friend and co-worker like Anita.

So Anita and Sam came and picked me up at our house in Donnelly in their big yellow truck with the extended cab. Their German Shorthaired Pointer Missy was in the backseat and greeted me warmly as I climbed into the truck. Glad Missy was friendly, or I would have had a long ride back to McCall in the backseat with Cujo!

Lick Creek Road is located east of McCall, and you access this dirt road (here we go again with the dirt roads!) near Legacy Park, McCall's beach and boat marina on Payette Lake.

Anita, Sam, and I spent the entire trip chatting and looking at the scenery. Being a big hunter and growing up in the McCall area with his parents and brother Tom, Sam knows the woods near McCall like the back of his hand, and was able to point out many of the interesting sights we could see from the truck. Lick Creek Road is another secret gem of mountainous vistas and secret fishing holes.

About an hour into the trip, we stopped near a little creek so that Anita and I could go fishing. Sam and Missy went in another direction to do some hiking and Sam was probably checking out some future hunting areas for the Fall hunting season. Anita had her fishing pole in hand, and I had my camera, and off we went to the creek to try to catch the big one!

Anita and I talked a lot about things while she was fishing, and I walked around the creek taking pictures of Anita fishing and the scenery. So beautiful. Then I went and cut my shin on some branches, but after putting my leg in the cold creek, I stopped bleeding soon and ignored the pain to enjoy time with a good friend.

About an hour later, Sam and a panting Missy returned from their hike, and we were ready to continue our adventure. After traveling a little more on Lick Creek Road and seeing more scenery, Sam turned the big yellow truck around and we started to head back to Donnelly to drop me off. I turned down Anita's kind dinner invitation for elk steaks (Sorry, don't do Bambi or anything with a cute face!) and came home exhausted but full of great memories and a camera full of pictures.

A couple of years later, my stupid now ex-husband thought it would be cool to go ice fishing when he heard Sam talking about it when we were in Donnelly for Christmas. I hadn't packed any heavy clothing for our trip, but the idiot was admant about going ice fishing for the thrills, and we had to borrow thermal underwear from Mom and Erika since it was going to be pretty damned chilly on Lake Cascade.

Anita and Sam picked us up early the day after Christmas for the short ride from our house in Donnelly to Lake Cascade. It was 10 degrees out and freezing, and I was cursing having to leave a warm bed and my idiot now-ex every minute of the way. Thank God Anita had brought hot chocolate, and I brought tea to keep our hands and bodies warm. The fish weren't biting in the lake that day, but it was a nice time to talk to Anita and watch Sam and the idiot-ex walking around every ice hole they dug and writing their names in the snow from our seats on the shore of Lake Cascade!

Lick Creek Road is best accessed in late-Spring, Summer, and early-Fall. In Winter, the best way to go on Lick Creek is by snowmobile because of the rough road conditions the snow can bring. Lake Cascade is accessible at several points in Cascade and Donnelly, Idaho.

The summer of 1994 was a crazy one for me. I was just married, and my now ex was off in Colorado tending to his sick mother, and I wasn't about to spend the summer in Moscow, Idaho, where we were attending the University…Read More

The summer of 1994 was a crazy one for me. I was just married, and my now ex was off in Colorado tending to his sick mother, and I wasn't about to spend the summer in Moscow, Idaho, where we were attending the University of Idaho alone and not making any money with a crappy summer job up there because every summer, Moscow becomes a ghost town when school's out for summer.

So I went home to Donnelly, Idaho to spend time with Mom, my sister Erika, and our zoo which at the time consisted of two German Shepherds named Nicholas and his younger brother, the famous Loki, and four cats. I worked full time at Bryan's Burger Den, where my sister was a manager, and I had worked there for the last 6 months of 1993 before going to the University of Idaho to complete my Bachelor's Degree.

Being home was a lot better than being alone up in Moscow, and Mom and I did a lot together on my days off from work. One of our adventures with Nicholas and Loki was a day trip to Lake Josephine. This tiny and pristine little lake about 10 miles north of Dad's home in McCall is a favorite fishing and hiking haven for locals and very little tourists.

But getting to Lake Josephine was an adventure in itself. Nicholas was not one of the best car passengers, and most of the trip from Donnelly to McCall was listening to Nicky barking at every that passed us on Highway 55, and it's made worse that his barking and jumping in the backseat of a 1985 Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback made the car shake everytime. One bark for cars and two for trucks!

After about a half-hour of travelling with 95 pounds of hell in the back seat and his little brother, we got to the road leading to Lake Josephine. Now this is where it gets even more treacherous. No car traffic, but we were now facing about three miles up a dirt road full of rocks and potholes that would make ones kidneys rattle. Dear Readers: Ever notice most of the Fernstrom family adventures involve twisty, dirt, and rocky roads? In a small car like ours, it was worse, and there were points on this road from hell that we thought the bottom would fall out of the car after hitting some nasty bumps.

