The Sun Valley Experience

Earlier this week, through my affiliation with HSB Camps, I got the opportunity to visit Sun Valley, ID.  When you first think about Idaho, elite, upscale, exclusive, and a great experience aren’t the things that first come to mind.  At least those weren’t the things that came to my mind.  However, this trip definitely was one to remember.  I’ll be the first to admit that for most of this trip I was in awe.  The sights were breathtaking and the people I got to meet were phenomenal.  Add that to the fact that some of America's elite reside or are affiliated with Sun Valley and you start to get a sense of the type of experience I had.

The two highlights of this trip for me were going up to Red Fish Lake and being a guest bartender at the Corner Stone Bar in Ketchum.  The drive to and from Red Fish Lake was very scenic.  I believe that if I start describing the sights and how scenic the drive was, a thousand words later I’d still not have done it justice.  Simply put, I got to see the mountains and the vastness of nature.  The lake itself has beautiful and clear water.  I was tempted to jump in but the water was too cold and I am not about that life.

The second highlight of the trip was being a bartender.  I’d like to preface this story by saying that I have a lot of friends and associates that are and were bartenders.  I have always been intrigued by bartending and at one point I was considering being one for a little while, so when this opportunity came up for me to be a bartender for the night I immediately jumped on it and I loved every minute of it.  I along with my bartending partners made about $400 in tips that night (all the proceeds went to charity...HSB Cares).  The best part of the whole bartending experience was the conversations I got to have with the different people that came into the bar.  That was the part that I enjoyed the most.  The actual drink making part was kind of tough because I definitely did not know what to put in almost all the drink orders I received.  Luckily for me a young lady by the name of Molly who was a bartender helped me out every step of the way.

• An interesting note on Molly is she has this habit of touching or tapping you every time she walks by you behind the bar.  She explains it as “just letting you know where I am or just letting you know that I’m passing by.”  It’s nothing crazy, it’s just a light tap but I’d like to say it’s very effective and actually helped prevent a few spills behind the bar.  I know I’m big, goofy, and take up a lot of space so it definitely helped.
  

Another key note from the bartending was I now know what my specialty drink is going to be.  It’s a drink that I was already familiar with but I made quite a few that night and I think in the process I perfected the ratio of alcohol to mixer in order to make it just right.  So for general knowledge, my drink of choice, and my specialty drink if I was ever to be a bartender would be Patron & Pineapple with a splash of Grenadine (someone call Patron, I may need a little compensation for that plug).

All things considered I think this was a great trip.  It was both entertaining and educational.  It’s an experience that I’m very happy I had and I’m looking forward to having again sometime in the future.  There are a lot of other things that I saw and a lot more that occurred that I’d like to talk about, but as the good old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words and I took over a hundred on this trip.  Check out the following slide show and you’ll see some of the things that I got to see.  I know it's not the same as actually being there but at least you'll get the idea. I hope you enjoy it.

Magnificent Su