Idaho and it’s people are as diverse
as its landscape, and when traveling to Boise in mid-February for the
Governors’ award luncheon, I took a few pictures to show you what I
meant.
But first I have to share a very
sweet and funny (I thought) story that I had happen to me as I was trying to explain about the different race of people…. I had volunteered at our church to help the
4th grade Sunday school teacher in making chocolate chip
cookies. I can’t remember the exact reason I was pulled into this or what
the lesson was supposed to be, but as I was lugging my extra-large Kitchen-aid
mixer, all the ingredients for the cookies to the church kitchen, I had an
inspiration! As I love to bake I had all the various kinds of
baking chips on hand, not just chocolate. So as the kids and I were
adding in the ingredients, I explained sometimes when mankind
needs to do something really cool and good, that it takes all of Gods people to
do it, and with that I produced chocolate
chips that I compared to the darker skinned people, the butterscotch chips and
peanut butter chips that I compared to the various browner skinned peoples, and
the white vanilla chips that I compared with the Caucasian people.
The kids listened intently and one little boy walks over to me, picks up a
white vanilla chip and solemnly says, “these could be Norwegian people”!
Oh my gosh! It took every ounce in my body to not laugh. And yes there
are quite a few Norwegian/Scandinavian people in Idaho, especially up North
where I live, but we are not all fair haired, and blue eyes… we also have
a few American Indian reservations in
Idaho and there are the Basque population down towards the Southern part of the
state and we tend to have dark eyes, dark hair and more of an olive skin
tone. Our colleges also bring in many foreign international students, so
we have a bit of international culture that gets added to the mix as well. While Idaho may not be a melting pot of different cultures, I think we are a fairly friendly State. Below are some stats on our population.
2010 resident census population (rank): 1,567,582 (39). Male: 785,324 (50.1%); Female: 782,258 (49.9%). White: 1,396,487 (89.1%); Black:9,810 (0.6%); American Indian: 21,441 (1.4%); Asian: 19,069 (1.2%); Other race: 79,523 (4.2%); Two or more races: 38,935 (2.5%); Hispanic/Latino: 175,901 (11.2%). 2010 population 18 and over: 1,138,510; 65 and over: 194,668 (12.4%); median age:34.6.
Read more: Idaho: Map, History, Population, Facts, Capitol, Flag, Tree, Geography, Symbols | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108207.html#ixzz2MEcFZeG9
And now the pictures will show that from where I live you will leave the rolling hills of good farm ground, drop down to follow the Salmon River as the road snakes through the mountain valleys, then climb up in elevation towards scenic McCall, Idaho and once again drop down in elevation as you reach Boise and the landscape changes from high mountains to sagebrush in the high dessert. All different, but beautiful each in its own way. Just like the people in Idaho. So hope you enjoy the Idaho tour.
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| The "rolling hills of the Palouse area" where I live |
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| Heading my house, about 60 miles is the White Bird grade, en route to Boise.The original grade was steep with hair pin corners and you can still opt to drive it too. |
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| On White Bird grade is the site of an Indian battle site. |
Below, this river is a fun one and attracts many rafters that like to float the river. A world class adventure. The town of Riggins boasts several whitewater businesses that cater to the tourists needs to play on the river.
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| Once past White Bird grade, you drop down and follow the Salmon River. |
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The as you climb up in elevation, the land scape changes once again to mountain, trees and
snow as you get closer to McCall, Idaho |
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| Another view of the highway heading to McCall |
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| Very scenic |
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| McCall's lake frozen over |
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| The annual Winter Carnival, with amazing snow sculptures |
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| The town swells to around 10,000 people for this fun winter carnival |
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| Heading towards Boise, the land becomes more sage brushes and high dessert |
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| Boise landscape, sagebrush is the normal site in Southern Idaho |
As always, glad you dropped by and feel free to email me at
idahofarmwife@gmail.com or leave a comment. I always love to hear from you. All my best, Gayle
