Weekly Recap: Shoshone (ID)

Our stay in Shoshone started off with quite the cold snap. We had already applied heat tape to our water supply hose, but it turned out to be cold enough that we had to get some more for our wastewater tanks as well.

On Saturday we drove to Craters of the Moon National Preserve. This is an area with a lot of volcanic activity, creating some rock formations that were very reminiscent of our trip to Iceland last year. The Loop Road was already closed for the winter, so we walked it instead. The road is not plowed, and there was about 6 inches of snow built up on it. There was a path packed down from previous walkers, so we didn't break out the snowshoes. We did a 4 mile roundtrip walk down the snowy road and then around the Devil's Orchard.

After our hike we drove to Twin Falls, the larger town about a half an hour from our campsite. We picked up some more supplies as well as take out for the night. We added the extra heat tape to our tanks to keep them liquid in the bitter cold as well. We spent the evening eating Thai and playing Gloomhaven. We finally failed a scenario for the first time, after 33 successes.

Sunday we did a relaxed day around the campsite, watching football and then working out (rowing and running) outside afterwards. We made nachos for our post-workout dinner and they were excellent.

Tuesday we went back into Twin Falls to workout at Planet Fitness and do some groceries. We were originally planning on getting a Costco rotisserie chicken for our Thanksgiving meal, but while we were there we discovered a full turkey dinner package sized for 5-6 people. It had everything on our list to pick up, even including the vegetable we were planning on (green beans). We were very excited with the find and picked it up immediately. It saved us buying a bunch of individual ingredients from the grocery store.

On Thanksgiving itself, we started out with a workout in the morning (running outside and rowing on the erg). After that, we started into our charcuterie board (both from Costco) for lunch and watched football and Bryn's college basketball team. While our turkey dinner trays were cooking in the oven, we played some Jaws of the Lion. On top of the main quest scenario we played, we completed a side quest specific to Shawn's character, which was a neat change from the usual team-focused scenarios. We also unlocked the side quest specific to Bryn's character, so we're looking forward to doing that one the next time we play. The turkey dinner trays came out wonderfully, and took basically no work (just an hour and half in the oven).

 

We love the Costco rotating cheese plates and the new turkey dinner was a SMASH HIT

Using a full day off to get through several Gloomhaven scenarios     

On Black Friday we drove a couple hours away to Boise. We worked out at a Planet Fitness (hitting our monthly cap of 10 visits to non-home locations!), and then got lunch at the Warehouse Food Hall. It was a fun location with a good number of vendor stalls. Bryn got a bao appetizer and a poke bowl. Shawn got a brisket and rib BBQ plate. After lunch we checked out the Idaho State Museum. It's a smaller museum, but well worth the cheap entry ($10). From the museum we stopped into White Dog Brewing. They had a really neat feature on their bar: an ice cold steel rail inlaid across the the whole bar length to keep your drink cold. 

The Boise State Museum (and an exhibit on the first ski chair lift)

After a round, Bryn dropped Shawn off at the Boise airport (he's heading back to New England for a week, before flying back west for a business trip).