Idaho Trip – December 2025
Once again for Thanksgiving, I flew out to see my daughter Kate, son James, son-in-law Royal, grandson Rayland, granddaughter Talia and future-daughter-in-law Dennae in Idaho where they all live. Patty dropped me off early at CVG for my flight to Chicago then on to Boise. The airport lines were short and the flights were too.
Royal, Kate, Rayland and Talia met me at the Boise airport around 11:30am and they got lunch together. Rayland remembered his grandpa well, as I frequently FaceTime with him and the family, but Talia was just born last year, so it took her a little while to warm up to her grandpa! But she did!
We all went to the Fry home to get me unpacked and to rest after his flights. We had dinner and the next morning we all went to church in Nampa, ID. Rayland had a great time and Royal enjoyed the lesson. I tried to help with Talia and participate too. I met James mid-afternoon, but Dennae works a late shift so I had to wait a day to see her.
Monday when Royal went back to work, I went with Katie to look for gifts for Rayland’s birthday and for some early Christmas shopping. We pretty much did this most of the week.
On Tuesday, Kate took me up to Idaho City, an old Idaho gold/ore mining town that still looks like it did in the 1800s! I took a lot of photos of machines from the day that I had not seen before!
We also did some exploring in the area and a little hiking where we saw a large family of quail! Good eye sis! On our little hike, we came upon a small rodeo ring and park. No one was around so we let the kids play and got more photos.
I spent a lot of time at the house hanging out with the family and catching up with my two grand-kids and playing with them (and changing diapers). Royal was in the middle of some work on doing a European mount for his two buck racks he recently took hunting. Gross and stinky work, but he did a great job on the mount.
Royal got off on Wednesday, so he and Kate took me and the grand kids to the Warhawk Museum in Boise, ID – a place I had wanted to go to before, but wasn’t sure how good it would be (living near the USAF Museum in Dayton, OH!). But it was great!
Outside was an old military vehicle that has been restored along with some old cold war jet fighters including the ones you can see below…
Inside was an A-10 Thunderbolt (aka Warthog) on display. Royal had a few long discussions with the ex-military staff volunteering at the museum about the planes, his service history and even the work he did on the Warthog on display. Cool to see! They also had a couple of Humvees (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) on display. Royal said the camo one was pretty much as it came off the line. However the other one had been up-armored.
They also had lots of cool rotary and in-line internal-combustion engines as well as cut-away jet engines showing how so much thrust is generated by fairly small engines. The Pratt & Whitney 4360 Radial engine was amazing!
They even had a smart missile on display, and Royal told me a story about one of those he worked on overseas while deployed. Royal told me that two of the prop fighters below were used on the movie “Pearl Harbor” after been loaned from the museum and later returned. So if you see the movie, look for these two fighters!
It’s easy to remember that Ford built GPs (aka Jeeps) during WWII, but it is not always top-of-mind to remember that Dodge also was in on the game too! Here’s one of the Dodge versions on display. Royal said that his dad also has one and told me how hard it is to find original parts for them.
Dennae asked me if I wanted to run the Turkey Trot in Boise/Caldwell before I came out, so I had signed up for that before I left to go out. However no one else had signed up. As we discussed this one night, Dennae, Kate and Royal all signed up for the run! Even the kids! We tried to get my son James to run with us, but having recently had an injury to his leg and not being fond of running, he said no.
On Thursday morning we walked to the start of the race (about 30 minutes in the cold) and all ran. Dennae, Kate and Royal all helped the kids make it to the finish line too!
Later that day we went to Royal’s parent’s home for Thanksgiving and had a nice family meal together as we watched NFL football on TV.
On Friday, we did what no family should ever do on Black Friday, we went to the mall and back to Scheels! But we did get some good deals and the kids both were able to do Build-a-Bear at the mall!
Friday night we celebrated my grandson, Rayland’s birthday with a meal cooked by my daughter Kate, and a cake from his grandma, Lupe. Rayland has been a fan of fruits and veggies since he was tiny due to the dancing fruit and veggies app and YouTube videos on iPhones. So he knows all the fruits and veggies by name, has a store for them, a shopping cart for them, and a closet full of them. So, he got a fruity cake for his 3rd birthday!
James got a new chainsaw and I got to watch him use that at Kate and Royal’s house and we worked on a few things together and got lunch on Saturday at Fat Guys. On Sunday, Royal, Kate, Rayland and Talia went to the same Nampa church we went to the weekend before. Another good visit followed by a good lunch at a Mexican restaurant they liked.
On Saturday, I got out early around 7am and went for a col morning walk into downtown Caldwell, ID to get photos of the old train depot and try to catch a train passing by. Well, I got both! Great shots of the old depot and at 7:30 a very long freight train went by the depot and I got the whole thing on video! The depot goes back to 1883 and had been restored to a very good condition. They rent the building out for events.
Later on Saturday, I took the kids to the park. It was cold but we bundled up, including Talia in a cow costume from Halloween. It was puffy and warm, so Kate thought it was good for us to take to the park. Talia fell asleep on the way, as it was about a 20-30 minute walk. Rayland jumped onto the playground equipment and had fun for about 30 minutes until I got Talia to wake up. My son, James, had to come to Rayland’s aid a few times on the ropes course at the top of the playground set.
I got a nap after we got home and then packed up for my trip back, which was not leaving Boise until 11:15pm! I got to see James’ apartment Sunday as he took me to the airport and we watched a show he likes from Australia. He dropped me off at 9:30 and I stood in the Delta line for over an hour before any staff showed up to check me in. Then the plane was late and then we had to de-ice.
I left Boise at around 12:30am and landed in Atlanta around 3:30am, was back on a plane by 3:50am and finally landed at CVG around 8:15am where Patty picked me up. I had not slept since my hour nap the day before, and had basically been awake for 26 hours when I came home and paid bills. I finally went to bed around 6:30pm. But I had Monday and Tuesday off of work, so I finally got caught up.