We’re taking you to the pacific northwest of the USA to the beautiful mountains of Idaho with the best things to do in Boise, the surrounding mountains, and nearby natural hot springs! In this episode we explore Boise, dip into two different amazing natural hot springs in Idaho, see wildlife and amazing views, and enjoy some mountain fun in the snow!

We give you the best tips for visiting Boise on a winter weekend 

• How to travel to Boise 
• How much you need to budget for a Boise trip. Spoiler: It’s cheap!
• Where to stay in Boise to get a FREE BREAKFAST BUFFET!

Fun things to do in Boise, Idaho

• Walking the Boise Greenbelt 
• Exploring Downtown Boise
• Gold Fork Hot Springs
• Kirkham Hot Springs
• Driving in the snow

Things to do in Boise – Episode Transcript

1 (57s):
Welcome to this weeks episode of the Travel Squad podcast. Today, we are taking with us on a super fun weekend trip to Boise, Idaho

4 (1m 7s):
Boise.

1 (1m 9s):
We decided on this trip while we were actually in the airport of Chicago, getting ready to fly back to San Diego. I suggested it to the squad because I’ve seen so many pictures of the natural beauty of Idaho, and I really wanted to go.

3 (1m 23s):
Yeah, Idaho has been on my travel list for a couple of years because of how much nature is there and how pretty it is, but it wasn’t until you showed me that picture of Gold Fork, Hot Springs with snow and trees and beautiful, natural hot Springs that I was like, yes, sign me up. But then what really, really sold me was the cheap flight from San Diego was only 200 bucks. And that was all we had to say.

1 (1m 49s):
I think it was less than that. It was like $79 each way.

3 (1m 52s):
Even better.

2 (1m 54s):
I have one word to say to you guys, potatoes.

3 (2m 1s):
That’s what got you to want to go?

2 (2m 3s):
I had to go to Idaho and try a potato directly from the source. I’m just kidding guys. No, but really it is a mass producer of potatoes and we did eat potatoes while you were there. However, I was super excited because we are going to the hot Springs and I love to get myself up and in mother nature and ground, and this was an excellent opportunity to ground all weekend long. And as soon as we got back to San Diego on Monday morning, I came up with a million dollar idea and it’s because of all the grounding that I did.

4 (2m 34s):
Yeah. Boise was such a great time. I’m actually really looking forward to going back. I enjoyed it for so many reasons, but one of the main reasons why I did like it so much is it did remind me of our hometown of Woodland, not necessarily Woodland, but we’ll right by Sacramento. So it’s another capital city. It has that bustling downtown vibe, but also such a small quaint feel to it. It

3 (2m 58s):
Totally

4 (2m 59s):
Did. Yeah. And it reminded me of that a lot. And then also Boise is at a high elevation, but it’s in a valley and Sacramento is in a valley. And then in the background of Sacramento, you could see off to the distance to see the mountains and same thing in Boise. And it just reminded me of that a lot. So it was really nostalgic and really nice to be there in a different place.

3 (3m 18s):
I know we have a ton of followers in Australia, so why don’t we give some context to where Idaho is and what it is?

4 (3m 27s):
Yeah. Well, that’s actually a really good point. You know, sitting here in the United States, we think everyone knows where, what state is, but we do have lots of international listeners. So I know Idaho is not necessarily a state that a lot of people know. So it is in the Pacific Northwest portion of the United States. It does not touch the Pacific ocean, but it borders, Washington and Oregon, and just really beautiful, natural beauty out there, up in the mountain regions, high plateaus, just real, real beautiful mother nature.

3 (3m 58s):
All right. So we always start our episode with some tips. So what do people need to know before getting on the plane and going to Idaho?

4 (4m 5s):
Well, the first thing I would say is you must consider what you’re going to do for transportation, especially if you’re going to be in Boise. Now with any city, there is transportation for the bus, but I wouldn’t rely on that. You’re going to want a car, but what’s the right type of car that you want. And I would highly suggest that you get yourself an intermediate to full-size SUV. And the reason why I suggest that is yes, even though Boise itself is in a high plateau valley and you don’t necessarily need it for that. If you’re going to be enjoying the beauty of Idaho, you’re going to be going to the mountains. And you’re definitely going to need it on those windy steep roads, because just right outside Boise, you’re going up into the mountains.

1 (4m 48s):
I definitely think an SUV is worth getting, especially if you’re going in the wintertime, we were going outside of Boise, going up into the mountains. Some of the roads were icy, definitely want a car that has four wheel drive or all wheel drive just for your safety. But even if you aren’t going in the winter time, if you were going to the summertime and you were going to visit some of the lakes and going out to the mountain, you might want to put things in the back and just have that extra space and have an SUV available.

3 (5m 16s):
And you are going to be driving so much in the mountains. So you’re going to want to download offline maps on Google maps so that you can navigate through all of those winding mountain roads and not have to worry about losing service, which we definitely did for most of the drive,

1 (5m 31s):
Both of the hot spring places we went to, we lost service at both points. So I was really glad to have downloaded the maps previous to us leaving Boise. So I could have them on the way and had a way to get us back to Boise.

2 (5m 43s):
Well, and another big tip when you’re driving through those mountains, watch out for deer. Idaho is a state filled with deer.

3 (5m 52s):
We saw so many dead

2 (5m 54s):
Deer on the side of the road, deer dashing in front of our cars, near hesitating in front of

4 (5m 59s):
Definitely happened. And this is reminding me of our episode, where we talked about our trip to the grand canyon. And I told you how that big moose came out. And that’s the first time I saw it. And you always see sign, say, deer crossing, watch out for deer. And I said, oh, when I was in Arizona and we were doing that going into the grand canyon, that’s the first time I really believed the signs. I believed them here in Idaho. And they were abundant like abundant

3 (6m 24s):
On that topic. Just be really careful driving on the icy winter roads. Cause we did see someone right in front of us spin out, which

2 (6m 31s):
Made us so grateful that we had an SUV.

1 (6m 33s):
Exactly glad to have the big car.

4 (6m 35s):
One last thing I want to give in the tip section here for our listeners. And I don’t know, this is something maybe we take for granted living here in California, really high populated state. There’s always going to be stuff for you on the road between place to place. Even if you’re going through a more isolated desolate area, but not so much in the mountains of Idaho. We learned that the hard way we thought, okay, maybe along the way from Boise to the hot Springs, it was supposed to take an hour and a half. We’re like, no, no, no, no. We’ll find some food along the way on those highways. Definitely not. So if you’re going to be going up into the mountains, be sure to eat in Boise or bring some food with you because there is nothing up there on those roads. I could promise you that.

2 (7m 16s):
Yes. And you know, one more thing to this trip was a game changer for me because I got waterproof winter boots

1 (7m 23s):
Finally.

2 (7m 24s):
Wow. They were soft. They were warm. I walked through snow. I mean like what a game changer

4 (7m 31s):
We give you shit all the time for coming under prepared. And now that you are really prepared Zaina how does it feel like you now? You know what we’re talking about? Like you just got to make the investment on the appropriate attire for certain things.

2 (7m 41s):
I mean, I just want to throw it out there that I even brought gloves like full gloves, not fingerless gloves, but full.

3 (7m 49s):
Wow. You’ve come a long way.

2 (7m 52s):
I bought a new

4 (7m 52s):
Beanie. I’m really proud of you. Thank you

1 (7m 55s):
This wide. If proud of you Veena

3 (7m 57s):
I actually have another comment about boots. I also bought new boots and I wanted to throw this out there for everyone wanting to look cute in the snow DSW, Timberland boots. They come in this beautiful blush pink, also waterproof, also warm, super cute. And your pictures will look great.

4 (8m 13s):
I was a big fan of your Timmy’s Kim. I really liked him a lot.

1 (8m 17s):
Yeah, they were really nice and they complimented the snow. And one other thing I wanted to add is, you know, Boise is a great place to go and winter it snows there and the snow plus hot Springs is beautiful. Makes for the perfect backdrop. The temperature of the is perfect. I would definitely recommend going.

3 (8m 35s):
So this was a weekend trip for us. So we worked all day, Friday, we met at the airport around six, we got on the plane. It was just about a two hour flight to Boise. We flew Alaska airlines. Like we said, it was kind of a cheap price ticket. Also in my opinion, a little bit of a cheap price airplane, but Jamal likes Alaska.

