The Flight of the Saltire

[Arlen]

First off, a few more pictures of the Wee Saltire with the hot air balloons.







Kevin (Kvindiesel) with The Saltire.




Diane resting with The Saltire while we wait for the balloons.






Coming up, The Wee Saltire visits The Morrison Knudsen Nature Center. (THE Morrison - Knudsen of Hoover Dam.)

[Arlen]

Today the wee Airship visited the MK Nature Centre in the centre of Boise.
It's like a little island of nowhere in the middle of the city.

Would you believe that it was originally Boise's first landfill for about 75 years and was then a Baseball Diamond.

In 1990 Fish and Game totally rebuilt the place to be welcoming to Idaho's wonderful wildlife and it's been thriving ever since. We regularly see wild deer just wandering around outside.

The Saltire started off by landing at this rock covered in petroglyphs.




She stopped off to view some of the wonderful fish in the Boise River.




And visited with the little Sturgeon, Nessie's cousin. You can just see the shadow beneath the other fish. (I do not say this to be funny, but this Sturgeon is only about 20 years old and as such is quite small.)






For those who don't think Nessie could be a sturgeon, here is a picture of a sturgeon caught in Idaho that they use at The Loch Ness Visitor's Centre.




Here are some illustrations of the wonderful fish we get here in Idaho.
(The one in the glass case at the bottom is Lonesome Larry. One year he was THE ONLY Sockeye Salmon to make it back to spawn. The Sockeye Salmon are really struggling in the Pacific Northwest possibly because of climate issues / dams / chemicals / who knows what else. They are, however, doing really well in Alaska.)





Here are just SOME of the other wonderful animals we get here in Idaho. (And people wonder why anyone would move here...:

Bison, Moose, Bald Eagles, Elk...




Snow Geese, Osprey's, Turkeys...




Bears, Sage Grouse, Reindeer...




Dall Sheep, Grey Wolves, Mountain Lions, Sandhill Cranes AND Kestrels!!!

[Arlen]

The wee airship enjoyed seeing some of the Spawning Kokanee.
(Red Fish Lake in Idaho is so named because Native American Legend says that the Kokanee used to come there to spawn in such numbers that you could walk across the lake on their backs.)



Here's a close up of one of the little fellas.




A few Giant Air Kokanee attacked The Saltire but she fought them off bravely.




And Diane enjoyed watching some of the Huge Coho Salmon and various trout.






All in we had a great time!!!


Soon, more hikes and activities around Boise and around Idaho!!!