Life with Zak and Rachel.: Quick Trip to Boise

Zack and I spent a quick weekend in Boise for a concert. And this wasn't any concert, this was a BIG DEAL concert to Zack; his favorite artist since he was in high school who recently resurfaced to tour. This was Jeff Mangum, of Neutral Milk Hotel, an indie folk band from the late 1990s. When Zack heard about the concert a few months ago, he emailed me immediately and said we must go to the concert. AND tickets were going on sale that day! So, being the ~~dutiful~~ awesome wife I am, I waited until the tickets went on sale and snatched up two of them for us.

As the date got closer and closer, I decided to make this trip extra special for Zack, since he did describe this concert as a 'bucket list item' for him. I wanted to make sure we did what he wanted, had food and music he liked and to make the weekend as memorable as possible. I had a fun time planning the music, food and ideas for the trip. After we had gotten everything ready, dropped off Penny in Albion, I told Zack to sit back, relax and enjoy the trip. We had a nice drive down, the trip took about 6 hours. And it's a really pretty drive! It was nice to have some time just to ourselves, and have discussions and conversations about almost everything.

Dropping off Penny--her head is in my lap, she can't stay away from me sometimes...

McCall, ID

We only had a few hours before the concert by the time we arrived in Boise (even with ALL of my prep work, I had forgotten that Boise is on MST than PST, so we lost an hour!), so we quickly scoped out downtown Boise and got dinner at a place called Fork. Everything was really delicious and it was so nice to walk down the block to the theater!

Pretty for dinner!

Lest you forget how silly Zak is..

It was weird explaining to the waitress that we were here for a concert, not an anniversary?

Zak's delicious BLAT sandwich & salad

This was my face the entire time I ate my dish of salmon with pasta and a basil/caper sauce.

As one might imagine, the line was 99% your typical hipster 20-something college aged kids. I felt a little out of place, because it seemed like everyone there had the same obsession and intensity about the concert like Zack. I just did my best to make the night enjoyable for both of us. The theater was this really neat Egyptian-themed theater. And when I said themed, I mean the entire stage and columns were covered in Egyptian-style scenes of people, activities, animals. It was pretty cool!

Before the line formed

Awesome, right?

I loved these pillars

The opener act was ok, but very slow and quiet. I took a mini-nap in the seat (nice movie theater ones, even) By the time Jeff Mangum took the stage, the excitement in the room was noticeable. He put on a very excellent show and encouraged the audience to sing along. I hadn't listened to him that much previously (mostly when Zack had it on in the house), and it's not really my taste of music but I was thoroughly impressed with the concert. He is very talented and passionate about his music. I'm pretty sure Zack was singing along to every song. I even sang along to the ones I knew! It was an excellent concert and I'm really glad we were able to make it. We weren't allowed to take any pictures, but I did manage to record the encore on a voice memo for memories.

Proof we were there. And unsure of where to look for the picture.

Really wish we could've taken off with a poster, but it wasn't an option.

The next morning we didn't have to leave immediately, so we had a leisure-filled morning of watching Rambo on the hotel tv and eating breakfast. Once we checked out, we briefly explored the Gem & Mining Museum and then got back on the road.