4 (8m 54s):
I like Alaska airlines. I wouldn’t say it’s a cheap plane. It was a very well regulated, nice plane. It was just a small plane, but that’s what you got to expect from flying from a San Diego market to Boise. Boise is just not a big market. So you’re probably going to be in those small planes. So Kim had a little problem with that, but I didn’t have a problem with

3 (9m 13s):
That.

4 (9m 14s):
I appreciated it because it was a two by two Cedar instead of a traditional three by three. So I liked those. It was definitely a shorter small plane. Yes.

1 (9m 22s):
So we landed in Boise. Like Kim said, it was a two hour flight, but we lost an hour. They were an hour ahead of us. So we landed late and went to go get a rental car. And it was pretty late at night. It was like past 11:00 PM when we landed. So we knew it was a late night. And I had a really funny joke that I was playing. Someone asked, I think how long it was going to take us to get to our hotel from the Boise airport. And I told the girls, it was going to be a 45 minute drive.

2 (9m 51s):
So when you say it was a funny joke, funny is subjective.

4 (9m 55s):
It was funny to me because I knew it wasn’t 45 minutes. I didn’t know how you ladies were so gullible. It’s just like, how big is Boise? You thought it going to be

3 (10m 2s):
Five minutes. Okay.

2 (10m 5s):
Well, you know, we even stopped at the gas station to get water. And my first thought was, that’s weird. Normally we get water when we’re closer to the hotel and we still have a 45 minute drive. And then I even like ask, are you guys going to get coffee? Because I’m thinking, oh my gosh, a 45 minute drive. So I almost got coffee. And if I did, I would have been so pissed, but I did buy a little snack for the car because I thought, oh my gosh, it’s going to be a 45 hour or 45 minutes a drive to the hotel. It was not,

3 (10m 31s):
It was literally around the corner.

4 (10m 34s):
It was a 10 minute drive. I would’ve loved for you to have gotten the coffees in. It would have made my evening. If you got the

3 (10m 39s):
Coffee.

2 (10m 40s):
Well, what got even better is that Jamal missed the exit. So Brittany and Jamal are kind of bickering. You missed the exit. No, I didn’t. You didn’t give me directions.

3 (10m 48s):
Me and Zaina look at each other. And we’re like, wow, mom and dad are added again.

2 (10m 53s):
So Jamal like makes some kind of U-turn and then Brittany tells him it’s here to the right. And when he turns to the right, he turns into the parking lot of the holiday Inn express. And I’m like, oh, okay. I guess we’re going to cut through the parking lot to get back to the road. Like, I’m still not believe in that this is a 45 minute drive. And I’m like, why are we going through the holiday Inn parking lot?

1 (11m 14s):
What was so funny was I told Jamal, like I told the girls, it was a 45 minute drive and he’s like, oh, this is great. It’s going to be hilarious.

4 (11m 22s):
She told me that while you guys were in the bathroom at the airport and I was like,

6 (11m 27s):
And these idiots, they pick, it’s going to take 45 minutes to get that.

3 (11m 32s):
Exactly. And we were going out to the mountains. So I’m like, okay, maybe we wanted to be closer to the hot Springs. Nope. Maybe it was a good deal.

4 (11m 41s):
I’ll maybe buy that excuse. But anyway, we ended up getting to the holiday and which the holiday Inn is just a typical holiday and it was nice. It wasn’t grand, but we’re going to talk about it in a little bit, but I just want to say and throw out another reason why I was picked free breakfast buffet,

3 (11m 58s):
A FREE BREAKFAST BUFFET.

2 (12m 3s):
And they had a place right there behind the check-in counter, where you can buy Klondike bars for a dollar 25

1 (12m 11s):
A deal.

4 (12m 12s):
I was so excited when I saw that at check-in like Klondike bars, dollar 25. And they were Reese’s pieces, Klondike bars. Amazing.

1 (12m 20s):
So take us through the spread. We went to sleep Friday night, Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early, so we can head over to the Greenbelt, but what did we do? First? We ate breakfast, take us through the spread.

3 (12m 32s):
There is actually an Instagram story saved in our highlight at Travel Squad Podcast. You can actually see what we’re about to describe

4 (12m 39s):
My favorite thing that they had was an automatic pancake maker. I mean, Automatic

3 (12m 46s):
Pancake maker,

4 (12m 48s):
So excited. I was excited. I was excited about

3 (12m 51s):
It.

4 (12m 51s):
And let me tell you something. That was the first thing that I went to and I’m going to say it again, set it before I judge a breakfast buffet by a waffle maker. If they have it, they did not, but an automatic pancake making machine, they had me sold. So that was the first thing that I went to. And it makes two at a time and they’re pretty good size ones, but not like full, full size pancakes. I like

3 (13m 15s):
The size of the Palm of your hand. Yes.

4 (13m 18s):
Yes. And I pushed the button. I’m watching my pancakes be made and the automatic pancake making machine. And then all of a sudden, Brittany comes up to me. She’s like, I want a pancake. And then she just takes my pancake. I’m like, I wanted to probably even three, like now you’re going to make me wait again. And so then I had the one left coming through the machine and then Kim comes up. She’s like, I want a pancake too, but I don’t want to. So then the girls just cut in front of me is I’m excited for my pancakes and take my pancakes. I was a little disappointed, but that was number one of what they had. What else on the spreads?

2 (13m 50s):
Oh, wait, then Jamal gives up his pancakes and makes another round. And when you made the second round of Jamal, what happened? They ran out of mix.

4 (14m 0s):
They ran out of mix. Well, I didn’t want to get myself a little too disappointed. So I kind of left that part out. That’s very true. But nonetheless pancake making machine. Yes.

1 (14m 12s):
He also had egg white omelets with veggies. They had regular omelets with cheese,

3 (14m 18s):
Oatmeal,

1 (14m 19s):
It oatmeal, yogurt,

2 (14m 21s):
Cinnamon rolls.

1 (14m 22s):
Oh yeah. They did have cinnamon rolls

3 (14m 24s):
Kits and gravy

2 (14m 26s):
Muppets, orange juice.

4 (14m 29s):
The gravy was good on the biscuits and gravy, but the biscuits were not as good as the biscuits at Bryce canyon.

3 (14m 34s):
Those were dynamite biscuits.

2 (14m 36s):
I concur.

4 (14m 37s):
So we got to enjoy the breakfast buffet as we always do with our hotels or at least try to always do. And then we hit the ground running and boys in, what did we do? Ladies?

1 (14m 46s):
We headed over to the Greenbelt. We went and parked at the Royal Boulevard parking, which is at Ann Morrison park. And we wanted to go explore the Greenbelt. And for those of you who don’t know what the green belt is, I had to look it up myself before I went, the Greenbelt is a 25 mile stretch of greenery and go walking path, bike path that lines the Boise river. And it connects a whole bunch of parks together. And it goes through the city and it provides beautiful scenic views. There’s tons of bridges along the way. And the river runs right next to it.

3 (15m 22s):
There’s also geese everywhere. Everywhere you look

4 (15m 26s):
The highlight for me, you know, here in California, we see like a lot of ducks or sea birds or something. So not very large birds. And then you go over there and just right in the park, they’re all chillin. And my goodness they’re big. But the Greenbelt is actually one of the top things listed to do in Boise. Again, it’s so long we were there in winter or so we could have biked. It was sunny, but it was still cold. And we had other stuff to do. But if you go during spring or summer, I definitely recommend biking it. I would have loved to do that. And when we go back, if we go back during a different season, like spring or summer, I’d definitely want to make that a priority to do much further on the green belt.

3 (16m 5s):
And they have places where you can rent bikes on the sidewalk, where you just use a kiosk for about five bucks an hour, rent a bike and use it at your pleasure.

1 (16m 15s):
We walked along the Greenbelt to the ninth street bridge and we crossed the bridge from the university side onto the Boise downtown side. And right away we hit and ran into the Anne Frank human rights Memorial.

3 (16m 31s):
That was surprising. Yeah,

4 (16m 32s):
It’s such a random place for something so serious as a Memorial. And we knew that it was there in the Greenbelt, but where we parked, I at least didn’t know on our path that we were taking to downtown by Walking the Greenbelt that we were going to pass it. So definitely do keep that in mind, they have the Anne Frank Memorial there. It was definitely quite humbling to see and very interesting to see in Boise, but definitely unique thing in the Greenbelt.

