SubstantialSandwich’s posterous

...Okay, Ketchum and Sun Valley, Idaho maybe not "fast" but they are definitely fabulous. A trip to Ketchum is to travel to another planet - to a parallel universe - to - perhaps the pages of a Ralph Lauren or J. Peterman catalog. Fabulous. Where Jackson Hole plays out the whole Wyoming-Teton "Western" thing to an ersatz extreme, Sun Valley is more toned down - little families and empty nesters riding their bicycles to Yoga class or that perfect little home town bakery. Both towns harbor enough botox to wipe out all the cattle in India.

Zoning in Ketchum is so particular, it was actually difficult to locate a gas station. Looking for some fuel on our way out of town, after several minutes (and after a few laps of town) I wondered out loud if residents were so perfect in fact, that they didn't need gasoline - or bathrooms!?!?!?

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed our stay here - and I plan to return. We had some great food. I marveled at the aesthetic of it all. Bicycles, vintage Volvos and other classic motors; restored bungalows, coffee, gourmet food; trails and bike paths leading everywhere and anywhere. Utopia?

Ketchum is so fabulous in fact, it makes Bozeman feel edgy and seedy...with all our visible gas stations and...un-restored sports cars and probably less expensive bicycles.

As for the food: Ketchum Grill, Christina's and Ciro did not dissapoint...reviews to follow.

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Road_Trip_Craters_of_the_Moon.zip (7059 KB)

Just a few hours from Bozeman, deep in a weird corner that is southeast Idaho, just down the road from the benign-sounding Idaho National Laboratory, lies Craters of the Moon National Monument. Black lava flows, cinder cones, shied volcanoes and, well..not much else dot the bizarre landscape.
 
After a generous lube of SPF 30 sunscreen is applied we head out for a short hike to the top of Inferno Cone. The cone itself is a perfect dome of pulverized lava bits; the view of a landscape covered with twisted, contorted, and fractured lava flows looks otherworldly - outside of Hawaii, at least. More than once I think that this would be a crappy place to go barefoot.
 
Another highlight of this stop - lava tubes. Little subway tunnels of lava frozen in time are fun (sort of) to explore. Sort of, because I think that I learned that I am not a huge fan of tight spaces. Nor am I a huge fan of scratching my noggin’ on a low ceiling of jagged lava. Another challenging component of lava-tube exploration in Idaho - ice. Despite the 70-degree May temps outside, the floors of a few of the tubes are still coated in thin, slide-your-ass-down-the-cave, ice. Fun - AND scary.
 
Tomorrow...Ketchum, Idaho and Sun Valley. Is there such a thing as something just too fabulous? I don’t know, but I think Ketchum just might be a candidate....

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Succumbing to the ever-present need to leave town, we seized the good weather and headed to Old Faithful in Yellowstone. Long-time friend (and YNP resident) Louise held an inverse agenda and was in Bozeman for the weekend. This meant that her cabin, The Shady Rest, was ours for the weekend. On the banks of the Firehole river, and steps from Old Faithful Geyser, I proclaimed that this was the best camping trip ever! Was it?

On our drive to Old Faithful we lunched in Lamar Valley enjoying the pate forestier, Mt. Tam triple cream, baguette, and feta-stuffed olives. For dinner we cooked up a ridiculously thick Ribeye from Montana's Alderspring Ranch, which produces lovely grass-fed beef; had a salad of golden beets, goat cheese, and pine nuts - all washed down with a 2004 Gary's Vineyard Novy Syrah.

Drinking wine from one of my favorite places - Big Sur - Monterrey - Santa Lucia Highlands - in one of my favorite places - Yellowstone - made it a great camping trip indeed. Oh, did I mention that we saw six wolves (three of which were actively hunting and cornering a cow elk in front of our eyes), two grizzly bears, one black bear and numerous birds, ungulates and curious summer visitors? On Sunday, we drifted effortlessly between summer and winter by skiing in the morning on the continental divide and capturing a view of the very frozen Shoshone lake, to short sleeves and A/C on the return trip to Bozeman, where the temperature had climbed to almost 80 degrees by days end.

       

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Best_Camping_Ever.zip (3099 KB)

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Clearly, the competition was completely intimidated by John's entry of "Bamark Obama". For his effort, John scores the grand prize: a vintage copy of Graham Kerr's Galloping Gourmet Television Cookbook, Volume 2. Congratulations, John. Now, I expect some good oxtail soup and some solid tiki cocktail punch the next time I'm in town.

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Thanks, John. This look should play well for Mark in East coast interviews.

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Maybe. It depends on your opinion, but in my opinion this one is up there.

The Mint Bar & Cafe in Belgrade, Montana, is known for its high quality steaks and hand-made cocktails. As it turns out, the hand-made, half-pound burger with fresh fries is 9/10ths of the steak experience at 5/10ths of the price - and tonight, 10/10ths of the satisfaction.

My burger was cooked to perfect medium rare (closer to rare) and was topped with a fried egg on a fresh English muffin.  Between the basic seasoning on the meat, the substantial sandwich  (sorry) of beef and fried egg required only a slim slice of tomato to dress things up. No additional ketchup, mustard  or other condiment required. Very, very juicy, beefy, and good.

Also, the seemingly endless basket of skinny fresh fries delivered the perfect yang to the burgers massive ying. The sapphire martini chased it all down in an herbaceous goodness that only a chilled high quality gin cocktail can offer.

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That's right...help my friend Mark get back into the workforce by "upgrading" his photo for his LinkedIn page and win a prize. I'll kick things off with Blagojevich hair and a proper suit...complete with corporate name tag. The winner, judged by me...wins a fabulous prize, something fabulous from my fabulous garage. Contest ends Wednesday, May 6.

Post your entries here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1126804@N22/

Good luck.

   

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First_Ever_Substantial_Sandwic.zip (184 KB)

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If this is any indication how the day will go, I should be in good shape.

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In what so far seems like an endless winter, I have learned to run outside at the first sign of a)blue sky or b) actual shadow-producing sunshine. Saturday produced both of these items and I headed up to Bridger Bowl with my intrepid ski buddy, Rick.
 
Some warm weather earlier in the week followed by one of our recent snowstorms had left the hill with a really firm base coated by about 4" of creamy spring snow. Not the only folks out on the hill, the parking lot looked more like mid-February than late-April in terms of cars, dogs, and general hangings-around by the endearingly grungy ski-bum/dirtbag community.
 
SPF 50 sunscreen barely held back the intense springtime sunshine; cheekbones barely contained huge grins as we linked lazy turns down un-tracked not-quite-powder/not-quite-chowder snow.
 
Thanks to Rick E. for sharing the pics.

               

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Earning_The_Turns_and_Tans_at_.zip (2389 KB)

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