But rest assured, dear readers, Mom, Nicky, Loki, and I made it to Lake Josephine intact, and we were greeted with some of the most beautiful scenery in Southwestern Idaho. Mountains surrounded the tiny lake that had rocks and fallen trees sticking out of it, and Mom and I soaked it all in for a few minutes before heading to Lake Josephine itself.

Nicholas was a pretty smart German Shepherd in his short life, and he could sniff out a swimming hole in his sleep, if he could, and before we were out of the car, Nicky and Loki had jumped out of the car and were halfway to the lake before Mom and I were out of the car. Mom and I had get out of the car fast before Nicky and Loki saw any of the other folks enjoying a day at the lake and greeted them.

But "Jaws I and II in flea collars" were having a ball in the water and could care less about the other tourists. Mom and I walked around the lake and took our shoes off to enjoy soaking our feet in the cold water of Lake Josephine while taking pictures and throwing sticks into the water for Nicky and Loki to chase. Surrounded by huge pine trees and mountains, there was plenty of shade to shelter all of us from the July heat.

One of my favorite pictures from this trip is one of me with Nicky and Loki. Sitting on a log in the water, I am holding a stick in the water that Nicky is staring at in hopes of another game of fetch. Loki is staring at the camera with that cute puppy dog look that we have loved over the years. Everytime I look at that picture, I get many warm and fuzzy feelings.

Our time at Lake Josephine was very relaxing for dogs and humans alike, and Mom and I were glad that the other tourists had left, and we had the place to ourselves to enjoy. After swimming, Nicky and Loki got out of the water and ran around the shore with Loki following his big brother through the woods and on the logs in the water.

After about 90 minutes at Lake Josephine, it was time for all of us to go home. We loaded Nicky and Loki into the car and made that lovely ride down the rocky road to Warren Wagon Road and to Highway 55. The swimming and fun had whooped Nicky, and he and Loki slept the whole way home in the backseat that was torn up from Nicky's nails. Mom and I enjoyed the peace and quiet the whole way home.

Nicky suddenly passed away from twisted stomach or colic in May 1997, and his brother is now 14 and arthritic but still a lover. Looking at Nicky and Loki enjoying Lake Josephine that day in July 1994 brings back a lot of happy memories from that crazy summer and a couple of hours at one of our Private Idaho's favorite places.

My mother's maiden name is Nesbitt, an old Scottish name that dates from many hundreds of years ago. Our cousin Ed Campbell has done a lot of extensive research on the Nesbitt family via the Internet and travel to Scotland on a couple of occasions,…Read More

My mother's maiden name is Nesbitt, an old Scottish name that dates from many hundreds of years ago. Our cousin Ed Campbell has done a lot of extensive research on the Nesbitt family via the Internet and travel to Scotland on a couple of occasions, and that research along with the information I found in a couple of books on Scottish clans and tartans at the Treasure Valley Celtic Festival and Highland Games has given me a greater understanding of my Scottish ancestors. There are several spellings of the Nesbitt name that we have discovered. It is spelt Nisbet, Nesbyth, de Nesbit, and its most recent spelling, Nesbitt. The Nesbitt Clan of Scotland was a prominent border clan that settled in the Berwickshire area of Southeastern Scotland around the mid-12th century. The originally came from Normandy, France (see, my Viking ancestors were raping and pillaging all over Northern Europe for a long time!) and too the name De Nesbite shortly after settling down in Berwickshire. In 1160, William De Nesbite witnessed a charter from the Earl of Dunbar to the monks of Coldingham Priory and from 1219-1240, a Thomas Nisbet was the Prior of Coldingham Priory. In 1296, Edward I of England (also known as "Edward Longshanks") forced many Scottish nobles and clergymen to swear an oath of allegiance to the English crown, and two members of the Nesbitt clan, a De Nesbyth and Nisbet were among those swearing allegiance to Edward I. From 1306-1329, an Adam Nisbet of Nisbet Knockles was under charter from Robert the Bruce. The English Civil War of 1645-1660 was rough on the Nesbitt Clan. Most of the Nesbitt nobles sided with Charles I and the Royalist cause. An Alexander Nesbit was Sheriff of Berwickshire at this time and fought with two of his sons in battle against Oliver Cromwell's army. Philip Nesbit was a general under the command of the Marquis of Montrose and was captured by the Roundheads after the 1645 Battle of Philiphaugh. On 29 October 1645, Philip Nesbitt was executed along with another Scottish noble from the Oglivy clan, who was only 20 at the time of his execution. There is a Nisbet House in Berwickshire that dates from 1603 and is a bed and breakfast today. Ed thought of staying there when he visited Scotland, but the price of the hotel was enough for Ed to say, "I might be a Nesbitt, but I am not crazy!" In the early 18th century, there was a rift between the Nesbitt clan factions and my direct ancestor moved to England before immigrating to Quebec, Canada. In Quebec, the Nesbitt family was a prominent ship building family, and one of the offspring from this family came to Rhode Island in the mid-19th century. Today the Nesbitt clan is scattered in Rhode Island, Florida, Idaho, Alabama, and other parts of the USA. Our family crest is a red and white shield with boars and a knight's head on top. The family motto is I byde it, and our tartan is a red, green, and white plaid, but blue plaid hClose

