Billings, MT, June 24

Started the day with a visit to Pictograph Cave State Park. It's a beautiful place, but the pictographs are really hard to see. Some are hidden by a layer of minerals on top, some are really faint, parts have eroded, etc. but still really interesting to see. The figures are quite different than we saw in the southwest. The photo is of a rockfall just last year! That part of the trail is closed.

Next stop was the Western Heritage Center. It's a small museum, but we got to hear a talk about bats and later in the day for a guided walk around an interesting part of Billings. In between the bats and the walking tour, we visited another interesting small museum called the Yellowstone County Museum. Some fantastic beadwork and also an interesting exhibit about different kinds of sidesaddles (and how Montana women led the way in getting rid of them).

Dinner at a cider mill. We don't know anything about cider, but the waitress asked what we liked for beer and wine, and brought us two to taste. Both were really good, but we chose one made from Jonathan apples and was quite dry. For the good part, we split a portobello mushroom burger and a salad with smoked salmon. Yum!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nashville, TN, Day 1, July 15

Image
The day started with exciting news: we can move into our new home on Aug. 10! Don't know yet if we can have our furniture delivered that day, but it'll be close! The porch won't be finished yet, but they're letting us go ahead and move in. OK: back to the regularly scheduled program. Started with a walking tour that was about the history of Nashville including, of course, important places related to country music but not limited to that. Women's suffrage passed by 1 vote after one state representative changed his vote to spruce it after being lobbied by his mother. Bike racks and bus stops have musical motifs. We visited both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the new National Museum of African-American Music. The latter was dealing with the whole history of African-American music from slave times to the present. The Country Music museum was mostly about the headliners (and the wild costumes and sometimes instruments), but had a special exhibit about Boud...
Read more

Albuquerque, NM, Day 2, May 28

Image
Museum day today. First the Turquoise Museum. We enjoyed the museum (tons of information about everything turquoise), including some of the clever ways Fake turquoise has been made over the years, some beautiful jewelry and other art and tons of turquoise (the real kind) showing off the amazing variety of colors. We probably spent as much time taking with the owner (who created the privately held museum) as we did looking at stuff. Then to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. First lunch. Their cafe is known for a modern take on traditional foods, though it seems lines between Indian food and New Mexican food aren't so clear. Anyway we had a feast with three kinds of stew (red, green and pozole), plus a Jemez enchilada, a salad with fried cactus and bread pudding. We're having more of it for dinner!  After lunch, a dance performance with some dancers from the Acoma pueblo. It was a "buffalo dance" though for this performance there was no buffalo--but there was an antelo...
Read more

Laramie, WY -- Flaming Gorge, UT -- Vernal, UT, June 13

Image
Mostly a travel day, but we had time to drive through the spectacular Flaming Gorge area, and stop at the Red Canyon Visitor Center for a short walk and to admire the views of the Green River reservoir and, of course, the rocks. They carded us at dinner to make sure we're old enough to drink! Haven't had that happen in donkey's years. (Turns out they just check everyone's ID to maker it easier on the wait staff.)
Read more