Abalone Cove

At my new job, a professor was telling me about his favorite place to get away from it all.  He said that there is a place where you would be lucky to come across another soul. After spending quite a while in Montana, both Owen and I were feeling overwhelmed by constantly being around people, so we decided to check out Abalone Cove.

Here are some pretty important details that are not in the pictures:

1) Imagine , if you can, the most AMAZING mansions you have ever seen in your entire life just out of sight to the left of  this very first picture.  I made Owen drive slow so I could take pictures of each of them....but deleted them as soon as we got home because I started to feel creepy about myself. So, long story short, you are going to have to use your imagination and trust me when I say they were awesome.

2) Just on the other side of the Cove, is the Trump Golf Course- interesting fact: the 18th hole fell into the ocean!

3) Just across the street is Wayfarer's Chapel.  The walls of the church are made with glass so you can see the ocean and all of the super amazing mansions while you are praying/getting married, etc.  Jane Mansfield, Brian Wilson, and Dennis Hopper have all been married there.  Like the mansions and the view- it was awesome.


As you can see below, this is not the type of beach that you take a nap on- its a huge conglomerate of tide pools.

4) The definition of "you wont come across another soul" now comes into question- if we were to take that literally, we ran in to about 100 people at Abalone Cove who did not have souls.  Needless to say, it was not the secluded beach we were envisioning, but it was absolutely beautiful!

We spent a good two hours poking around and decided to leave after I fell in not just once, but twice! To date, this is one of my absolute favorite CA beaches.

Back to CA!

Well, MT, it was fun but it is back to CA we go!

To celebrate our return to warmer weather, I decided to buy a car! Below is Lucille, she is a beaut! I named her after my grandma and keep a picture of my grandpa in the sun visor for good measure.

Butte America

There is one place on earth that fascinates me more than anywhere else, Butte! I am convinced that I was an Irish miner (or a miner's wife because I am kind of a sally when it comes to sweating and getting dirty) in a past life.  Since my first year in college, I would often call my mom and tell her I would be late because I had to stop and explore Butte America.

My first experience in Butte was near death in nature- I was traveling home to Stevensville, but wanted to see the Berkeley Pit.  I was determined to see the giant pool of toxic water that everyone said was pitch black and would kill geese and ducks if they landed in it.  I stopped and asked a gas station attendant for directions, and the kind man told me to turn left at the gate and keep on goin'! So, I jumped back in my car and followed his directions exactly.  I turned left at the gate (note: gate had a sign that was promptly ignored that read "No Trespassing. Active Mine".  I thought, "Duh- the Berkeley Pit is an active mine, and it super poisonous...they don't want just any yahoos driving around here..."I continued driving into what was turning into the side of a mountain.  Still unconcerned, I turned my headlights on and rationalized that the pit was on the other side of this nifty tunnel.  Moments later, a loader the size of a 5 story building with lights as bright as little baby suns came at me! I immediately started crying and threw my car in reverse! I made it out of the tunnel, turned around, and headed back to the gate finally convinced that maybe this was not the correct left turn I was supposed to take.  By the time I made it to the bottom of the hill, the gate was closed.  There was an emergency phone posted by the gate, and figured I had to swallow my pride and ask someone to open the gate for me so I could get home!  Sobbing, I picked up the phone which automatically called some kind of control office.
"This is Dave.."
"Hi Dave, can you please open the gate?"
"Who is this? What are you doing in here? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
Sobbing, once again.."This is Kandi Raymond.  I'm trying to find the Berkeley Pit and now I just want to go home.  Will you please let me out?"


Later, after seeing the Berkeley Pit (which is conveniently located right off of a main road) I realized that my fascination was warranted, and I was definitely obsessed with Butte!

