"We need something like this back home."

It was our last day in Hawaii and we had hours to kill between checking out of the resort and boarding our plane back to the Treasure Valley.  Hubby and I are beer people, so he decided that we should check out a many Hawaii breweries as possible before going to the airport.That decision eventually brought us to a tasting room by the name of Beer Lab. It was founded by a triathlete who needed to find something new to do while he was sidelined with an injury and decided to pick up home brewing. With the help two buddies who doubled as his first taste testers, he was able to open his first tasting room a year later.

As a runner who frequently breaks myself, I appreciate the origin of the brewery but that's not what grabbed my attention! While hubby ordered beer, I was instantly drawn to the huge stack of board games available for us to play while we enjoyed a brew.  We ended up playing Candyland for a good 30 minutes. That was a blast! We need more things like that in the Treasure Valley!

Enter the Pepper family! According to our friend Don at BoiseDev, the family has been working on a bigger, better version of what we experienced in Hawaii and at a more family friendly level.  On June 1, they'll open a cafe called "Room and Boards" near Sockeye Brewing in Meridian.

The cafe will offer sandwiches, coffee, beer, wine...and access to rent over 500 board games while you enjoy your order! The rental fee is $5 per game and they'll offer a little bit of everything: traditional board games, dice games, games for hardcore gamers that you'll probably find at Wizard World Comic Con in a few months...

We don't own a lot of board games at home, but I LOVE playing them! Here's hoping they have the amusement park version of Monopoly Jr. (because let's be honest, I don't have the patience for the real deal) and SET! I don't know how I ended up in it, but they used to pull a group of "gifted and talented" fourth grade students out of class on Fridays to play educational games that challenged our critical thinking skills and SET was one of my favorites.  Plus, I'm pretty sure hubby's never heard of it before...so I can kick his butt, over and over again!

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