Sunday, September 26, 2010

More exploring

Since we do live in Idaho, we decided that this weekend we would travel to the Idaho Potato Museum to learn some things about the good old Idaho Potato. We went down to Blackfoot, which is about 25 miles south of Idaho Falls.  Below are some pictures of the outside of the museum. The sun was so bright in the one of Jason. We are both convinced that the sun is much brighter here than it ever was in North Carolina. I think I am going to need some sunglasses :-p
A sign inside the museum

That's one large spud

See my eyes were shut it was so bright haha
This is the inside of a potato shed. They need to be sure to keep airflow at a minimum of 10 cubic feet per minute per ton. Airflow is designed to maintain the potatoes in a constant and uniform temperature throughout the pile.


Potatoes grow in the southern part of Idaho. Idaho's short summers provide hot days and cool nights best for growing potatoes. The wind-blown soils of the Snake Rive Plain are especially suited for potatoes, being light, well drained and rich in plant nutrients. Idaho receives less than 9 inches of rainfall yearly, allowing farmers to irrigate with the precision needed to grow fine potatoes.



The famous Idaho Potato
The museum also had a display of all the equipment used to harvest potatoes and plant them. There was also a potato song called "When There's Tears in the Eyes of a Potato." Jason proceeded to sing some of it out loud. I was go glad there were only two other people in the entire place haha!
After the Museum we went to the Idaho Falls Public Library. (which we have been to before) But interesting note: There is a statue of Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann from Where the Red Fern Grows out in the front because Wilson Rawls, the author, is from Idaho Falls.

There was also a CommUNITY Festival yesterday that we decided to check out. It was in the same park as the Zoo is in and the Zoo was free! So we got to walk around and see some animals and listened to some live jazz music and enjoyed the beautiful day. However the tigers and snow leapord were hiding :-(
It is supposed to be in the high 70s and 80s all week but it still gets down in the low 40s at night. 


The Festival

Pelicans

Big bears! They were very active!

I don't think I have ever seen a tortise this big.


The monkys were fun too!











The last thing we did yesterday was register for our wedding. If you have never walked around a store with one of those scan guns....It is definately as fun as it looks!!! haha. Jason was in charge of the scanner and we managed to agree on everything we scanned. He didn't even find a display of beer to scan like on that commercial. (although he said he was going to look hehe)
We will be sending out Save the dates this coming week with our website on it. It has information on our registry and other info. about our wedding.

Today we are just doing some work and watching football :-)





Sunday, September 12, 2010

Waterfalls, Rivers, and Windmills

We spent the last couple weekends seeing some sights of Idaho. Most of which Jason has seen before, but all new and exciting to me. It has been very nice here with highs near 70 and lots of sun :-) Last weekend (Labor Day weekend) we spent Sunday at Mesa Falls and Cave Falls. Mesa falls is about 100 miles northeast of Idaho Falls off of Idaho highway 47. Cave Falls is just inside Yellowstone National Park.
Standing near Upper Mesa Falls
Saw a rainbow :-)

Henry's Fork of the Snake River below Upper Mesa Falls
Then we travelled to Lower Mesa Falls about a mile away.
Lower Mesa Falls

We also stopped by the visitor's center, which was an old Inn.
visitor's center
They had all sorts of animal skins.
The bear got him!
Next stop was Cave Falls
Dirt/gravel road we drove 14 miles down to get to Cave Falls.. my poor car :-(
Cave Falls
<>
The cave "caved in" so I don't know if they can call it Cave Falls anymore.
Clean, clear mountain water!
This weekend, September 11th we went on a nature hike and to see the windmills.
Short little hike to see Snake River
view as we walked
Snake River
Volcanic Ash
I was a little nervous about the rattlesnake warning.
On to the windmills. We are able to see these from Idaho Falls. We can even see some from the bedroom window. They are about 10-15 miles away.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Our new life in Idaho

We have now all made it to Idaho and started settling in.  Most of the boxes are put away and the guest bed is ready.  I've started my job with INL working out at MFC in the Arco Desert in the nuclear fuel performance and design group.  Melissa has started her job as the special education resource teacher at a school here in Idaho Falls. 

We wanted to start a blog to help chronicle our new life here in Idaho.  Melissa has been taking lots of pictures and is looking forward to beginning to post them here and summarize our little adventures.