Another wonderful thing about Boise ...

...is the trees. Do you know how Boise got it's name? Well, the story goes that some of the first explorers to this part of the Oregon trail were french and when they finally made it to the point overlooking the Valley (and the large river) they shouted "Les Bois, Les Bois" meaning "The trees, the trees". And I must tell you that I had a similar reaction the first time I saw downtown Boise. The trees are impressive-- thanks to the large river which came to be known as "La rivière boisée", "The wooded river". The name shrunk - as things will over time and now it is just Boise. But it gets even better than that. The people of Boise wanted to preserve the beautiful trees so they created several very large parks strung throughout downtown Boise like pearls on a river string. And the cherry on top is that each of these parks is named after a woman in the community (or in the case of Anne Frank memorial, an honorable woman in history). Thus we have Julia Davis Park:

Ann Morrison Park:

Kathryn Albertson Park:

Alta Harris park:

Anne Frank Memorial:

Anne Frank Memorial has these cool stone walls with quotes about peace and human rights carved into them. If you are ever visiting Anne Frank Memorial Park look next to the quote by Mahatma Ghandi for a lovely quote from Gordon B. Hinckley.

These are just a few of the beautiful Boise parks but they are my favorites.

By the way - I took absolutely none of these photos - rather, I spent 2 seconds looking them up on google images. BUT... if you will show me pictures of what fall looks like where you are, I will show you mine.

Don't you just love trees?