2 (16m 59s):
So from the Memorial, we walked down to Capitol street to the Capitol and it’s so beautiful because you’re walking down this just busy downtown country street and you see the Capitol at the end of the street and it’s just mountains and clouds and blue sky behind the Capitol

4 (17m 18s):
Mountain.

3 (17m 19s):
I loved that about it as you got closer to the mountains disappeared, but when you’re a little bit farther back, you can see everything it’s so pretty

4 (17m 26s):
Well. That’s what I really liked about it and where it gave me the feel. A lot of Sacramento that I was saying earlier that it reminded me of it reminded me of just Walking. The prominence had seen a Capitol building Sacramento’s on a river just as well. And you know, you can cross the tower bridge in Sacramento and then you’re there. And it’s like, we crossed a bridge. So it gave me that nostalgic feel. And it really had that small town, but bustling vibe. And I really appreciated that about Boise.

1 (17m 53s):
Yeah. And there wasn’t a lot of people outside of the Capitol building. We got it all to ourselves for a few minutes as well.

4 (17m 59s):
I will say this, that we were talking about it being bustling. And it is at night during day, granted, we were there Saturday morning, probably not Monday through Friday businesses operating, but in the evening it definitely gets bumping. So I think that’s why we had it kind of all to ourselves, but we took a few photos in front of it. But one thing I just want to point out, cause I want to add more shame to Zayna she had yes, yes. She had challenged me to a race to the top of the steps of the Capitol, almost like Rocky style, Rocky Balboa style when he runs up the stairs. So I was like game on Zana. Let’s take this challenge. And there was a bell at the bottom of the steps. So we had to start with our hand on the bell, run to the top, touch one of the columns and then come back down and Zena’s just boasting so confident, like, oh, I’m going to beat them all.

4 (18m 48s):
I got this one in the bag, smoked her. I just want to throw it out there.

3 (18m 54s):
I have a video that we can post, but this is just typical sibling rivalry of the is.

2 (18m 60s):
I gave that one to Jamal because his wife was watching

4 (19m 6s):
And embarrass me. I

2 (19m 7s):
Did not.

4 (19m 8s):
Once we were there SEO, really?

1 (19m 10s):
Because at the end you said, how

7 (19m 12s):
Did he beat

3 (19m 13s):
Me? She was just playing it up.

2 (19m 14s):
Thank you. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you, Ken. But Jamal was taking like fucking three, four steps at a time and I have long legs, but I wasn’t expecting him to fucking grasshopper it

4 (19m 22s):
Up. It’s a race.

2 (19m 26s):
That’s okay. I’m sure I can do long endurance running on a treadmill over you.

4 (19m 30s):
So after the capital, we ended up going on a quick, short little walk to a freak alley, which is only two blocks from the Capitol. And why don’t you tell us about freak alley Kim? Cause I think it was you who told us about it before the trip is something that you wanted to do.

3 (19m 43s):
Yeah. As I was researching things to see and do in Boise, this was one of the highlights. It’s a public alleyway that they have turned into a public art space. So the walls where people park and where there’s dumpsters, there are some beautiful painting straight on the walls. There’s some really, really cool ones. There was one with this beautiful girl with sunglasses and it was so pretty. And then there’s other more artsy, more creative, more avant-garde

4 (20m 12s):
Trippy art too, for that matter, which yeah, it was really cool. I really liked that about that, how they’ve designated that public space for it. So there are a couple of places where you can actually enter freak alley and get to there from originally when we were walking from the Capitol, we came in the back way. So we exited through the front and the front way is the more official way to come in. And they have a sign there that specifically says it. And if you want to enter that way, it starts on north eighth street and that’s between west Idaho and west bannock street. So that’s the main entrance to it. And you can the sign and work your way. The back way.

3 (20m 50s):
We only spent about five minutes or that’s pretty much all the amount of time that you need. You’ll see, tons of other people are taking pictures. So you kind of get in and out. But by this time we had worked up a major thirst.

4 (21m 1s):
I mean, it was 10 30 and I was ready for some booze. And I’m talking about getting a drink. We needed

3 (21m 7s):
A break.

4 (21m 8s):
Yeah. We just had a quick little rest. But what specifically sold us is right outside of freak alley. As we were walking, we came across a restaurant called Eureka and we saw a sign, $5, bloody Mary’s or $5 mimosa. So we’re like, oh, let’s go inside and have

3 (21m 23s):
A drink,

4 (21m 24s):
Have a drink before we go. We

2 (21m 26s):
Said, Eureka,

4 (21m 27s):
Eureka. I found it.

2 (21m 30s):
So we got a $5 bloody Mary’s and I got a $5 mimosa. And after not drinking all of last year, that mimosa just like, wow, It just went down my throat. So smoothly.

4 (21m 45s):
One thing I do want to throw out about Eureka is it will gain, it was 10 30 in the morning. So it was relatively early. We had our breakfast buffet at the hotel, not that long ago, but we were honestly considering going back to Eureka for some food, they had some really good looking happy hour prices and food on there. So if you guys are in the downtown area, we didn’t get to eat there, but the food definitely looked good and at a moderate price. So I would definitely recommend doing that.

2 (22m 14s):
Do you have a Eureka here in San Diego? It’s out at the UTC LA Jolla mall.

3 (22m 18s):
Okay. We need to go get some Mac and cheese balls.

4 (22m 21s):
We have to go. I remember you saying that now when you were there, that there’s okay. Okay. Well, so we’re going to try it here in San Diego.

2 (22m 27s):
And I got drunk at that Eureka too.

4 (22m 29s):
There you go.

3 (22m 30s):
I’m sensing a pattern here.

2 (22m 32s):
It was just one drink and that Boise.

1 (22m 34s):
So after your Rica, we went down the Greenbelt again and we went down until we hit friendship bridge.

3 (22m 42s):
And what did we do on friendship?

4 (22m 45s):
Everyone wanted to grab hands and skip, like we were best friends, which we are.

1 (22m 51s):
Why would we not?

2 (22m 52s):
I mean, my only regret is that we didn’t have someone who could videotape and take pictures of us, skipping, holding hands, looking at each other, throwing our head back, laughing.

4 (23m 3s):
We were hearkening back to Shanghai Disneyland when we were all running and skipping through the park. But this time over friendship,

3 (23m 9s):
As we were skipping, we passed a sign with warnings and cautions. And I was like, you guys, it says no skipping. Everyone freaked out.

4 (23m 17s):
Everyone freaked out except for me, because I didn’t necessarily believe that. Talk in Zana gullible again, who thought it was a 45 minute drive and Brittany fell for it

3 (23m 26s):
Immediately here, hands down, stop.

1 (23m 30s):
I’m gonna be respectful. And I’m not going to skip that.

4 (23m 32s):
Well, there was a sign telling you things that you can do on friendship bridge. So I just want to say this friendship bridge will actually put you at Boise state university on the other side. So that’s what’s across from it. But again, you are crossing the river. Interestingly enough, it says that during the summer, while it didn’t specify the season, but it has to be during the summer when the water level is high, you can jump off of the bridge. They allow you to do that and jump into the river. The only warning they give you is don’t jump too close to people that are swimming or tubing down the river. But look at this bridge in a public park and it tells you just jump into the river. That was crazy. So again, if you go during the summer, jump in the river from friendship bridge

3 (24m 13s):
Is Idaho.

4 (24m 14s):
Yes, it is.

2 (24m 15s):
Right. And as we were, you know, enjoying friendship bridge and looking at the mountains in the background, there was a guy in the river fishing like wearing the whole fishing gear overalls, trying to find some fish

4 (24m 28s):
CSO. If it was summer season and I jumped too close to him, you could be ticketed. It says that it says that on the sign. So,

1 (24m 35s):
But there’s tons of bridges that span the Boise river. So if you’re walking along the Greenbelt, you can go back and forth from either side, every few blocks. If you wanted to. I picked friendship bridge for the name and because I wanted to skip across with the squad. After we crossed over friendship bridge, we then went back to the car because we were going to head over to Gold Fork, Hot Springs. Woo, woo,

3 (24m 59s):
Woo. Yay. I’m pumped for this.

