This Cloud We're On
On Idaho...And Weddings...And Idaho Weddings.
I promised a recap of my long weekend in Idaho, and less than twenty-four hours after my arrival back in Los Angeles here it is. The purpose of this trip — if the title of this post didn’t give it away — was a wedding. Specifically, one of Christine’s good friends she met after moving to LA got hitched. The destination for the happy couple’s nuptials was Sun Valley.
The last time I visited Idaho was in 2005. Before writing this paragraph, I was fairly certain I never stepped foot in the state. I thought I recalled driving along I-90 in Washington and speeding through the panhandle ceaselessly until reaching Missoula, Montana. Turns out my memory stinks. I stopped at least once — in a town called Kellogg — where I bought a sticker that was given away as part of a contest on my blog.
I’m in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. I’ve been in the car for roughly five or six hours now, having stopped a few times along the way. The majority of the landscape is dominated by pines, tall grass, and barren hillsides. This stretch of maybe seventy miles across the state of Idaho before I hit Montana is profoundly beautiful. At this point I can’t imagine not having taken this route home. It would have been foolish to go to Reno from San Francisco. I just hope the car holds up for the remainder of the trip. I’m coming up on the Fourth of July Pass Recreation Area. I’m not entirely sure what that is. There are a lot of old people in this area. I haven’t passed a young driver in a while. I have been listening to Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, Volume One in what seems like a sort of a haphazard fashion. I think maybe the audio book chapters weren’t loaded onto my iPod in order. Parts of it are intriguing. Parts are — in my opinion — mildly egotistical. It’s pretty good overall. I need to find a weird little town to stop in to stretch my legs. I’ve had two cookies: chocolate chip and icing covered. That’s all I’m allowing myself today. I’m on a new diet. A new regiment. I’m calling it the cookie regiment. I’ll survive on a diet of cookies for now. My current elevation is 3,069 feet in Panhandle National Forest. Should there be a drop in cabin pressure, overhead masks will fall from the sky. Place the mask over your nose and mouth before helping the person next to you. Now I’m slowly coming down the other side. Roadway may be icy in shaded areas. I don’t think that’s going to be the case when the temperature outside is in the 90s. I’m about two hours from Missoula. I should be there by about 6:30, in plenty of time to find the Big Sky Brewery. Plenty of time to explore a city in Montana. Plenty of time…” - Me (August 8th, 2005)
2005 was a very different journey through Idaho, barely planned and quickly executed by a then-22-year-old version of myself. It’s now 2024 and I’m 41 years old. This was a vastly superior experience.
And now — in the style of my recent travel guides to Japan and New Orleans — here’s how I spent this past weekend in Idaho.
Things To Plan In Advance:
Boise is having a bit of a “moment” in terms of its food and drink offerings, so committing yourself to a night or two in the city might not be the worst idea. The most important lessons learned from booking a hotel room and making dinner reservations is that a lot of places are closed on random days of the week, so check ahead before assuming you can go to all the cool spots whenever you want.
Although the wedding was at the Valley Club in Sun Valley, we stayed in Ketchum. The Sun Valley/Ketchum/Hailey region is a nebulous blob with borders I still can’t understand. There’s one road and I think a few bike paths that link the three. Sun Valley is used as kind of a catchall for the area, but Ketchum and Hailey are actually old mining towns that predate the fancypants, exclusive resort city.
If you want to ski, you probably want to visit the area in the winter. If you don’t want to ski, the late spring/early summer period is quite nice. I’ve heard fire season arrives soon, so I would not recommend a mid-summer visit.
Some restaurants in Ketchum require reservations, others do not. Plan accordingly! You’d think anywhere in a town of 2,800 people could support ONE tourist with a bar seat or table, but you’d be dead wrong.
I’m sharing less photos than normal because I want to respect the privacy of everyone else who attended the wedding. Sorry!
Thursday
We knew we wanted to leave LA on Thursday and return Monday, but our itinerary morphed a couple times based on hotel rates. Eventually we decided to fly into Boise, rent a car, and drive to Ketchum for three nights. Then, after the wedding, we’d return to Boise for our last day/night.
Our departure was scheduled for early Thursday morning, which meant a 5:30am wakeup. The flight from LAX to BOI was quick. I slept for a good chunk of it. What felt like maybe a ten or fifteen minute catnap reportedly stretched closer to an hour. It definitely helped me hit the ground running upon arrival.
