Sun Valley Diary 7

Ketchum

The picturesque little town on the lap of the emerald green rolling mountain always reminds the name Ernest Hemingway to the Hemingway readers. No, I didn’t read much of his works. I only read “The Old Man and the Sea” during my early teens, that remained in my memory. But I didn’t know that in his final years he lived in Ketchum. Before going for the Sun Valley trip, I rented few of his books from library. After reading few books, and his life story I was kind of overwhelmed. In his remarkable life he penned down some of greatest novel of the century, travelled many places around the world, worked as journalist in war-trodden Spain, but killed himself at the end. I sometimes wonder, why he  killed himself, was he loosing his ability to produce great works, I don’t know. 

Sun Valley Diary 5

Crater of the moon National monument

Driving on an uneventful straight highway, suddenly we arrived at a region with very different rock formation. The expansive plain green land surrounded with distant mountain suddenly changed to gorgeous black rocks.As we started in the mid morning, we reached in the afternoon there. However, the burning July afternoon couldn't resist us exploring the gorgeous landscape.   

Sun Valley Diary 4

Sawtooth National Forest

After visiting Stanley Lake we drove through the enchanting jungle of Sawtooth National Forest. The sun was blazing from the top on that summer afternoon, and we were driving on the almost desolated valley road with towering granite peaks which were still snow-capped. Though we couldn’t see any wildlife, but this forest is home of many exotic wildlife . Every year chinook and sockeye salmons travel 900 miles to spawn in the roaring rivers of the valley. 

Sun Valley Diary 3

Towards Stanley 

After visiting the historic district of  Idaho City, we headed towards Stanley, through Boise Nation forest. I planned to visit few lakes near Stanley before heading to Ketchum. The coniferous forest is very much similar to Yosemite national forest. The elevation is from 2000 to 7000 feet. The forest includes ponderosa pine, many types of fir, other coniferous trees. 

Sun Valley Diary 2

Driving from Boise to Sun Valley

To most of us Idaho is just another state. Another few think it is state which grows potato. Idaho has much more things to offer from ragged terrain to stunning lake to spectacular falls. As the state is big you need to consider which part you want to visit, as all the parts has something to offer.

Sun Valley Dairy 1

Planning:

After buying air tickets, booking hotels Mr. Man gave me the responsibility to plan our much waited Sun Valley tour. 

You may ask, why we chose lesser known Sun Valley. While searching a place to visit in summer suddenly Mr. Man saw an advertisement on Sun Valley. Then I searched about the place on Internet , and found that a place worth to visit. 

It was a four day tour. My target was to utilize most of the time. 

Packing for a road trip

If you ask me what kind of travel you like? I’ll tell you road trip. First I can see beautiful roads. The second reason is I don’t need worry about luggage. Whatever I feel I can dump in trunk of the car. Although I’m saying that, but in reality I need some planning for any trip. 

One of my very good friend requested me to write about packing for a road trip. So, I’ve come up with these ideas.

Acadia National Park

A day trip to San Diego

No, it was not a fun trip. We had some jobs to be done, and we decided to drive all the way to San Diego. It was more than 8 hours drive, still we decided to do that. 

It was a weekend. Our plan to go Saturday morning, and come back  Sunday night. It seemed very uneventful long journey.However, it turned out  exactly opposite. Still it gives me chill on my spine when I recall the journey. We departed home Saturday morning . It was a beautiful shadowy day. Soon we left behind the neighborhood, and started on freeway with rolling verdant green hills on the both sides.

Cape Cod

The gloomy gray sky had been indicating a bad wether in Rhode Island. On the top that our tired mind and body was longing for some rest. Quickly grabbing some snacks we headed toward Cape Cod, our last stop to stay that night. Next day we had flight to head back to our nest. 

Rhode Island

Again the sky showed the gloomy face in morning.  We were almost at the end of our ten day long road trip. All of us  were already super exhausted. The exhaustion overpowered me so badly, I didn’t simply want to visit the historic Rhode Island. It was very unlikely. The historical buildings, the museums, anything historical always attract me. I didn’t even read anything about the historical mansions of Rhode Island. 

Next stop, Hartford

Happy New Year!

I'm trying to come back after crazy December. I yet to catch up. As kiddo yet to go back school, I cannot not come to my 'normal' routine. 
I yet to finish the travel story of my last year's road trip. I wrote up to our Yankee Candle trip. Again, I'm resuming the last parts of our trip. 

Yankee Candle Village visit

Leaving Vermont we started driving towards south again. When we started in the morning from Hardwick, it was cold and drizzling. Cold wind was blowing.

Vermont Stay

After our visit to Moss Glenn Falls we decided to go to another fall crossing the historic town Stowe. While driving through Stowe I found the town is very beautiful, and cozy. We didn’t have time in our hand to get down there, though I wanted to do that. It was already evening. My son and I was really tired and restless. I wanted to abandon our plan to visit the next fall. However, my stubborn Mr. Man didn’t want to do that. He continued driving. After reaching the foot of the mountain he realized that , he had to drive another one and half hours. The sun was already started saying goodbye. Then he realized it wound’t be wise to drive on unknown mountain roads in dark. So, after reaching there we made tune around, and headed towards our lodge.

Moss Glenn Falls

We started in the morning from north Conway, and we were driving through the green state Vermont to our next destination, Moss Glenn Falls. The green state is the perfect name of Vermont. As long as we drove we only saw beautiful green pastures, fall colored tree with few evergreens peeking  from the bright fall color.

Driving from Conway to Stowe

After saying goodbye to the little village hotel in north Conway, we headed towards Stowe, Vermont. We drove through the roads of little downtown of north Conway. However, we didn’t have much time in hand to  get down there. On our way, again we crossed White Mountain.

Visiting Moose Pond

While driving from Verona Island to north Conway we passed a beautiful picturesque lake. To our great disappointment we couldn’t get down from the car. A heavy rain didn’t allow us to do that. So we decided to come back next morning. 

At night when Mr. Man asked me the name of the Lake I told him some different name. He couldn't get any lake of that name on the route. Mr. Man is a champion navigator. He traced back route we came to north Conway and found out that was actually Moose pond.

Staying at Old Field House, north Conway

From Verona Island our next stop was north Conway. Before our trip while we were going through our plans, we found that we didn't book any hotels in north Conway. At that moment Mr. Man hastily booked a small village hotel. We had no idea how it was going to be. Anyway, after our beautiful drive on that rain drenched day, we reached there in dark, and ran inside the little hotel.

Drving through Whit Mountain

While driving through beautiful roads of Maine, Mr. Man told me that our next destination was the scenic rout in White Mountain. I asked how could any place be more beautiful than what we already had seen. However, the beauty was waiting for us on that rain drenched day. 

Drive from Verona to north Conway

After a tiring day in Acadia National Park, we couldn’t get up early in the morning. When I opened up my eyes, I saw dark outside. I thought I woke up early. Actually, the sky was dark with gray cloud, and the rain was pelting on the skylight of the roof. The day before it was hot and sunny. We were talking about the heat, now it was dark, gloomy, and cold. 

East West farm experience

After driving for four hours from Portsmouth we reached East-West farm in Verona Island, Maine which we booked through Airbnb. First we lost the road, and reached somewhere else. Then after contacting with them, we found that we drove two signals ahead. Anyway, after driving through the narrow village roads with lush green we reached the farmhouse. The sun was about to set. Before setting down on the West it was radiation bright crimson colored rays, making difficult to look.