4 (25m 2s):
So why don’t you tell us about it, Kim, if you’re the one who’s pumped up for it.

3 (25m 5s):
Okay. So I got so pumped up because we stopped at Dutch bros coffee, which is something that also made us remind us of home because we have those coffee shops where we’re from

4 (25m 15s):
In Northern California and we don’t have any hearings

3 (25m 17s):
And they don’t have them here. But if you’ve never been to one, these people are hyped up just like I was right now. They’re like, what’s up, man? What you doing? How you doing today? Where you go in Sonya, they got us all hyped

4 (25m 28s):
Up real friendly way to get coffee. Yes.

3 (25m 30s):
Great. Love it. So Gold Fork, Hot Springs is in the mountains near Donnelly, Idaho. And it’s made of natural, hot, hot Springs. They have several different pools that have been manmade to kind of capture the water. So they’re not natural rock pools out in the wilderness hot Springs. So when you get there, there’s a very large pool where it immediately starts and it’s super, super hot. Then as you go down the line, they get cooler and cooler.

1 (25m 58s):
So my recommendation would be to start in the smaller cooler pools and work your way to the hottest one. Cause you start in the hottest one. If you go into anything else, you’re probably going to feel cold, especially if you’re out in the snow,

3 (26m 11s):
Because hot is hot,

4 (26m 12s):
It was really hot. But I just want to go back a little bit Kim, and what you were saying as their natural hot Springs, but they’re really not in natural pools. They’re manmade pools. The reason for that is again, natural hot Springs, but this is on a family’s private property. So they have actually built it up to make these pools and kind of like a tiered level. So the hottest pool is really where the natural spring flows into. And then it has another tiered pool below, which is a little bit less warm water and then so on and so forth till gets to the cool ones. So that’s why they aren’t natural and they are manmade. So keeping with the mindset that this is on somebody’s private property, they do charge you $10 for an adult to go to Gold Fork.

4 (26m 57s):
And they are a cash only business. So don’t go to Gold Fork without cash

1 (27m 3s):
Because there’s not an ATM next door.

4 (27m 5s):
Like I said, no food on the highways. Where are you going to find that ATM go with cash.

2 (27m 9s):
You definitely want the SUV for this place because this is where we saw a car spin out of control.

4 (27m 15s):
Yeah. After we got off the main highway, there’s kind of like a little side road that you go in kind of a private one and that’s where they stopped. D I seen the roads and it was only about 40.

2 (27m 27s):
I just have a sign too that says we are no longer DIC in the road. Interact your own rates.

4 (27m 31s):
Yeah. And so it was like three, four miles in, Brittany’s saying four and it took quite a long time to get there. Cause we had to go really, really slow on the ice. And that’s where we saw the person spin out. So definitely again, this is where having that SUV comes into play.

1 (27m 45s):
Yeah. And the hot Springs open at noon, or they’re open from noon to 9:00 PM. Like Jamal said, bring cash. They do have a parking lot. And just a few other tips about going to Gold Fork, Hot Springs. So they do have lockers there, which is something we learned once we arrived, all you have to do is exchange your car keys or a ID card and they will give you a lock to use in the locker room. So they do have two locker rooms, one, or it’s like one big one split into two sides, which

3 (28m 16s):
Is kind of like a big tent hut.

1 (28m 18s):
Yeah. It’s not like a building and the men’s on one side, the women’s on the other side, it can get pretty hectic in the locker room. So just keep that in mind. There’s a ton of people coming in and out, but it’s safe to put your stuff there. As long as you have a lock. Also, when you walk in and you pay for your admission, they do have snacks there. And so one thing that we learned was we didn’t eat lunch on our way to the hot Springs, which we should have done, but they do have snacks that we could have purchased. Also, they have bags there for you to put your wet bathing suits in at the end.

3 (28m 52s):
They also have Porter potties.

1 (28m 53s):
Yeah. The bathrooms are,

4 (28m 56s):
That’s what I was going to say. I’m glad you brought it up Kim. Cause I was just about to say it. So man-made tents right there for the changing rooms. Don’t expect a plumped toilet. You have porta-potties for you.

3 (29m 7s):
We’re being a port-a-potty though. It was pretty well kept it didn’t stink and didn’t see any atrocious thing.

4 (29m 13s):
Well, that’s fantastic. That’s great. One thing I just want to say about it though, is definitely be sure to bring flip-flops or something to wear while you’re in there. Because again, everybody’s coming out of the hot Springs wet when the floor is wet, you don’t really know what that is. So it’s just having that safe little comfort of definitely having your flip-flops while you’re in there.

2 (29m 33s):
My one complaint about the changing area is that it’s not a real door to get into the women’s changing it again. It’s a tent. And so it’s just a curtain there and women were going in and out and they didn’t close the curtain and it’s like, dude, people can see inside.

1 (29m 50s):
Yeah. That’s true. So be respectful when you’re going in and out of the changing room also like Jamal said, make sure you have flip-flops we went in winter. So there was snow on the ground between the hot Springs,

3 (30m 1s):
Which made it so beautiful.

1 (30m 2s):
It was super, super beautiful. But your toes can get really cold when you’re transferring between the third bowl pool.

4 (30m 9s):
But tell us a little bit about the hot spring experience. I mean we’re told, gave a little bit of tips of what to expect changing room, but let’s talk about the hot Springs.

3 (30m 16s):
This is literally the reason we flew from San Diego to Idaho.

4 (30m 20s):
Isn’t this where Brittany showed you the photo. When we’re coming back from Chicago, that sold you.

3 (30m 24s):
It’s absolutely gorgeous. The pictures are amazing. So bring a waterproof camera. So you can go in the hot Springs and take your pictures. Even though they are man-made pools, there’s still natural rocks all around you in some of the pools. So you are still out in nature. You’re not in a building. You’re not covered, you’re fully exposed. So if it was snowing, it would be sewing on you. And the pools are just created spaces in the wilderness. It’s just a really unique place that you can’t find in many other places. And it’s definitely worth visiting. It’s also absolutely gorgeous for getting that Instagram shot.

4 (31m 1s):
I was photographer for that one, I believe. Oh

3 (31m 3s):
My God. I actually got a lot of compliments. My pictures, somebody asked me, did you do anything in Idaho besides model? And they were like, who’s your photographer. You have a great photographer. We trained

4 (31m 15s):
Him. Well,

1 (31m 16s):
Yeah. One last thing I wanted to say while we were at Gold Fork, is that the smaller pools we talked about, you do have to sit down and they come to about your waist or your chest height, but the largest pool, the hottest pool you were standing in. I mean, you can’t really sit in it. It’s pretty deep in comparison to the other pools that are there. And that was the one that we spent the most time in.

3 (31m 39s):
Yeah. It’s really hot. So you’ll spend some time like sitting on the side and getting out and cooling off a little bit because it’s too hot to just be like fully.

4 (31m 46s):
Yeah, because that pool again is the one that has the main hot spring source flowing into it. So any of the other pools is residual runoff water from that big one. So that’s why as you go down the tiered levels of the pools that they’ve made, it gets cooler and cooler

3 (32m 2s):
And a little tad dirtier as well. The farther down you go, but not bad because there are a lot of people there. It was pretty crowded. I knew it was going to be crowded, but I didn’t think it’d be that crowded for the middle of the mountains in Idaho.

1 (32m 14s):
Yeah. But what was really nice, we were the really big boulders that were lining the big pool, the big hot pool. You could feel the water coming off of it. And it was just like so hot, so nice. And it was so relaxing to be in the pool and soak it in

3 (32m 29s):
All around rounding. Yeah. Really soaking in mother nature.

1 (32m 34s):
I had a really good time there. I’m glad we went.

4 (32m 36s):
Did we say how long of a drive it was from Boise? It

1 (32m 39s):
About a two hour drive. I don’t know if we said it, but it was about a two hour drive and we probably stayed there for what, two hours? Two to three hours.

4 (32m 46s):
Absolutely.

2 (32m 46s):
And so just so you know, when you’re driving up there, how DS gas and grub is the last gas station that you’re going to see and you’re going to find the subway there as well.

