one long weekend

Over fourth of July weekend I took a trip.

A trip that involved lots and lots of driving with my dad.

We started out in Benicia, drove to Reno then the next day to Sun Valley Idaho. 12 hours or so total. One way.

My dad had won a contest and we got to stay at the resort, get a tour around the city and go fly fishing.

Reno was horrible. Just awful. 

It's not the city for me. Neon lights, drunk people, the whole city just seemed dirty to me. Not to offend anyone from there or likes to visit it, I couldn't get into in. i just wanted to leave the minute we got there.

Then it was a long drive across Nevada. Desert nothingness land. Then we finally made it to Idaho.

Sun Valley was gorgeous. Mountains, trees, rivers, a nice little downtown and their little legacy that Ernest Hemingway lived and killed himself their. We got to see his grave on our city tour, the memorial to him in some park and hear the gossip about him and his family from our tour guide.

Fly fishing was nice. My dad and the instructor, Carlos, waded in the water, throwing the line back and fourth, over and over for hours. 

I joined in for a bit at first but then just wandered around taking photos then finally feel asleep on the rocks by the river. Waking up with a bit of a sun burn and sweating like crazy in the big plastic overalls we had to wear.
 

From Sun Valley we went on the drive to Stanley that my dad had read about in some magazine, Via I think. Los of hills and mountains, a few small little towns and amazing views.

We go caught in a rain/thunder storm for a few minutes.

It was just a few days on the trip. A brief view of the area.

On our drive back we stopped at Craters of the Moon and saw lava beds for as far as the eye could see.

Then it was another 12 hour rive just a few short days later to back home in California.