I went on an entertaining little dinner outing this evening.
Dad and I went to Trail Creek Cabin, which, among other methods, you can get to by sleigh. You take the sleigh out across a golf course, then pretty much through the woods and over the creek.
This is a fairly silly method of transportation, especially when it’s as cold as it was tonight (about 4 degrees). However, it’s one of those dumb touristy things you’ve gotta do once here, and in 21 years of coming up here, I had never gone.
So dad and I, armed with a wee bottle of whiskey (which held, at most, two shots) climbed aboard the sleigh and headed on out.
It’s actually a very nice ride, and because Sun Valley has a dark sky ordinance (basically, you can’t have any neon lights or lights that bleed upward so you can see more stars), the stargazing was brilliant.
Once you get out there to the restaurant and thaw off a bit, they start feeding you. They give you hot soup (and in my case, hot buttered rum) to complete the thawing, then feed you all sorts of meat and some potatoes au gratin.
Tonight’s evening featured two musical guests, the first of which I hated and the latter of which I liked.
Guest #1 was an accordion player. If you thought Christmas carols were annoying before, oh, just you wait! Hearing them on the accordian will introduce you to an entire new universe of irritation.
He also came by each table and played, something that really drives me crazy. I feel (as a musician) that if people want to ignore you, fine. Let them. Don’t be like, “Hey you! Pay attention!” or walk up to their table and solicit requests people obviously don’t want to hear.
My dad observed my curmudgeonliness and commented that I, of all people, being a musician, should cut the guy some slack. Nope. Sorry. I hate people coming around and forcing themselves into your conversation, be it normally or with a musical instrument.
Musical Guest #2 was an a cappella group from Utah State, who were actually pretty goddamn good. (Fun Fact: Utah State is in Logan, Utah. Mark’s sister-in-law, the one who just named her son Logan, went to Utah State.)
They came, they sang, they left. And a cappella singing is a hell of a lot less annoying than accordion music, especially when done by semi-professionals.
When done by drunken fools on the sleigh ride going back, however, it’s downright hilarious. Especially when they try to remember all the words to “The Twelve Days Of Christmas.”
They could barely remember the words to “Silent Night” past “Siiiiiiiiiilent Niiiiiiiight, Hooooooooly Niiiiiiiiight…um…”
It was quite amusing.