I've been pretty busy this summer so far. It looks like this summer is going to be one of the busiest I've ever had. I'm trying to make room for everything that has to get done, and all the deadlines are coming up!
So far, the most important news has been that my friend Adam had to move from Helena, and has made his way to Oregon. I've found that even though we're a three-hour drive away from each other that it's amazing that we have so many parallels in our lives.
Before he went back home, he came to visit me in Gardiner June 3-6. He wanted to see Yellowstone National Park again before he left. We didn't have any plans to do any hiking, but wanted to look at all the major sites along the roads. On Sunday, June 3, we went to Norris and walked around it for awhile. Then we drove by the Virginia Cascades between Norris and Canyon. That evening we saw a moose at Indian Creek. The moon was full and it was just rising when we got to Swan Lake Flat. The following day Adam and I went to Mud Volcano and the Old Faithful Geyser Basin.
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| A bull moose at Indian Creek |
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| A full moon over Cook Peak |
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| Old Faithful Geyser |
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| A hot spring in the Old Faithful Geyser Basin |
June 12-14 I went to Helena to visit him and help him move a bit. To be honest, he really did most of the work and had already gotten most of it taken care of anyway. It was good to hang out with him for these last few days before he moved to Oregon. Adam's dog Douglas knows me pretty well and I enjoy seeing him too. It's funny how Douglas likes to sit and sleep on our laps just like a cat.
While I was there, I discovered that there are no good Mexican restaurants there in Helena. That town is kind of funny because in some ways it's a very back-country sort of Montana town that is missing many amenities that are typical to western towns, but it has like three Starbucks. Bozeman, probably one of the most ideal Montana towns, just got their first full Starbucks with the opening of a new Safeway store. Housing in the Helena downtown area (where Adam has lived for the past year) looks better than many Montana towns, and so do people's cars, but the people look typical to a country Montana town without a lot of worldly influence. I don't know how that Health and Beauty Spa near Adam's house can keep in business with Helena's clientele! Restaurants in the Helena area are generally not that great, but on the surface Helena appears to have the typical restaurants that we expect to see in Western United States. I digress.
On Wednesday last week Adam and I went to watch The Avengers. I've been so out of touch with things because of my busy schedule that I hadn't seen it yet. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit.
We did most of the moving on Thursday June 14. I helped him a little with the cleaning. Adam seems like a pro at moving. It seemed as if he knew exactly where to put everything in the moving truck, even if he didn't look to see how big the space was for that particular piece of furniture or box.
I had to leave that evening because I had to be back at work Friday morning, but I sent him off with a hug. I'm going to miss him. It's been nice having a good friend like him in Helena, even three hours away.