Welcome to Beautiful Idaho!

Today is a special day for me. I get to be part of Debbie's Blog Around the World travel itinerary. I absolutely love this blog. Monday through Thursday new blogs from all over the world are featured. It's like going on a vacation right from my office, each and every day. And the fun things I've learned... oh, it's just so great. (I don't know how Debbie keeps up with it, I have a hard enough time remembering to get my Try-It-Tuesday posts up on time.) So today, I get to say WELCOME to IDAHO!!

Some people think Idaho is a native American word, but nope, somebody, somewhere, sometime ago just made it up. "I da ho? Whatever, YOU da ho!" (yep, it's an on going jr high joke.) Story has it, that when Idaho was being considered for a new territory, a man George M. Willing suggested the name "Idaho" which he claimed was derived from a Shoshone language term meaning "the sun comes from the mountains" or "gem of the mountains." He later claimed that he had made the whole thing up. But for some reason "Idaho" stuck.

I was born and raised in Idaho and have never lived anywhere else. I've lived in Eastern Idaho, and Western Idaho, but never Northern Idaho. You NEVER hear the term Southern Idaho. (Southeast, yes, but not Southern.) It's really like three states in one. Western, Eastern and Northern Idaho.

You might be surprised to learn that Western Idaho has beautiful springs (I LOVE the flowers), very hot summers (triple digits) and fairly mild winters (Oh how I miss those dry roads!). (My husband and I on our son's blessing day, March of '04)

Eastern Idaho's winters, on the other hand, seem to last 9 months of the year, and are very cold (I've personally seen it get to -30F and even colder with wind chill) with a lot of snow. (Frosty comes to life in my backyard.)

But the other 3 months of the year are absolutely worth waiting out the deep freeze. Summers in Eastern Idaho are the most gorgeous around (if I do say so myself). The majority of the time we have highs in the low 90's/high 80's and by 7 pm, it cools off to a perfect 72 degrees. It is windy here, but I enjoy that fresh breeze that constantly blows. (Enjoying snow cones in front of the falls of Idaho Falls.)


There is a lot of farming done in Idaho. Everything from wheat and barley in Eastern to mint and onions in Western. But the thing we are most famous for is the Idaho potato. And you wouldn't believe the things you can do with a potato. Baked potatoes, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, potato pancakes, potato donuts, even potato ice cream.

Now, if potatoes don't interest you, maybe television might. Did you know that the first t.v. was invented right here in little 'ol Idaho? That's right, in a small town not 20 minutes away, Philo T. Farnsworth invented the first completely electronic television. Now what would we all do without that?

I am blessed to live in an area where Jackson Hole, WY is 2 hours one direction, Sun Valley, ID is 2 hours another direction, and Yellowstone National Park is 2 hours the other. The famous Grand Teton Mountains can be seen on your way to Jackson or Yellowstone. And they are absolutely breath taking on a clear day. (Did you know they've found evidence of coral reefs near the top of the 13,000 feet high peaks?) (I'd better say I just stole this picture off the internet, but I do have some of my own beautiful pictures of the Tetons.)

We don't have an accent in Idaho (None of us ever think we have the accent, it's always the other guy right?) but we do have a few words that are unique/common to the Idaho/Utah area. These are the few I can think of right off: "awright", "you guys", "fer", "heck".

Ah what the heck, I'll close now by saying that I hope this post was awright fer you guys. Come back to Idaho some time for a visit and be sure to drop me a line when you do.