Soda Springs, ID- Man-made Geyser

For those of you who follow this blog, you will notice that I haven't been posting every week. My goal was a year and I got almost there before my husband and I decided we want to repeat some things, we will be posting still whenever we do something new, which I hope will be pretty often.

On to last weekend! We went to Soda Springs. Each year the first weekend in October and April we listen on the radio to the LDS general conference which has two 2-hour sessions on Saturday with 2 hours in between. It is the perfect time to go explore somewhere new. Last Saturday we drove to Soda Springs, ID.

Soda Springs has a man-made geyser. It goes off every hour on the hour and the spray lasts about 7 minutes. It's not that exciting just to watch but if you are willing to deal with the sulfur smell you can get right up into the spray, which is really fun.

Between sprays we walked across the street to Main Street Diner- we weren't sure what we were going to think but the food was so good. My husband got hand battered chicken strips and I had a hamburger. It was a really good place to eat and the timing was perfect to go back across for the next hour's spray.

Further down Main Street they have a great park that we also stopped to play at. It seemed to have everything, swing sets with baby swings, merry-go-rounds, volleyball nets, basketball courts, a big gazebo. It was a fun place to stop and play too.

There are other historical parks and things throughout Soda Springs but we didn't take the time to go see them all. We really enjoyed our day, the drive was nice and the time there was really fun.

Also, as a note for an upcoming event, Events 4 Idaho has a short description of the Annual Chocolate Fest in Idaho Falls which will be held on October 22 this year.

Bisch's RV Challenege- Free Dinner

Sorry, I did't get this up earlier but this week is Bisch's RV Challenge. Throughout the week there are competitors staying in campers without acess to cell phone or showers and every evening they compete in challeneges. Players get elminated throughout the week and the winner gets a new camper. Each evening they have a free barbeque open to the public during the nightly challenege. We went tonight and the dinner was great (hamburgers, philly cheesesteak, steak bites) and the challenege was super fun to watch. They had to milk goats and then drink the milk.

It's worth going over if you have the time. It's through Friday, 5:30 PM dinner starts and the challenge is at 6 PM. Bisch's is just off of Holmes past the Highway.

Hiking "R" Mountain

Saturday we went with my sister and brother-in-law to climb the mountain with the R on it near Rexburg. We brought the baby because we heard it wasn't too hard of a hike but it was really pretty steep. Once you get to the top you the walk is pretty even and the veiw is amazing. The hike up is about 15 minutes but around the top you can spend lots of time if you wanted to walk around the top.



Directions to the trail head: if you head out of Rexburg on main street and about 8 miles out of town turn left on N 3700 E, the first road that crosses it should be Twin Butte Road, turn right. The parking for the trail will be on your left.

Dixie's Diner

The other morning we stopped into Dixie's Diner for breakfast. It was such a fun retro place. I had waffles with ice cream on them and a vanilla root beer. It was good and a fun atmosphere, if we go back I think it will be to try some milkshakes or malts.

McCowin Park and Ammon City Pool

The other night we went to McCowin Park in Ammon. Heading out of Idaho Falls towards Ammon on 17th Street, turn right on Midway Ave. and the park will be on your left. This park has a lot of playing fields- soccer, baseball, football, tennis. It has a nice playground and a gazebo. It also is the home of Ammon City Pool. The Ammon pool is an small outdoor pool, they have swim lessons there but also have open swim most summer afternoons. It was a fun play to spend some time.

Smitty's Pancake and Steak House

Smitty's is grandparents favorite place to eat and we had never tried it. We went the other night and saw why. It was a Thursday so it wasn't very busy. The atmosphere seemed quiet and comfortable. We took forever looking over the menu because it was so good and a lot of things sounded good. They had a great breakfast selection but we had things off the dinner menu. I had a steak and my husband had chicken tenders. We also tried a burger that we got off the kids menu for our daughter (we don't usually order anything for her because she doesn't eat much but we were trying to use up a gift card). Everything was good- the dinners come with tons of choices for sides, and I was full by the end of my salad. We got a lot of food for our money, including free desserts that come with anything on the dinner menu.

My husband's favorite part is that everything comes with things on the side rather than on it. The burgers and sandwiches are that way and even the salads had the carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers all on the side so we could use what we wanted. My grandparents recommend the fish but we didn't try any.

The waitresses were so helpful with our little girl and nobody seemed to mind when she just wanted to walk around our table while we ate.

Rainey Creek, Square Ice Cream in Swan Valley

We lived in Ririe for a little while before we moved to Idaho Falls and people that weren't even from around here would always ask if I had been to Swan Valley for the square ice cream cones. The week we moved from Ririe was my first time and last weekend my husband and I went back with some of his siblings.

The square ice cream is inside a gas station at the split between going to Jackson or going to Driggs, just look for a sign like this and lots of cars.
They have such fun flavor choices I had a birthday cake kind- which doesn't taste like usual cake batter ice cream, it tasted like cake and had pieces of yellow cake mixed in it. It was so good, I also had huckleberry. My husband's two flavors look the same but one is a Rainey Creek Mudslide which had caramel, and some nuts in it and brownie nut.
The prices are as follows:
Single Regular Cone: $2.50
Double Regular Cone: $3.50
Single Waffle Cone: $3.25
Double Waffle Cone: $4.00
Float with root beer, sarsaparilla, or huckleberry soda: $4.75

You can buy huckleberry soda there and I love it. They have a record of people served on holiday weekends and it was tons so I think it would be pretty crazy to go on a holiday. Also, my husband had trouble keepings his top layer from falling off so watch out for that on hot days.