Whitefish Part I

Our wonderful friends, Neil and Allison, generously invited us to join them in Whitefish, Montana area, for part of the week in the middle of July. We drove the beautiful road to see them, planning on taking the Road to the Sun. As we got to the summit of the pass with rain coming down in torrents, the road was suddenly closed off because of rock slides. We had missed the slides by a mere 5 minutes (a trip for lunch at a drive through had set us back about that much time), which meant that we had to turn around and retrace our steps. Our journey was extended by a few hours as a result, but we also picked up a stranded paddler by the name of Halliburton from Atlanta, who kept us company and told us many stories about kayaking rivers both large and small. Our destination was Columbia Falls and our condo was in the Meadown Lake complex.

It was beautiful!! The complex included a pool and hot tub, a golf course, and many other amenities. Bevan and I had our own private suite with a soaker tub and a kitchenette.

Golf was the first order of business the next day, which I did not take pictures of. This is probably a good thing, since most of us were not completely happy with our games. However, the course itself was very nice. For the evening, though, we made our way to Whitefish to see the Conrad Mansion, an historical building built in the mid-1800's. It was certainly big...

But my favourite part was the teeny tiny Conrad Cat Door. The Conrad cat was mostly plain and highly standoff-ish I thought.

Afterward, we drove to Polson for our dinner cruise on Flathead Lake. Here's me, waiting to board.

Once on, we were treated to a pretty mediocre Italian feast, but then what can one expect for a $30 night of entertainment. Happily, the company..

And the scenery....

Was enough to make up for the dining deficiencies. After the meal, we got to walk around to enjoy the outdoors and the sights.

As the sun went down, it was satisfying to feel the wind and the lake air while boating. Since we chose not to take our Dragonfly out this summer, we had been craving some water time.

And we got to see the sun set in this beautiful place.

We made our way home, and got up early the next day to go biking. Our day was 5 hours of mountain biking, beginning in the West Glacier area.

We climbed many steep hills and enjoyed the natural sights.

A little gas station provided us with a place to eat our packed lunch.

Then we found our way to a steep hike up to Apgar lookout, a 2 hour hike up the side of the mountain, which everyone promised had a view that made the effort worth it. As we started out, a few people warned us that it was "hat". And it was. The trail was challenging.

Too challenging, it turned out, for Bevan, who got overheated and just plain exhausted. So I threw him on my back and took him back down the hill. (This is not entirely true, as he walked, but I think he would have welcomed a carrying. An APGAR, as Neil reminded us, is a composite score given to newly delivered babies to measure their responsiveness and health. Bevan would have scored poorly with an APGAR at that point.) Neil and Allison went on, but before Bevan and I turned around, I snapped a picture from where we were.

Then we began the hour long trek down. Near the end, we found a chilly creek to cool our feet and restore Bevan back to health.

And then we made our way home. It was a wonderful beginning to a trip that just got better and better.

Dino

On Wednesday, we said goodbye to Dino (aka, Mr. Dino, Uncle Dino, Dino Nino), who has been our loyal and lovable pet for almost 15 years.

Over the last few years, he had been getting old, and with age, his health had deteriorated. This summer, he didn't want to go outside; instead, he preferred to remain in his bed for the most part. His kidneys and liver were failing, he had very high blood pressure, he was in tremendous pain, and he was virtually deaf and blind. His diet included special food with a variety of pills:

Because he had become so sensory deprived (or just confused), we would often find him just staring at walls:

He commonly had problems on the stairs and suffered some startling falls, and he was becoming incontinent, so we had begun to crate him while we were at work. Dino, who had always been the most gentle and obedient of dogs, would get very aggressive, almost biting us on a daily basis:

He had changed a great deal, just like people do sometimes when they begin to fail physically and mentally due to old age. It was with tremendous sadness that we made the decision to say goodbye. The girls and I had the vet take his pawprints in clay and be fired. They will be mounted in a frame with his picture, so that we can remember him. While going through our Dino pictures, there were many of him down a gopher hole or covered in mud, but the one below is of Dino on a walk or run with me on a path in Carbon. That is the way I remember him best.

So this is to Dino:
marathon runner, gopher digger, leg licker, hair shedder, people greeter, greedy eater, awkward snuggler, confused swimmer, focused hunter, quick learner, food gobbler, enthusiastic exerciser, sneaky escaper, destructive toy-chewer, ball chaser, fast racer, champion poser, golden retriever lover, kid protector, and human charmer. Our faithful friend.

Lovin' Summer

It has been a long time since I've written something here. Consequently, the last pictures I posted are from a completely different season. It is SUMMER. Glorious summer. And my yard is in full bloom. The flowers are coming out beautifully.

I'm proud of how it looks all together, but the individual beauties are even better. Here are some of my favourites.

The Snowdrop Anemone

The Peony

The Painted Daisy

The Bleeding Heart

The Globe Flower

The Iris

The Rock Garden

I'm always so happy to get out in my yard to tend these babies once the sun starts shining! What about you? What are you working on in your yard while the weather is warm?