Things To Do In Boise

According to a profile by the Boise Weekly's Rachael Daigle, Tony Perreira's dream of growing the ranks of American curling enthusiasts began as " but a glimmer in one curler's eye." Now carving out a niche on the ice as the founder of Boise Curling Club, Perreira helps his band of talented leads, skips, and sweepers share their precise and entertaining skills at one of the Winter Olympics’ two most recently added sports. The club's coaches distill the complexities of their sport into easy to digest instruction and FAQs designed to answer curling inquiries better than the oracles found at every ice rink. The club provides all equipment aside from comfortable pants and layered clothing, and offers workshops focused on constructing your own curling shoes.

Das Breakroom welcomes guests to unleash their inner Hulks. They can smash printers to smithereens and rip laptop screens off their hinges or stomp on boom boxes and beat chandeliers to tangled messes using baseball bats. The recreational destruction business provides a safe, contained, and private environment for people to obliterate plates, electronic equipment, and furniture. Although individuals can come in to blow off some steam, Das Breakroom also hosts events for parties of all sizes and offers happy-hour sessions.

As a PGA-certified pro, Jeff Thomsen's distinguished golf career began decades ago, when the 16-year-old Thomsen swung his way to the Idaho State Amateur championship, becoming the youngest player ever to earn that rarefied distinction. His early success would pave the cart path to a long career that included 175 PGA Tour events, participation in 14 major championships, multiple tournament victories, and once saving a course-side community from a feral golf cart. Today, Jeff showers pupils with golf wisdom culled from both his 38-year competitive career and a certification from the Nicklaus/Flick Golf School. The passionate pedagogue helps players sharpen their game, lengthen their drives, and fold scorecards into paper cranes with hands-on, comprehensive lessons conducted at multiple courses throughout the hills of Treasure Valley.

As the early-morning sky lightens and the sun paints the horizon in purples, blues, oranges, and yellows, a fleet of balloons takes flight. These are Boise Hot Air Company’s balloons—colorful inflated vessels bedecked with purple and yellow stripes, red checkerboard patterns, and the stars and stripes of the American flag. Captains take groups aloft at 30 minutes before official sunrise in baskets equipped with seats and dividers for added safety. Flying only in fair weather and usually at speeds of no more than 8 miles per hour, the captains pilot leisurely flights low over the countryside of rolling hills from March through November.

What makes a chili recipe the best there is? The judges at this year's Chili & Salsa fest will have to figure that out for themselves as they award entries of chili—and salsa—in this year's competitions. At Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park, the scents of fall food mingle in the air, making it tricky for patrons to decide whose wares to sample. And as evening comes on, so does the crowd, as the event shifts to watching college and NFL football on the big screen.

The Boise Flower & Garden Show, running March 25–27 at the Boise Centre, hosts myriad lush garden displays, seminars, and shopping opportunities for adventurous green-thumbs. Upon entering, visitors pass through the alpine-lake-themed garden, which sports a meadow, granite boulders, and mountain cabin. The show then lavishes eyes with a buffet of specialty displays—the orchid sale sports a vast variety of delicate stems and expert advice on how to care for them, and a bonsai display teaches adoptive plant parents how to prune shrubs without using a dunce cap.