Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Part 2)

Some comparisons of city size. . .as of July 2007:

Moorpark, California: 36,199
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: 42,267
Spokane, Washington: 200,925
Boise, Idaho: 202,832
Los Angeles, California: 3,834,340

That gives you an idea of Boise in relation to Moorpark, where I used to live, Coeur d'Alene, where I now live, Spokane, the nearby "big city," and Los Angeles, the area where I grew up. While Boise is significantly smaller than L.A., I felt like it still had a "big city" feel that Spokane does not have. It is the state capital, after all!

For those who don't know, Coeur d'Alene has the most lousy mall I have ever seen in my life. . .not that I've seen a lot of malls, but a one story mall can't be that great! So when I heard that Boise had lots of shopping, and a "real" mall, I thought that sounded awesome!

After lunch on Sunday we once again got in the car, and this time we headed for the mall. On the way to the mall, however, we stopped at Barnes and Noble so Val could check out the book sales and I could spend the last of a gift card I had. I used my gift card to get Josh Groban's Closer CD, which I have been wanting (unfortunately I had to wait until I got home to listen to it!), and I also bought a planner for school that is pretty cute, if I do say so myself! Val found some books, too, so I would say it was a successful stop!

Eventually we made it to the mall where we saw all sorts of stores that we don't have in Coeur d'Alene (and some we don't have in Spokane, either)! Michelle and I were excited to go in Mervyn's and we had high hopes of finding something cute, but unfortunately we were both pretty disappointed with the store by the time we left it. We continued to explore the rest of the mall and Val and Michelle found some good buys. Michelle was excited about the Disney Store and Val insisted we just had to go in the Hollister store to feel their clothes and "smell the smell." I will say the clothes felt soft when I touched them, but the store was a bit weird because it was not lit very well. . .and since Hollister is very much a "California-wear"/"surfer" style store, they had lots of surfing-related stuff and then two TV screens showing webcams of beaches in Huntington Beach, CA and I think one in Virginia somewhere. Apparently the Hollister scent is unique and all the clothes are sprayed with this scent, which I thought was odd. But now I can say I've been in a Hollister store! (yay?)

We found all sorts of fun stores to check out, and eventually we were ready for dinner. We decided to treat ourselves to the Cheesecake Factory, since we don't have one of those in CdA and we heard it was good. It was! We actually opted to share three appetizers between the three of us instead of getting dinners because we knew we wanted cheesecake and we knew we weren't hungry enough for huge dinners plus cheesecake. So, we split potstickers, mini burgers and a quesadilla between the three of us, and then we were so full after that, that we ordered a piece of cheesecake to-go and took it back to eat in Val's room. The food and the cheesecake were delicious!

Sunday night we couldn't stay up too late because school started early for Val on Monday morning and she had to take me and Michelle to the airport before heading to school! So eventually we said goodnight, and settled down for the night. 6am (which was 5am our time!) Monday morning came far too quickly. . .and Val's "Grease" alarm clock nearly made me jump 10 feet in the air when it started to sing. . .loudly. We got ready and were ready to leave about 30 minutes earlier than we needed to be, so we sat around and talked some more.

Michelle and I had about 2 hours to "kill time" at the airport so we wandered around and looked at every gift shop and explored the other levels. Then we decided to just sit down and eat cookies while reading books as we waited for our plane. The flight home went well, even though I hate flying, and before we knew it we were back in Spokane, Washington. It was 90-degrees and sunny in Boise when we left, and we came home to 65-degrees and rainy in Spokane. What a difference!

School started for us when we got home. It was a bit hard for me to get into the "school mode" after spending the weekend playing and having fun. . .but I managed!

The trip was fun, Boise was awesome, and who knows. . .maybe I'll go back someday!

Val, me and Michelle
I Luv You Girls!!!!