Montana adventure – days 7 and 8

I always hate to admit it, but about day 6 of any vacation, I begin to get homesick. It’s silly… I have my mom and my dog with me, but the undeniable fact is that I’m a LONG way from home.

As if to make sure I feel welcome, the last couple of days have been spent with good friends of the family, the Dunbars. Laurie is my Mom’s best friend since… 1st grade? Her children, Bonnie, Amber, and Jeremy, were my main playmates when I was over here during the summer. We’ve spent the last few days laughing and touring and eating together (without Jeremy, sorry.)

Mom (Maggie), Laurie, and Ray.

On Friday, I got up and took a cold and wet walk with Key to Hieronymus Park (say that fast). All sensible birds were holed up someplace warm.

The park has neat interpretive signs. I am putting this one up for a friend who I think will enjoy it.

We then met up with Laurie and after lunch went out (again) to Metcalf.

On the way home, we saw this dark morph red tail hawk at the Teller reserve.

Today (Saturday), the weather couldn’t have been more different (at least initially).

Hieronymus Park was teeming with little brown birds; I was fooled by yesterday’s lack of birds, I didn’t take my camera. But my binoculars served me well, and we barely made it back to the house in time to meet with the crew to tour the Hamilton farmer’s market (awesome), window shop the downtown, eat lunch at the local brewery, and finally hit the yarn store where I got a couple of “orders” that will keep me busy for a little while.

A brief stop at the house to unload my purchases, and we were off to tour the south valley and have dinner. I’ll leave you with these images. You can judge how it was.