When I moved to Montana I knew that my Grandpa’s brother, Skip, lived here, but not that he had an entire clan of folks that share my last name! On Saturday I got a chance to meet the whole clan at my first ever family reunion. We headed up the Bitterroot to Darby, which is about an hour from Missoula. We made it to the secret family camp site just in time to watch the kids race their homemade boats down the river and to fish a bit.
Boat Races
There were 6 dogs roaming around, Blue was in heaven
Skip’s four sons then had a “dads” boat race down the rushing part of the river with boats made out of full beers and duct tape.
The winning dad with his beer boat
Fishin'
The clan
Sadly, we had to head back to Missoula and on the way we saw the first wildfire of the season. Fire season reminds me of mud season in Vermont, but instead of the annoyance of getting your truck stuck in the mud, you would be annoyed that it burned down. There is still snow in the mountains here and at the same time fires are burning – baffling really. The fire that we saw up Kootenai Creek is a mere 780 acres of burning, which is small compared to the fires that will be burning all over the west in August.
Since we were passing by and don’t get to Lolo (a town and peak just outside of Missoula) all that often we took the chance to stop and get a big piece of meat at the local steakhouse. Guy’s Lolo Steakhouse is AMAZING, if you have the stomach for eating and looking at dead animals. Also, the bottles of wine are about $20 – I kid you not! Their decore is very, ahem, well, Montana.
Mmmmmmm, bring it on
This guy teetered above our table
Poor little pussy cat
Did you know that wolverines really exist? I thought that they were made up for the X-Men movies. It turns out that they are vicious and illusive and live in my new neck of the woods. Not too illusive for the hunters at Lolo Steakhouse!
The real Wolverine, way hotter then Hugh Jackman
Big Sky Bound 