4 (32m 57s):
Yeah. So we said there was nothing to eat. I take that back. There was one place to eat. It was the one little remote town and right by how these gas stations

3 (33m 6s):
Keep you guys fed. So you don’t get hangry like,

2 (33m 9s):
But so, I mean, it’s not like it’s close to the hot Springs. We’re just saying that that’s the last thing that you’re going to see before. Nothing else is left.

1 (33m 16s):
Yeah. So he left the hot Springs. That was a two hour drive back to Boise. We were all starving and we really wanted to go out for dinner in downtown Boise. So where did we go?

4 (33m 26s):
Well, we wanted to go to a restaurant called a fork. And the reason why we wanted to go there is it was recommended to Brittany by one of her old nursing school friends who happens to live in the Boise region. She said, it’s a really good spot to go. You have to go there. So we ended up going there for dinner and it was really, really nice. It was popular. And we ended up getting there and little did we know that that weekend, apparently the, all the high schools around there were having some sort of dance because we saw all these young kids and formal attire and guys in suits, girls in dresses, and then we get to fork and they tell us, oh, it’s going to be a little bit of a wait.

4 (34m 8s):
It’s probably looking to be, you know, an hour, hour, 15 minutes. So we’re like, ah, we were really hungry. But we were like, all right, put us on for an hour, hour and 15 minutes for the weight. And then what happened after that? Ladies,

2 (34m 21s):
We walked 20 minutes across town to go get beer at one of their local breweries. And as soon as we walked into the brewery, we got a text saying our table is ready.

4 (34m 31s):
So it wasn’t an hour. Wait, it was a 20 minute wait. So we had to walk right back out. I was really looking forward to that beer. So that was a little bit disappointing.

3 (34m 40s):
It’s worth noting though. That about 20 minutes is how long it takes to walk across the Boise downtown area. You can walk the whole thing in that amount of time. And it was popping this night. There were people out everywhere.

1 (34m 52s):
Yeah. There was a sweetheart dance going on. That’s what they said.

3 (34m 55s):
It wasn’t just that there was like a sports stadium right there.

1 (34m 59s):
That’s

3 (34m 59s):
True. We saw people riding this big bike carriage thing, like getting crazy on it. It was like a downtown San Diego night.

4 (35m 7s):
It was pretty wild. But tell us about fork. What did we get to eat at the restaurant?

1 (35m 12s):
So Jamal and I ended up getting a plate of short ribs with some potatoes on

4 (35m 18s):
It. It was Idaho potatoes and it was talking about earlier

1 (35m 21s):
And we split that entree. And then we got two sides. We got asparagus fries, which were my favorite. And we got crisp brussel sprouts, which Jamal really enjoyed.

4 (35m 32s):
I really liked those Brussels sprouts a lot. They were kind of like an Asian sauce. It was really, really good. I liked it a lot. The asparagus fries were great. You know, there were so many good things on the menu that it made it hard to decide what we wanted to get. So then it almost made it a little frustrating, like, oh, did we want to eat here? But that was my mindset. Cause it was like, I don’t even know what to choose. Cause all the choices look so good to me.

2 (35m 54s):
I felt like my eyes were bigger than my stomach when I was looking at the menu and I ended up ordering a steak because I thought, why not? And it was good, but I did regret ordering it because by the time they brought it out, I was two beers in and I realized that it’s just too much work to cut the steak.

4 (36m 14s):
It was like, it was like, we were back in Africa and Brittany had to cut your shrimp. Right. Zaina

2 (36m 20s):
Yeah, I totally cut my steak on this one, but, and I didn’t want it to go to waste and I didn’t want to eat it the next day. So I ended up eating it, but I just thought, gosh, I should have ordered that sandwich that I thought I didn’t want, because it would have been so much easier than cutting the steak.

1 (36m 33s):
But how was that broccoli?

2 (36m 34s):
Oh my gosh. The broccoli was my favorite part because it wasn’t your standard broccoli. I love like the long thin broccoli. And then I think yes, that, and it was in some type of balsamic and I also got the Idaho potatoes.

1 (36m 49s):
What did you get? Kim?

3 (36m 51s):
I got what they called a grilled cheese fondue. So it had these little grilled cheese pieces on the side and then a little tomato soup, fondue with little forks to dip. I love an interactive dish and it was quite appetizing.

4 (37m 3s):
And you got the Brussels to yourself, right?

3 (37m 5s):
I

4 (37m 5s):
Did.

3 (37m 6s):
Okay.

4 (37m 6s):
What’d you think of the Brussels? Yeah, they were good. It definitely. When we go back to Boise, I would eat here again. I liked it a lot.

1 (37m 12s):
It was a good place to eat. So after dinner it was pretty late. I would say probably nine. Well, not like super late, but like it was, we just got done with dinner. We really didn’t eat lunch. We retired. We had been up pretty early in the morning

4 (37m 25s):
And we had plans for the next day. And that’s why Zaina said earlier. None of us ended up eating those Klondike bars. I kept saying I was going to get a Klondike bar that night from behind the stand. Yeah. So it was so full. I couldn’t even do it. No.

3 (37m 38s):
What you did do though?

4 (37m 41s):
No,

3 (37m 41s):
You were snoring.

4 (37m 44s):
Was I keeping you awake camp? I’m sorry.

3 (37m 46s):
Okay. So ever since we went to Lebanon, I’ve had a pair of earplugs and an eye mask. And so I was using it and my earplugs spell out in the middle of the night and then I was awoken by a rumble and I had to go searching for the earplugs

4 (38m 1s):
Was either rumble.

3 (38m 3s):
You were the corporate,

4 (38m 4s):
I’m sorry to say. I’m sorry that you have to hear that came up.

2 (38m 9s):
I’m sure.

3 (38m 11s):
And we’re all in the same room because we were just going cheap on this weekend. We’re like, whatever. We’ll just split the room four ways and

4 (38m 18s):
Save money, more travel.

2 (38m 20s):
Oh wait,

3 (38m 20s):
I have to deal with Nori.

2 (38m 21s):
So just to let you know, these are true conversations of the Travel Squad Podcast that gets us riled up at dinner. We were talking about our shower experience rotation. So we would love to know what your opinion is. Okay. Because it goes, w what is it like? Zayna Kim, Jamal, Brittany, but let’s say Kim showered in the morning and S3 three didn’t. So then it skips me. So then the next time is it still me? Who starts? Because it was my turn next. And then we skip Kim or do we just go to Jamal? I mean, like we get knee deep in these types of conversations to figure out how we should keep this experience bare to everyone.

3 (39m 6s):
I think it’s fair. If we just do four straws and whoever gets the smallest Drago’s first

4 (39m 11s):
Random draw.

3 (39m 12s):
Yeah, that would be fair.

1 (39m 14s):
What else would be fair if we could all set our own alarms?

3 (39m 16s):
No, absolutely not. I laid down the law on this trip. One room, one alarm, and it worked out well.

1 (39m 23s):
These are the true conversations we have, but moving along, we woke up early Sunday morning because we were going to go snow tubing.

2 (39m 34s):
I would like to preface that Brittany sent a group text that, Hey guys, we’re going to go tubing. Do you want the 10 30 slot? Or do you want the 12 o’clock slot? And when I saw the text, I was like, why the hell would we go to town or river and Idaho during the winter? I really had no idea, but I didn’t say anything. So I just, well, I mean, I said 12 o’clock, but I wouldn’t say that it

4 (39m 56s):
Might be at its peak.

2 (39m 58s):
I really did. I thought, why the fuck would we do it at 10 30? Let’s wait until Nunes go down the river. So then, like, I don’t say anything about like my thoughts, but later on, as I’m hearing them talking, I’m realizing that it’s actually like to being down a hill on the snow. And I was like, oh, thank goodness.

4 (40m 13s):
I think you might be the only person who, when we said we were to being in winter in Idaho and the mountains thought that it was on a river. I don’t think anyone else would make that kind of connection.

3 (40m 24s):
We wouldn’t be down for it.

1 (40m 26s):
It was one of my favorite things that we did this weekend. Our weekend was so packed with so much fun. And this really was one of the highlights. So we went to a place called bogus, a basin and bogus basin is 45 minutes outside of Boise,

4 (40m 44s):
Mileage wise. It’s not even that far again. You’re going up those mountain roads. So that’s what takes a little bit of time to go ahead and get up there.

