Unlocking the “Potato State” – Boise Edition

🥔✨Spoiler: no potatoes eaten, but enough huckleberry vibes & prison pink cells for one day. ✈️ DAY 0 – Landing Late-night touchdown at BOI ✈️→ 6 min Uber to Residence Inn by Boise State. City motto: “Small airport, big sky, zero traffic lights at midnight.” 🌌 🌿 DAY 1 – Boise Boot-Up Remote work till hunger > FOMO. 📍 1️⃣ The Basque Market – Paella Thunderdome 🥘🔥 Showtime: Wed/Fri (sometimes Sat) 12 p.m. sharp. Biggest pan I’ve ever seen – propane flames, saffron smoke, 200-person crowd. Rookie mistake: we stood filming the chef’s spoon-art for 10 min → forgot PAY FIRST, bowl second. Result: wait-list purgatory. 😅 Salvation: scraped final crunchy bits (pic 5). First bite = socarrat heaven; bite 10 = salt lick. Pro tip: chase with huckleberry sparkling water or suffer sodium shock. 🫐💧 📍 2️⃣ Old Idaho Penitentiary 🚨🌹 Ticket: $8, they hand you a paper “inmate card” – instant bookmark. May bonus: heritage rose garden in full bloom – thorny contrast to 19th-c. solitary. Highlight reel: – Pink cell block – 1980s “Baker-Miller pink” aggression experiment. Looks beige now, story still wild. 💗 – Poker-suite graffiti – four playing-card symbols stencilled on wall. Urban legend says high-stakes ring; archives = “inmate art project.” Either way, perfect profile backdrop. ♠️ – Gallows room = instant whisper-mode; vocab app required – 1800s penal jargon = SAT level. 📚 📍 3️⃣ Camel’s Back Park 🏞️⛰️ Trail: 0.4 mi, 250 ft gain – basically a dusty stair-master. Pay-off: 3-min lungs-burn → panoramic Boise + river + snow-capped Bogus Basin. Sunset crowds bring acoustic guitars = free concert at the top. 🎸🌅 📍 4️⃣ Idaho State Capitol 🏛️💒 100 % white marble inside & out – locals call it “the wedding cake.” Walk through metal detector → selfie freedom. Evening scene: 3 couples shooting grad / engagement / maternity pics under the rotunda skylight. Fun fact: dome skylight = 208 glass panels; stand dead-center, clap once → wicked echo. 📣 🧃 Huckleberry Counter = 4 Water, jam sample, lip balm, gummy bears – fresh berry season starts late June; mission continues. 💰 Day-1 Micro-Budget Paella bowl $9 (with tip jar) Penitentiary $8 Downtown parking $0 (after 6 p.m.) Camel’s Back $0 Capitol $0 Total: $17 + tax-free groceries for picnic dinner. Next up: river float, huckleberry gelato hunt & Freak Alley mural safari at blue hour. Boise baseline logged: tiny city, maximal chill, roses inside prison walls, and paella pans bigger than my rental trunk. Onward! 🚗💨 #US #ID #Boise