I arrived in Boise on Thursday afternoon & immediately dropped in at Arbor CrossFit. It was one of the most interesting workouts I dropped in on, but Coach Jonathan & my classmates at the 3:15pm local time class made sure they welcomed me in. I took pictures of the my coach & the workout on my instagram page (The KEC Master's Arbor CrossFit Instagram Post), but here are the pictures of the shirts I bought.
The gray one I will likely keep, the other two go to my sister & brother in law.
It should be noted that Interstate Route 84 runs through the south part of Boise. During parts of I-84, US Route 30 is coincidental. The same US Route 30 that originates just west of Atlantic City is coincidental to I-84 in & around Boise!
In trying to do some preparation for my trip, I looked up a travel blogger from Boise, Idaho. Katie (Instagram travelingspud) has all sorts of lists for things to do in & around Boise. I will try to remember to give her credit for any activities I do that I believe she suggested through her website/instagram page.
It is quite apparent that two of the restaurants she mentioned in her blog posts are doing well. I tried to go to Capitol Cellars & Alavita on Thursday night after CrossFit, & both were full! Alavita was so full that they had a waiting list for the bar! A Thursday night in the middle of December?? Man these restaurants are good. I suggest making reservations to go.
So, I drove out of the downtown area & landed at Spitfire craft Pizza & Pints on Vista Avenue. Pretty good place, the pizza I had (Barbecue Chicken Pizza sans onions shown below) was pretty awesome. I defer the alcohol commentary to others who drink alcohol as you can see my A&W root beer can.
After a stop at Albertsons for groceries, I drove to Meridian to see the Scentsy Lights (thanks Katie! IG travelingspud). I had a bit of initial difficulty as the original address I was given landed me in an industrial park about half a mile to the southwest. After checking the facebook page, I landed at the correct location for Scentsy Lights. According to a random repeat visitor I saw there, the big tree was new. I posted some pictures on my instagram page (The KEC Master's IG Post on Scentsy Lights), but here are some more I don't think I posted on my instagram down below
Friday
The Mex Insurance Open was a strange tournament. Average lateness of each round was nearly 50 minutes. (53, 83, 37, 50, 18, 56) The Organizer was having severe problems with his computer. On the Friday & Saturday, the place wouldn't open until noon time, 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the first round of the day. Since this is a FIDE Event, the apparent deadline for being late to a game is 30 minutes. With the Barber Park Center not opening until 12pm the first two days, it was a very tight window of 45 minutes with a 12:15pm scheduled start time & a 30-minute lateness allowance.
George Lundy runs a lot of FIDE events in Idaho, & you see quite a few more FIDE rated players than normal, including my 6th round opponent who also has a FIDE rating higher than a USCF Rating (like mine is). All ratings seen in this post will be FIDE Ratings.
In Keeping my promise to A Video Game Con, I dressed up as Knicks Toad for the first day.
I wasn't intending to dress as Knicks Toad, but I left behind all my planned hats! My Knicks Toad hat was the only hat I had which happened to be in the wrong place, but right time (my jacket). After winning my first round matchup, I went to Boise Fry company for Lunch & gave my name as Toad for the Order. The way they do their fries, you order the type of potato you want & the type of fries they have available that day (regular, hand cut, etc.). They cook the fries unsalted, & then you travel to your left to get the fry sauce & fry salt (or other salt-like substance) you want. So I got sweet potato fries & cinnamon ginger! - A fantastic combination! Their bbq sauce & their original sauce worked the best, but not the blueberry ketchup & the spicy ketchup. I suspect the last two are better suited for other combinations.
I made a visit to Cravin’s Candy Emporium – Boise before the first round, & made another visit before the second round. They have lots of candy & they have it in different formats, from movie boxes to pez candy packages to candy cards to various other types. The range is so large they even have Moxie Soda that friends of mine last consumed in the 2000s:
There was a long delay for Round 2 as there was a game from Round 1 that had to be adjourned. Go figure.