My friend Karla Thorson has a 4-year-old daughter named Lauren, who absolutely adores me. A couple of weeks ago, Karla came up to me at work and asked if it would be OK if she and Lauren could come over to our house for a…Read More

My friend Karla Thorson has a 4-year-old daughter named Lauren, who absolutely adores me. A couple of weeks ago, Karla came up to me at work and asked if it would be OK if she and Lauren could come over to our house for a visit. I said, "sure!" Then I suggested that we have dinner at the house and go and see a Boise Hawks game since it would probably be my last game of the season with going away on vacation the following week for two weeks. When Karla told Lauren she was going to her first baseball game in her short life, Lauren was really excited.

So, Mom, Karla, Lauren, and I arrived at the Boise Hawks game a little late because Lauren had an accident at dinner and we needed to run back to Karla's place to change the kid. After getting our tickets at the box office, we were on our way. The Boise Hawks were playing the Eugene Emeralds this night. It was Game 4 of a long 5-game series between the two teams.

Karla bought a beer for herself and Mom as a thank you for her hospitality, and I got a Diet Pepsi and Lauren had bottled water. Our seats were on the first base side, which is usually not a good place to sit because if it's really sunny and hot, it's hard to see the game from our seats with the sun in your eyes. But the August 6 game was a lot cooler than the July 4 game Mom and I attended, and we were able to watch the game with relative comfort and no glare.

Lauren filled herself up on Twizzler candy and popcorn, and she saw someone with ice cream in a souvenir helmet and wanted that, too, but Karla said, "no" because Lauren would have only had three bites of it and said no more. I had ice cream, water, and Diet Pepsi during the night and added another little helmet to our collection.

Due to being a little late for the game, we only missed the first half of the 1st inning. I had my scorebook with me to keep score, and it took me a few innings to get all of the lineups and positions down.

Humphrey The Hawk, the Boise Hawks mascot was out right at the beginning of the game, and Karla, Mom, and I brought him to Lauren's attention as he was greeting fans of all ages on the third base side. Lauren got all excited and was yelling "Eagle Hawk! Eagle Hawk!" since Humphrey is a hard word for a 4-year-old to pronounce. Karla tried to tell Lauren that it was a Hawk and not an Eagle who was mascot, but I said, "Hey! We are next to Eagle, Idaho!" Finally Humphrey made his way over to the first base seats, and he started to play with the kids that were sitting there. Lauren went over to Humphrey and got his attention, and Humphrey obliged by posing for a picture with Lauren. Then Humphrey started to play with Lauren's pony tail, but Lauren took it in stride with her Mama, Mom, and I laughing with her.

Lauren spent a good chunk of the game looking for Humphrey and wondering where he was when he was taking a break or in other parts of the field. The adults in the group watched the game, and I kept score. The game itself was another wild one for the Hawks, but a lot of Single A games are made for getting the kinks out of the players' fielding and hitting and smooth out the errors they make in a season. By the end of the Third Inning, the score was 5-0 Eugene, but there was hope.

There were many kids on our side of the field, but they were very well-behaved. Most of them spent the time jumping up and down the stairs and playing with each other. Lauren joined a couple of little girls, played by herself, or flirted with the little boys. Later in the game, Lauren fell on a bench, and as a non-mother, my heart was in my mouth as I ran to her to pick her up and comfort her. Mama Karla took over, and all was well after a few minutes, and Lauren went to play more. Another little girl took a nasty fall on the stairs and scraped her leg up, but was OK after a while. Both Lauren and the little girl had flip flops on, and I highly recommend that if you take your kids to a ballgame anywhere in the USA, make sure they have good shoes on because the steps in many stadiums are very unforgiving.

After the drama of kids falling, Humphrey made another appearance in the stands. Lauren and all of the kids were really happy when the Hawks Mascot came back to the first base side and stayed a lot longer than expected. More pictures were taken of Lauren and Humphrey and more hugs given out by Humphrey. After a really disappointing trip to Disney Land the month before, Karla was ready to write a nasty letter to "The Happiest Place on Earth" for Mickey and the other characters not being seen anywhere in the park the whole day Lauren, Karla, and her partner Steve were there. Humphrey the Hawk's extended presence during a Single A baseball game in August made up for all of that disappointment!

