Thursday, March 24, 2016

Sun Valley, Idaho


Big news out of the way first. Paul and I are moving to Canada! In less than a month! We'll be moving to Edmonton, so Paul can get his Masters at the University of Alberta studying boreal forest ecology. Now that our time in the US is limited, we're trying to see as many people as possible. Paul's aunt Linda and her husband Bill live in Sun Valley, Idaho in the winter, so we took the weekend to drive out there and ski with them. Paul's brother and his fiance came too! It was quite the weekend! On Friday morning, we drove 13 hours straight to Sun Valley, and listened to all of the second season of the podcast Serial along the way.  


Our first full day, we snowboarded in the morning and early afternoon, and then drove out to Galena Lodge to snowshoe and have dinner.


Here's the group! Nina is Ian's fiance. She is very cool and smart and got her Masters in Public Health. Their wedding is in September and that will be my first time back in the states after moving to Canada!


Look at these brothers! Ian is seven years older and is doing his Urology residency in San Francisco. They look so related, they even have matching jackets.


Ian and Paul are really good at snowboarding. Nina and I are beginning snowboarders, but I think we held our own. Linda and Bill moved to Sun Valley for the skiing, so they are very good skiers. Linda even did a cross country ski expedition through Greenland a few years ago, which involved the Northern Lights, dog sleds, and frost bite! I've been snowboarding a lot this winter, because Paul's been working as a snowboard instructor on the weekends, and I'll go up to our little mountain and snowboard by myself all day. But the mountain close to Eugene is absolutely minuscule compared to Sun Valley Resort, so this really felt like the big leagues.  


Can you believe that view?!


The mountain was so big, they had actual enclosed gondolas in addition to chair lifts. Also, I was so out of place. The resort was 99% skiers. I saw maybe 5 other snowboarders all day. Also, my boots fell apart as soon as we got there, so I had to duct tape them back together. So I really stuck out. But I embraced it. I may not be very fancy, but I've got a lot of spunk.



On our last day in Sun Valley, we took a nice walk into town, where we looked at art galleries and went to a cool thrift store. We found this awesome Pavoni espresso machine that retails new for $800 or more. We got it for $85 so we were pretty excited about that. But as Paul walked around town holding it, four people came up to him to compliment him on his purchase and one guy said very seriously "you are holding a piece of espresso history." So now I'm even more excited.



The next day we drove a few hours to Boise to see our friend Ben. He went to UO with us our freshman year and lived in the dorms with us. Then sophomore year he moved back to Boise, but we've kept in touch because he's awesome. Now five years later we got to hang out again and it was great! Ben is very passionate about his city, and I see why. Boise was really cool, and we ate very well while we were there. And everywhere we went, he knew someone! He knew the girl walking her dog across the street, waiters knew his name and order. It was like having our own personal insider tour of the city. We're about to move out of the country, and I'm feeling a little stressed out about it, being so far away from everything and everyone I care about. But this trip, seeing family and an old friend, reminded me I still have people in my corner and it's all going to be okay. 

1 comment:

  1. I enjoyed your blog post. A move to Canada is really a big deal; I wish you all of the best. Your goodbye to everything looks amazing! The snowcapped mountains are on my bucket list to visit. Snowboarding is my sport too! You have some supportive people around you so you will be okay. Thanks for sharing this.

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