3 (40m 50s):
Pretty drive up there.

1 (40m 51s):
Yeah. You only take one main road and it’s called bogus mountain road.

4 (40m 55s):
I think the road only leads you to bogus basin as a matter of fact. So, yeah.

1 (41m 0s):
So let me tell you about it a little bit more. So you can go snow tubing, there, there one and a half hour session. So they start at 9:00 AM. The next one’s at 10 30, then 12. And the last lot is 3:00 PM.

3 (41m 14s):
And they really do watch you with your 90

1 (41m 16s):
Minutes. Yes they do. So they give you a tag and it tells you what time you started and what time it ends. And also another tip. It’s a big parking lot and there’s others, no activities you can do. So they offer snowboarding and skiing and other winter recreational activities. They

4 (41m 33s):
Even have like a winter bobsled thing up there, like the roller coaster type thing that they have. So they have that also,

3 (41m 41s):
They don’t, they not only have the downhill skiing, but they have the more Nordic skiing.

1 (41m 45s):
Yeah. So we get into this big parking lot. We park and we are kind of in a rush for time because we want to start right at 10 30. So we go to like where the cafeteria is and where it says, get your tickets. And this is where like, all of the skiing is happening to we get there. And the guy’s like, oh, the tubing is on the other side of the parking lot. So we had to walk past our car, continue on and finally get to the tubing station.

4 (42m 10s):
Yeah. Because you arrive and you would think, okay, the tubing’s over here with everything else. You see the ski lifts. You see all this skiers, the snowboarders. But no. So if you’re going there specifically for the tubing, definitely go to the complete opposite side of the parking lot away from everything else. But before we talk about the tubing, I also want to say, if you do do the tubing at bogus basin, you have to purchase your tickets in advance. It is so popular that they don’t allow you to purchase them upon arrival because they may be sold out. So you do have to make the reservations online. And it’s only $15 per person,

2 (42m 48s):
20 or 25, man. I said,

4 (42m 51s):
I got my money’s worth on the first run down the hill. I was so stoked.

2 (42m 54s):
So another thing to note too is if you’re looking for bathrooms, yes, they do have bathrooms right there next to where you tube. But those are port-a-potties and they’re not maintained during the winter. And they’re really, really filthy. So they do have nicer bathrooms where we first got there, where the tickets are sold and all of that

4 (43m 14s):
By the normal lodge and bar of the mountain.

3 (43m 18s):
As soon as we got there, like I’m not a danger ninja, like these folks are, but I walk up to the edge of the hill and I’m immediately starting to regret signing up for this.

2 (43m 30s):
You know, I was really nervous too.

4 (43m 34s):
Cause

3 (43m 34s):
I was like, this is pretty high. This hill looks pretty big. Like, I don’t know about this. It’s one of the biggest Hills I’ve ever tubed down.

1 (43m 40s):
Yeah. So when you walk up from the parking lot, you are at the top of this hill and they give you your snow tube and you’re standing at the edge. They tell you that you can either sit down in it. You can go down on your stomach, you can link up and all go down together, like hold each other snow tubes and go down together or you can erase down. You can do a whole bunch of things. So we’re all standing at the very top Kim and Zayna are a little nervous. And they ended up telling us that if we go down together, it’s going to be a little bit faster. I think you guys were scared. So we’re like, oh, let’s go down separate for the first run. Right. And

3 (44m 15s):
I was screaming at the top of my lungs.

4 (44m 17s):
We’re going to be more scary. You have nobody else to link up with or be frightened with. So I would imagine that to be a little bit more scary,

1 (44m 25s):
A squad tip, wear sunglasses.

3 (44m 28s):
Oh my God. Wow.

1 (44m 29s):
The spray from the snow, just up on your face,

3 (44m 32s):
Right into your eyeballs.

1 (44m 34s):
So that’s just one squad tip.

2 (44m 36s):
Yeah. And make sure your hats on tight. My hat went flying and I even had like a really cool Fargo style hat where, oh my gosh, this is the kind of stuff that they were in the like high mountains. And it has a clip underneath the chin and everything. And it was so warm coupled with my snow shoes,

4 (44m 55s):
Primetime out there. It was really fun. One thing I just want to let everyone else know too, is there is one hill, there are several people on it, obviously at the same time, but you don’t have to make the hike all the way back to the top to go do it again. They have a conveyor belt that takes you from the bottom to the top. It

3 (45m 15s):
Truly is an easy

4 (45m 16s):
Day. They don’t allow you to walk on it for safety reasons. So you are subject to the speed of the conveyor belt, which

2 (45m 24s):
Takes about six to seven minutes to get you to the top. Was it

4 (45m 27s):
That long you timed it? Oh wow. But anyway, that definitely will cut into a little bit of your time of your hour and a half. But nonetheless, we were able to squeeze anywhere between, you know, 12 to 15 runs and maybe even a little bit more. It was hard. Cause I mean, we’re having so much fun and I lost count after a few. Cause we were all linking up then sliding on our stomachs, then sliding on our stomachs, linking up, going solo, doing this, doing that. And

3 (45m 52s):
It’s so many videos.

4 (45m 53s):
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the snow to do actual snow activities. I mean, I’ve been in it more recently, but you know, really in terms of snowboarding tubing, it’s been a while and wow, wow. This was so much fun. I felt like a kid again, it was great. I loved it.

2 (46m 9s):
I forgot how much I loved the snow. I mean, like it was crazy. And then eventually I got to the point where I was cool with running and jumping and diving on my stomach to go down. And these were like legit tubes too, because they had a bottom. So your butt is not dragging and just, it was so fun. And I’m sure you guys probably saw the video that we posted on Instagram of all of us going down linked together. I mean, we started as a line and we ended up in a circle. It was already, she had this basis. Yeah,

3 (46m 36s):
It was so pretty. Cause when we were there, it started snowing

1 (46m 39s):
Like

3 (46m 40s):
Rustic and peaceful and beautiful.

1 (46m 43s):
It was a really good time. And we got to play around a lot like Kim and Zayna race, Jamal and I down the mountain. And we did like solo races down the mountain. But if you go, go down on your stomach, it is so much fun. Go down face. First, flying down the mountain.

4 (46m 59s):
I did a run, jump and land on my stomach. That was exhilarating.

2 (47m 3s):
And a tip. If you are racing, solo wise, the people on the far right. Tend to win the people on the left.

1 (47m 11s):
That’s true. Good tip. So after our fun-filled hour and a half snow tubing, we went to Wendy’s to get Kim’s chicken sandwich that she had been craving.

3 (47m 22s):
I was obsessed with chicken sandwiches on this weekend trip,

2 (47m 25s):
Which by the way, it wasn’t like it was near bogus basin. We had to drive out of

4 (47m 29s):
The mountains. Yeah. Because you have to come back in through Boise to get anywhere else. And we had the plans to go to Kirkham Hot Springs. So we made that stop at Wendy’s. So Kim can get her chicken sandwich that she was craving, but we were on our way to Kirkham Hot Springs. And we knew from the day before that there’s definitely nothing on those mountain roads in terms of food to eat. So we had to eat and Boise making our way out there because we knew it was a two hour drive. We were going to be spinning, obviously at least two hours there. If we’re investing in a two hour drive two hours back. So we definitely wanted to get food first for that. But tell us about Kirkham Hot Springs. I knew we were getting out somewhere crazy because this is where we started seeing all the deer along the way to

1 (48m 14s):
Yeah. So Kirkham Hot Springs. I had been doing some research on these hot Springs and literally in the middle of nowhere deer along the route there. But when you get there, there’s a river that runs through the area and right on the side of the river are a whole bunch of hot Springs. So there’s actually hot Springs, waterfalls and small natural pools. And you actually have to hike down to get to them. So it’s a little bit of a nature hike to,

4 (48m 41s):
Yeah. So there’s hot Springs here. Like Brittany said, you have to make that hike down, but this is on state land I believe. And they have actually made pools themselves, but they’re not like the pools at Gold Fork. These are pools that they’ve made with little natural rocks just to kind of hold them in. So you don’t even really get too deep into them. And as nice as it was because these ones were natural, you’re really along the river, which is cold. They’re just collecting the hot water that’s coming off of the stream. There it’s really, really nice, but you can’t get deep in there. So in the winter behalf, your body’s exposed. So it was a little chilly at that point. But,

3 (49m 20s):
But also it felt nice because some of them were really, really hot. So if we had been any farther in, we would have been too hot. Yes.

