Boise with the best. || Halloween weekend in Boise, ID

If you've been following my stuff for a while, you'll know that my best friend is Abby. And a little over a year ago, Abby moved 300 miles away to Boise, Idaho. I would be lying if I didn't say that her leaving to live 7 hours away from me didn't make me a little bit selfishly sad or mad because she wasn't just in the next room anymore. But regardless, we've made time to see each other a few times over the past year for birthdays, holidays, and road trips. However, she has always made the trek to Spokane, and I hadn't been to Boise at all... until recently. In the past year, I wasn't able to make the trip because of scheduling or financial reasons, but a few weeks before Halloween, when I saw a text pop up on my phone from Abby that said "hey, I'm gonna have a 3 day weekend on Halloween, you should totally come down!", I couldn't resist the perfect opportunity.

I invited another one of my best friends, Rachel, to come along with me, and we made the somewhat irrational decision to do the drive overnight, which would allow us an extra day in Boise. So, we left Spokane around 7:30 at night, and begun our 7 hour journey, all in the dark. The drive was an interesting one for sure; we got to watch the moon rise over the Palouse (which is amazing, and I highly recommend seeing it), had a dysfunctional GPS and almost had to go completely rogue and hope that we would not get lost, were unaware of our surroundings, which was weird because we were going somewhere we've never been, and had to drive 20 mph under the speed limit for the last few hours due to some thick fog. Oh, and road work. Everywhere. Eventually, we pulled in to Boise around 3:40 AM, tired and delusional. If you want to know just how delusional, you should have seen the shock and awe on our faces when we saw not one, but TWO Wal-Mart's, while driving through town. If you were wondering, yes, Boise is a fully functional city with multiple Wal-Marts.

On our first day, we all slept in until 11, watched a movie, and I had myself some Blu cuddles. Blu is Abby's blue heeler and austrailian shepard mix dog. He's a year old, and totally insane. (On Halloween night, while we were out at the bars, he ate the whole loaf of banana bread that I was saving to eat when we got back. Not cool, pooch. Not cool.) Despite how crazy he is though, he's adorable and all is usually forgiven because he's so sweet. 

Yes, Blu is in fact wearing a shirt. A Halloween costume, actually. He was a "rufferee."

Later that day, Abby took Rachel and I up to Hulls Gulch Reserve, an area up in the foothills of Boise that offers a view of the city, and some killer mudding, too. Abby drives a Jeep, so we were able to drive pretty far up in the hills, despite the really messed up roads, and got to go through some big mud puddles. Makes me wish I had something a little more durable than my tiny little '98 Corolla!

The next day was Halloween, so before we got dressed up to go out for the evening, we headed out for the day to go be tourists! We went to lunch at the Bittercreek Alehouse (which has super super amazing sandwiches and drinks), walked around downtown Boise, checked out Freak Alley, and got to see places like the Capital building and BSU. The entire day I was amazed at how much is in Boise, that's actually not in Spokane. I don't know why I was expecting it to be a small city, but I was definitely proved wrong on that account. 

A drink at the Bittercreek Alehouse called a "Zombie." Super tasty drink with primarily Rum, but a really strong one! Be careful if you order this! ;)

Next, we headed into the Owyhee Mountains for sunset. I think this was my favorite part of the whole trip! A bit of the way up into the hills, we literally drove off the road into a free ranging cow pasture to get to this really cool canyon tucked into the mountains. I don't think I've ever been so excited to take photos of cows in my life. As we would drive by, they would be 5-10 feet from the car, just watching us, totally unphased. We also caught some super nice afternoon light for portraits, so you bet I made my friends model for me! If you become friends with me, be warned, I will shove a camera into your face at any given time. We finished up shooting in the mountains, and then we headed back down to the flats to photograph the sun setting behind the peaks. Idaho did not disappoint us, and gave us a really beautiful, multicolored sky. A perfect end to a perfect day.

To finish off the trip, all three of us dressed up as The Plastics from Mean Girls, and hit the town for drinks. Downtown Boise is actually a blast, and I would probably put Halloween on the list of some of my favorite nights to date. 

I'm so glad I got to spend some quality time with 2 of my best friends, and got to see Abby's new city for myself. I'm also really happy that I got to travel to a completely new place and experience new surroundings! Traveling is a beautiful thing and I think everyone needs to do it a little more often in their lives. I can't wait for the next adventure!

Here's all my photos from the trip from my "big fancy camera." Hope you enjoy; leave a comment letting me know what you think!