Our First Out of Town Visitors That We Didn't Put to Work!

A couple of weeks ago we had our first set of out of town visitors. Chad's Grandparents and Aunt Cindy came out to visit us and we were so excited to have the company and see everyone.

The dogs were VERY excited to see our visitors. At first, Ty put on the Mr. Tough Guy act and barked at them every time they moved. He soon realized "Hey, these people will pet me and probably give me treats if I quit acting like a jerk", so he settled down eventually. Ty was also very happy to have some folks to talk to. Grace was her timid self at first, but then realized that she had three more sets of hands that she can force to pet her at all times (and she definitely took advantage of this throughout the visit).

Our guests had a slight reprieve from the Oklahoma heat and even experienced a cloudy and cool day which required them to wear jackets. They also got to experience a day in which I thought it was unbearably hot, but I am a wimp and hate any temperature above 75 degrees so my judgment probably shouldn't be trusted in this matter.

During their visit, Chad and I had an opportunity to play tourist in Lewistown- which we don't get to do very often and it was a lot of fun! On Friday afternoon, we went to the golf course for lunch. The cloudy weather was obstructing the gorgeous views of the mountains but it was still nice. We shipped Chad back to work for a few more hours and made our way to the Central Montana Museum. Surprisingly, the museum was really, really neat and is now added on the "must-see" list for any out of town guests we have. From the outside, it looks kind of small and not too impressive, but it was packed with a ton of great items and gave an in-depth look at Central Montana and Lewistwon history. It was neat to see that many of the families that first settled in the Lewistown area are still present in today's society. What a legacy to be proud of! We'll get the Williams clan up and running in no time.

Of course, we had to take our visitors to The Mint for dinner. We love this place, great food and great people. The Mint has a long history and has a few different locations throughout the state of Montana and Wyoming. Most of The Mints across the state are known for being pretty rough places that only locals frequent. Not The Mint in Lewistown. The current owners turned the image of the rough local bar upside down when it converted the bar into the nicest dining establishment in town.



On Saturday morning, we went to one of the local restaurants for breakfast. This place seriously has some of the largest pancakes known to man kind, so we advise against ordering the short stack unless you are trying to feed a small army. After breakfast we were off for a drive to the mountains! There is a great area about 25 miles away from town called Crystal Lake, so we set that as our destination. Crystal Lake is located in the Big Snowy Mountains and is an awesome lake known for canoeing and fishing. The lake itself is pretty shallow (only getting to about 13 feet at the peak of the snowmelt and around 5 feet at the end of the summer), but it is a gorgeous setting. The lake is surrounded by beautiful limestone cliffs. Here is a picture of Crystal Lake:



We hiked a ways around the lake, here is the gang on our hike:



After Crystal Lake, we headed to the Dash Inn for some lunch and then off to the Fish Hatchery! The Dash Inn is a local burger stand and has the delicious sandwiches called the Wagon Wheels and amazing onion rings, french fries, tater tots- oh heck, any of the fried food the Dash Inn offers is amazing. Fried food, good and good for you!

The Fish hatchery just outside of town raises a few different species of trout and salmon in which public reservoirs and rivers are stocked with. The grounds are kept up really well and a park has been created at the hatchery for visitors to enjoy. You get to see the large holding tanks where the fish are raised:



A few of the humungous fish that have been raised in the hatchery. These guys will eventually be let out in the children's Frog Ponds in town to give local kids an opportunity to land one of these monster fish- well only if Chad and I don't catch these fish first, muwhahaha:



One of the springs also pops up at the hatchery, it is really neat to just see all of this water magically coming out of the ground. They turned this area into a nice place to picnic or just take a nice stroll.



Just watch your step though, I almost stepped on a garter snake. Just a little guy, about 16 inches long or so. A little side story about me and snakes: I have a knack for finding snakes any place I go (well not any place, but dang near any place) . This is not a talent that I am proud of because I absolutely hate snakes. The first hike Chad and I ever took together was out at Lake Thunderbird. I think we had only been dating for a few months, so I was still trying to act super cool. We got to a part of the trail that required us to go up hill, so I jog up the hill and immediately screached inadudible words then tried to climb up Chad. There was a huge king snake (5 or 6 feet long! no lie) sunning itself on a rock at the top of the hill. The snake was probably more scared of me and my screaches because it was out of there in no time flat! Needless to say, this was the not the super cool status I was trying to achieve and to this day I still get teased for disturbing every creature in the forest and trying to climb Chad.

On Sunday, we went to the Yogo Inn for breakfast and it was delicious. French toast made out of cinnamon rolls? OK!!! We definitely did not go hungry during our guests' visit. Then Chad and his Grandparents were off for a drive to the top of Judith Peak. A few hours later, they came back to the house with some rocks in hand. I was hoping that these rocks contained some Yogo sapphires, but no such luck. The rocks were unique though because they contained black quartz that is only found in this one area of Central Montana. Chad said he was going to make me a necklace out of the black quartz, but I am estimating this will be completed somtime after we retire. I have requested a Yogo sapphire necklace in the meantime, I think this is a fair deal and I know Chad agrees.

Having our family in town was so great. Not only to catch up with everyone and hang out, but it pulled us away from our chores and really made us enjoy the great area we live in. House chores will be neverending, but we only have one life to live so we better get outside and start enjoying what Montana has to offer! Not to mention, we only have a few months of great weather every year to really get away and explore- but I probably should have said that we have GREAT weather year round and welcome guests anytime of year!! The winters in Montana are especially glorious and is an experience one should not miss!!!