Taking Time to Smell the Roses

I had some time one evening and decided to take a walk up the road to one of the parks near my apartment. Turns out this park is more than just a park--it's also home to six or so museums and this place :

I live within walking distance of a zoo, guys, this is amazing.

Everything was closed this late (and cost money I didn't have anyway, I'm still broke until payday) but the park itself (the Julia Davis Park, did I forget to mention that?) is quite lovely.

I love how many trees there are in Boise; I think it'll look beautiful in the fall.

Now, I had actually heard about all the museums before and I intend to check them all out eventually, but it turns out there is an exhibit that is freely accessible here which I'd never heard of --the Boise Rose Garden.

Apparently it was made as a memorial for a woman who loved roses. There are something like 200 species of roses present and they smell heavenly.

Unfortunately a disease struck most of the flowers last year requiring since heavy pruning, in the past these bushes were much larger. I'll have to come back in a few years after they've had time to grow again.

On my way back to the apartment I couldn't help sneaking a peak at another site I intend to visit soon:

Those of you who know me well (and since I'm pretty sure 2/3 of my readership is my mother, I'm assuming that's all of you) will appreciate my excitement.

Also, I think it's kind of amazing that Boise doesn't have a library, it has a Library!

Another place I intend to check out is The Cabin.

I guess it's some kind of Center for writers. They do writing classes there for various ages and genres, so that's something I'll have to try sometime.

Walking by this building, though, I noticed something behind it...

It's a tiny Park called the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial, and it's beautiful.

There are these interesting gizmos all over where you can spin a wheel to get an audio tour.

This link, if it works, is to a video of me attempting to hold my phone in one hand while turning the crank with the other. You could get a pretty good arm workout doing the entire tour.

I'll be talking more later about the Boise Greenbelt, but here's a few shots I took while crossing it between the Memorial and the rest of the way home :

These old train bridges are all over, and I love them.

I love how many interesting things there are in Boise, that even an evening walk is a chance to discover a variety of things. I've only been here a couple of weeks, but I think I'm going to really like it here.