When Jay, Sasha and JoJo said they'd be coming to Big Sky in June, we were of course thrilled.
We love having the opportunity to spend with our children, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had only seen the twice in the first half of 2020. While I personally wasn't worried about possible cross-contamination, I was clearly in the minority position, and besides, how long could this quarantine drag out?
The answer to that was much longer than expected. Who would have guessed it would still be going strong six months later?
We were sad to see their happy little family head to Park City, Utah, where they pitched in for over a month preparing Sasha's mother and our dear friend Libby prepare her house for sale so she can move to Venice, California.
We carried on after they left, going back to the old haunts Julie and I return to year after year, noticing subtle seasonal changes based on water volume and temperatures.
On some days when we head to Bozeman for groceries, we take a fun detour to hike to Hyalite Falls and Grotto Falls on our way into town.
The moderate inclines and well-maintained trails not far outside Bozeman along with the stunning destinations make them popular with locals and tourists alike.
Much more frequently, we return to Ousel Falls and Yellow Mule Trails, which take us by another amazing waterfall just a couple of miles down the road from Big Sky Town Center.
We went there a couple of time with Jay's family during their stay.
At the fence where we turn around, we had mentioned that we call that spot Bear Meadow, because one year Julie looked out and saw a tree stump that looked like a bear, only to realize a moment later that it was in fact a bear. Fortunately, we lived to tell the tale, as the bear turned away from us to go to the river.
When we arrived at Bear Meadow the next time after Jay and Sasha left, I saw movement in the distance.
Re-focusing my gaze, I realized two bears were walking across the clearing between trees.
The black and cinnamon colored bears didn't seem interested in attacking us. They had some other activity in mind, apparently.
The day after Jay and Sasha headed for Utah, Darlene and Brooks arrived in Big Sky.
After they had a chance to get settled in, we went up to their gorgeous home where we enjoyed some golf, alternative hiking and a lot of free-form conversations about common interests and current events, including the riots that continued around the country based on the murder of George Floyd by an out-of-control cop, which was the second big crisis of the year.
Darlene always has delicious snacks or meals, and we also enjoyed dishes from a special barbecue dinner at their complex.
With Julie riding around in the cart to enjoy the scenery on the course as usual, we enjoyed two fun rounds of golf, stopping after nine holes each times.
We thought we played above our usual level, and the weather could not have been better, so golfing turned out to be as fantastic as we hoped.
Darlene, Brooks and their little dog Teddy came over for dinner a couple of times, but we didn't cook either time, beyond having some chips and wine at the ready.
We picked up great fried chicken dinners at Riverhouse BBQ the first time and delicious Mexican food from Alberto's the other evening.
Julie and I still had time for many hikes on our own, and we added more citified walks from Town Center up Two Moons Road and Chief Joseph Trail.
We returned to Brooks and Darlene's place a few times, but they had to get special permission to have us as guests during these particularly weird days of COVID-19.
We espied a large herd elk on our drive home one day.
Actually, we saw quite a bit of wildlife on this trip, though our photos don't really do justice to the splendor of the sights, much less the majesty of nature, even if we did remember to take a snapshot.
Of course, because we made Montana our home away from home this summer, we still had the usual chores to handle. We told our daughter Amy, who is an avid conservationist, she would be proud to know that we now not only recycle all the usual cans, bottles and cardboard but also compost our food waste (not that we have much beyond banana peals eggshells and coffee grounds, because we tend to eat every last scrap), which is made possible by a new compost station at Fireside Park in Town Center.
Unfortunately, they now have so many trash cans piled around for use at the weekly's farmer's market that it can be hard to make what should be a simple deposit of the food waste we now freeze.
I guess that's a trivial complaint compared to Amy taking an hour ride on a New York City subway carrying a bag full of food waste for composting.
As we came to what was supposed to be the last evening of our stay, we realized we weren't ready to go home, especially based on a new COVID-19 lockdown imposed by Governor Newsom and Los Angeles County.
Peaceful demonstrations were still all-too-often breaking out into arson and looting in big cities, so leaving the wholesome Americana feel of Montana, where everyone is so polite, just seemed too depressing, so we decided that I would fly back home just long enough to take care of picking up mail and prescriptions, water the plants and get a feel of what was happening.
I have to say, it wasn't nearly s bad as our online prescription to the Daily Breeze and national news we watched on TV made it seem.
When I arrived back in Montana, we went directly from the airport to have a picnic and hike at Middle Cottonwood Trail just outside Bozeman. It was more crowded and not really as great as trails closer to our home.
We also made a couple of trips to Moose Creek for picnics on the river.
The Hummocks Trail near our house is another place we return regularly, and this year the wildflowers have been blooming like crazy.
I have taken to regularly practicing my guitar most afternoons, rekindling an old passion for making music. I love the gold-breasted American Robins that hop around my yard or into the Aspen tree while I play in Big Sky. I took Fridays off from my gigs performing for birds.
Instead, we walked to the Blue Buddha Cafe, where there was a small concert by local musicians on Friday afternoons. It felt like a secret show just for locals and people staying at the Wilson Hotel, drawing fewer than fifty people (and a few dogs) rather than the usual huge gatherings at Concerts in the Park in recent years.
As covered extensively in individual blogs, we explored Fairy Lake for the first time, and returned to Beehive Basin where we hiked to the mesa above the big lake which we usually have as our destination.
Closer to home, we started hiking to Uplands Trail again, a hike Julie avoided last year because it can feel like it's all uphill, especially on a hot day.
We're happy we tried it again, because it was unusually lovely with all the wildflowers.
Having drinks and splitting a turkey club sandwich at the Bunker Bar is always a special treat for us.
Most evenings, we fix dinner at home using ingredients we bought from the Country Store or our weekly trip into Bozeman/Belgrade.
We find many lovely moments on our daily hikes, and then we binge watch different TV shows at night. This trip included the last season or two of 24, 24 Legacy, 11-22-63, The Great, Ekatarina, Sophia and Alias. If you hadn't guessed, we don't have cable TV in Big Sky, instead watching streaming services like Amazon Prime.
Wonderful days have stretched to weeks and now months.
How blessed are we?
Julie's Golf Photos
Photos By Julie from 2018
My Quick Trip to California
Julie's night on the town while Wes was in California
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