1 (49m 27s):
There was one that we sat in where I was like, this is a little bit too hot for,

3 (49m 31s):
Even though from like our belly buttons up, we were out of the water. Luckily it wasn’t too cold, even though it was snowing outside. At one point it did start raining and got really windy on us out of nowhere.

4 (49m 43s):
I was going to say, like, I know I was saying, I thought it was a little bit cold cause you can’t really fully immerse, like you’re able to at the ones the day before, but I really only got cold when I got a little bit of a wind chill, I guess you are. Right. Because it gives you that half, half balance. But sometimes when we got that breeze, I guess that’s what I was saying. So be mindful of that. Yeah. Well that’s very true.

1 (50m 3s):
Sure. Kim and I are like more submerged in the water, but the

3 (50m 8s):
Really pretty, what’s

1 (50m 9s):
Really cool about these hot Springs and the small pools is that about four people can fit into it perfectly. So they are just really, really tiny. And there’s probably, I mean, how many small pools would you say there are

3 (50m 21s):
Maybe 10.

1 (50m 22s):
Yeah. There’s at least

4 (50m 24s):
I was going to say 10, 15. So the really intimate too. Cause like Brittany said only about three, four people could even fit into some of them. Yeah.

1 (50m 31s):
So the first ones that we saw were like right next to the river itself. And so the squad got down into it and there was a little waterfall in the backdrop and I was like, oh, it looks so close. I was like, I wonder if that waterfall is hot and it was flowing into the river. And I got out of the pool just to step into the river and oh my God, the river was a small mold. So I stepped back into the pool we were in and that pool was kind of like lukewarm. So we kept tracking a little bit farther, you know, one tip to know is that it’s natural rock. So just be careful where you’re stepping because the rocks do hurt on your feet. So we just moved to the next little area and there was literally the hot Springs coming off of rocks, making like a waterfall.

1 (51m 13s):
And that water was so much hotter than the water we were sitting in. And we sat in a pool right next to that area.

4 (51m 19s):
It was so nice to just see the water flow off of the rocks because of how cold it was in the air. It was just a natural steam cloud flowing off the layer of the rocks as it was coming. And it was really, really cool.

3 (51m 33s):
And there’s snowy mountains on the

4 (51m 34s):
Back, just so scenic and beautiful. I love being out in nature. Natural hot Springs. I love it. It’s nice. Yeah.

1 (51m 40s):
Yeah. Also you can camp in this area as well. When it’s summer. I think spring while we were there, obviously it’s winter, the campground was closed and also the bathrooms at the campground are not maintained in winter as well. So they are opened. But just keep that in mind that they

3 (51m 57s):
Weren’t the worst though.

1 (51m 58s):
No, they weren’t. I mean,

4 (52m 0s):
They were better than the ones that bogus basin. I’ll tell you that at least the ones by the tubing,

2 (52m 5s):
Jamal tried to make a joke while he was in the bathroom and he screamed, oh my God. But he wasn’t really convincing. And he said that I just dropped the keys in the port-a-potty no one believed it.

4 (52m 17s):
Yeah. I failed on that one. I just wanted to see if you guys would freak out. Cause all our warm clothes were in the car and he’s gone.

3 (52m 25s):
Yeah. Right. Hey Brittany, how’d you like getting hit with snowballs when you came out of the bathroom,

1 (52m 30s):
You know, it wasn’t too bad. I think I got you guys back. Pretty good. So it was fun. Another thing to know too, is that when we parked, we parked along the road that parking was free, but when the is open or when all of the road parking is taken up during the summer, they campground parking is open. You do have to pay to park. It’s $5. But because the road was closed, since it was winter, we didn’t pay anything score.

2 (52m 58s):
So let’s take it deep for a little bit. Okay. While we were in the hot Springs, Jamal picks up a rock and he says, do you ever think about the fact that you can be the last person touching this rock for who knows how long? And then he threw the rock into the middle of the river. And I never really thought about it like that. You know, like, like it could be years, millions of years or whatever,

4 (53m 23s):
Or

2 (53m 23s):
Never until someone ever touches that rock again. So while we were sitting there, we picked up a rock and all four of us touched it and rubbed the rock and put like our NSOC charm all over it. And then we threw it into the middle of the river until who knows, is going to touch that rock or maybe no one ever will.

4 (53m 42s):
I hope no one. I hope we’re the last people ever to touch that rock.

2 (53m 45s):
That is our NSO T rock there in the middle of the river, out at Kirkham, Hot

1 (53m 51s):
Springs. If you guys find it, let us know

3 (53m 54s):
Which hot Springs did you guys like more Kirkham or Gold Fork.

4 (53m 58s):
You know, that’s really tough. Each had their pros and cons. I really liked how Kirkham was truly natural. It was more intimate because they had many more pools, but you could fit so few people in them. I still just really wished that maybe you could be submerged a little bit more. I like how it was free, you know, and then a Gold Fork. It’s more nice. You can submerge, but you have to pay to go in. I don’t know. It’s really, really tough, but I would say Kirkham because it’s more in a natural setting.

1 (54m 27s):
I would have to say Kirkham too. I mean there’s pros and cons to both, but I really just like being in nature nature. And I liked that we had the hike down and kind of Boulder over some of these rocks and we had to find our own pool really is what it was. So I really liked that. And I really enjoyed Kirkham Hot Springs,

2 (54m 44s):
Neither. I don’t like hot Springs. I’m just kidding Kirkham. But I do wish that they went deeper because Jamal and I are long torso people

3 (54m 54s):
I may have gone deeper. Had we explored farther into the hot Springs. There was a lot of people in some of the areas and we didn’t go as far in, cause we found a nice little pool for ourselves. But I think Kirkham was my favorite too, because it’s just natural. Had more of a vibe. There were people out there drinking like white claws and stuff. And

4 (55m 11s):
That’s the type of vibe you like to go with Kim.

1 (55m 15s):
We were finding you boyfriends all

3 (55m 17s):
They were out there.

2 (55m 20s):
Yeah. And you know, just a quick PSA, if you are taking cans of beer or whatnot out there and make sure you take your trash, you know, there was someone out there who was kind of picking up trash. That’s not his job, but he just hated to see trash out.

4 (55m 32s):
Yeah. He was a local and he was saying like, oh, I’ve been coming here for years before this even became popular. And I just can’t stand to see trash. And he was out there picking stuff up. So if you go in, take what you bring in out,

1 (55m 44s):
You know, I thought he was there, like patrolling the area and cleaning it up and tell he stripped down and ran to get in a picture with me while I was posting

3 (55m 53s):
And tried to spank you.

2 (55m 55s):
And it was like a Speedo or something that he was wearing.

4 (55m 57s):
He was just wearing his box.

1 (56m 1s):
Well, It was quite the experience.

4 (56m 5s):
You seem to enjoy it. I thought written.

1 (56m 7s):
So after being in the snow and we actually got rained on a little bit, we were wet. We wanted to go back into Boise and get some ramen for dinner.

4 (56m 16s):
Just being out in the snow. Something like ramen or FA or any type of like soup sounded good. So we all settled on ramen. We

2 (56m 24s):
Didn’t settle. We had been talking about ramen all day long

4 (56m 29s):
And where did we go? We

1 (56m 30s):
Went to Ireland, sushi and Roman,

4 (56m 32s):
And this had really, really good reviews and four and three quarters, four and three quarters quite impressive. And I think they had several hundred reviews now for us being here in San Diego, we’re available to get fantastic ramen. So for us, it was a little bit of a let down on the ramen end, but I will say this, we ended up getting some potstickers. We got some tempura. I thought their sides were absolutely delicious. Yeah. But I don’t know if Boise does ramen the right way.

2 (57m 3s):
I think my favorite part about that is the reason why I remember that it was four and three quarters of a star because in the car ride back to the hotel, Jamal was like, oh my gosh, I’m so glad we went there. Cause I wonder what the ramen place with four and a half stars would have been, like,

3 (57m 18s):
We just have such high standards being in San Diego and having like top class ramen here.

