Hot Springs

Located in Hot Springs, the Symes Hotel is a mecca for, well, folks who want a soak.  All kinds of folks.  Folks on motorcycles, old hippies, new hippies, you name it.  I really felt like we were in the Twilight Zone.  A trip to the past, maybe the 50's?  You go into the lobby, and it looks as though it hasn't changed since the days of Nixon.  Down the hall to the dressing room, bath "cubbies" are on either side, where you can take a private soak in a clawfoot tub.  There are 3 pools; warm, warmer, and really  hot.  We stuck with warm.  A nice way to spend an afternoon!

Baked Goods!

We made our first trip out to Polebridge Mercantile, to have one of their "pasties", a meat filled sandwich baked in  homemade heavenly bread.  And cookies....

Flora

Today we hiked the Danny On trail, up Big Mounain.  Beautiful day for a hike, and there were lots of  flowers to be seen.  We just got new phones, and the camera on these things is crazy good!

Dinner with the kids

Enjoyed dinner with Amber and Mark, at a new restaurant we hadn't known about.  Tamarack Brewing, in Lakeside.  A beautiful drive past Flathead Lake, and outside seating next to a lovely creek.  Sorry the pic is blurred, either me moving or I smudged my lens...my bad!

Beautiful day for a hike

 The weather has cooled down, enough for us to want to get out and hike a bit.  We kept it local, over at Whitefish Trail this time.



















The overlook at Skyles Lake.  On June 6, a grizzly was sighted just below this overlook, sitting on a "kill".  We didn't see anything in the local paper, it was on Facebook.  Kind of close in for a grizzly, I thought.

 A new learning center pavilion has been built since last year, and is available to groups for many different uses.  The citizens of Whitefish are really dedicated to making their city a great place to visit and live.

Houston, we have a problem

Our trailer heater stopped working, and we kind of need it still in the mornings up here. Just to warm things up.  But Darrell was unable to remove the furnace, it was so buried under the stove, that we had to take the whole trailer in so they could fix it.  Just trying to save a few dollars, but no go.  Trailer and furnace were back the same day, fixed and ready to go.

Out and about

We did a 5 mile hike at Herron Park, and Luna paused to check out the flowers.

On Whitefish Lake, a bald eagle is looking for breakfast..

As we return..............

Happy to see Flathead Lake in the background, and Luna is happy to see any lake at all.....she frolics in Lake McDonald.

Along the way.......

 First stop was in Moab.  Some pretty views from our campground and an interesting promontory.

BACK TO WHITEFISH!

A visit to Creede, and other goings-on

Just beyond Creede is a 17 mile loop mine tour. Darrell wanted to take it, but I felt the truck was too big. We'll come back when we have the smaller car.

The local birds have finally discovered the feeder we put up.

Darrell and Luna went for a short hike on nearby Coyote Hill, about a mile up the road from our house.

Finally getting some pictures hung.

The local garden club, Mountain High gardeners, put on a spring expo. We gathered info on high elevation mountain gardening...lots to learn about this!

A day off

We decided a break was needed, so did some exploring downtown, and took a trip up the road north of our place to Williams reservoir. Ice was still on the lake, but we found an open area for Luna to swim.

The painting is going well, just need time between coats. Meanwhile, Darrell has assembled our closet organizers, and we have a home for our clothes.

Organizing and painting

 Our bedroom is now the hub of activity in our house.  After finally getting parts re-ordered and brought to us by a rep of the moving company, we have our bed assembled and sleep-ready.  Darrell is "assembling" another Ikea closet organizer, and re-configuring the closet so that things have a better place to hang.

As you can see, our Ikea Hemnes dresser fits perfectly into the cubby that we didn't know what to do with.  But......now that we look at things, our bed does not go.  With anything.  Much discussion, weighing all the options, has left us (me) with a new task.  I will paint the bed to match the dresser.
Onto the computer I get, and am amazed at the ingenuity of many young women out there who have painted their Ikea furniture.  A trip to the hardware store, some experimental paints, and I think I can do this.  Stay tuned.

TIMBER!

 Now in the state of Colorado, due to all the wildfires in previous years, in order for us to get homeowners' insurance, we had to comply with "defensible spaces" as dictated by our insurance company's underwriters.  That meant that we had to have the beautiful pine tree right outside our bedroom window taken down, along with cutting back 30 feet of Gambel oak.  Through this process, we have met a series of really nice people.  First, Chris, the arborist, who is an expert at doing this, and also Jack, a gnarly Coloradan in his late 70's, who comes and gets the downed wood for his own use.  Jack is very talkative, and he has familiarized us with several of the neighbors we haven't yet met, and has related at least one epic story of a camping trip where his buddy slept in a shower curtain.
As I write this, a few days after the tree event, most of the snow you see is gone with just a hill in front of the house where it slides off the roof.

Darrell took a quick video of the giant going down.

We now have a sizeable pile of wood mulch next to our house.  I had thought it would be good to spread in our landscaping efforts, but it is full of pine needles and not pretty stuff.  So much for my idea. We went out and bought a rake.......

The view from our front window, and things we have come to know.....so far

 Before we left Tucson, we visited Ikea in Phoenix and brought a truckload of "stuff" home with us to be moved along with everything else, knowing that shopping opportunities are limited in Pagosa, and even Durango.
Darrell has been assembling furiously since we landed, among his projects an entertainment center, under-counter lights, an 8 drawer dresser (which fit in its spot perfectly), and others too numerous to list.

Today we decided to take some time off for fun, and attended a local church (St Patrick's) parade and event.  We met and talked to some very nice local people, and enjoyed the good-natured, small-town hospitality.