Sun Valley ID, USA

We have had a busy week doing some land cruising though some geographic extremes. We set off a week ago from San Diego to Rancho Mirage to visit with some old friends and see the sights. We stayed with Len and Kathy in Indian Wells and discussed the state of the world and the years' activities while partaking of the usual lubricants.

The Living Desert Reserve, Palm Desert, CA

We took a walk through the Living Desert Reserve which has grown enormously  in the past  three years.and in the afternoon strolled up and down El Paseo, Palm Desert's  Rodeo Drive. The weather was perfect with clear skies and a temperature in the 70's. The next day was spent doing the doctor visits and getting some routine stuff done at Eisenhower Medical Center, including the long overdue freckle check, considering the amount of UV exposure we get in the tropics. We had an excellent dinner with Doug and Brenda and lunch with Tom and Kathy at some of our old desert haunts. The four days passed very quickly and on Wednesday morning we left for Sun Valley, Idaho. The forecast was for snow that evening and we got to the town of Jackpot, on the Nevada Idaho border  at dusk and it did indeed snow.

With the magic of 4G internet and the Ipad a room was found for the night at a very reasonable rate at the Four Jacks Hotel and Casino which included draft Mexican beers at 25 cents a pop. Even better than Indonesia!

The Admiral with her Dr. Zhivago hat

We went to  the alleged fine dining restaurant at the Cactus Pete Casino down the road and a surprising good dinner was enjoyed. About four inches of snow fell overnight but by 9.30 the following day the weather had cleared as were the roads.
Up to Twin Falls, ID and then on to Sun Valley and our winter wonderland.
They have had quite a bit of snow and all the ski runs are operational. We took a ride down to Hailey to pick out the Holiday Tannenbaum and walk about. It's quite cold with temperatures hovering around freezing at mid-day but the mountains are very beautiful in the snow. Last night was the annual Christmas Tree lighting and carol singing in Sun Valley Village which was lovely despite the cold.
Next week we will be in Boise for Josette's graduation, further report to follow.

the view from the deck. in Sun Valley  Mt. Baldy and the ski runs

Dollar Mountain, Sun Valley

ice sculptures, Sun Valley Village