Mascots and falls aside, the game was another wild one, and the Boise Hawks fell short 9-8. A 9th inning rally by the home team fell short, but Karla, Mom, Lauren, and I left the game happy and satisfied. The next day at work, Karla told me that Lauren had a blast, and she was looking forward to going to her next game. If going to a ballgame with a kid is this much fun, I am looking forward to the next game through the eyes of a cute little girl named Lauren!

When my family and I were living in Rhode Island, we had a standing date on the 4th of July to go and watch the Pawtucket Red Sox (The Boston Red Sox Triple A affiliate) play ball at McCoy Stadium in Mom's hometown of Pawtucket.…Read More

When my family and I were living in Rhode Island, we had a standing date on the 4th of July to go and watch the Pawtucket Red Sox (The Boston Red Sox Triple A affiliate) play ball at McCoy Stadium in Mom's hometown of Pawtucket. After the game, there was an awesome display of fireworks. Tickets to this game sold out like wildfire, and if you didn't get your tickets by late May, early June, you were stuck standing up at the game, or you had to watch the fireworks from Jenks' Junior High's parking lot afterwards.

Mom and I decided to renew our 4th of July tradition by going to a Boise Hawks game and after game fireworks. After work one day, I ran to Memorial Stadium, which is near my workplace, and bought our tickets. I got chatting with the guys in the booth, and they said that no one in the Single A short season league that the Hawks were in wants to play ball on the 4th of July except for the Hawks. WOW! We also discussed that there isn't much going on in Boise on the 4th, and I mentioned that it was a big thing in Rhode Island to go to the Bristol 4th of July Parade and see fireworks on both the 3rd and 4th of July anywhere. I was beginning to think that Idaho isn't a very patriotic state, but more on that later.

Ticket prices to the Boise Hawks have gone up from last years $5 for reserved non-box seat tickets to $9. Still cheaper than going to one Major League Baseball game.

This 4th of July in Idaho turned out to be one of the hottest on record. Temps were well over 100, and the air quality has been causing many people including Mom and myself to have difficulties breathing. We prayed that the temps would start to cool down by the time we got to the game, but it was still 99 F when Mom and I arrived at the game at 6:40pm.

There was a long line waiting to get into Memorial Stadium, and Mom and I weren't looking forward to waiting in line in back of the Barbie Doll with enough perfume on to compete with a French lady of the evening and high heels (a little overdressed for a ballgame, I said). Luckily, they opened another entrance, and Mom and I ran over there and got into the park but not without having our purses searched. Mom and I brought our own water, and we didn't want that confiscated, but the lady at the gate barely glanced in our purses, and we were on the way.

Our seats were behind home plate about halfway up, and Mom and I, who are usually healthy, were panting and catching our breath after climbing the stairs. After resting a minute, I ran back down to Dontrelle's Delights, the ice cream stand named for former Hawks Pitcher (now with the Florida Marlins MLB team) Dontrelle "The D-Train" Willis" for some well-needed ice cream. A soft serve of vanilla ice cream that comes in a cute little plastic Boise Hawks helmet cost me $4, and I got two spoons to share with Mom.

By gametime, it had cooled to a balmy 95 (UGH!). The Everett Aquasox (the Seattle Mariners Single A short season affiliate) started off the game with a one out single, but he was caught stealing. By the end of the inning it was 2-0 Hawks, and we settled down to what was going to be a very wild and entertaining ballgame.

The Boise Hawks have had a facelift this year complete with nice new Hunter Green, red, and gold uniforms. Even Humphrey the Hawk, the Hawks' mascot has gotten a facelift for the better and was sporting a spanking new red feathered costume with a Hawks shirt and hat turned to the side. I thought this was a nice change from the generic red, white, and blue of last year's uniforms.

Mom had also brought peanuts with her in a baggie and was munching on those by the third inning. A man sitting behind us with his wife and two friends joked about how good they smelled, and Mom offered him some, but he passed. At least this group wasn't like our first experience at a Hawks game with an obnoxious woman who asked every stupid ques

Mom and I attended our last Boise Hawks game for the 2006 season on Saturday, September 2. The Hawks had taken their division and were going into the playoffs, but Mom and I would not be able to make the playoff games because of…Read More

Mom and I attended our last Boise Hawks game for the 2006 season on Saturday, September 2. The Hawks had taken their division and were going into the playoffs, but Mom and I would not be able to make the playoff games because of our work schedules. When I told my boss, Art, that Mom and I were going to the Hawks' game that night, he said to look out for Larry, one of our co-workers, who ushers at the games and see if he would buy us a hot dog. Mom and I invited Dad, who was in town for the weekend, to the game and told him we were leaving the house about 6:15 that night for the 7:15 start, but after Dad came home from helping a friend move in Nampa, he said he would pass on going to the game because the cramped seating would not help his aching back. Personally, Mom and I thought Dad stayed home so he could have the TV to himself and watch auto racing and college football all night without Mom and me yelling at him to put the Red Sox game on and stop channel surfing! When Dad visits us every month, he takes Mom's recliner and the remote control and has a death grip on it until he leaves after the weekend!

