Boise Idaho January 2008

Another seminar in Boise Idaho. I was here about a year and a half ago, Boise is a nice little town. Last time I stayed at the Doubletree on Chinden so I opted to stay here again. The banquet room is nice and that staff was helpful.

It is a two and a half hour flight from Minneapolis to Boise, another full flight, we were late leaving Minneapolis because the flight crew was late arriving into Minneapolis and we needed to deice before takeoff, so we left about half an hour late but arrived only fifteen minutes late.

The rental car lot is small, you pickup your keys at the Avis desk (I am Preferred), and the rental car lot is a short walk out of the side of the building. This is the first time that I got a chance to use the GPS that Karen gave me for Christmas and it was flawless. It brought me directly to the hotel without any problems. It was about a twenty minute drive.

I checked in to the hotel about 1:00 pm, had lunch and went to set up for the seminar. the banquet person was just bringing the equipment into the room. When I saw the room I had him stop and went to the banquet office. The room (Emerald room) was too small, I might have been able to make it work but we would have been cramped. I check with the banquet manager and he was nice enough to move me into a larger room. the Clearwater room was more than big enough. The only problem with the room was the lighting was really dim, and this seems to be the case thought most of the hotel atrium area.

Setup was not a snap. Two machine had shipping damage, one had a bent chassis and the other one had broken fittings on the manifold. The machine with broken fittings also had a load cell that was mounted upside down. When I mounted it correctly I found that the load cell was broken and I needed to take the load cell from the machine with the bent chassis and install it in the machine with the broken load cell. I also had problems getting Renalog to communicate, I eventually finished setting up about 9:00 pm.

The food at the hotel is not bad but it is nothing to brag about. I usually order room service when I travel because I hate sitting in a restaurant in by myself. My only complaint about the menu is there was not enough variety.

Last night I fired up my GPS and headed to the local shopping mall to get dinner. I could not find anything that looked good so I had takeout from the Olive Garden- lasagna. Tonight I went to Joe's Crab Shack, it is next to the hotel and I could have walked there, but I did not. I am not a big Joe's fan so I was not impressed with the meal but is was a nice change from the hotel food.

I just had to add that the banquet staff at the hotel was extremely professional, they moved me into a larger room at the last minute, the staff made sure I knew their name, and they were able to move up my breaks on the second day of each class. This sounds simple but at most hotels is is not easily accomplished.


I booked a hotel close to the airport because I have a 8:00 am flight out Saturday morning. I did a google map for the area and even though I have never heard of Cambria Suites I decided to book my room there. I did not know but it was a wise choice. It is a brand new hotel and it is beautiful. It is art deco, not what you would expect to find in Boise. I am assuming that all of the rooms are suites because I had a suite and the AAA price was $89. My room had a living room area with a flat screen TV and the bedroom area also had a flat screen TV. It is the best $89 room I ever stayed in.