Photo tour: Big Sky Country Vacation, part 2

As promised, I'm finally back with some more lovely photos from our trip out to Montana! It only took over a week, since I've recently been on a one-woman campaign to harvest acres of blueberries before they get overripe and spoil (it's a lost cause, but I'm valiantly persevering).

Anyway, now that I'm looking at photos like this:

Pixie at the Lake Koocanusa reservoir. All photos are my own.

....I'm kind of yearning to be back in that clear coolness instead of dealing with this:

No AC in our house besides the 2 window units in the kids' rooms upstairs :(

So, back to Montana via photos. This day, we spent the first part of the morning at the reservoir, where Little Man continued his Most Favorite Activity of throwing rocks into water. Pixie puttered around, picking out the pretty colored rocks.

This child has quite the pitching arm!

After awhile, we went to the fish hatchery nearby, where a great employee (who's worked there for over two decades) didn't mind a bit that we'd just dropped by; he took us on an impromptu tour and told us all about their process for breeding the beautiful rainbow trout and restocking them in the wild. It's much more complicated than I'd realized!

They keep the fish separated by both age group and sex. The water is provided by a nearby spring and is a consistent temperature, but they have alarms in place in case the water levels or temperature fluctuate. The employees are actually required to live in housing provided on site so that they're available to respond to alarms!

The part I liked is that he showed us the "old" fish and said that those basically get retired into city park ponds and such, to live the easy life :)

Little Man checking out the oldest fish. You can see a bit of one of the employee's houses in the top right corner.

Our busy morning made us hungry, so my sister took us to the tiniest corner restaurant (with just 3 small tables) run by an elderly Chinese woman who singlehandedly cooks everything fresh. It was the most delicious Chinese food I've ever tasted. Panda Express is ruined for me!

Pixie investigating the piece of orange chicken my sister shared with her.

Little Man's fortune was an entirely accurate description!

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Third time was the charm for fun on the high bridge over the reservoir!

Gathering rocks across the road from the end of the bridge

The kids thought that throwing rocks off the bridge far, far, faaaaaarrrr down into the water below was the most thrilling thing ever. They gleefully pitched their rocks over one by one, then raced back to gather more, over and over again. An activity guaranteed to wear out energetic little bodies, for sure!

Letting it fly!

And WAY down there is where they finally splashed!

View from on the bridge of the road along the edge of the reservoir.

Such delicate looking yet tough beauty.

Last lake visit

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Love the sunlight in the foreground--the shadowy mountains don't even look real!

At this lake, the kids played for a good part of the afternoon while my sister and I hung out and watched. A friendly dog wandered along, acting lost and worried, and then decided that we were his new best friends and hung out with us, too. At one point he meandered down the beach, and then burst back into view with a flock of angrily cawing ravens on the wing in front of him. They perched atop the bluff and in the trees and continued to hurl insults and complain for quite awhile. Later, he disappeared on the bluff behind us, and his reapproach was heralded by a large and beautiful red fox bursting off the top of the bluff and frantically running through the bushes on the slope until it disappeared into the high grass at the bottom. The dog seemed quite pleased with himself...and we were pleased to have seen the fox so close. I got no pictures of those adventures, though, so my kiddos will have to do.

A water Pixie

Part of the bluff (not where the fox was) further down. This evergreen is hanging precariously!

What a cloud sculpture!

Now the sunlight is on those mountains in the background. The kids were pushing the edges of the little sand cliffs into the water.

I realized that all of these pictures are from our last full day in Montana. Good thing we packed it full of fun!! The next day we got on the plane home; Montana to Chicago sure felt like a long flight, but the kids behaved perfectly. We were delayed getting into Chicago, leaving us with a very tight layover, and I was proud of the kids for following my directions so well and staying right with me as we hurriedly navigated across O'Hare.

Despite the unexpected time crunch, we made our flight in time! Going from Chicago to Pittsburgh, where my sister in law picked us up, was a snap. It was actually cheaper and easier to fly to near my in laws (several hours from where we live) for the night, and then have the Husband come get us the next day, than to attempt to fly into an airport anywhere near our house. Difficulties with air travel can be an unfortunate drawback of rural life, but I'll take it anyway :)

Snacks and entertainment, and he's good to go!

We got home just in time for summer to kick off into full swing and I've been BUSY ever since! I know I'm not the only homesteader letting Steemit suffer a little, though!