Dinosaurs, Brandi Carlile, Bozeman, etc.

Our summer here is coming to an end, and we decided to take one more fling before we head home. A big shout-out here to Harry who not only brought my attention to the fantastic singer, Brandi Carlile, but found tickets to her show in Bozeman last night, as well. The original plan was to take the motorcycle the 200 miles south, but a questionable forecast gave me the final push to say I thought we should either do a concert or a motorcycle trip, but not both at once. So Lizzie got one last big trip through the mountains.

On a detour through Boulder and Route 69, necessitated by road construction, we were once again amazed by the new and beautiful sights of Montana. Here, in the Boulder Valley, a Catholic church (built in 1880) sits amid vast fields of grain.

We arrived in Bozeman and went immediately to the Museum of the Rockies, which we've wanted to visit for many years. Unfortunately, like the remainder of this post, the pictures are few. I just found out that they request that you don't post the pictures you take on the internet, and that's fine with me since I didn't take any! (except for a few colorful frogs that I couldn't resist) That means you'll have to imagine the huge halls of dinosaurs, native American artifacts, and western history. That includes Choteau's most recent dinosaur find, the new genus and species of a hadrosaur (duck-billed) dinosaur, excavated under the supervision of my own, paleontologist yoga-teacher, Becca Hannah!

However, I took lots of pictures outside at the Living History Farm, a farmhouse, circa 1890, that depicts the life of a family of homesteaders. Their heirloom garden gave me LOTS to look at.

 And Harry was just as happy as I was.

 See how happy he looks as he waits?

As we walked through the house we kept noticing that the furnishings all looked like the interior of Harry's home. We saw familiar tables, chairs, cabinets, etc., and Harry saw familiar farm equipment outside. We thought it was particularly interesting that the crib in the baby's room is identical to the crib in which Harry and his siblings slept, and our kids, too!

Later that afternoon we headed to the Montana Ale Works, where we had a wonderful dinner. I left my iPod (camera) in the room, so there are no Clean-Plate-Club before and after pictures. We both mourned over that, as our meals were as beautiful as they were delicious! I had the Gallatin Salad, made of fresh greens picked locally (and topped with flowers) and Harry had Montana Meatloaf, made with bison meat, among other ingredients. We look forward to going back. Following the meal we headed to the Emerson Center for Brandi Carlile's show. Harry says it was yodeltastic. That's really misleading. Brandi is a rocker girl. When they bring out her electric guitar in the middle of a song and and she takes it up a notch in the middle of a phrase, you feel like you've been hit by a freight train. In a good way. Her long-time band is made up of twin brothers, and I won't venture into trying to describe their appeal to us girls. The concert was in an intimate venue, very similar to our Jefferson Center in Roanoke, and the crowd was great (and much younger than us). After she concluded the show the demand for an encore went on so long she played at least 15 more minutes (maybe more). We had a wonderful time.

The next morning, we took the long, but scenic way home, crossing through the Bridger Mountain Range, and emerging in the valley north of Livingston.

 This farm, with remnants visible of the original homesteaders, was almost surreal in its beauty.

 

Further down the road we screeched to a halt in front of this restored building (church?) in a field of hay.

Pictures cannot adequately show the view.

We headed north on Rt. 89, and met another cabin on the move.

Neihart and Monarch, tiny remnants of mining towns secluded in the Little Belt Mountains, have to maintain a sense of humor.

And we returned home to the new lilacs Laurie has added to the side of her house. It's been a neighborhood (girl) project to transplant them from one yard to another (there are now at least 3 more). Harry's surrounded and outnumbered by girl-power here.