1 (57m 24s):
Yeah. That must be it.

4 (57m 25s):
So keep that in mind, if you’re in Boise, ramen might not be their specialty, but in terms of other types of food, Dutch brothers coffee out there for Eureka good food scene out in Boise.

2 (57m 38s):
So after that, we went back to the hotel, argued about the shower experience and then we went to Vietnam, just kidding. But we went back to the hotel and then we went to bed because we had an early morning flights.

1 (57m 49s):
Yes. So we had to wake up at 4:30 AM because our flight was at seven 20 and we had to return the car as well. So remember Boise was an hour ahead. So realistically we all woke up at three 30 San Diego time. No big

3 (58m 6s):
Deal, every

1 (58m 6s):
Deal hopped on that plane. And three out of the four of us went straight to work. After that,

2 (58m 12s):
I took the day off. I thought, you know what? I always rushed back to work. I have so much PTO. I’m just going to really enjoy my day and do things that I need to do. And I did it and it was the most amazing experience ever.

4 (58m 25s):
Well, three out of his four went to work. So I’m glad you got a good day off on that. So that definitely wrapped up Boise such a fun time. I really, really enjoyed it. Any final thoughts ladies, before we get into Kim’s favorite part of the episode

2 (58m 41s):
Got to Boise.

1 (58m 42s):
I think Boise is underrated and I definitely think people should go. We had a great time.

3 (58m 48s):
I think it’s done.

8 (58m 51s):
Whew

2 (58m 52s):
Question.

11 (59m 2s):
The

3 (59m 2s):
Week

2 (59m 4s):
I lost it with Jamal’s base right there.

4 (59m 7s):
I tried to go a little bit deeper.

3 (59m 8s):
You went deep.

1 (59m 10s):
You always go

4 (59m 10s):
Deep.

3 (59m 13s):
All right. So our first question is from Pete w from west lake village. Pete asked us why Idaho. And I’ve been getting a lot of these questions from all my coworkers and friends in real life too. So why Idaho guys?

4 (59m 28s):
I was the only one who had been to Idaho before this squad trip. I went on a trip with my guy friends. One time we drove through there panhandle, which is the thin portion of their state outline that goes into Canada. And we drove through a beautiful mountain city called quarter lane. We went through Sandpoint, Idaho, which is up in the mountains on a beautiful lake. So I knew Idaho had so much scenery and with the cheap flights with the fact that there was hot Springs and Kim’s a sucker for hot Springs, we all love them. But Kim definitely revolves trips around them. That’s why we went to two on this one. It was like, Boise’s a no brainer.

4 (1h 0m 9s):
And it turned out to be like a really special gym. You know, a lot of people think, oh, if you travel within the United States, go to the big cities. I mean, Boise is a capital, but it’s in a smaller populated state. I wouldn’t call it a big city, but it’s just so great out there. It’s very, very underrated. Why not Boise?

2 (1h 0m 26s):
You know, this kind of speaks to what we’ve spoken about before on past episodes is Follow the sale. Not necessarily the destination, because I mean, we saw the tickets were cheap. And so we thought, why not? You know?

4 (1h 0m 38s):
Yeah. And I had no clue when we booked this, that we were even going to be doing snow tubing. That was like a pleasant surprise when it’s like, what are we going to do in Boise? And that for me was maybe one of the highlights. I enjoyed the hot Springs a lot, but I really enjoyed the tubing. Cause it’s been a long time since I’ve done

2 (1h 0m 53s):
That.

1 (1h 0m 53s):
I would love to go to Boise during the spring or the summer and do some of the nice hiking trails that they have in the mountains. I think that would be really nice

4 (1h 1m 2s):
Bike. The Greenbelt,

3 (1h 1m 3s):
You guys, there’s something so nice about taking a weekend and spending it truly in nature, especially in the snow, in the mountains. It was so just like refreshing and centering. Like the week before at work, I was like stressed out and getting in a funk. And then we had that beautiful weekend just to like ground and be there and laugh and enjoy ourselves and be in this like small town vibe. And I came back on Monday morning, even though we woke up at three 30 in the morning and I just felt great and I had a great week.

1 (1h 1m 33s):
Okay. Glad to hear that. What was really nice too is like a lot of these places that we went to the hot Springs, they didn’t have cell reception. So you had to enjoy the nature. You

3 (1h 1m 43s):
Had each other

1 (1h 1m 43s):
Or each other, even though sometimes we fight about squad, shower, rotations,

3 (1h 1m 50s):
But we do enjoy each other’s company

1 (1h 1m 52s):
To each other. So it was just really nice to get out of town, to connect with each other, connect with the earth and just have a great weekend who doesn’t love a great weekend.

2 (1h 2m 3s):
You know, I love weekenders and I love you guys.

4 (1h 2m 7s):
So our next question came from Sebastian, from Del Mar.

3 (1h 2m 13s):
Yeah.

4 (1h 2m 13s):
Right in our backyard. And he’s asking what places are on your bucket list to plan next trip? Oh, such a good question.

3 (1h 2m 22s):
We have some legit trips plan, but none of these are booked yet, but I really want to go to Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio and Alabama.

4 (1h 2m 31s):
I was not expecting bucket list items to be here in the United States. Kim. Wow. Look at that.

2 (1h 2m 36s):
I really want to take you guys to Cyprus

4 (1h 2m 40s):
Talking about stripes with all the time.

2 (1h 2m 41s):
Shut them all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s another one too. Going with Nicole and Roberto could shut them all and then drive me in a little and with Chateau mall, it’s on the east coast of Mexico and the Kitano Ruby states and it’s the last city before going into the legalese. And if you drive a little bit north, they have a coastal town on the Gulf, which is called buckler. And it’s like and

3 (1h 3m 8s):
Beautiful.

2 (1h 3m 8s):
Yeah. Just, you know, it’s on the cheap because everyone is north in Kim Kuhn.

1 (1h 3m 13s):
So I’m going to list two places on my travel bucket list. One, I already have booked it’s to Sedona. I really want to go for the energy vortexes and they had $45 flights, one way to Sedona. So Phoenix, well, yeah. To Phoenix, but how could I pass that up? Like why, why would I pass that up? That would be really silly of me to pass that up. My other bucket list plan is to go to Chile and Argentina. I really want to go there and go wine tasting down there,

3 (1h 3m 48s):
Jamal.

4 (1h 3m 49s):
Well, for me, one of my bucket list items may be number one right now for me is actually to go back to Africa and go to Uganda to do gorilla tracking gate one. We talk about them all the time. Love them should be sponsoring us by now, but they have a gorilla Trek in Uganda where you get to literally hike up into the mountains where they’re living and just be at one with them. And our amazing is that tracking the African rainforest and come across gorillas and be amongst them. That’s right now on my number one bucket list.

3 (1h 4m 29s):
So I love reading your guys’s reviews. I know we all get so excited and amped up when somebody leaves us a review. It’s just so sweet and like love hearing from you guys. So I want to read you one of our more recent ones that just came in over the weekend. When can I travel with this Travel Squad? I love the dynamic of these fourth Fred’s specific insight and tips, love listening to their adventures. Can’t wait to see where they go next.

1 (1h 4m 58s):
Oh,

3 (1h 4m 58s):
Thank you, Chad. Jay, if you guys want to leave us a review, we would so appreciate it. On apple podcasts, leave us a five-star written review. Our promise to send you a hack of how to get upgraded on an airplane for free into first class still stands. So if you send us in that review, screenshot a picture of it and either email it to us at Travel Squad Podcast at gmail.com or you can DM us on Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast two, and we would so appreciate it. All right, guys, that’s all we have for you this week. Thank you so much for tuning in to keep the adventures going. Please be sure to follow us on Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast and tag us in your adventures too.

3 (1h 5m 39s):
And of course send us those questions.

2 (1h 5m 42s):
And if you found the information in this episode to be useful, or if you thought we were just playing funny, please share it with a friend that would enjoy it too.

4 (1h 5m 49s):
Please subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. And as always coming in every travel Tuesday for new episodes,

1 (1h 5m 56s):
Stay tuned for next week’s episode, we are taking another weekender to Carlsbad caverns national park in New Mexico.

3 (1h 6m 6s):
Hi everyone. Have a good week.

12 (1h 6m 7s):
Bye