Marc's USA Trip: Day Four in Boise Idaho

Today I got to see a few of the sight around the town. I hired out a bike and was able to ride it along the river to see the sights including the Boise State University and the foot of the mountains. Riding a bike on the roads was a challenge, in particular remembering to stay on the left hand side of the road. Also turning corners is hard because it is easy to turn left the way we do in Australia- straight into on-coming traffic! I'm glad I don't have to drive a car. The wildlife was out everywhere today. I saw plenty of squirrels running around and there were even two deer in the centre of town. Along the river there were plenty of people fishing and they were catching trout about two feet long. I had a club sandwich for lunch which was very tasty. After lunch we went to the shopping centre which is out of town.

There are very few shops in the middle of town; it seems to be mainly banks and specialty stores. There are certainly no department style stores. I guess it is because people prefer to shop in-doors as it is bitterly cold outside. It is very cold today, -2 when I got up. It is not usually windy, but when it is-it cuts right through your clothing. It is a different cold to Bendigo; more crisp- just like being at the snow. The people in the shops at the shopping centre were very nice and really go out of your way to help you. I need a bit of help working out their coins. I now know that a penny is one cent, a quarter is 25 cents, a dime is 10 cents and a nickel is five cents. It is confusing because the 10 cent coin is smaller than the 5 cent coin and looks about the same size as our 5 cents! Anyway, there were lots of shops that we don’t have, but it apart from that, it was really similar to the shopping centres back home.

Tomorrow we head to the airport at 10.30 to fly out to Arizona. I am hoping to have a look at the museum, which is a block up the road before I go. They tell us Arizona is much warmer than here and we won't need to rug up as much.