Mountain time

Grace and I arrived with my mom and Mark at Chico on Wednesday night where we met up with the Bay Area contingent. We headed to the Saloon, where we were promptly kicked out because no kids in the bar after 8pm. Gotta have standards. Grace lived it up in the lobby, amazing since it was almost midnight by her clock, while we all caught up.

Party animal.

Next day, we all hung out at our cabin watching the Gracie show and playing a lot of "peek." Hit the hot springs, read while Grace caught up on some sleep, and had a generally nice day. More family arrived, including my dad and his sister who had been adventuring cross country in our car via Wall Drug (!!!), and I joined them to watch the game and wait to go the airport to get Steve. Lakers won, Steve lost. Bad weather left him stuck in the Denver airport overnight because they didn't hold his connection for ten minutes. It's not like the plane was going anywhere else from Bozeman that late at night. Poor guy was exhausted by the time we picked him up the next day at midday. Gracie was so happy to see her daddy - she basically demanded that he, and only he, carry her around the rest of the day.

Peek!

Pictures lie. She wasn't so into the hot springs.

Pretty much the only decent shot from the rehearsal.

We attended the rehearsal dinner that night, which was lovely and fun and marks the beginning of my collection of absolutely terrible photographs. Approximately no photos from the rehearsal, wedding or reception turned out. I guess I had the settings wrong for indoors. Hit the rehearsal after-party where Grace excitedly followed a puppy around until it licked her face and then she absolutely lost it. We headed back to the cabin to watch the sun fade over the mountains. All the non-wedding Montana photos are here.

We were determined to make it Yellowstone despite Steve's flight delays that had meant we couldn't go Friday. So we hit the highway to get there and back before pictures. We saw bona fide cowboys driving cattle on the way to the park. We did the northern loop of the park, an area we hadn't visited before, and saw grizzlies with cubs up close. Amazing. Just a handful of bison this time (last time we visited - five years ago almost to the day - bison were everywhere). Then, we came across another grizzly, this one with three cubs. There was a heard of elk nearby and the mama bear faced off with them. It was incredible to see, but the rangers were hurrying us along so we couldn't capture the national geographic moment. We jammed on back up the highway to Chico just in time to dress and coif for the wedding!

Yellowstone arch.

In the Mammoth area.

Mama bear.

Cubs.

National parkgoers.

I've been to Montana and Wyoming a couple of times now. Montana is known as "big sky country" and I'm always struck by just how apt that description is. I'm a coastal soul and get the jitters if I'm too far from an ocean, but that part of the country is spectacular. Some of my favorite vacation memories are of our trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons when we moved back to San Diego from DC. I always wonder when I visit if it would be as lovely to live there as the romantic daydream of baking bread and reading and watching the light fade over the mountains from the porch suggests. Maybe Steve really will fulfill his retirement dream of being the park doctor at Yellowstone and we'll find out. All the rest of the Y'stone picture here.