Sun Valley Road Trip

I know, I've been a  lousy blogger.  You know, I take all these pictures with my camera planning blog posts around them and then wind up with too much on my plate and my little ol' blog suffers dramatically.  The last thing I should be doing right now is blogging.  But I prefer it to packing the car for tomorrow's art fair so I think I'll just add this teeny weeny post now so that I can postpone the packing ;)

So Sun Valley in a nutshell?  I LOVED it!  Not only is it the coolest mountain town, but the vibe, the people, and the adventures were out of this world! :) 

It all started just an hour out of Jackson on our Road Trip (Sun Valley is about 5.5 hours away).  We came across this abandoned house that I have wondered about for so many years.  About 20 minutes before approaching the gravel road that goes to it, I started telling Ellen all about it.  I was really hinting that I wanted to stop there.  As we approached the turn Ellen yelled "let's go see it!" and so we did. 

Isn't it the coolest?

 There was some graffiti on the walls, but I only saw one beer bottle in the whole place.  The hardwood floors have held up remarkably well.  I couldn't get a good shot, but there was a birds nest in the wall with teeny weeny baby birds squawking.

 You have to wonder about the people who lived here.  With this view, why would they ever leave?

After a few more hours of driving, we drove through Arco, apparently the first American city to be entirely powered by nuclear energy.  We just had to stop at the Pickle Place.  I mean, the giant green rocking chair out front was just calling our name! :)

 And any place that serves breakfast until 11:34am is my kind of pace.  Yup, that's right, 11:34am, and we made the cut off! 

I'm not sure what happened to my photo of the deep fried pickles we ordered.  It was not what Ellen nor I expected, that's for sure, but we did actually finish the plate ;)

It seemed to be the weekend of big Chairs and other items....

I felt like a pixie in this great big chair.   And apparently the people of Sun Valley also like their Bikes big :)

Then we were onto the small adventures.  Like spotting this guy walking across the street at nightfall.  There was no way Ellen was going to let this ferret get run over on our watch!  So the chase was on!  While I pulled over and stressed about the art fair starting in the morning...Ellen was chasing this guy through backstreets and utility structures!  But she caught him, and he was obviously friendly.  :)  Someone's pet for sure, and he even had a tattoo on his ear!

Having never handled a ferret before, we marveled at his long and completely strange body!  This guy had abs of steel!! :)

Ellen wasn't quite sure at first if he liked her.....

 But sure enough he came to love spending time in her lap.....

 I think he even went in for a kiss :)

After calling the police and having officer Tony come see us, he sadly told us that he is only allowed to handle dogs and that we would need to bring him to a Community Service Officer in the morning.  In the meantime, here we are in Sun Valley, renting a condo, and needing to find someplace for a ferret for the night!!  Officer Tony was kind enough to give us a small crate, which became Terry's (of course we named him!) home for the night.

If you've never had a ferret before, you will be surprised to hear that they let off some kind of musky scent.  Yeah, I just hope I get my condo cleaning deposit back ;)

The next morning was the first day of the art fair, and also our moment to find Terry's home!  We woke up bright and early to meet with a Community Service Officer, who seriously did not service his community well :(  He refused to accept Terry and sent us to the only animal Clinic in town that was open at 8am on a Friday. 

I cannot thank the St. Francis Animal Clinic of Ketchum enough!  Although they too are not supposed to accept exotic pets, the nearest shelter that would was too far away, and we had an art fair to set up!  So they happily welcomed Terry into their home and told us they would help find his owners.  I sure hope they have :)

And then, who would have known, but one of the artists at the fair, Julie Sola of Fat Crow Press, had a series of linocuts called "Possum Dreams" that so reminded Ellen and I of our adventures with Terry.  Needless to say, there is now a "Possum Dreams" piece hanging in Ellen's home :)

 This is the one I bought for Ellen:

So in a small town of 15,000, we then welcomed over 11,000 people to the art fair!  SLD flew off the racks.  In fact, I had an SLD spotting while driving down the Street on Saturday morning, right after the first day of the art fair!  I had to stop and roll down my window.  The two girls slept in their SLD :)

I had SO much fun at this last art fair.  And getting ready for the last one of the season tomorrow.  As much as I've enjoyed these adventures, I can't wait to snuggle into bed with Finley in the evening and read books to her.  I miss her so much when I am away.  She starts Kindergarten at the end of this month and I am shaking my head in disbelief.  Where does the time go??  Here she is getting her Mommy Manicure while reading an US Magazine and marveling at the dresses.....

 And here my baby is striking a pose yesterday morning for me.  When did this all happen!!?

OK, well, time for me to get packing.  Just so glad to finally get all this down to 'paper.'  :)

xo,
shari