Idaho pt 2

After a good rest we were ready to begin our first full day in Idaho!

Number one priority (aside from the potato ice cream) was Shoshone Falls, nicknamed the “Niagara of the west.” It’s 212 feet tall which means it’s taller than Niagara Falls!  This surprised me because I thought it was pretty small when we were there. Then again, we viewed it from above and weren’t able to get super close to it. I also think parts of it were too dry so we didn’t see all the water flowing. (I’m probably still comparing all the falls in Iceland and Norway too.) 

We also stopped at Dierkes Lake which wasn’t too impressive. The water was cold so we didn’t even try to go for a swim. 

Next on our list was the Twin Falls Visitor Center which is on the rim of the Snake River Canyon. We could see (and walk) across the 486-ft tall Perrine Bridge and got to see some base jumpers! Evel Knievel also attempted to jump across the canyon in 1974 with a steam powered rocket. 

We ate at Black Bear Diner for lunch which had the biggest pancakes ever (!!) before heading to Ritter Island. Ritter is part of the Thousand Springs state park (same as Malad). There’s the historic Minnie Miller dairy farm and cascading falls. The historic houses on the island are even available for rent which was interesting. What was even more interesting/unusual was the hydroelectric plant which sat adjacent to the park. Not quite what I was expecting. 

Since we were close, we also scouted out Niagra Springs which was part of the same state park. It was a little confusing and we weren’t sure exactly what we were looking for, but it is what it is. 

Our last activity of the day was with AWOL at centennial park waterfront. Two of us did the tandem kayak and I did the stand up paddleboard. 

We ate at the cove of twin falls for dinner and the food was decent, but we waited a really long time for the waitress to come with the check. (And Meghan never got her drink she ordered!) 

Next and final day we went to Craters of the Moon National Monument. It’s a surreal volcanic landscape of lava flows, cinder cones, and lava tubes.  There’s a scenic loop road which we drove and did a few small hikes. I even went and explored a small cave. Dewdrop cave is a lava tube formed by flowing lava. 

Dinner was at Elevation 468 and had beautiful views! 

That’s all for Idaho! Stay tuned for Arkansas …coming soon!

State 47: Idaho

Every year for the past 5 years, Melissa, Meghan, and I have taken a girls trip. We go to a state that none of us have been to before. Unfortunately, this is the last state that all three of us need. (But don’t worry, I think we plan on stilll doing some kind of trip every year!)

Stupid me found a flight leaving at 8:30am and I thought, okay, that’s not bad… I’ve had flights at 6:30am before so no big deal. WRONG!! I woke up at 4:45am to get ready, meet at my friends house, and then drive to the airport together. (One of the other girls got up at 3am) 

We arrived in Boise, Idaho around 2:30 pm. We picked up our rental car and headed straight to West Side Drive-In. It’s a cute little diner, with something very special: POTATO ICECREAM!!! It  looks like potato, but thankfully it’s not. (Vanilla ice cream, coco powder, chocolate sauce, and you can add nuts if you want.) Oh my yums it was delicious !!

We then drove to Malad Gorge State park and saw the canyon. It’s 250 feet deep and 2.5 miles long. 

Had dinner at Texas Roadhouse because that’s a must when we travel together. We have loved our waiters that “kept them rolls comin’!” 

We crashed when we finally got to our hotel. 

Stay tuned for more from Twin Falls!

Norway pt 2

Day 3: We spent the night in Gudvangen so we could see the Viking Valley first thing in the morning.  (Think of it as colonial Williamsburg, but in Norway with Viking style) We mostly just walked around on our own. They did offer an English tour with a guide, but we were cutting it close time-wise and the guide had a thick accent which made it a little challenging to understand. 

Gudvangen is also really pretty. 

We took a bus to Voss and then a train from Voss to Bergen. 

When I originally started researching Norway, I saw in numerous places that you should not rent a car, but rather use their transportation system.  All of our transportation was booked through Norway in a Nutshell. It was an incredibly smooth process and and worked out great. The trains were in large part very scenic.

When we arrived in Bergen we decided to go up in the funicular since it was a clear day. I’m so glad we did!!  

