Today we landed in Bozeman, Montana for a 10 day vacation. I've got a medical conference at the end of the week, but we arrived early to see the sights. We barely made our connecting flight in Chicago, but our bags didn't make it. We were told that they were being routed to us through Denver and they'd deliver it to us by noon tomorrow. That also left us without the boys' carseats, which was OK, because we didn't have a rental car. Turns out, they were out. They did hook us up with another car rental agency who got us a car at about $200 more than we had our other one reserved for. A couple of loaner car seats later and we were driving to Big Sky about an hour south. Before we left, we met up with my brother, Mark, and his new girlfriend, Leslie who came in on a flight just after us (with their bags). His two oldest kids had driven up with my parents over the last 2 1/2 days and were already waiting for us there. We caravaned down through some very beautiful country. The last 40 minutes of the drive were through the Gallatin Mountains with the Gallatin River flowing along beside us. It was a beautiful start.
As we drove up the mountain into Big Sky, we ended up at the Cascade Cabin, a four-bedroom cabin that Mom found for rent online. It had a full kitchen with a large 8-person table. There was a fireplace downstairs and a hot-tub out on the porch that went around 2 sides of the house. You could see the nearby Lone Peak mountain from the porch which also looked out onto a largely undeveloped area that included a small brook and a trail.
Mark, Leslie, the kids and I took a walk down the trail. The kids picked wildflowers and we found a pond in the middle of the brook's flow that sheltered a duck family. I posed them for a shot on one of the bridges that ran across the brook (or is it a stream by this point?)
The trail was near the bedding grounds of 2 mule deer. At one point they even walked by the porch at the cabin. They still had velvet on their antlers and were beautiful to watch.
We grilled burgers for dinner and got the kids down at a reasonable hour. I had checked with the airline and our bags were due in a little before midnight and I wasn't keen about waiting for delivery tomorrow. Dad and I drove back up to Bozeman - that scenic drive is not very scenic at night. Instead it is a long series of hairpin turns that you can't see until you're right upon it. The plane was delayed (naturally) but when it did arrive, our bags were on it and we brought them home and crawled into bed at 2AM (4AM to my Ohio brain) to rest up for a trip to Yellowstone National Park tomorrow.
Cascade Cabin, "backyard" walk, grilled burgers, driving back up to Bozeman in the dark, back by 2 AM
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