The penultimate game of the season was between the Boise Hawks and the Tri-City Dirt Devils, the Colorado Rockies (National League) Single A Short Season affiliate. Mom and I arrived about 6:40 p.m. and we received a free bobblehead doll at the entrance. Thinking this was the Billy Goat Bobblehead Doll that we had thought of getting at a previous game, Mom and I were pretty excited, but when we sat down at our seats on the first base side, it was a doll of a man in an Air Force pilot's uniform. "What the heck?", we wondered. It turned out that the bobblehead doll was Scott D. Fann, a fictitious fan of the Hawks and he was in the Air Force in honor of The Boise Hawks' Fann (that's how they spelt it) Appreciation Night. Oh well, it was free!

The game went fast and furious, and it was a close game with the Dirt Devils taking an early 2-0 lead after the 4th inning, but the Hawks tied it in the bottom of the 4th with an RBI triple by left fielder and fan favorite D.J. Lewis, who goes to bat each time with the song Go, D.J. in the background. During the game, Mom was seeing people going up to their seats with big cups of soft-serve ice cream in their hands, and she was salivating. I kept telling her to get some, and I promised that I wouldn't drool over it since I can't have dairy anymore. She held her will power and survived the game without it.

The games in between innings didn't seem as cheesy as before, but the acoustics from the announcer's booth were horrible that night, and the net around the seating made it difficult to judge foul balls hit by the players. For a while there, I thought I should have brought my baseball glove, but no foul balls were hit our way that night! RATS! But then if I had gotten hit by a foul ball, I would be having a hell of a time explaining the bruises to my co-workers!

On Thursday night during the Red Sox game on NESN, Dad saw that our beloved Red Sox had a mascot, a character named Wally for the Green Monster at Fenway Park. Dad thought the Red Sox had gone to hell for bowing so low to get a mascot, and said that the Yankees did not have a mascot. "Yes they do!", Mom and I said. "George Steinbrenner (the Yankees owner)! The Big Giant Head!" Dad said that mascots were a waste of time and money and cheesy. The Boise Hawks have a mascot named Humphrey the Hawk who goes around the stands every game and is a big hit with children of all ages. During the 8th inning, Humphrey came into our area of seating, and I jumped at opportunity to have photo with him. "The ball buster shot!", Mom and I joked.

I couldn't find Larry during the game at all, and it turned out that he was off that night, and I joked with him at work on Monday morning. I told him that Art told us to get a hot dog from you, and he said that he would have if we had been there on a day he was working. Oh well!

The Hawks won the game 3-2 after a game winning double in the bottom of the 7th inning by Designated Hitter Adam Hackstedt, and Mom and I left the game happy and looking forward to more Hawks games next season. When we got home to show Dad our brag shot, he barely flinched. DARN!

Epilogue: The Boise Hawks' season ended in the first playoff season with Salem Keizer, The Oakland A's affiliate. After taking Game 1 in their playoff series, the Hawks lost three games in a row and were eliminated by the pesky Salem Keizer team. But it was a good season, and we are looking forward to another season and a possible championship next year!

Idaho had gone through ten days straight of 100+ degree temperatures, and Mom was at first reluctant to go to a Hawks game because of the weather, but because the Saturday games do not start until 7:15 p.m., we thought, "Beats sitting at home getting…Read More

Idaho had gone through ten days straight of 100+ degree temperatures, and Mom was at first reluctant to go to a Hawks game because of the weather, but because the Saturday games do not start until 7:15 p.m., we thought, "Beats sitting at home getting bored!"  Plus the Red Sox had played a day game (which was blacked out in Boise.  GRRR!) and won in extra innings.  So Mom and I had to get our baseball fix for the year in somehow!

<p>This was our second Hawks game in what is turning into another baseball addiction for Mom and me.  First the Red Sox, now the Boise Hawks.  The Hawks played the Salem-Keizer Giants, the San Francisco Giants Single A Short Season affiliate this weekend.

<p>This time around, Mom smuggled a bag of peanuts in her bag along with four bottles of water so that we would not have to pay the steep prices they charge for food at Memorial Stadium.  My camera came with me again with prayers that my disc wouldn't get fried like the last time.

<p>Saturday, July 29, 2006, was <b>Breast Cancer Awareness Night</b> at Memorial Stadium.  The park's workers wore pink t-shirts saying <b>Join the Fight Against Breast Cancer</b>, and fans got a free pink rubber bracelet with the same slogan on them.  Since two people close to me suffered from breast cancer, I thought this was a good night and cause to see a ball game.