We wanted to spend a few hours exploring Boise before the drive to Ketchum. We figured we’d have a leisurely lunch, visit a few recommended shops, and then start the 2.5 drive.
One of Christine’s friends had her travel plans change drastically at the last minute. She needed a ride to Ketchum, and her flight landed about 90 minutes after ours. So we only had time for a quick lunch before returning to the airport, grabbing her friend, and continuing on to Sun Valley.
Once in our rental car we sprinted downtown to Bittercreek Ale House for a burger, poutine, and a pint of beer. The poutine was quite good, the burger less so. We swung by a coffee shop called Jitters By Jayne for coffee before meeting her friend back at the airport and continuing on our way. This concluded our first stint in Boise.
We arrived at the Limelight right on schedule. The drive was pretty, but largely uneventful. Other than having to pass a trailer or two we mostly encountered cows and horses. It gave us ample time to catch up with Christine’s friend. We checked into our room, met up with more friends who had also arrived on Thursday, and planned our first evening in town. Dinner would be at the hotel. Drinks afterwards we be…somewhere along on Main Street. Dinner was not that good (hence no photos). We split a Margherita pizza that was cold, and Sesame Charred Brussels which were criminally under-seasoned. At least they had Pfriem Pils on draught.
After dinner drinks were at “the Pio,” or Pioneer Saloon, a local landmark that opened in the 1940s. The decor is a throwback to a bygone era. The vibe is authentic saloon. Deadwood doesn’t feel this authentic. Of course we started with a round of tequila shots. I followed that up with a Coors Banquet. We hung out and chatted until last call. I spent most of that time debating the merits of various seasons of Survivor with one of the wedding guests. I guess I have to watch this show Traitors now? That was the main takeaway from the conversation.
When the Pio doors swung closed our buzzed little club slunk back to the Limelight. All in all, it was a solid first day in Idaho.
Friday
Not only does the sun set in the valley at… like… 10pm, it rises really early. Like, maybe 5am?
Friday commenced with a brief “hello” to Christine’s friends before I stole her away to meet my one friend in town. It turns out the one-and-only Mr. Andy Zax was staying in nearby Sun Valley so we linked up for a late breakfast at Kneadery. We got a very thorough history lesson of the area from Andy, whose family first came to the area in the late 60s. It was great catching up with him. Kneadery is a quirky, old-school cool spot. I had an omelet with chicken-apple sausage, mushrooms, spinach, and jack cheese. Christine had a plate with two eggs, two pancakes, and sausage. Andy had a Denver omelet. Afterwards we walked around town a bit, stopped at a thrift shop, and then returned to the hotel.
The majority of the crew hung around the pool for the afternoon. We stayed for a bit before we decided to explore more of Ketchum. There are some seriously cool shops around town, from Maude’s Coffee & Clothes to Independent Goods, Farmer’s Daughter, Hank and Sylvie’s, and others. We were having a grand old time until we got to whatever the shop was with the Biden toilet paper sign (see: above), which served as a not-so-gentle reminder that maybe this wasn’t the most charming little town on earth.
Friday night had two events scheduled: a rehearsal dinner followed by welcome drinks at Whiskey’s (aka Whiskey’s on Main, aka Whiskey Jacques). We weren’t invited to the dinner, only the drinks. A couple of friend somehow nabbed a table at Enoteca — the hardest reservation in town — and asked us to join them. The restaurant is owned by one of the bridesmaids. Apparently all the girls at the bachelorette party fell in love with her and were dying to try the food. I’ve never met her, but she’s done a hell of a job with her restaurant. The wine list was fantastic. Everything on the menu sounded enticing. All of the dishes we ordered were fantastic. We started with bacon wrapped dates (with gorgonzola), prosciutto and melon, and burrata. The server recommended two pizzas as a main course. We had the “Sexy Rita,” your basic Margherita but with chili oil and prosciutto. Our second pie was the “Mercantile,” with lamb sausage, red bell pepper, olives, and smoked mozzarella. Both were really tasty, and I don’t even like red bell pepper or olives! I highly, highly recommend Enoteca.
We were slightly too early for welcome drinks so we stopped by the Sawtooth Club for a cocktail first. It’s like I always say, “If it’s good enough for Hemingway it’s good enough for me!”
