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Hi All,
First, thank you to all who post so much helpful
information about the Boise area! I have read these threads voraciously
and have gleaned so much about Boise "culture". I have several questions that I haven't noticed answered in the other threads. So, forgive me if
they have already been answered!
My husband and I are very interested in relocating to Boise and hope to visit and explore the area soon. We are retired military, and living in the South. Some of my questions are geared toward anyone out there who might also be retired military. So, here goes!
1. My husband will not be able to function if he can't find a pistol range. Are there several in the area?
2. I noticed on the city-data Boise profile that the crime index in 1999 was 302 and it dropped to 209 in 2009. Is there any particular reason overall crime dropped so much? (it's a trend that most cities would envy!)
3 One of the reasons we like Boise is that we will be able to keep our
military healthcare (Tricare Prime). We will be looking for a good general practitioner, pediatrician, and recommended hospitals ( any recommendations can be pm'd). Right now we live within 20 minutes from base, so we go there often. I know that Mountain Home will not be close, so I would be curious to know if it is worth the trip once or twice a month to go to the commissary?
4 We want to cut back on travel to and from schools. Right now we travel several hours a day taking our kids to and from school and activities (we live outside of town on 4 acres). We are interested in sending our children to Catholic Schools-Bishop Kelley and possibly Sacred Heart. So, we hope to buy a home within a 10-15 minute radius of the Borah area. We have animals and would like a little land (maybe half to one acre). I noticed that south of the Borah there are homes with more land. Any thoughts on living in Meridian, west of the airport? How would traffic be in the am?
Last but not least, when we do visit Boise, we would like avoid staying in a hotel. We would prefer a vacation home rental, but trip advisor has only two options-a quaint cottage in downtown and a mountain chalet. The downtown cottage would be great except it would not accommodate our children. Any ideas on that?
All right, I guess that's enough for one morning! Thanks
Boise has a ton of shooting ranges and you can also go out in the desert and shoot. The Parma gun club is a phenomenal gun range and has pistol bays. I attended a 3-gun match at the club and was quite impressed with the facility. There are a few others. I hear the Nampa Gun Club is also decent. One of the clubs I heard was free and the others have small membership fees.
Hey, Kazmom2. I can address some of your questions:
1. Pistol range. I have no idea. But I see you already have some info there.
2. Crime index. If it's based on population, I wonder if that's because we've grown so much but not seen an increase in crime? It is remarkable what a safe city Boise is.
3. I don't know about Tricare providers but I do know that my grandparents went to Mtn. Home at least once a month to fill prescriptions and go to the commissary. They were both the best of the Greatest Generation, very frugal kids of the Great Depression, so they could have been going to save, literally, a few dollars a month. So, it's hard to say if the actual savings was enough to justify the trip with today's gas prices.
4. South of Borah you will find some acreage properties for sure. I don't think you'll need to go as far west as Meridian as there are several options in the south Boise area. Check out the area around south Five Mile (south of Victory) or even south Cole/Maple Grove. I've had clients buy properties in these areas, some with room for animals (acre+), often with their own well plus irrigation water. There are even a few properties on Randolph street east of Curtis that have small acreages--I know one family that has goats.
Vacation homes within the city are super scarce. Temporary furnished rentals are also hard to find. If you wanted a vacation spot within 45 minutes to Boise, you might search Garden Valley, though many homes will run $100/night or more.
Best of luck with your visit and move to Boise--it's a wonderful place to call home!
Thanks Benchfan and MysticalDream! I appreciate the info. I've spent a lot of time on realtor.com and zillow checking out homes and properties and feel that I have some idea of what the areas are like (Google Earth is a great tool, too!). It's a little misleading to say that we have animals, since we have one big dog, one small dog, and two cats! We just want a little room to roam
I will definitely check out Garden Valley when the time comes for a visit.
If you come in the winter time, Garden Valley will be beautiful, but more like an hour away from Boise. A great resource for Idaho vacation rentals is http://www.inidaho.com/. We've used them several times for booking places and they have great customer service--they are owned by an Idaho family. Another place to stay that I didn't think of before is the condos up at the Bogus Basin ski resort. Bogus is just up the hill from town--takes 35-45 minutes to get there. Condos are right near the lifts, scenery is beautiful, lodge is nearby.
If you come in the winter time, Garden Valley will be beautiful, but more like an hour away from Boise. A great resource for Idaho vacation rentals is InIdaho.com Vacation Information for McCall, Sun Valley, & Idaho 1-800-844-3246. We've used them several times for booking places and they have great customer service--they are owned by an Idaho family. Another place to stay that I didn't think of before is the condos up at the Bogus Basin ski resort. Bogus is just up the hill from town--takes 35-45 minutes to get there. Condos are right near the lifts, scenery is beautiful, lodge is nearby.
Here's a link to the condos at Bogus Basin. Pioneer Condos
We had hoped to visit in the fall, then move soon after. We've had our house on the market
since July and sales are very slow here . We have a potential buyer coming today, so my fingers
are crossed
Thanks for the vacation rental links. As much as I'd like to stay in the mountains when we visit, I am
a little leery of driving in winter's snowy/icy conditions. Long ago, I lived in Durango, CO, so I
am no stranger to winter driving (I am just out of practice!).
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But I see you already have some info there. 
