GOURMET GIRL: SUN VALLEY IDAHO RESORT WHEN YOU CAN'T DOWNHILL SKI

This was to be the return trip from 2 years ago. A rare March break, #3 in my lifetime, and the second one at Sun Valley resort. It's not an easy trip from the east coast. Three flights, over 12 hours, starting at 3:30 with a taxi to the airport, and travelling through Atlanta and Salt Lake City, to arrive at Hailey, Idaho.

Then I fell on the last run, when we decided to ski down the runoff instead of downloading. In the end, something happened over exposed grass, and I fell to my left, hitting my temporal skull, denting my helmet, and straining something in my left shoulder. I was relieved it wasn't a broken neck, but my plans to ski the next 3 days were hard to give up.

The first day I had a headache walking, so I started to realize that I probably wasn't going back to the mountain. On the one hand that was a relief, as the resort helmets started at $300 US. But having my roommate go off every morning to ski in spring weather was tough. So I needed to find something else to do, and the first thing was to see what my options were for the lift tickets I wouldn't need.

I drew. Read. Watched HGTV. Wandered the hotel. Listened to cardinals, geese, nuthatches. Admired the sun, the trees, the mountains, the food. I learned a little history.

The mountain that began the first ski resort in North America was found by an Austrian. The Inn now was the original Lodge from 1936, when the Union Pacific Railroad built it. The chairlifts have been upgraded, but the first in the world started as a single chair in 1939. The resort had been founded by the Railroad's chairman, Averell Harriman, and he started a race at Sun Valley called the Harriman Cup. This was the site of the first downhill race in America that had a lift, and a skier from Vancouver, Washington, named Gretchen Fraser won the cup, and went on to win the first Gold for the US skiiing team in the Giant Slalom in 1948. Initially slated to go to the 1940 Olympics, the Games had to be moved from Japan to Finland, and then finally cancelled, as was the 1944 Olympics, due to WWII.

The movie called Sun Valley Serenade was filmed in 1941, and Gretchen was the stunt woman for the skating star Sonja Heine, herself a Gold medallist, volunteering for the job to keep amateur status, and once being replaced by a boy in a blond wig so that she could be away for a race. The film was one of tow that starred Glenn Miller's orchestra.

Now there is a run called Gretchen's Gold, and the Lodge and Inn are filled with famous visitors. Ernest Hemingway is reputed to have written the book For Whom the Bell Tolls on the second floor of the lodge. The Kennedys, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Arnold Schwarzenegger are all past visitors.

The next day I had to keep slowing myself down, because my regular pace brought back the headache. I opted to get a pedicure with a $40 dollar credit towards it's $80 US price. It wasn't available until the next day, which gave me time to watch the 1941 Sun Valley Serenade on channel sixty-six in snippets, read menus, and wandering the resort to the Nordic Centre that doubles as the Golf Club in the summer.

The next morning I was debating about using another credit, when I discovered that the Sun Valley Pedicure included almost an hour of a massage chair, and that I could walk short distances at a reasonable pace, so I headed to Guest services, and exchanged the next day's pass for the rental of equipment and access to the Nordic Trails. There was a flat training field between the Club and the beautiful Mt. "Baldy", and I took it very easy, marvelling at the state-of-the-art Rossignol boots and skis. It was a beautiful afternoon, and Lief's Loop was a decent consolation to a day on the slopes.

The last day, I knew I had to pick up my skis that I had stored from the first day, but I was feeling well enough that I wanted to get out twice, and I took a route that was guaranteed to have hills, but had a gorgeous route along Trail River Valley. I walked down a few hills after a minor crash, but revelled in the views. The day was sunny and the snow was fast. After a rough start, it felt like I had made lemons into lemonade.

Three beautiful meals at Gretchen's, clear skies, and daily pastries at the Konditorei. Walking around this week, with views of the Sawtooth mountains, and reminders of Tyrollean architecture and food were all around. It was like being in Austria for a week, even if the slopes were off limits for most of it.