Weekend Highlights: Friends Drop In

This past weekend a couple good friends came to visit me. One of them is a great friend that I met in the NuHouse while in college and was my workout buddy for the majority of my two years at WSU. He is one of only a few friends from school with whom I have continued to keep in touch. So, of course I had to give them the Boise tour.

We of course sampled one of my favorite local restaurants, Goodwood Barbeque Company. Everyone loved it! After dinner we headed downtown to kill some time before the main event of our Saturday evening, the Josh Ritter concert. I rarely find excuses to go downtown so I jump at them when I can, like people visiting. It's hard to justify the time and gas to drive down there just to hang out. This is another reason I want to move closer to downtown once my time in the mansion is complete.

Twilight Criterium Race 2012

Twilight Criterium

While downtown we did some shopping (or browsing rather) and hit some coffee spots. It actually was a great time to be downtown looking to kill time because there was a sprint bicycle race going on. This was the first I had seen a sprint race, I didn't even know they existed. Basically, they roped off two blocks in the heart of downtown Boise and did "circle-track" style bike races with about 20-30 bikers. The racers ride so closely and are going about 30 MPH through hard turns, it gets intense. I hear the wrecks can be pretty brutal but we didn't see any. It was pretty fun to watch and most definitely lends itself to spectating when compared with most bicycle races which tend to be over large distances.

There were quite a few spectators watching the event and I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised since I like to refer to Boise as the Mecca for Bicycling; everyone around here seems to regularly bicycle. After watching a race or two we headed for the concert. 

Josh Ritter - This picture really summarizes his antics on stage.

Josh Ritter

The Josh Ritter concert was pretty fun. There were lots of people and I always am up for a good people watch. The antics of the artist were very entertaining: he was always smiling big, running around stage, and jumping up and down. He is a local guy from Moscow, ID (right up by Pullman, WA, home of WSU). So, of course he had some jokes about Idaho and even an Idaho song which of course got lots of cheers from the crowd. Honestly, I'm not much of a music lover but generally can enjoy any type of music. Personally, concerts are too long for my liking and at about the halfway point I am music'ed out and ready to be doing something else. This concert wasn't an exception but I still enjoyed myself and it was a great reason to get out, enjoy some time with friends, and have a good time. 

This weekend was one of the better ones I have had in Boise. It was great to have some friends visit. I always love showing friends the town; so, if you ever want to come visit me or are just passing through Boise you had better look me up!!