View of Bergen and funicular 

Bergen from above

Floyen goats 

Amazing lookout

Cute little park at the top with our troll friend

Day 4: Our last full day in Norway involved just hanging around Bergen.  We started with a visit to the Troll Museum and then wandered around town. 

Troll museum exhibit

Troll selfies

Sites of Bergen

Sites of Bergen

I am absolutely in love with Norway. Yes, it’s expensive and yes, the weather can be iffy, but I would say it’s a much better choice than Iceland. Iceland isn’t worth the hype, in my opinion, and Norway is severely underrated. 

Norway pt 1

Day 1: We arrived in Oslo and the drive in from the airport was unbelievable. So vastly different from Iceland. There were trees and grass and the drive into town was more beautiful than most of the drive around Iceland. (And airport to Oslo isn’t anything exquisite, believe me!) 

We walked around Oslo in the afternoon. There was nothing in particular that gained our interest so wandered around and saw some famous buildings. We saw the palace, parliament, and Nobel Peace Prize center. 

Parliament

Nobel Peace Prize center 

While we were eating dinner that night a motorcade drove past, but we have no idea who it was. Still kind of cool though!

Day 2: We got up early and took a train from Oslo to Mydral. It was about 5 hours by train and relatively scenic. We sat across from a Canadian couple and had a nice conversation. The train also had a little cafe on board so we could get food and drinks. 

At the train station

View from the train

One of the most scenic train rides in the world!

Once we arrived in Mydral we transferred to another train- this one going to Flam. 

View from the train

Flam

Flam

Flam was a cute little town and we hopped off here for an excursion. We took a minibus to the Stegastein viewpoint which was super lovely!

Stegastein

Stegastein

We made it back to Flam just in time to catch a cruise from Flam to Gudvangen.  (Also super lovely!) 

Cruise views

Cruise views- so many waterfalls 

Cruise views

Cruise views

It was a little cloudy, but cloudy Norway is still beautiful. I would also say cloudy Norway is more beautiful than cloudy Iceland. 

More to come … 

Iceland pt 3

There wasn’t going to be a part 3, but I still have some things to say so here we go…

First, check out these cute little guys that were right outside our hotel! 

On our final day in Iceland we re-visited Seljalandsfoss because we had blue skies and sunshine! While we were there we also found the secret waterfall, Gljufrabui. 

After that the plan was to just drive back to Reykjavik for our flight early the next morning.

On the way, we stopped at Caves of Hella. These are man-made caves and are Iceland’s oldest still standing archaeological remains.  Some think the caves even date back to before the settlement of the Nordic Vikings. I personally did not care for the tour and found it a bit boring. There’s a lava cave somewhere in Iceland that definitely seemed more interesting, but we didn’t get around to it.

Since we were back in Reykjavik we stopped in for a Lava Show!  It recreates a volcanic eruption by superheating real lava to 2,000 Fahrenheit and pouring it into a custom designed showroom. It gives people the chance to safely see lava. It was very informative and pretty neat! 

Some thoughts on Iceland…

1. It’s so expensive it’s annoying. Most restaurants cost us around $100 usd per meal. Gas prices were also high as well. 

2. Almost everywhere (every site) you have to pay to park and that can get ridiculous as well.
3. You see beautiful pictures of Iceland online, but you have to keep in mind that the weather changes constantly. Thankfully, I knew that coming in, but the first two days were cloudy and blah. The last two days we at least had blue skies and sunshine! Makes for much better pictures! 
4. Everything is a bit of a drive from each other and there’s a lot of “nothing” in between the sites. Don’t get me wrong,  the sites are beautiful, but the driving in between was not. I think I just expected every inch of Iceland to be pretty and scenic. We were only in the south so maybe there are more scenic drives in other places. A lot of what we saw was volcanic rock and sometimes it was covered in moss. Not very pretty. 
5. Sadly, Iceland did not make my top 5 countries, but it might be in the top 10. Reasons being: the price, the unpredictable weather, the nothingness between drives. And, oh yeah, they don’t have a single McDonald’s. (Kidding, kind of)  ;)
A lot of people really enjoy Iceland, but it’s not a country I would come back to. There’s definitely a lot of beauty in Iceland and the people have all been nice. I am glad we came, for sure, but it just didn’t quite make the cut for me.