<p>Upon getting inside the stadium, Mom and I noticed that the Hawks would be wearing pink uniform jerseys in honor of the night's festivities.  Mom wondered if the players weren't happy to wear pink, but I said that for a good cause they would suffer in jerseys that looked like they were designed by <b>Carson Kressley</b> of <b><i>Queer Eye for the Straight Guy</b></i> fame.


<p>Mom and I got to the game early because we thought we would get sucky seats if we got there later, but we lucked out, and our cheap seats were behind home plate with a great few of the game.  Mom and I could hear the umpires' calls clearly and see almost everything going on.  Channel 6, our local news station, was there filming for its 10:00 broadcast, and we had a clear view of them from our seat.  COOL!

<p>After getting our tickets, we browzed around the food court at some of the displays by local businesses in support of Breast Cancer.  Washington Mutual Bank gave us free baseball bat and ball keychains, and Mom and I signed up for a drawing to go to a Chicago Cubs game later this season.  "You're going to Chicago in October!," Mom joked with me.  "But I won't be able to catch a game because the season will be over.  WHAHH!!  I hope to get a tour of the park while I am there though!"  As we were signing up for the raffle, Mom and I heard a conversation with a couple of guys about the 19-5 spanking the Yankees took from Tampa Bay.  From the sounds of things, one guy wasn't happy that his team was annihilated by a last place team.  Mom said to the Yankee fan, "We definitely know where your allegiances lie."  Yankee fan said, "I'm from the Bronx!"  "I rest my case!," Mom said.  Pointing to my Red Sox cap that I wore, Mom said, "We're from New England."  I quipped, "I won't kill you now!" and the guy laughed.  

<p>Armed with camera, score sheet, and a big plate of Super Nachos, Mom and I settled down in our seats.  At least there was no loud mouthed woman behind us like the last time, but a man with a misting fan was behind us, and I was inadvertently getting cooled off from his fan.  

<p>The Hawks went ahead in the game early, but errors and a struggling pitcher allowed the SK Giants to pull ahead by the 4th inning.  By the top of the 5th inning and one batter into the inning, the Hawks' manager pulled the starter <b>Alfredo Francisco</b>, a Dominicano who reminded me of the great <b>Pedro Martinez</b> and brought in a reliever.  Upon seeing the new pitcher arrive on the mound, I exclaimed, "OOH OOH!  It's Papelbon!  Finally, a Papelbon Fix!"  Mom and I were finally seeing <b>Jeremy Papelbon</b>, a left-handed middle reliever and little brother of Red Sox stopper <b>Jonathan Papelbon</b>.  Mom and I were not disappointed watching little brother do his stuff.  After striking out one batter, Jeremy gave up a home run to pull the Giants ahead of the Hawks, but after that little mistake (Hey! This is the league to get the kinks out!), Jeremy settled down and pitched 3 innings of great ball with a total of 6 K's.  YES!  Jeremy Papelbon resembles Jonathan in many ways with the piercing glare to the plate before he throws and the high back leg kick during his delivery.  Mom and I feel if he keeps this up, the Major Leagues will be terrorized by another Papelbon in no time.  OK, the Red Sox have Jonathan's twin, <b>Joshua Papelbon</b> in their ranks, too.

<p>There were the same cheesy gimmicks in between innings along with the Blind Potato Race and several breast cancer related things.  The Hawks lost the game 7-5, but you can't win them all, I say.  On the way out of the ball park, the Hawks give away free Sara Lee Bread to the the fans, and last time, Mom and I grabbed 4 loaves of Honey Wheat Bread.  This time, only white bread was available, but we thought it would make good french toast and grabbed two loaves for storage in our freezer.  

<p>Future game themes will be <b>Left-Handers Night (August 14), Right-Handers Night (August 29)</b> ($2 off a ticket for yours truly) and <b>Singles Night (August 29)</b> (Maybe!).  Not bad for a $5 ticket!       
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I must admit that Mom and I are baseball snobs of sort who have been die-hard Boston Red Sox fans all of our lives. It is hard to root for another team when you have been bottle-fed stories about Ted Williams and "The Curse"…Read More

I must admit that Mom and I are baseball snobs of sort who have been die-hard Boston Red Sox fans all of our lives. It is hard to root for another team when you have been bottle-fed stories about Ted Williams and "The Curse" from the time you were born.

Boise, Idaho has a local baseball team, the Boise Hawks, who are the Single A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs in the Major Leagues. The Hawks have been in existence for 25 years and at first were the Anaheim (now Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and before that the California Angels) Angels Single A affiliate. The Hawks who have made it big in the majors are Marlin's pitcher Dontrelle Willis and Mariners pitcher Jarrod Washburn.

So was it worth the $5 admissions price to see the Hawks in action? Stay tuned! Mom and I were pleasantly surprised that it was worth leaving our swamp coolered sanctuary and a Red Sox game on NESN (New England Sports Network) to see the local team play ball.

