Montana Re-visited

At the beginning of last month some friends who are very very good to us gave us free tickets to anywhere in the lower 48. So we went to Montana for the weekend. Just the Lighthusband and I ... alone in Montana for a whole long weekend. We went to Bozeman, which is about 100 miles north of Yellowstone National Park. After being married for about 17 and some odd years this was a good chance to get reconnected to each other again and to our own selves, too. We did that in some unexpected ways.

As you know I just started this blog and I was figuring out how to add photos to it. I'm basically very lazy and wanted to do this on my laptop in my favorite chair. Now the only photos that are on my laptop are the photos from our trip to Montana. So I revisited Montana as I learned how to put photos on my blog because of my basic, inherent laziness. So there are some perks to being lazy. Sometimes you get an extra trip out of it. In any case, this cabin is where we stayed. It was delightful and tiny. It was billed as a one bedroom. But really it was a one room with a bed. And a kitchen and all the other delights of home ... and a woodstove, so we were able to have a woodfire every day. It was fabulous.

And ... here, because I'm basically lazy and generous, are some of my thoughts about Montana and some of the fun pictures from our trip.

First of all Montana is one of the most beautiful places on the face of the planet. Really. It truly is. And when they call it big sky country ... they aren't fibbing. It's really, really big out there. You feel small. And I think that's a good thing. Out east people think they're too big for their britches and make decisions that reflect that ... But I'm not going to be political in this post.

We saw ALOT of fun animals at Yellowstone, but this little guy was my favorite. He's just a weasel ... but he looked as tho he wanted to invite us for tea. He was scampering around an old dead tree by the side of the Lamar River. Now the Lamar River runs through the Lamar River Valley ... which is possibly the most beautiful place anywhere ever. I've been there twice now and I still think it's the most beautiful place I've ever been. I'm not going to put a picture of it here, because a picture can't do it justice ... you'll just have to take my word for it.

Here is a picture of our favorite restaurant that we ate at. It's called The Garage. And that's just what it was ... a re-fitted old gas station. We ate in the pump area. Here's what I wrote in my notebook while we waited for our food. "So ... we’re eating dinner at a garage. Really. It’s an old garage that’s been converted to a restaurant. We turned down a brew pub that somehow is to ... vibe-y or something ... for this garage. And that’s exactly what’s it’s called too -- The Garage. We’re sitting in the pump zone. We could be in the bay, but the rain has held off and we’d rather be outside to get a whiff of the livestock truck that might pass by. Our waitress assured us that we made a good choice coming here ... she has an obliging sense of loyalty to her employer ... plus they’ve made some unpopular changes recently at the Montana Ale House. Gotten arrogant and more importantly gotten rid of all the pool tables! In any case, we’re so thrilled with this place we don’t even care if the food is good, but I know it will be."

That was about the best trip we've ever had in our lives. The only downside was that it was so short. But maybe that was good too, because we did our best to make every moment count for something even if it was small. I was even happy when I won a "cute sock award" at the Bozeman airport security checkpoint as we left for my polarfleece socks. I want to go back and live in Montana except that I can't take all my friends with me and I think it's too cold for most of them. But I'm consoling myself with planning a longer visit next year with the Lightchildren ... it will be a fieldtrip!!