Rendezvous Revisited... A Great Montana Adventure!

I need to start this thread with at great big "THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" to Steve and Karen for their wonderful hospitality and for making this an adventure that we will never forget. We could not have asked for a better host and hostess... despite time pressures from their own obligations and adverse weather before the event, they both went well out of their way to make sure that we would get the very most out of our short visit. Their home was lovely, the gardens stunning, the hospitality beyond compare... and they were tour guides too!

I started this seperate thread because I wanted to share the saga of our trip including the travel to and from. It was quite an adventure......

Three garden gals on a roadtrip with furries...... what could be more fun?

Don says "I'll hold down the fort while you are gone!"

First stop.... our EWA house on the potholes. Seemed smarter to break the long drive into two sections, especially since we were traveling with the dogs.

We were thrilled when we found that the catalpa tree was in full bloom.

If you have never seen one of these up close, they are just lovely.... like a whole tree full of orchids!

Gigit and Henry had a blast playing while we unloaded the car for the night.

We couldn't believe the difference between our EWA tomatoes and those on the wet side...we actually even had a few flowers!

Friday found us making the second leg of the trip. We took the time to stop a couple of times to stretch our legs and walk the puppies. Lots of new smells to explore......

It was a long drive, and tired all of us out.......

We had a wonderful reception at the house, and were thrilled to finally meet the lovely Karen that Steve is always talking about. We were also introduced to two of their local garden friends, Carey and Patricia, who joined us for the evening.

We had time to kill before dinner, so the locals took us to enjoy the beautiful State Park in Big Fork to pass the time. It was absolutely stunning, and Steve enjoyed being able to share some local politics that centered around this rock bank.....

Lynn had brought some chilled wine which was still in the car, so we established an impromptou bar on the rocks....

And we had a toast to the wonderful weekend ahead.

From left to right... Steve, Karen, Pat (Patricia), Carey (gosh I hope I am spelling his name right!), Lynn, and Sharon. I was playing bartender and photographer.

Then it was time for dinner, where we hooked up with Gwen and her crowd at Sun Mountain Pizza. It was a fabulous dinner surrounded by interesting conversations. The pictures aren't the best, but I wanted to share them anyway....

Carey trying to squeeze in the picture, Pat, Sharon, Julie, Lynn, and Keith...

Again from left to right, Gwen's husband Jim, Barb, Gwen and Karen. Gwen, you will have to fill in your relationship With Keith and Barb because I never caught if they were relatives or good friends....

Gwen and Barb were full of smiles and laughter....

Steve enjoyed entertaining us with tales about life in Montana...

Gads, where did the time go? Time to get my self home to enjoy the sunshine! To be continued........

I'll throw some of my restaurant photos in here too. Of course I had to take photos of the food! Loved the food. They brought us appetizers to share and then we ordered our entrees off the menu. They brought us an antipasto plate, some foccacia bread, mozzarella with sliced tomatoes, and then fresh mozzarella wrapped with pancetta and grilled and served with a tomato salsa. I want to try that last one at home!

My people photos - Julie has already identified everyone above except for the two boys. Kyle is Barb and Keith's youngest son and Jesse is our youngest son. Jim went to school with Keith in high school and they've been friends ever since. They have a daughter Jeff's age, then Kyle is between Tim and Jesse, and they also have an older daughter who's 32 and lives in SF. Our kids grew up together and I don't think I'm supposed to know about it but I believe Jeff and Kirsten's first kiss was with each other when they were about 15 or so!

A lot of my photos did not turn out. My camera was on the verge of breaking down. In fact, it broke on Saturday and I had to borrow Barb's to get through the rest of the weekend. Now I'm in the market for a new camera, so recommendations are welcome. Maybe I'll start a new thread for that topic...

From left to right, top to bottom - Kyle and my husband Jim, Julie and Lynn, Sharon, Jesse and Barb.


This message was edited Jun 24, 2010 3:23 AM

I'm glad you all had such a great time, though sorry i could not be there. I can almost taste the food!

Yeah Gwen! You figured out the collage! I have wanted to be able to do that too, but have never taken enough time to figure it out. Good shots of the food! My camera was in the car at that time and I never thought about taking them. The food was excellent, and although I am not much of an itallian fan, the bacon wrapped motzerella was to die for........

I used the program Suzybell mentioned. Altho I'm not 100% satisfied with it because you're limited to using the number of photos in their templates. They have 2, 3, 4, or lots. So if you have 7 photos, for instance, it doesn't seem to work well. It seems like you should be able to specify the number of photos you want to use and they would have a template for it. If they do, I can't seem to find it.

I pulled a lot of weeds today in short sleeves and now my arms are stinging from nettles. Wish I'd been more careful...

Thanks, ladies. Lovin it so far...

Gwen, At least you had nice weather to pull weeds! Everything else is secondary...

Continuing our story, which I will add to as I have a minute today...

Back at the chateau Soferdig, we unloaded the car and weary but happy, we got ready for bed. Mom and I had the luxury suite in the basement, and we had adorable little neighbors. Steve and Karen had their chicken coop attached to the back side of the house, and we got a view of their roosting babies if we opened the blinds to the window! It was too much fun to watch Gigit encounter the chickens on the other side of the sliding door the next morning! I wish I had had a camera in hand at that time... it was a staredown!

The next day dawned nice and sunny instead of the predicted thunderstorms, and we were elated!

We were dying for a walk through the garden, but after a wonderful waffle breakfast, we planned to head out to Glacier National Park for a hike. I did take time to get a sneak peak at the shade garden though......

Steve and Karen's Kip was pouting Saturday morning because he got reprimanded after a disagreement with Henry the night before. He was on his best behavior for the rest of the weekend, but he made a wide berth around the "annoying white creature".

Henri also took a sneak peak... at the gorgeous rock gardens along the house enterance.

I explained to the dogs that they weren't going to be able to go on the mountain hike with us. They were dissapointed, but promised to behave themselves while we were gone.....

Then we were off for Glacier! Steve and Karen took us through Kalispell proper so that we had a chance to see the town. It was a quaint little town with beautiful buildings and really neat older homes. Steve describes it as an "artsy fartsy" town with lots of galleries and shops. I wish we had had more time to explore it.

Our visit to Glacier started with a hike to Avalanche lake for Steve and Sharon and I, while Lynn and Karen walked the first portion of it and then opted to stay at the river and admire rocks and soak up the sunshine. The first portion of the trail was a boardwalk through a cedar forest. It was just beautiful, and although we missed the blooms, the trilliums were everywhere.

This root was definitely an eye catcher...

The ferny undergrowth was backed by gorgeous rocks with little rivulets of water running down everywhere...

The creek that came down from the lake was incredible. It was fairly narrow and thundered down through a rock crevase....

Every part of it was beautiful, and we followed it for quite a ways....

There were so many things that called for pictures. Steve wasn't afraid to get down and dirty to get just the right shot.....

Lynn and Karen's hike got them to the creek as well, and then wound back down through the cedar....

Mom posted Steve's gallant attempt to clear the trail for us on the other thread, but I couldnt' resist posting it again......

Solomon's seal and ferns were everywhere along the sunny part of the trail....

We searched the rocky vista for mountain sheep, but were disapointed.....

I was fascinated at how this little stream traveled down this hollowed out log... I wish I could have gotten a better picture.

This was the other side of the log... water poured both through and out the end....