Welcome drinks were indeed at Whiskey’s. It was fun! I had a little buzz on so I took the opportunity to be a mensch and introduce myself to all the parents and siblings. It seemed like friends had been coming and going throughout our first 48 hours in town, but once we all got settled at Whiskey’s it felt like the celebration was truly underway.
Saturday
Saturday was mostly devoted to the wedding. We had a light breakfast at the hotel. Their buffet is way better than their dinner service. Eggs, crispy bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, pastries and bagels. We walked around town more, grabbed coffee from Java (IMHO the best in town), and a wrap from Wrapcity. Then it was time to get dressed and catch the bus to The Valley Club.
The wedding was beautiful, of course. The flower boy stole the entrances. The justices of the peace performed admirably and kept things moving at a comfortable pace. The couples’ vows were — as expected — fantastically written and delivered. It was a lovely ceremony and I say that as someone who is bored to tears at most weddings.
Dinner was shockingly good. They served fresh parker house rolls with butter, an arugula salad with nuts and gorgonzola, and my main course was a perfectly cooked steak over polenta. Christine had mushroom-stuffed ravioli that I ended up eating half of in addition to my meal. The speeches from the bride’s friends were phenomenal. The groom’s BFF delivered a much shorter speech, but still good. Honestly, anything is better than the disaster that was my buddies at my wedding.
Someday I’ll share that horrendous video.
Dinner and dancing lasted late into the night. I have to be honest, when I was first told about the wedding I was hesitant because Christine’s friends are a super-classy, attractive, incredibly successful crew that has intimidated me ever since we met. And yet, I had a blast spending time getting to know them. They were all welcoming and friendly, even though I’m a weird little gremlin no one would ever deign to describe with words like “classy,” “attractive,” or “incredibly successful.”
Sunday/Monday
We awoke early and raced to make an appearance at the bride’s mom’s house for brunch. We were only able to stay for about thirty minutes before we had to drive back to Boise. Christine’s friend had to catch a 1:30pm flight. I think we dropped her off at 12:45pm? We cut it way too close for my comfort, but she was cool as a cucumber as she strolled into the airport. How do people live like that? I need to be at an airport like, three hours before boarding just to feel “safe.”
I ate at the brunch, but Christine did not. We walked around an area of Boise we were familiar with until we found a quiet spot on Restaurant Row for fried pickles and a beer. Then we checked into our hotel (Hyatt Place Downtown Boise) and walked over to The Record Exchange. I actually found some vinyl worth purchasing and shipping back to LA, which is not something I have been able to say while traveling for quite some time. I highly recommend a visit to the Exchange should you find yourself in Boise.
Pre-dinner drinks were at a bar suggested by Andy called The Modern. We had very low expectations when we saw it was attached to an old-school Travelodge, but the drinks blew us away. We didn’t eat there because we had a dinner reservation, but the food passing by our table looked delicious, especially the fried chicken-topped deviled eggs. Apparently the chef is a James Beard award nominee. I loved the concept behind the drinks, the menu itself, and the execution. Truly, it was an impressive little spot.
Dinner. We really wanted to go to this place Kin, but we found out they’re closed on Sundays. Then we wanted to go to Lively. Also closed on Sundays. We ended up at Fork, recommended by friends at the wedding. Fork has a wide-ranging menu with everything from asparagus fries (surprisingly good!) to a deconstructed grilled cheese sandwich with tomato basil fondue, to larger composed plates like red wine-braised short ribs. We enjoyed the food and the service. We skipped dessert but crushed some coffee because we intended on drinking a little more. Our night ended at Prost! where we got to drink a super-fresh collaboration between Pfriem and Bitburger. It was really good.
The sun finally set after 10pm, and as Boise’s local eateries and watering holes started to close their doors for the night we sauntered back to the hotel.
On Monday morning we intended to go to the highly-recommended Janjou Patisserie but, surprise! It’s closed on Mondays. We grabbed coffee and hand pies at Neckar, which were delightful. We ate some donuts from Guru that were good too. Before we knew it, it was time to return the rental car and catch our flight back to Los Angeles.
The flight was delayed three times, but we made it back in one piece. Now here we are — grounded — until wherever our next adventure takes us. That’s it for my guide to Boise and Sun Valley, Idaho. Are you planning on visiting the Gem state anytime soon? How about a friend? Here’s how to share this post:
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