Visiting Good Friends in Idaho Falls

We have spent the past two weeks in Idaho Falls, Idaho parked in the driveway of our good friends BJ and Karin Bybee and their two Pugs Lucy and Dinah.  We could not ask for a better place to stay, not only because of their great hospitality but also for the view. Karin has quite the green thumb and their yard is absolutely gorgeous. She has a vast variety of flowers as you can see from the pictures below. 

We visited the Saturday Farmers Market where our friend Debbie has a booth selling her hand made beaded jewelry. Debbie and her husband Larry are good friends of BJ and Karin and we met them last winter when they also spent the winter in Arizona. Debbie highly suggested we try the Mexican corn on the cob at the booth across from hers. We are glad she did as it was very tasty. The corn was covered with mayonnaise and then rolled in Parmesan cheese and then sprinkled  with a spicy pepper and lime seasoning. 

We played 4 rounds of golf during our visit, at four different courses. Three in Idaho Falls and one at Larry's home course in Blackfoot, Idaho. We fought the wind a few of the days but we had a great time. 

BJ went birding with me a couple of days, and we covered over 100 miles of back roads. Our trip up Wolverine Canyon was not that "birdy" but we did find a beautiful cinnamon colored bear. On our way home we stopped at the Bone Store. Wonder what they call people who live in the city of Bone? On another day we visited Market Lake Wildlife Management area where we found Trumpeter Swans and a Juvenile Great Horned Owl. There were raptors everywhere as the young Red tail and Swainson's hawks were fledging. One young bird was not happy as he was dive bombed by much smaller Blue Gray Gnatcatchers. 

​BJ and Karin took us on a scenic drive over to the towns of Swan Valley and Driggs near the Wyoming border. We followed the Snake River most of the way and stopped at Falls Creek Falls along the way. We finally ended up at the Targee Ski area with fantastic views of the Grand Tetons. They have far less snow then when we viewed them over a month ago. Along the way we saw thousands of acres of potato, barley, wheat and canola fields. By the end of our over 200 mile trip Josie was wiped out. 

Of course Idaho is known for its potatoes. They have Potato Beetles, potato shaped sand traps on the golf courses, and best of all potato flake donuts they call "Spudnuts" which are very light and fluffy. We liked them even better than Krispy Kreme. They also put potato flakes in their square scooped ice cream and even in chocolate milk. Both are very good. If you order a baked potato here in Idaho be prepared to pig out. They are huge!

Tomorrow the Bybees will travel to Montana with us for a few days of golf.