Basque: A Language All Its Own

I've been wanting to eat at Cracker Barrel for four years. We went through Boise in May of 2002 on our roadtrip relocating to Seattle. I vowed one day we'd return because Boise has the nearest Cracker Barrel restaurant to us. Pooky said if we're going to drive for 7 hours we may as well take in some of the local attractions of Boise. Can you believe there aren't any weirdnesses to absorb in the land of the russet? Well, in the state there are, but not around the area we'll be traveling. (I use the website Roadside America to find my bits of Americana weirdness to visit.)

I scoured the tourism to Boise websites, requested their brochures. Besides eating ourselves silly at the CB, we'll be taking in the local farmer's market, but more thrilling will be the Basque Musem! Who are the Basques? Well, that I don't rightly know other than they live in a bit of land between Spain and France. Interestingly, their language is so unique it is felt that it isn't related to any other languages on earth!

I actually didn't think much of the Basque museum until this weekend in which during lecture Angeles Arrien was mentioned. She is the only Basque person I can name. I thought that the coincidence of her being mentioned and my recent search to find something to do while in Boise, all signs pointing to Basque-ness, along with my step-mom also mentioning that there are Basque things to encounter, has made me think I need to investigate and bask in the Basque.

I just hope when we are in Boise that the Buddhist monks don't appear. Lately whenever I've gone to Seattle I encounter a group of monks! I swear it is rather eerie to keep bumping into them! My last encounter was at McDonald's. It made me determine that eating at McDonald's incurs negative karma. I've tried to glean a special message from the universe about seeing the monks, but none comes to mind. I won't really worry about it until I see the monks in a real unlikely place, like the Basque museum in Boise.

One item I hope to find at the Basque Market is a special wine called patxaran. It's made from sloe berries and anise. Sounds like something I'd love the taste of because I've got a thing for licorice flavored anything.

We'll be taking off on Friday and making a weekend of it. I got our room for $38/night by using Priceline.com. I just love going to that site and getting a hotel room for a steal! I do the same for all of my flights and car rentals.

If only Smee were up to joining us! I do find myself overly attached to my Little Ami. Today he pasted himself to my body and we were one human-feline blob for many hours.