Cousins in Boise and Seattle

We drove down out of the high country to Boise to visit my cousin Joan and her family. Joan and Lee showed us a great time including a meal at the over the top restaurant called Barbacoa where we took advantage of the two for one happy hour and had two martinis and appetizers for dinner. The other two nights we had to suffer through gourmet meals at their house. Sunday morning we took a hike in the hills above their house and I detect a slight bulge in my abdomen here.

Boise is full of young people...probably more young people than in the entire state of Maine. It's the biggest city for miles...600,000 people in the metro area. We went to a Saturday farmers market downtown and had Somali sambusas...then cycled out to a dam and back...more than 25 miles...my longest trip to date.

We left Monday morning after a quick exam and blood test at Lee's office. My platelets were 104,000. The doctor in charge of the clinical trial decided I should wait another week and have it re-checked before starting back on the Dasatinib. 

Boise is on the Oregon trail. We drove across the Payette River into Oregon and decided to drive state highway 26 west across eastern Oregon. This is the route taken my some settlers who had "short cut fever". Instead of following the trail north to the Columbia river they set out directly west and crossed several high passes. I guess we were anxious to finally get to the Pacific. We drove route 26 all the way to Bend, Oregon. Arrived in the late afternoon after a beautiful drive. We camped along the Deschutes river and made ratatouille with vegetables we bought at the Boise farmers market.

Gina was seriously hungry here and she managed to eat the entire pan of ratatouille....and some nice cheese which she is serious about too.

Later, we visited the Deschutes brewery and walked around town. The next morning was cold and rainy and we decided to sprint up to Seattle to visit Gina's cousin Nancy and her family. These people are clearly not very serious...