Spring Forward

Last Sunday we made the drive from Garden Valley to Sun Valley, just a little under 300 miles round trip. It seems odd to see familiar settings in unfamiliar ways... that, of course, being the shroud of winter known as snow.

This is the area we often go to in the summer for bicycling or other forms of recreation, but ignore during the winter because we don't do winter activities! What a difference cold weather makes...

In the photo Valerie is standing at a turn-out about a half mile north of Galena Summit. In the past, when we've done charity bike rides with the American Lung Association this has been a popular stopping point to get out camera for group photos, with the Sawtooth mountains in the background. Today there were no bicyclist here, and no group photo (one of us had to hold the camera)!

We did see a few die-hard bicyclists on the south side of Galena Summit coming north out of Sun Valley. The road was clear, but the weather was very crisp... they were all dressed in their cold weather gear for their rides.

While Valerie wandered around Sun Valley (actually the town of Ketchum) for a while, I hid in Isabel's Needlepoint (which also has a generous supply of yarn for knitters and crocheters). I spoke with the newest employee there, who moved up from San Francisco and she gave me a few culinary suggestions for dining out when Valerie and I go to the city by the bay at the end of this month. She also suggested a local favorite for coffee, that sound like it operates out of the back of a garage in the Hayes Valley district called Blue Bottle Coffee Company. If you visit their website, click on "Kiosk" on the sidebar; this is the outlet I'll be seeking out. It's apparently VERY close to where another knitting shop is located, called the Urban Knitting Studio... so this will be the ol' two birds with one stone approach!

Today Daylight Saving Time went into effect for most of the USA, pushing the clocks forward one hour. (Click on the link to learn more than you ever wanted to about the subject!) Spring forward is a great theme for this month as our snow is slowly melting in Garden Valley (it's gone in Boise) and soon we'll have tolerable temperatures and enough daylight to get our bike out and see whether we can still remember how to ride it, and whether we have the physical capabilities to still do so!