A Quick Trip to Sun Valley, Idaho
A few years ago, when the tradition of kicking off the summer with a Memorial Day weekend trip to Las Vegas with my sister and her kids to visit my parents ended (my parents moved away!), we decided we’d spend Memorial Day weekend doing a fun little family road trip somewhere.
Our first year, we went to Boise and it was a phenomenal time (my kids say it was one of their favorite family trips ever!).
Last year, we drove 10 hours each way and visited South Dakota, Badlands National Park and Mount Rushmore. It was terrific!
This year, knowing we were looking for something pretty laidback and relaxed, we settled on Sun Valley, Idaho. It was about a 5 hour drive and in the off-season, prices aren’t nearly as high as they are in peak ski or mountain bike season.
We originally planned to go Friday right after school got out and drive home on Monday, but because of some teenager plans that weekend, we adjusted our trip to drive up on Sunday and stay until Wednesday morning, which ended up working out great.
After church on Sunday, we packed up the car and got on the road, arriving at the Limelight Hotel around 8 p.m.
I had booked a 2 bedroom suite and called in to request that one of the rooms have a king bed and the other have two queens but when I reminded them of that at the front desk, they ended up bumping us to a 3 bedroom suite instead (I think this was my first ever upgrade!) and this was a really good start to the trip!
When we got up to the suite, we were blown away by how big and beautiful it was and by the end of the trip, we were all saying “I think this might be the best place we’ve ever stayed!”
We got settled in our room, stocked up the fridge for a few days (there is a grocery store right across the street which was very convenient) and the girls immediately settled in to play some games. Scrabble was definitely the game of the trip! Bart and I chatted and I started a puzzle and everyone was just happy to be there.
Day 2:
The hotel has a free breakfast and we’d told the girls that they could go down whenever they wanted. By the time I got up around 8, our youngest girls had already gone down for breakfast and now were back in swimsuits, ready to hit the hotel pool.
Bart and I went to the gym which handily looks out right over the pool and the girls swam while we worked out and then we joined them at the pool (because of minor surgery a few weeks earlier, I couldn’t get in the water, but I sat on the side and enjoyed putting my feet in the hot tub and then reading next to the pool for a while).
The breakfast was terrific – cold cereal, hot cereal, eggs, sausage, greek yogurt bowls, fresh fruit, hash browns, juice, hot chocolate and more – and some of my girls went for second rounds before it closed for the morning.
Afterward, we headed back up to rooms to shower, play games, and hang out until lunch. We’d picked up lunch supplies at the grocery store so everyone fixed themselves lunch.
Bart had arranged to play some pickleball with my friend’s husband and so he headed off for a few hours to play while the girls and I went back down to the pool. I read nearly an entire book until it go so windy that everyone was ready to call it a day at the pool.
We headed back up to the hotel room and the girls got changed again and we played some games until Bart got back.
We’d heard that Sun Valley Resort was very cool, so we drove over there for dinner and it was beautiful – kind of like stepping into a tiny village in the Alps! After a great dinner at Village Station (the salmon piccata was the best dish of everything we got), we wandered around for a while and then walked through the resort, scoping out the photos of famous celebrities that line the walls.
When we got back, the girls were definitely up for one more evening swim, so they changed back into the swimsuits and we went down to the pool for an hour or so while they played (these diving gems were the hit of the trip!).
Back in the hotel, everyone got ready for bed and after we tucked in the 3 big girls, Ella came into our room to watch an episode of Castle with us (I swear we’ve been watching this show forever – I remember clearly watching an episode last year on our Mount Rushmore trip!).
Day 3:
We started the day by sleeping in and then another great breakfast, gym session, swim and then more games.
We’d bought a glass jar of local chocolate milk at the Village Market across the street and I told the two little girls if they walked over and returned the glass bottle, they could have the deposit to keep. They were delighted and came back beaming with $1.35 each!
My friend Rachel from 3 in 30 podcast lives nearby so we arranged to meet up and she texted to say she was in the hotel lobby. I went down and we walked across the street and had lunch at Wrapcity and chatted for over an hour which was an absolute delight. I walked her back to her car and then went back up to the hotel room.
After pretty much not leaving the hotel for nearly 48 hours, we decided it was time for a little exploring, so we walked down to Knit + Needle where Ani had the best time finding some crochet supplies she’d been wanting and then we crossed the street to the local library.
Rachel had told me it was a fun library but I was blown away by how cool it was – maybe one of my favorite libraries I’d ever visited! The girls and I found books to read and settled into the many reading spots and Bart headed out to walk the bike path.
After 30 or 45 minutes, some of my girls were ready to go, so we walked the same direction Bart had gone along the path knowing we’d see some horses. The girls were ALL IN on the horses and loved feeding them grass and dandelions and petting them.
Eventually Bart met back up with us and we walked to dinner (with quite a bit of rain that started as we went!) at Ketchum Grill, which was delicious. The Idaho trout was especially good, as was the strawberry rhubarb crisp. (The kids mac and cheese was also top notch!).
We walked back to the hotel, stopping to gawk at the price tags in the real estate agent office window listings, and then . . . .another trip to the pool.
It was gently raining which was fine for people in the pool and less fun for people like me who couldn’t swim so I went into the warm lobby and read my book for an hour by the fireplace until they were done.
We tucked the girls into bed, watched another episode of Castle and went to bed.
Day 4:
We got up around 8 a.m., had breakfast at the hotel and did a quick gym workout (it was fun to have the teenage girls join us!), and then packed everything up and headed home.
We’d planned to stop for lunch but we had so much leftover food that we just ate in the car and got home with plenty of time to unpack and relax (or catch up on work in my case!) until dinner.
It was a super relaxing trip with no agenda and we all said we’d definitely go back again – we loved Sun Valley and I can see why it’s so beloved!
