Sun Valley... just us

We headed up again.  This time kidless.  

I like medleys, I like combos, I love samplers, and now I am trying out collages.  Not a huge fan.  Like them better in a line.  Oh well  

I love food and therefore I love Sun Valley.  Along with being a great place to relax, there are a ton of amazing restaurants.  Non food lovers would have a hard time understanding why I would document all this goodness.  So, fellow food lovers, this is for you.

How do we manage to go on this food (plus a little bit of snowboarding, a little bit of shopping, and a little bit of swimming) vacation with two kids?  Fabulous grandparents.  We dropped the kids off in Logan on the way up.  Thank you grandmas and grandpa for taking them in.  They absolutely love spending time with their grandparents.  In fact, I think they prefer it.  I feel so lucky to have so many people around that love me kids.    

We had this redbox movie that was long overdue that we had been toting around.   Just something we do.  We needed to return it before we got up to Sun Valley.  We tried Burley and just in case any of you need a redbox, learn from our 45 minute detour... if they direct you to Stokes Food Center, don't go there, you will have to ask three people before you even find someone that knows what redbox is.  So if the Stokes employee directs you to Swenson's Food Town.  Don't go there.  I walked in, searched and found what looked like something someone built in their garage... A DVD vending machine that was BLACK.  So, when you finally end up at Smith's, know that the redbox can break.  Really.  So learn from us and go straight to the Albertson's.  

Food Highlights:

-Carbonated chocolate.  Really.  Was kind of like Nestle crunch but it popped when it crunched.  Helped pass about 10 minutes of the long trip.

-Alvey's chocolates from Logan are my favorite chocolates.  

-For some reason, we have a tradition at stopping at Jakes Over the Top and getting a dipped cone (or as Samuel would call it, a "dips" cone).  

We finally made it to Hailey to a restaurant that we have always wanted to try... CK's Real Food. The name makes it sound a lot more simple than it is.  It was pretty fancy and amazingly good.

Food Highlights:

-The pan grilled artichoke.  I can't resist ordering an artichoke whenever it is on the menu.  I love to see how they cook it and flavor it.  And, of course, eat such a labor intensive food that I didn't have to prepare.

-The salad with beets in it.  

-My lamb was really good and so was the sauce on Karl's meat.

-They had special recession pricing.  Pretty clever.  Much appreciated.

We always go to Ketchum Burrito.  It is fast, easy, and delicious.  Since we didn't get out the door until noon(just something we do) and the slope time was ticking away, we chose fast for our next meal.  

Food Highlights:

-The Hailey Burrito and the quesadilla that has corn in it (weird that is tastes so good) never let us down.  

-Wash it town with grapefruit Izzies.  The good of soda without any of the bad.  Made with water a fruit juice. 

For dinner, Globus

Food Highlights:

-Best calamari I have ever had.  Not just breading and rubber.  Salt and pepper seasoning so good didn't even really need the sauce.

-Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) soup.  Had apples in it.  Rich, and delicious.  Salty, sweet, creamy, crunchy...

-The beef was so tender.  Made me want to know how they get it that tender without getting mushy.

Karl loves to go the gas station and spend a few bucks on lottery tickets.  I prefer to just put the money in the collection jar for the lady with cancer.  Oh well.  He promised we would put the winnings in the jar.  We didn't win.  I guess this sort of entertainment is cheaper and better than a few other forms that I know of.  

Food Highlights:

-The Idaho Spud.  Because we were in Idaho.  Tough to find, good thing I am such a good finder.

Our favorite place to eat up there.  I love the atmosphere, the food... everything. And, oh, how appropriate, it is named Cristina's.  She leaves out the H but, whatever.  The first time we went the guy said he would seat us soon because I have a great name.  She has put out a couple of great cookbooks and has some recipes in a compilation cookbook of great chefs.  Karl's words, "Man, everything there was just perfect."

Food Highlights:

-The bread basket is full a variety of tasty breads... ready to meet olive oil and balsamic that is on the table.

-My spinach, artichoke, and roasted beet salad was just perfect.

-Karl's hot chocolate was just as good as it was beautiful.

-The candy cane chocolate cake.  So. So. So.  Good.  Not too sweet, not too anything.  Just perfect.

So Bistro 44 made me realize that I haven't had a lot of French food.  There aren't a lot of French Restaurants that I hear about much around here.  Now I kind of know why.  I wasn't really excited about it.  I bet it would taste better if it was free.  We asked the guy what we should get and he directed us to the most French stuff... Coq au Vin, Rabbit (it was kind of sad to eat it since they are such cute animals and all) and, of course, escargot.  

Food Highlights:

-I tried new stuff. 

-The garlicky stuff on the escargot was really good.  So good that I was able to not care for a minute that I was actually chewing and swallowing creatures that I can't even touch with my bare hands.

-The place was so fancy, they kept giving me new silverware.  Even when I hadn't touched any of it.

Food Lowlights:

 -The meats were too strongly flavored for me.

-We just weren't that impressed.

There are three places that we alway hit when we go up there:  Ketchum Burritos, Cristina's, and the Sun Valley Lodge Sunday brunch.  I fell in love with the place because of the chocolate crepes but they don't have the chocolate anymore.  Now, it is just out of tradition.  This time around, Karl could have won a food eating contest.  

Food Highlights:

-The hot chocolate that is so pretty we order it everytime.

-The made to order crepes (even without the chocolate)

-All the fresh fruits and cheese.

-The fact that I can try everything there.

We didn't just eat.

We actually hit the slopes two times.  Even though we live just minutes away from "the Greatest Snow on Earth" we hardly ever go snowboarding unless we are in Sun Valley.  The first day it was all man made snow.  It looked funny to see the mt. with just trails of snow.  You can see the snow machines in the top right photo.  The second day it actually snowed.

So, I did something physically demanding twice this year.  The surfing thing and snowboarding.  365 days.  Two times.  Pretty sad.  Good thing I got them both on video before those times go into extinction.  That day is coming soon... we traded in our third day of our three day slope pass for massages. 

Ahhh, Sun Valley.