Mom and I recently took a trip to Butte to see Lindsay and she was our personal tour guide.  Although Lindsay and I usually go exploring for a little bit of trouble each time I visit (usually I try to convince her to help me break in to some old homes that have been abandoned so we can see whats inside, or pick a fight with someone at a bar), but we decided to tone it down and give mom a tour.  Lindsay is not only a Butte native, but she is a Butte historian with a lot a crazy stories!

This is just a creepy picture for your viewing pleasure.

This gem is the Dumas Brothel.  Back in the day, Butte had a booming red light district.  The Dumas was one of the busiest places in town! It is rumored to be haunted and we even ran into Chris Fisk, who has been investigating the activity there. Click the link below to take a look at Tipsy History with Fisk to catch up on your Dumas history!

Tipsy History With Fisk


Owen's senior year of college, he played Manus Duggan, a real life hero in Butte. To prepare for the role, he grew a massive beard and only talked with an Irish accent for a good two months. I believe that is called method acting??



Anyways.....


Here is the story of Manus: (Lindsay, jump in here if I get anything messed up!)  Manus was a miner who was trapped underground during the Granite Mountain-Speculator fire.  Because of his efforts, many men made it out alive, but Manus' body was never recovered.  The only trace they found of him was notes that he wrote to his wife and his mother. 168 men died in the fire underneath Butte.

We have made a date with Fisk to go ghost hunting this summer at the Dumas! And, it is kind of unspoken, but Lindsay and I have many more dates lined up to find some trouble around Butte.

Sledding!!

Meggie, Ryan, and I took Olivia sledding! It was cold, but Olivia was up for it! Mostly, Ryan did all of the work- pulling us up the mountain in the tube.  Meggie only braved the mountain one time after repeating over and over that she didn't want to do it.  After giving in to a little bit of peer pressure, Meggs and Olivia followed Ryan up the mountain while I stayed behind to watch Colt who was sleeping in the car.  I laughed SO hard, because I was at least 100 yards away, and I could hear Meggie screaming louder than any other kid on that hill. As soon as the screaming stopped, Olivia popped off the tube and started walking toward me, she was done. I walked toward her, scooped her up, and she said "my daddy is in so much trouble..." Absolutely precious.

I would also like it on record that I take everything I ever said about hating snow...

Olivia and Colt

It's no secret that Meggie and I have had our battles. As early as I can remember, I've purposefully been pushing her buttons, telling on her, framing her in harmless crimes, hitting her with blunt objects, getting even, sabotaging her diets with cheesecake (all true stories) ...all the things a big sister does to a little sister.  Our relationship has not always been easy.  We spent a lot of time growing up hugging, not because we wanted to, but because that is what our mom made us do when we would fight, and I am so thankful she did.  I love watching Olivia and Colt, two innocent precious babies who sometimes just want to fit a good hair pulling in with a hug. I have a feeling that these two will also spend a lot of time hugging in the future, and they will be thick as thieves for it.

Colt pulling an Uncle Russ- that tinted chap stick will get you every time!

FYI...you don't mess around taking pictures when you have two kids in the bath...

 

I'm a Bitterrooter

Granted, this very first picture was taken a few years ago, but I wanted to show how beautiful the Bitterroot Valley is.  There is nothing like crisp, clean air to wake you up in the morning, and nothing like pure quietness to put you to sleep at night.

This fish was caught the summer after my first year at college.  Katie and I decided to go fishing on her property and we found ourselves a honey hole! Right after she snapped this picture, my fish freaked out and literally slapped her across the face...

Hamilton, MT 2013

The view from my back yard! New Year's Evening, Stevensville, MT 2013

My favorite view driving home! There is nothing better than driving down the valley and being surrounded by the mountains!

My Grandpa

It has been a while since my grandpa has passed, but I often still find myself missing him and his sense of humor, especially at the holidays.  I remember many great Christmas and Thanksgiving days with him and this year was especially hard since his house is now up for sale. After the new year, my mom decided that I needed to make peace with grandpa being gone and the house being for sale so we took a trip up to Charlo, MT so I could really say goodbye.