I played GM Fidel Corrales in Round 2. I had a small conversation with him before the round started. He's a nice guy, I hope to see him in future tournaments soon. He did wipe me out in 23 quick moves. I tried to open up a positionally losing game, only for a mating attack to develop.
On Saturday, I drove over to the Big Idaho Potato Hotel & Dolly the Cow
When taking pictures of the hotel, I was actually scared of Dolly the Cow since she noticed me & walked toward me!
On my way back, I noticed my electric vehicle that I rented had only about 45 miles of range left. so I had to look for a charger. I stopped at Boise Stage Stop & ate breakfast while trying to let it charge. The charge for 40 or so minutes was pathetic, as I think I only gained like 20 miles of range. I was initially told at the rental car counter that if I didn't leave the Boise area that I would be okay. Yup, never trusting that judgment again. I had to omit a stop to Bonneville Point on the Oregon Trail since I was concerned I might get stuck there! (Road was snow covered in addition to my car range problem)
I suffered a draw in Round 3 in which I had a Rook & Knight vs. Rook & Bishop that eventually evolved into a Knight vs. Bishop ending. Unfortunately, I have not finished evaluation of this game, where I think I had winning chances but am having a hard time pinning where. The game ground to a halt when I had only one pawn left but no way to avoid the Bishop sacrificing itself for the pawn if I advance it & no way to force white's King away from its excellent defensive position.
That 3rd Round game was a long game, & it was already 4:45pm when I had to search for lunch. I went to Papa Murphy's, hoping to pick up a pizza I can eat myself.
Unfortunately, they don't cook it. So I had to get lunch from a nearby Subway & hope that I could find someone to take this from me.
Luckily, my friend Eric from the Utah State Open 2014 was here, living in Idaho & playing the reserve section. His games were ending earlier than me, & his 4th round game ended before my 4th round game started, so I offered him my pizza & he took it.
My fourth round opponent took forever to show up. I had been in constant conversation with Chief Organizer George Lundy & he asked me to wait for an hour as my opponent had an even later finish than I had in the 3rd round. An hour passed & I had told the chief that I was going to take a forfeit win, but before I could remove my stuff, he shows up, 1 hour, 5 seconds late. Since I am there, I play the game, & then lose. I did switch the opening from the Alekhine to the four knights, but I misplayed the 10th move & my game went downhill from there.
Back to my car charging problem - I had to find another car charging station, & it is clear that ChargePoint can not be trusted. I did find one, but the machine told me it would take 80 minutes to fully charge the car or so (or at least get from 8% to 80%). So, I did a quick search of walkable eating places within my car charger, & end up eating at Twin Peaks Boise in the middle of a Boise St. Broncos football game & the Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins game.
I never saw a Meatball sub in my previous visits to Twin Peaks, so I went for it.
On Sunday, I ate at Addie's Diner. The food was good, but I thought the portions were a bit small. I felt full after eating it, so I guess I just eat less on occasion now, but I guess I was surprised.
There were many markers for the Oregon Trail in & around Boise, but it was too cold & my car charge was too low to chase them all. I did get a picture of one of them for you.
After my third visit to Cravin's Candy Emporium, I just told myself to forget about the third + fourth rounds from Saturday & just play well. My fifth round opponent wasn't particularly aggressive, & just made non-impactful moves. I started winning pawns early & eventually had a 5-pawn advantage, but he made me play it out from move 27 to move 66.
In my 6th round, My opponent played a Caro-Kann defense, & then tried an interesting bishop for two pawn sacrifice as he didn't want to play two long hours behind my central passer. It eventually fails, but there was only one move that forced it to fail. I found it & he resigned.
Because my last game ended early, I was able to eat dinner with my friend from Utah Eric. When I did my Utah post over 8 years ago, the game I selected was the third Round, so it wasn't against my friend Eric. (I played him in the 5th round of that tournament.)
I don't know if I won a prize at 3.5/6, but if I did they will tell me & I can update the first map picture by changing Idaho from green to blue. These maps I generated from mapchart.net
And that concludes State No. 32 - Idaho for #fiftystatesofchess.
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