Day 13 - Alive After 5

Wednesday July 11

After a little rest we did a bit more sight-seeing and then met up with more friends at the "Alive After 5" weekly outdoor music event in downtown Boise behind the Grove hotel.

We went up to the Boise train depot to see if we could see any trains; it looks like trains bypass downtown so we had no luck; but turning around I got a little picture of the Capitol and some of downtown Boise from the vantage point of the gardens in front of the depot.

The Chuck Close Exhibit

At Shannon's recommendation, we made a stop at the Boise Art Museum where we looked at the "Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration" exhibit. It is fascinating. He does work that are basically mosaics based on photographs. He uses all sorts of media to render beautiful portraits. If you are in Boise (or anywhere else it is presented) we highly recommend you go. There is a 20-30 minute video of him talking describing the process.

You can find lots of information on him by Googling him; a couple of sites I found:

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/1998/close/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Close

http://www.chuckclose.coe.uh.edu/ (This takes a while to open).

Alive After 5

Then we went back to the hotel and met up with Butch and others at "Alive After 5". Unfortunately I didn't have my camera. It was very hot out but Butch totally hooked us up with the place to hang out. It was on a veranda on the 2nd floor of the Qwest Arena which overlooks the pedestrian blocks where the weekly festival is held. We had a shady spot where we had tables and chairs, beers, and popcorn. Larry and his wife Jan were there when we showed up; they had just returned from taking a group of high school kids on a tour of Italy. Bob and his wife Cindy came, as did Maggie. Maggie's husband Doug couldn't make it; he had been up in McCall all day chopping wood. It was great catching up with all of them.

At the end of the night, Carla, Butch, and I got an outdoor seat at a bar where we had a drink before we turned in.