Sun Valley, Idaho

We had a lovely and relaxing day in the Sun Valley area yesterday. Mainly, we just drove around getting a feel for the area. Sun Valley and Ketchum are resort communities with a good deal of wealth and resultant hefty tax base. We were told that this benefits all the communities in the area with contributions to the rich cultural events and economic development. I didn't take a lot of pictures of the area, but I did catch this one of Dollar Mountain. It's devoid of snow right now, but you can see the ski runs.

We were on our way to Ketchum Cemetery to see if we could find the grave of Ernest Hemingway. I'm a fan, having read a few of his books in an American Fiction class while an undergraduate. Certainly, he was a larger than life character. I've linked to some information about him and his burial plot there. The cemetery isn't large, but it might have been hard to find the grave without some pictures to guide us.

As we strolled through the cemetery, we came upon a number of very old graves. Many were touchingly sad. For example, here lie husband and wife ("mother" and "father") Hughes. I'm not sure why his headstone is so much larger than hers, but they are identical except for the names and dates.

Just to the right was this headstone...their only child, apparently. There were no other headstones present for this family.

Also, this one for Wilbur Barnes. It's a cruel world for some.

We kept on walking and eventually saw Hemingway's grave. It was hard to photograph because of shadows from trees growing nearby. You can see that a number of offerings of pens and coins have been left behind.

Someone left behind an empty bottle of vodka.

Okay, so that was sort of interesting. We continued walking and made a circle around back to the car. See if you can figure out why I took this picture.

Apparently Andrea Irene was a catlover. She was a little less than a year older than me, but she's been gone for many years. Cemeteries have a way of making me grateful for the privilege of growing older.

This one caught our attention because of the Olympic rings.

As it turns out, both were alpine skiers and members of the 1940 Olympic ski team. The Olympics were canceled that year because of World War II. Gretchen Fraser, was an alpine skier and the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in skiing. Impressive, no? I've given you a link to her Wikipedia page, but here is the section about their marriage and their lives.

In 1938, she traveled to Sun Valley to compete in the second Harriman Cup, a new international event featuring the best racers in the world. She met 1936 Olympian and Northwest ski champion Donald Fraser (1913-1994) of the University of Washington on the train trip to central Idaho. They were married in November, 1939. Sun Valley became their home.

Both Frasers were members of the 1940 Olympic team, games that were cancelled due to World War II. She spent the war years skiing in Otto Lang's military training films and helping to rehabilitate wounded and disabled veterans through skiing, setting the stage for a lifelong commitment to working with disabled skiers.

After the war, Fraser got her chance to compete in Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics. A week before her 29th birthday, she won the gold medal in the women's slalom and a silver medal in the women's combined event at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Following the Olympics, Fraser became a mother and an ambassador for Sun Valley and skiing in general. Later in life she was a mentor to aspiring female ski racers at Sun Valley, including Susie Corrock, Christin Cooper, Picabo Street, and disabled skier Muffy Davis.

Gretchen Fraser died at age 75 in February 1994. Her husband of 54 years, Don Fraser, had died a month earlier.

Have I said lately how much I heart the internet?

So after that, we headed back to the RV for lunch and a nap. Along the way we saw the fanciest electrical box we've ever seen. There were others decorated in different ways, but this was the only one I photographed.

When we were rested up, we headed over to the Sawtooth Botanical Gardens, just half a mile down the road from where we are staying. 

As we walked in, we saw this. It reminds me of one of the stitcheries from the Bee Loving quilt.

There was an event going on there, and while it was still open to the public, we felt a little as if we were intruding into a private party. We didn't spend a lot of time, but we were there long enough to feel as if we'd seen it.

The gardens were divided up into different sections. Here are some of the things we saw there:

There was an educational garden.

Here's an example of this:

They were also growing vegetables

and fruits.

And wascally wabbits.

My favorite part of the garden was the Garden of Infinite Compassion. I'm hoping you can read the sign. Remember that you can always make the image larger by clicking on it.

It was there that we saw the Tibetan Prayer Wheel.

If you can't read that sign above, here is the most significant part.

Here's how it looks when you turn it.

If you can't see the video, click right here.

So that was pretty much our day. We decided to eat dinner out last night. Mike was in a mood for prime rib, and so we went to the Pioneer Saloon where the food was excellent and the service was friendly and accommodating.

We've really enjoyed our time here in Sun Valley. We were killing a few days' time on our way to see my friend Marei in Swan Valley, and this was a good place to drop anchor and relax for a bit.

Aside from the other goings on, I wanted to tell you about this little wildflower I saw blooming near our campsite.

It's about the diameter of a quarter. I was able to identify it with the Like that Garden app.

Also, Miss Sadie has no problem inhabiting the areas formerly the sole private property of Mr. Smitty. This causes him no end of consternation, but he defers to her wishes.

We're moving onto Craters of the Moon National Monument this morning. We're hoping to camp inside the national monument, and that will no doubt mean that I'll be out of cell phone range and without internet. One never knows, however. If you don't hear from me for a couple of days, you'll know why.