Friday, March 8, 2013

An excuse to post more mountain pictures.

Morning in Montana
Never really blogged about our stay in Big Sky.  So I will now!

This was our third year staying in the same house on Low Dog Road, and our second with our friends Bill and Kat joining us.  And our third year having a great time skiing the ridges and peaks that make up Big Sky Ski Resort, and yet still somehow not having time to ski Moonlight Basin, just over the other side of the mountain.  I guess I found our reason to go back.

Our ski days are roughly the same:  in the driveway putting on our skis by 9, ski down the road to Thunder Wolf lift and get started.  Break for hot chocolate and french fries around 11, then a late lunch around 2, and try to be the last lift up in the afternoon at four.  If we hit the 3:59 lift then we would ski down Silver Knife back to our house around 4:20.  Then we'd hit the hot tub, fix dinner, play a few games, I'd fall asleep, and then bed. A single-minded, awesome vacation. 

Kat pretending that stretching will help the soreness later in the day.

Reading also made the agenda.
Kat and Darcy discussing breakfast possibilities.
Jack trying to will us to hurry up.
Bill and Jack planning that day's attack of the mountain.
Bill skiing down a little slope on Middle Road.  Kat is above him in white.
Matthew and Paige in the bowl.
Paige, Matthew and me huddling for warmth.  Look at that Blue Sky!
 We went out for dinner a couple of nights.  One night we were at the awesome Buck's T-4.  They specialize in wild game.  We had duck (roasted and bacon-ed), trout, elk, red deer, bison--a real carnivore's delight!
Jack enjoying his duck
Bill and me.
The two-hour time zone and a big meal made it hard for Darcy to keep her eyes open!

Another night we went to Montana Yurt.  This was a FUN excursion.  We met at the base of the resort and boarded snow cats for a trek up the mountain.  We even rode on the roof!  It was snowing pretty hard so I didn't get any pictures of that.  Once we arrived, we packed into a toasty, candle-lit yurt with about thirty of our now-close friends for soup.  Then it was back outside for sledding!
 


Inside the yurt dinner continued with beef tenderloin, salmon, and lots of yummy sides.  We finished with dessert but with all the great food earlier I have totally forgotten what we had!

After skiing for three days straight, we did take one day off to rest.  Everyone slept in, had a long breakfast, and then some of us headed into Bozeman for a little shopping.  They have some wonderful places for Western decor that is really hard to find in Georgia!  Since our basement is done in a cowboy theme I like to pick up a couple of things.  But then we were right back to the slopes on Thursday.
Jack's awesome new pants!
More french fries.
More game playing.
One knock on Big Sky is the cold, and, no doubt, it can be really cold.  You could see some of the blue, blue skies we had, and while the temperatures were often in the high teens, the wind can be frigid.  Helmets are good for warmth as well as protection!  The trade-off is wide-open slopes and huge terrain, especially for skiers.  None of us are great skiers (except Kat and possibly Paige) and Big Sky offered plenty of blue and green slopes to keep us happy for a week. 

Our last night we had a power outage!  We were without power for ten hours, so we made a fire and the kids camped out around it.  It was a cozy, if inconvenient, way to end another week in Winter Paradise.
Thank goodness we could find the candles!
One of the best parts of our vacation is sharing it with our friends.  Kat and Bill moved away a couple of years ago.  Before that, every one of my kids had had Kat as a Sunday School teacher along the way.  And we were in a small group in our church that became very close. 

C.S. Lewis talked about friendship and heaven in one of his science fiction novels, about how heaven would likely feel very much like a warm evening, glowing fire, good friends, a glass of wine and laughter.  Of course he said it better than that, but when we're together I can't help but feel like we are getting a little glimpse of heaven.  (Kat, when you read this I KNOW you'll know what I'm talking about!)

We awoke to six new inches of snow on our departure day.  Big, chunky flakes, like living inside a snowglobe!  But those freshies weren't meant for us, and we had to say goodbye for another year. 

Looking down Low Dog Road as we left.

Thanks for reading! 

2 comments:

PJ said...

Looks like fun, Cheryl. Thanks for posting. I'm glad someone enjoys the north and the cold!

Also, I couldn't help but notice that it appears you got some awesome bokeh in the picture with Bill and Kat. Just sayin ...

Cheryl said...

Yep--the new lens! Thanks.

I think I would enjoy it less if it lasted from October until April. And then mud season. But for one week in February? Bring it!