I've always thought of my grandpa as a pioneer.  In 3rd grade, I wrote a report on my grandpa because I thought he was one of a kind.  He was a ditch rider, a barber, a taxidermist, a gardener, a neighbor, a brother, and a friend. He could graft trees so it would grow apples on one side, plums on the other! I loved hearing all of his stories: he got kicked out of school for putting a snake (or was it a skunk?) in his teachers desk (I think the answer depends on who is telling this one), he put rubber fishing worms in his co-workers sandwiches at lunch time, and once convinced my mom to walk into a cave full of bats. He was always up for a good prank.

As a kid, going to see grandma and grandpa meant 3 things: 1) There will be dessert and it is ok (and even encouraged) to eat it before dinner, 2) There will be a fight over who gets to ride the riding lawn mower, and 3) There will be some kind of animal to play with, mostly unsupervised.

The animals: Grandpa raised birds, pigeons, pheasants, chickens, turkeys, etc. He had a chicken coop, a bird barn, a small fish pond, and a green house that was overrun with a different animal every few months (it was always exciting to visit, because you never knew what you would find.)  I can remember being very little and going out to the coop with my brother and sister to collect eggs and feed the birds every morning when we would visit. As we got older, we should have gotten in more trouble...

Meggie and I loved to pet grandpa's fish until they would go to "sleep" (fish heaven).  My poor grandpa probably bought hundreds of fish because each time we came by, we weren't leaving until all of the fish were sleeping.  I thought I had an amazing talent until 2nd grade when my teacher revealed that fish died out of water.

Its no secret that my brother is deathly afraid of mice.  One time, we were messing around in the bird barn right after grandpa specifically said "be sure not to let any of the birds out."  Since Russ was the oldest, it was his duty to go first to make sure there was nothing scary up there that could hurt his little sisters.  As the second oldest, it was my job to open the door and push him in!   Russ climbed the ladder, I opened the door,  a mouse came catapulting at Russ's face, Russ screams and throws himself off the ladder.  I thought by the caliber of his scream that there was a wild tiger in the bird barn so I booked it for the house- Meggie was left to fend for herself.  All of the pigeons that were in the barn flew out.  The three of us tried to come up with some kind of story to explain why we had done specifically what grandpa said not to do, but we figured that honesty was the best policy: Russ almost died.  Thankfully, he is alive, but the pigeons are gone.  Grandpa wasn't mad-

I also remember hunting for night crawlers when I was much older with grandpa in the back yard.  I was fully prepared to do most of the work since grandpa was getting up there in age.  He brought us to the side of the house which was the flower garden. Prepared with a bucket and a flashlight, we got to work.  Before we had been out there for two minutes, grandpa launched a glob of dirt that hit me smack in the side of my face. I was confused...I am sure it is a sin to hit your own grandpa with a glob of mud...he smiled and took advantage of my moral contemplation and hit me again! It was on!

So many good memories...

Grandpa was a twin! Bill (on the left) and Lewis, my grandpa, on the right.

During our trip to Charlo, we stopped to see Uncle Del (left) who is grandpa's brother.  He will be 93 on the 10th.  He had a stroke a few weeks ago, but must be doing ok, because he was out feeding horses when we pulled in! It was hard for me to listed to him talk, because he sounds so much and looks just like my grandpa who I miss so much.  It was good to see him- he told lots of good stories and even cracked himself up-often. He told me that he and grandpa saw each other every day for coffee, and they always had something to talk about.

The last time I talked to my grandpa, he was having a small heart attack in the hospital and still answered the phone.  It scared me, so I hung up. He called later to make sure that I was ok and to tell me that he loved me.  

When we went to Charlo to see grandpa's house, it didn't look at all like the place that we loved so much growing up.  The chicken coop was gone, the bird barns were gone, the fish pond had been filled in, and green house was uninhabited for the first time. The place that we loved so much as kids was only special because of the people who were inside the house.