Friday started out with lots of light snow, rain and therefore an afternoon at Salt and Tears, a new coffee shop on State Street. It was the perfect place for getting some work done, reading "My Work is That of Conservation", an environmental biography of George Washington Carver and doing some grading. Notice and delicious hot chocolate in the corner. It was like liquid gold. I will say the chairs were a big uncomfortable- some couches would do well here.
The best part about Salt and Tears is that part of it is a local gallery and shop for paintings, furniture, bags, jewelry and all sorts of local artwork. I had a lot of reading to do so didn't get a ton of time to wander through but I'll be back there this Friday doing some more reading and classwork so I'll make sure to give myself some time to investigate further. I really liked what I saw though.
Saturday morning was snowy, snowy, snowy too!
Because my hands were so cold wandering around the market, I stopped in at Thomas Hammer, one of the many coffee houses downtown to pick up some hot chocolate to warm my hands. A kind older fellow held the door open for me and we chatted about how the market was still open. He had an accent so I asked him where he was from. He was from Colchester in Essex and we chatted about England and eventually sat down to chat some more. His name is Ian, he's a sixty-five year old former South-End FC player and later coach who has managed teams around the world and has been in Boise for the last twelve years. It was a bizarre, random encounter but one that I'm glad happened. He was such a nice bloke and we had an interested discussion about where to draw the line between settling somewhere and keeping yourself open for travel and adventure. It wasn't how I had planned to spend my morning but I certainly don't regret the encounter.
From the market I stopped at a few other stores downtown and picked up a Christmas gift for Mistress K. My destination was the Historical Museum where I had been before but wanted to go to see the Dia De Los Muertes altars exhibits. The pictures just don't do them justice- they were so creative and elaborate with similar themes of honoring and remembering and skeletons connecting them all together. This flowered dress was one of my favorites- it reminded me of the Alexander McQueen flower dress I saw in New York City and now have a postcard of taped to my computer.
This is Garth's altar- so beautiful and definitely the one that was the most different than the rest.
From the Historical Museum, I drove out past the airport to the Military Museum, which honestly, I had no idea existed before today. It's a small museum dedicated to the military exploits of the United States with a connection to Idaho soldiers. I didn't have much time to look at the museum since I was volunteering. A girl named Martina and I sat near the front gate, chatted, got to know a little bit about each other and sold tickets to people coming to see "Night Light". Basically, people dressed up in reenactment gear, from the Civil War through the modern wars of today demonstrate how the weapons from the Civil War onwards worked. First they shot off muskets and rifles and demonstrated how long it took to shoot each round off and then they advanced to handguns, pistols, lugers and the like. I have the most rudimentary knowledge of all weaponry so I really had no idea what was going on but it certainly was interesting.
From the Historical Museum, I drove out past the airport to the Military Museum, which honestly, I had no idea existed before today. It's a small museum dedicated to the military exploits of the United States with a connection to Idaho soldiers. I didn't have much time to look at the museum since I was volunteering. A girl named Martina and I sat near the front gate, chatted, got to know a little bit about each other and sold tickets to people coming to see "Night Light". Basically, people dressed up in reenactment gear, from the Civil War through the modern wars of today demonstrate how the weapons from the Civil War onwards worked. First they shot off muskets and rifles and demonstrated how long it took to shoot each round off and then they advanced to handguns, pistols, lugers and the like. I have the most rudimentary knowledge of all weaponry so I really had no idea what was going on but it certainly was interesting. 
During the break, a little girl named Jade and I frantically sold hot chocolate and coffee to the freezing masses (I had a great coat, ear warmer, scarf and gloves on but could not feel my toes). After it got dark, they shot off the big guns- cannons, machine guns and such. Lots of noise and lots of light. It was interesting... it's really awesome to see these guns being shot off with blanks but at the same time, you have to remember that these were also technically killing machines. Men and boys lost their lives on the other side of these weapons and I thought of that every time the crowd cheered. It was a strange dichotomy of feelings as I watched. It was certainly an interesting experience and despite freezing, it was also one that I'm glad I got to have. 
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