Dear Liza,
This week we got to celebrate Auntie Bridgett’s Birthday, and it was fun! It was also the first really rainy day of the Fall.
We unwrapped presents at the house after breakfast, and Mouse helped. Gift cards for Dick Blick art supplies, a big box of very stylish postcards, and a book on color started the day right.
Then she and I headed toward downtown. We stopped at two shops in the Fairhaired Dumbell, a very unusual, oddly placed building on Burnside by the river. It is built on a small lot in the middle of traffic, so you need to step quickly to get there without getting run over.
The shops are 11:11, a high end stationary, office supplies and organizational shop. Next door was Crema, a small coffee shop, where we enjoyed a pain au chocolat to hold us until lunch.
We walked across the Burnside Bridge and caught the bus to Scrap, a second-hand art supply store that is an artist’s, mom’s, and teacher’s dream come true!
So many wonderful, recycled materials like Scrabble letters, old piano keys and tiles, and fabrics, could make for some fabulous, and very affordable, art projects.
Science would be easier, and cheaper, to teach with new, donated vials, tweezers, and microscope slides. For just a moment I wished I was still teaching….
Grandpa Nelson met us and we headed for lunch at a new place just across the street from Scrap, the Boise Fry Company, who specialize in Grandpa Nelson’s favorite food! Ironically, their turkey burger and Fun-Guy Burger (70% beef, 30% mushroom) were delicious, but their French Fries were soggy and disappointing. We met a nice server, though. Nice folks make things better.
We watched the pouring rain outside the shop form wide puddles around the equipment that is there to re-do the drainage system, and imagined someone saying, “I told you guys we shoulda got this done in August!”
When the rain slowed, we took the bus home for a rest before our next adventure….Dinner at La Moule. We got dressed up and took a Lyft car south to the Clinton neighborhood. We enjoyed some nice local wines, absinthe (of course) , mussels, halibut and some REALLY good fries for Grandpa Nelson.
Sadly, Auntie Bridgett realized she had left her umbrella in the Lyft, but we will find her a new one soon.
We got home after watching a great sunset, watched baseball (Yay, Giants!) and fell asleep. What a day!!
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 