Pocatello Idaho and Portneuf Valley Brewing

Our visit to the city of Pocatello, Idaho was short but long enough. We arrived at our hotel, which was also the site of the Pocatello Marathon race expo, a few minutes before the expo started. This allowed Holly to get her registration squared up and visit the half dozen vendors within 15 minutes.

We were meeting friends that lived in Idaho Falls for lunch. We told them we wanted to meet at the Portneuf Vally Brewing restaurant. They had informed us that it was in an interesting part of town. Hmmmmm..... Actually, the brewery is in the industrial section of town near factories and warehouses. The back deck overlooked a Union Pacific train yard and the desert mountains.

On the inside the brewery had lots of charm. The first floor was long and narrow which created two separate seating areas. They had a nice crowd for a late-lunch Friday. We tried the Nut Brown, Cocoa Porter, and Midnight Satin. Holly proclaimed the Nut Brown one of the best, if not the best, she ever had. The food was excellent as well.

Later in the day we were trying to figure out how to occupy our time until dinner. The town had a zoo and a small museum, but we wanted to keep Holly off her feet. Dave wanted to visit the "revitalized" Old Town Pocatello business district. The website billed it as a 12 block area of shopping and dining. This was not the case. One out of every three buildings had a business in it - most appearing to just be hanging on by a thread. At 5pm on a Friday it was desolate. Lost for something to do, we headed back to the brewery. Dave sampled the seasonal Red Bucket Red Ale while Holly watched and enjoyed some water.

There were two Italian restaurants in town that are not chains. We originally were going to eat at one in Old Town, but we were underwhelmed by the looks of it from our earlier walk-by. Some of the locals at the bar vouched for the town's other Italian restaurant - which was attached to a gas station. The only good thing about the place was Dechutes' Black Butte Porter was on tap. Based on our experiences Italian food is just different west of St. Louis.

Before turning in we spent a few minutes in the hotel's bar - Whispers (where Holly had another sample of the local tap water). We got to spy on the race pacer orientation, which was actually quite fun. The next morning we had an early wake-up call so Holly could run the Pocatello Marathon.