Sun Valley, 15 years (?) later

I can't exactly remember when we last visited Sun Valley. Perhaps some 12 to 15 years ago, but no less than that. We were kind of eager to see that place again and were a bit disappointed when we strolled through downtown Ketchum, the business hub of the Wood River Valley.

To us, the place looked frozen in time and, to paraphrase our ski town real estate agents, everything looked “somewhat dated...” with a large number of commercial space available for sale or for lease. True, Sun Valley is a long way away with a hard-to-reach airport when the weather isn't perfect and far less flights available (40% less airline seats in recent years).

In observing the venerable mountain town more closely there is this inescapable impression that this once, iconic resort, looks as if it already had one foot in the grave...

Sun, rain or smoke?

Often times, we travel and only worry about getting a perfect weather, that is sunny instead of rainy or overcast, right? Well, that's not counting on forest fires and on horizons and vistas blurred by persistant thick smoke.

That's just what happened to us as we were planning to push north towards Coeur d'Alene and even perhaps as far North as Glacier National Park. Just as the song “Smoke gets in your eyes” says it so well, we concluded that we couldn't afford to cry to much about it and instead, we decided to cut our trip much shorter!

What happens when a ski resort fails...

We visited today a bankrupt mountain resort located in central Idaho and known under the name of Tamarack. The facility opened in 2004, but its ski lifts have not operated since March 2009, when lenders led by the Credit Suisse Group refused to throw more cash into the struggling resort founded by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Boespflug, as they tried to recover an unpaid $250 million construction loan.

More recently, Bank of America threatened to remove the chairlifts and while a few bit and pieces of the resort have been sold to a variety of investors, like some bizarre buildings (chapel, schoolhouse and barn) at the center of the resort. In other instances, some have been operating certain amenities like the zip line and the golf course, and if all goes well, the Tamarack Municipal Corporation might get the lifts running up again, from Thursday through Sunday, this upcoming winter.

We'll know more after a court hearing scheduled for September 20. In the meantime, this show that things are not always easy with a fledgling ski resort!

Location can be key in picking a hotel!

I had found a great hotel for us in Boise. Excellent price, but most important, highly flattering ratings. You'll agree with me that when all is said and done, what counts is what consumer think, not the usual travel critics or guides. Well, this now might be up for debate.

When we reached our final destination, we found that my “dream hotel” was sandwiched between the freeway and the airport. I made sure to ask for a “quiet room” but when it was time to retire, we realized that if we didn't get the noise from the highway, we got plenty from the... nearby tarmac!

We eventually fell asleep and woke up pretty rested. Next time though, I promise to be more critical about the glowing reviews a property receives and will look a tad better at a given hotel location...

Who's jealous?

If there is one thing that's totally taboo in America, it is jealousy, and yet, it's there all the time. Pervasive and present in our day-to-day environment, it poisons relationships in a covert, yet ever constant manner.

No one ever talks about it directly but physical and verbal cues are omnipresent, everyday, everywhere. A subject worth digging into and developing. Just stay tuned...

Where are my keys?

I seldom misplace my car keys. I always put them back at the same spot when I'm done driving and for more than 30 years I have hardly ever had to search for them. That was, until early this week. That morning, the weather was a cold 40 degree (4 cent.) and my wife reminded me to put out the garbage.

At that moment, I only was wearing my running shorts and a t-shirt, and felt that I would be a bit cold if I were to wheel my refuse into the street, so I slipped into my robe, which I seldom do inside the house, and that I never, ever wear to go in the street. This morning would be an exception to that weird rule and, clad in my warm, green robe, I opened the padlock that locks our gate to the garden and stood our two large cans by the curb, ready for the truck to come and pick them up.

I then went back to my routine, until later that afternoon, when I needed my car keys as we were headed to the farmers' market. I couldn't find them anywhere inside the house. I enlisted my spouse's help and we both looked absolutely everywhere, from the car to the garage, to my running shorts and jeans pockets, all the way deep inside our refrigerator! Nothing in sight!

After fifteen minute of frantic search, my wife, like the seasoned police detective asked me to hold it, take a deep breath and remember, step-by-step, frame by frame, what I had done since I got out of bed that very morning. I closed my eyes, thought long and deep, mentally retracing my most minute steps of the day. I finally came to the point that I had stuffed the pesky keys, deep inside one of my robe pockets, and that precisely where they still were...

Rediscovering old friends...

It was nice to host for a few days some old friends from New York that we had not seen for more than 25 years and to reminisce about good old days and other people we all knew.

It can have a soothing effect when these encounters are one-on-one, instead of being in the context of a school or some corporate reunion;

it for sure does remove the silly sting of competitiveness!

Catching up is always fun, especially when we are a bit more mature, less eager to impress and more attuned to listening and understanding...