Idaho Vacation: Idaho Botanical Garden, Winter Garden aGlow

Spring, summer, and fall it has trees, shrubs, and flowers.  In the winter Idaho Botanical Garden has about 250,000 lights for your enjoyment.  Make this an Idaho vacation from Thanksgiving through the first week of January. 

The Idaho Botanical Garden is open throughout the year but is transformed into a glow of holiday lights from Thanksgiving day to January 8, 2012.  Visit the garden from 6-9pm every evening for the dazzling sparkling lights.  In addition to  lights, visitors are provided complimentary hot chocolate, hot apple cider, and cookies in the Folly. 

For further enjoyment, don't miss the G scale model train display in the English Garden.  Santa is present and available for photos and wish lists on weekends and from December 19-23.  A special treat is to interact with Prancer, an actual live reindeer, on December weekends and on December 19, 22, and 23 ( Prancer's availability cannot be guaranteed on all hours during these days). 

Community and school choirs perform most hours Winter Garden Lights aGlow is open, especially on weekends.  Various food vendors are also available on weekends.  A complete schedule of activities, vendors, and entertainment groups is here.

 The Idaho Botanical Garden is a private non-profit corporation.  Land for the garden is leased from the State of Idaho but the garden receives no state funding.  The first board of directors was organized in 1984.  Fourteen separate theme and display gardens make up the Idaho Botanical Garden. 

The garden is located adjacent to the Old Idaho Penitentiary and is part of the Idaho Old Penitentiary District.  Hours, directions, and entrance fees are given here.  Click here to see the other museums and sites in this historical district. 


Additional Information:
Idaho Botanical Garden - http://idahobotanicalgarden.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=feature.display&feature_id=37

Winter Garden Lights aGlow - http://idahobotanicalgarden.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=feature.display&feature_id=33&CFID=1089623&CFTOKEN=69121070

City of Boise - http://www.cityofboise.org/

Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau - http://www.boise.org/

Idaho Vacation: Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival

Love jazz?  Head for Moscow, Idaho in February!  The Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival, held on the University of Idaho campus since 1967,  would make a great Idaho vacation. 

Four full days of everything jazz from February 22-25, 2012 will bring thousands of participants and spectators to Moscow. The festival is renowned for the variety and breath of music and dance in this four day period. 

In addition to evening concerts with international artists, daytime programs focus on workshops for grade school, middle school, high school and college musicians and their conductors.  Internationally renown artists as well as Lionel Hampton School of Music faculty and other invited clinicians present the daytime workshops.  There is truly something for everyone. 

According to the festival website, the festival is "designed to entertain, inspire, educate, and inform".  Since its beginning in 1967 with 12 student groups and one guest artist, the event has grown each year. Lionel Hampton joined the festival in 1984.  After experiencing the enthusiasm of the students, Hamp pledged his support of the festival.  The festival adopted his name in 1987.      

What a way to spend an Idaho winter vacation.  Make it part of your plans.

Additional information:
Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival - http://www.uidaho.edu/jazzfest/festival/aboutfestival
City of Moscow, Idaho - http://www.moscowchamber.com/
University of Idaho - http://www.uidaho.edu/
Lionel Hampton School of Music - http://www.uidaho.edu/class/music/