{"id":15887,"date":"2021-04-21T00:43:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T00:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=15887"},"modified":"2021-04-20T19:47:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T19:47:25","slug":"take-a-staycation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/21\/take-a-staycation\/","title":{"rendered":"Take a Staycation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McKenna <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he best advice I\u2019ve ever been given about living in a ski town came from my boss at the time, a short, fiery, legendary local named Mark Fisher.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way you\u2019re ever going to be happy living in a ski town is if you occasionally take a vacation and don\u2019t go anywhere,\u201d Fisher said from across the pickup window at the Sun Valley Brewing Company and Caf\u00e9 in Hailey\u2014where I was bartending during my first go-round in the Wood River Valley.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got to play tourist, too, and remember why you live here,\u201d explained Fisher, who had a head and face full of dirty blond hair and who tragically passed away while driving down one of the old, dusty Idaho mountain roads he loved so much.<\/span><\/p>\n

As he handed over a homemade wurst plate for a patron, he sternly stated,\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cOtherwise, you\u2019re gonna be miserable and nobody wants to be around somebody who\u2019s miserable. Got it?!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fisher then told me to take the next week off\u2014paid, of course\u2014because that\u2019s the kind of generous guy he was. He basically ordered me to take what we now call a \u201cstaycation\u201d\u2014although he\u2019d probably never use that term, at least not without putting the word \u201cdamn\u201d in front of it. He told me to pretend that I, much like many of the people I regularly served, was a \u201ctouron,\u201d too. And that\u2019s exactly what I did, specifically because Fisher (who had forearms that Popeye would be jealous of and was an acclaimed big game bow hunter) wasn\u2019t the type of guy who took \u201cno\u201d for an answer. <\/span><\/p>\n

For the next seven days I was lucky enough to enjoy the playground that we call home.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/span>And since the Wood River Valley is home to the country\u2019s first destination ski resort, it naturally offers all kinds of magical places to go outside to play no matter what season it is. While I\u2019ll always love some of the other resorts I\u2019ve had the blessing of calling home for a while, like Taos and the eastern Sierra\u2019s Mammoth Mountain, Sun Valley will always be my favorite.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I often hear when shooting the breeze with locals, second homeowners or folks making a sojourn in Sun Valley, there\u2019s something magical about this place (actually, there are numerous things: world-class skiing, hiking, mountain biking, fly fishing, food, art galleries, culture, mountain views, plus it\u2019s a great place to raise kids).<\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s easy to forget all this when you\u2019re just another overworked ski town local trying to survive. For all the beauty and glory, it can be tough to make it in most ski towns\u2014living in paradise requires some sacrifices.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s why Fisher\u2019s order\/advice to stop and literally smell the roses\u2014or the fresh snow or the squirmy fish or the blooming sagebrush or my own sweat while hiking or biking in this breathtaking place\u2014is the best I\u2019ve ever been given. And one any ski town local could make good use of: \u201cTake a damn staycation!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Sun Valley Brewery is located at 202 North Main Street in Hailey and is open Mondays through Fridays. April is Idaho Craft Brewers Month. Celebrate it locally at Sun Valley Brewery, Warfield Brewery or at either Sawtooth Brewery location.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McKenna The best advice I\u2019ve ever been given about living in a ski town came from my boss at the time, a short, fiery, legendary local named Mark Fisher. \u201cThe only way you\u2019re ever going to be happy living in a ski town is if you occasionally take a vacation and don\u2019t go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,38],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chamber-corner","8":"category-sponsored"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15892,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15887\/revisions\/15892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}