Mom and I got an early start to the field in order to beat traffic and get decent seats. Hawks Stadium has reserved seating, and the box seats which cost $9 sell out fast, but Mom and I decided to sit in the cheap seats where it might be cooler. After getting our tickets, it was time for food! You can't watch a ball game without beer, nachos, or peanuts. Once we got to the food court, Mom was told she couldn't use her debit card, and we had to get a nice employee of the park to open the souvenir shop to use the ATM machine inside. Once inside, we told them we were die-hard Red Sox fans who were hoping to catch Jeremy Papelbon in action. Who is Jeremy Papelbon, you might ask? He is the younger brother of Red Sox stopper Jonathan, who leads the majors in saves this season. "We need a Papelbon fix!", I joked to the employee.

It was Dollar Beer Night at the stadium that night, and in honor of a Canadian team, the Vancouver Canadians playing the Boise Hawks that night, there was Kokanee, a Canadian beer for sale along with Coors and Coors Light (BLECH!). So armed with beer and snacks, Mom and I made the climb up the stairs to our seats on the third base side. Memorial Stadium is small, so we had a good view of the action from our upper deck seats and could make out the numbers of all of the players.

A family of a Mom, Dad, and little girl sat behind us, and the mother just wouldn't shut up. Asking her husband stupid questions and talking on and on. The little girl was telling her Mom to shut up because she was embarassed, and in the row in front of "Yip and Yap," Mom and I were rolling our eyes and not looking forward to hearing this lady ramble on for the whole game.

Finally at 7:15, the game started. The noise of the fans somewhat drowned out "big mouth" behind us, and we were able to watch the game in relative peace. The Hawks were playing the Vancouver Canadians, the Oakland A's Single A affiliate. "How appropriate!", Mom said since our Red Sox were playing the Canadians parent club at home this weekend. Being Single A Short Season, this league is the league where the newly drafted players from the international, high school, and college ranks get the kinks and bad habits their old coaches and parents taught them in their youth. If the players do well in the Short Season League, they are called up to the Single A Long Season, and the Cubs Single A Long Season affiliate is in Peoria, Illinois.

The Hawks pitcher, Billy Petrick, struggled and gave up a run in the top of the first, but the Hawks pulled ahead at the bottom of the inning to lead 2-1 after one inning.

As I mentioned above, Single A is full of young players from all over the world, and there were a few familiar names in the Vancouver and Boise lineups including Jeremy Papelbon. Vancouver's first baseman is Don Sutton, III, the son of Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, and he looked like his Dad from what I could see, but he is struggling in his first year and struck out twice in the game we saw. The Hawks had a third baseman named Joshua Lansford, who is the son of former batting champion and Red Sox, Carney Lansford, who took the batting title with the Red Sox in 1981, but tore up his ankle the next year sliding into home against the Tigers, and was replaced by future Hall of Famer Wade Boggs.

The game was going smoothly and the Hawks were leading 4-1 by the 5th inning. In between innings, the Hawks organization has contests on the field for fans to participate in. After a while, Mom and I considered many of these contests cheesy and gimicky and wished for a quiet time in between innings. There were little gymnasts from a local school during two intermissions who lacked form. "Katie has better form rolling over!", I quipped. During the 4th inning, the announcer came out with a big beach ball and was throwing it in the stands. I was getting ready to get some water at the food court but stuck around to deflect the ball from Mom who was sitting down. All we needed is another trip to the hospital for Mom after we vowed we were not going to see the inside of one for a long time after two surgeries in 10 months! One of my spikes hit a kid walking by! In the 6th inning, there was a stupid race of fans in potato costumes around the bases. The costumes had no eyes, and they were blindly running the bases while the Hawks were warming up. "Real smart!", Mom and I thought, "Someone could get hurt with an errant ball!"

The game was tied 5-5 in the 8th inning, and Mom was dreading the thought of extra innings because she had to be up early the next morning for work, but Tyler Colvin, one of our outfielders hit a 2-run home run to put the Hawks ahead 7-5. The Hawks reliever, Alex Maestri from Italy, shut down the Canadians and we held on to the 7-5 score. GAME OVER! Mom wouldn't have to worry about losing sleep over extra innings and we headed home. Before we left, the gabby folks behind us complimented me about my talents as a scorekeeper in my scorebook, and I was very flattered. I have been keeping score of ball games since I was a kid when Dad taught me while watching Red Sox games on TV, and the talent was used during 8 years of little league coaching.

Even without seeing Jeremy Papelbon pitch, the game was great and exciting, and Mom and I hope to be seeing some of these future Hall of Famers in action in the big leagues in the near future. Mom and I are hoping to return for a couple of more games before the season's end, but we still love our Red Sox, who lost to Oakland 7-5 that night. GRRR!!

