Idaho!! No U-da-ho! Part 1

Did you know Idaho can be an actual destination for a vacation?! As in, someone would be inclined to plan a trip there, without being forced or having to visit family??

Well, come to find out, it totally is.

It started with a visit to my mom and Jack's house. Chad and I do this about once a year, take a nice drive out to Mountain Home, Idaho, and have a nice relaxing, long weekend with my family. We thought this time would be like all the others - boy, were we wrong.

The trip there - totally average. We packed up our stuff and the dog, and were on our way by 2:30pm. No traffic, random annoying snow storm, junk food and coffee. You know the typical 10 hour road trip. We got there and were greeted by my mom and Jack - they stayed up till 1am just to see us.

The next day, we had decided to keep it mellow. We were all tired - so it seemed a fitting day to lounge around the house... that lasted till 11am... I was restless... but then, via a random set of events, we found ourselves on the way to Hailey, ID (think a little town, 45 minutes south of Sun Valley).

The drive to Hailey was really pretty.

 

See, come to find out, my dad has a friend out there who owns a restaurant. He'd never been there, so, we decided we'd go check it out. Dad called them up, and made us reservations for 5pm - so our plan was to drive to Sun Valley for the afternoon, then back for dinner....

But... three-quarters of the way through Hailey... we found a brewery. Sun Valley Brewery to be exact. The trip stopped there. And a sampler was had by all.

I made mom try them all. And it was a good thing, cause she ended up liking the one she thought she'd hate.

 

The beer was good, brewed on site. They had a large selection, and I would say half of them were solidly good. Another quarter of them were maybe a little weird, an aquired taste kind of thing. While two of them, just not great. But see, that's the cool thing about a sampler at brewery in the middle of nowhere, you get to try everything, and choose your favorites. The gem was and unexpected one - it was the Cranky uber IPA. It was super flavorful, fruity, with a strong but totally smooth hop.

After a stroll around the little town (to walk off the buzz of course) we found daVinci's - where we had our dinner reservations. We were greeted by two of the most amazingly wonderful men - both knew who I was as soon as I walked up (apparently I look a bit like my dad) and they treated us like family. The restaurant was cute - the room was made in such a way that there wasn't a 90 degree angle to be found - which just added to the home-y feel. The food - was off the charts great. I got the special - a handmade, hand-rolled pasta. It was spectacular. Mom had some fettucini alfredo - which was so fresh, so real, and just divine.

Needless to say, the two hour drive to Hailey was well worth it.

So, you might think the story stops here. I mean, one great day in Idaho may seem like all they have to offer. Oh, how wrong you'd be, but this is getting long, so I'll have to write about the rest in the next post.