Having recently moved to Idaho, I lived my whole life in NorCal. I am more than familiar with "Hella" as it creeped in and made itself at home in my vocabulary.
I spent most of my years not too far from you, Redwolf. I lived in Oakland for 25+ years and I have been to Santa Cruz many, many times.

So how are you finding Boise after all those years in Oakland? I grew up in Spokane myself...never got down to Boise, but spent many a summer at camp on Lake Coeur d'Alene. I lived in San Francisco for a while, but we've been in the Monterey Bay Area now for about 19 years all together (with a 10-year hiatus in North Carolina).

Redwolf

How am I finding Boise? Let's see...
Downside:
I am homesick every day.
Landing in Boise was like landing on a different planet. (yes, it's THAT different ).
The average conversation consists of talking about college football, Coor's Lite and prime time television.

Upside:
Cost of living is LOW.
I don't caught up in "drive bys"
I can leave my front door unlocked in the morning and everything in my home will still be there when I get home!

San Francisco? I lived there for a few months. WAY too expensive. Moved back to Oakland.

I envy you in a way. If I could afford to move back into an area like yours, I would. TODAY!

Also of note, no one I have talked to here seem to realize that the Irish have their own language. They really aren't interested in hearing about it either.
My co-workers look at me like I am crazy when I practice the little conversational Irish that I know on them. Reactions are indifferent to amused to annoyed. Go figure....

Re Irish, it's not too different here in the Santa Cruz area (at least it wasn't before I managed to connect with the local Irish-speaking community). I'd tell people I was learning Irish, and they'd look at me blankly and say something like "you mean you're learning to speak with an Irish accent?" As it is now, there are three of us here who are reasonably fluent (I'm the least fluent of the three, so it gives me good practice) and a few beginners, one of whom is pretty serious about learning. In the Bay Area, though, it's a pretty active community. I go to a convo group once a month that usually alternates between homes in Menlo Park, Berkeley, Hayward, and Mountain View (though in a couple of months we're going to host it over on this side of the mountains...woo hoo!).

You might yet find an Irish community there. I know there's a big, very active, one in Butte, Montana (in fact, I think they have their own Deireadh Seachtaine Gaeltachta every year). I know that's a stretch, but it may mean that there's some Irish activity in Idaho that you just haven't encountered yet. I was learning for two years before I encountered other Irish speakers/learners in the Santa Cruz area.

Yeah...San Francisco is way too pricey. My daughter had a tiny studio apartment downtown for a year and a half while she was at AAU, and it ran us $1350/month (and was a bargain at that!). When I lived there, in the mid-80s, I lived in a rooming house on Post, and my rent for a small furnished room was still pretty high: $495/month.

Redwolf

One upside to where you are now, in case you want to study Irish further, is that you aren't all that far from Butte, Montana, where the University of Montana holds immersion classes each summer (UM is in Missoula, but they hold the classes in Butte, which once had an Irish-speaking community). If interested, you can contact Traolach (Terry) O’Riordain at toriordain@hotmail.com.

You can also check out UM's Irish Studies program at http://www.cas.umt.edu/irishstudies

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

ThomasX: You might be interested in this as well. It's a long drive from Boise to Butte, but it's still cheaper than flying to Ireland, and you might meet other Irish speakers in your neck of the woods through something like this!

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