My Arkansas friend Ken is a big train nut who spends many a Sunday morning with other train nuts watching trains near his home. When Ken heard that the World's Largest Operating Steam Locomotive, Union Pacific Railroad's No. 3985, was touring the Pacific Northwest…Read More

My Arkansas friend Ken is a big train nut who spends many a Sunday morning with other train nuts watching trains near his home. When Ken heard that the World's Largest Operating Steam Locomotive, Union Pacific Railroad's No. 3985, was touring the Pacific Northwest this Autumn and was stopping at the Boise Depot here in my neck of the woods, he e-mailed me and asked me to check it out and take photos. Some of my photos from Ken's 2003 visit to Idaho and the Boise Depot were published in the newsletter Ken publishes for the train nuts of Arkansas, and I was very honored to be his "Girl Friday" once again.

A Brief History of the No. 3985. UPR No. 3985 is 122 feet long and weighs over a million tons. It is an articulated locomotive that was built in 1943 to negotiate some of the curvy tracks of the Pacific Northwest. The No. 3985 was built in 1943 and has six-foot diameter drive wheels that enable it to go up to a speed of 70 miles per hour.

No. 3985 was from service in 1959, and in 1981, it was restored to its original condition by Union Pacific employees for special services and tours originating from Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The current tour of No. 3985 has been equipped with a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) to allow train nuts to map out it route on UP's web site www.up.com.

Today Union Pacific Railroad is owned by the Union Pacific Corporation and is one of the USA's leading rail companies. UPR is linked to 23 states and are mostly used to transport goods from the Agricultural, Automotive, Energy, and Industrial industries and go from coast to coast and serves all six of the major gateways of the USA.

Mom and I arrived at the Boise Depot about 2:30, and it took a while to find where the train was on display, but it was stationed about a half-mile from the Depot Station. Old timers feeling nostalgic and several families with young children were milling about taking pictures and several children were on top of the engine posing for shots for their parents. I don't recommend you do that because the engine was constantly running and its surface was hot in several places. Admission was free, and parking was available in the Depot parking lot or on the streets near the Depot.

Union Pacific's No. 3985 began its current tour in Cheyenne, Wyoming in late-August and has run through Utah, California, and Oregon before stopping in Boise from September 25-26. Its final stop will be in Pocatello, Idaho on September 27, 2005.

Train travel is a dying form in most parts of the USA, and I highly recommend that if an old locomotive like No. 3985 is in your town, visit with your family.

After seeing the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit at the BAM, Mom and I decided to look around the rest of the exhibits in the museum. What we saw didn't impress us at all. "You call that art?!" was the question asked by Mom or…Read More

After seeing the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit at the BAM, Mom and I decided to look around the rest of the exhibits in the museum. What we saw didn't impress us at all. "You call that art?!" was the question asked by Mom or me at some of the so-called works of art.

Except for the special exhibits like the Georgia O'Keeffe Exhibit and the Katy Stone Fall exhibit, the works on display in the BAM are by Northwestern artists. The Katy Stone exhibit didn't impress Mom and me at all. The work is waterfall like art done on thin plastic that reminded me of "Shrinky Dinks." For those who didn't grow up in the '70s, Shrinky Dinks were plastic sheets you painted with special paint and baked in the oven, where you could see them shrink before your very eyes.

The rest of the displays were some 19th-century oil paintings of the Pacific Northwest which were very nice and the pottery collection from a former Boise State University professor. There were some modern paintings that had me thinking, "Hell! I could get Loki and Katie to roll in paint on canvas and sell that as art!"

However, I did like two pieces of the contemporary art. One was called Lyle by Chuck Close. It was a Warhol-like screen print that looks like an African-American man when you are far away from it, but when you get close to it, you see tiny patchwork like squares that make up the "Lyle." I kept looking back at it when we finished looking at it because it was looking different every time.

The other painting I liked was by Hung Lui, a Chinese artist who grew up during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Her painting which I forgot the name of shows life in youth to old age and life during the Cultural Revolution. Red paint drips down the painting, and I believe that was blood that showed Lui's oppression during Mao's reign in China from 1949-1976.

After we toured the other galleries, Mom and I looked in the Museum Store. There are some Chilluly like glass sculptures on sale for $5,000 each along with Native American jewelry and baskets. In the shop itself are books on O'Keeffe and Stieglitz along with greeting cards, postcards, posters, and other souvenirs which Mom and I found a little pricey for our budgets. I also felt the $8 admissions fee ($6 for Mom since she is over 60) was too much for the smallness of the exhibits. Even $6 when the special exhibits aren't there is steep for Boise, Idaho, but that's just me talking.

I would recommend the BAM for any special exhibits like Georgia O'Keeffe, but if you prefer Rembrandt and other works before the 20th century, the BAM is not for you.