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Sunday Snippet: The It’s a Real Snippet Edition
It’s been a healing week, mes amis. Trying to fight back the unholy tiredness that Covid has left me with and it’s slow going. Still not much appetite yet either, although that’s improving. I’ve found some things that sound good–cottage cheese, bread, fresh tomatoes, almonds, and water, always water. Had a glass of wine with lake pals, Mo and Cindy, last night and that was nice, too. On Thursday, Husband and I went by the winery here in our lake town to listen to music and discovered we were the only ones who were willing to brave the heat. We were so glad we did because we met an amazing…
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Sunday Snippet: The Temporarily Closed Edition
Mes Amis, Covid has grabbed me and shaken me like I’m a stuffed toy in the grip of wolf teeth… this stuff is wicked. I’m taking a break today… I’ll be back on Wednesday with a new Author Spotlight and will return next Sunday with a brand-new Sunday Snippet. Until then … zzzzzz… Gratitude for this week: So very grateful for my friend and fab travel buddy, Carol Light, who made me feel brave even in a strange new place; the Montana mountains were so gorgeous; visiting the Old West towns of Virginia City and Ennis; Yellowstone–wow, just wow! The glorious waterfall at Ousel Falls. Vaccines-this first bout with covid,…
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Montana Day 7: Purple Eater People
The bartender stopped in front of us. The drink he’d prepared was a creamy lavender beneath a white swirl of whipped cream. The Purple Russian, he explained, consists of huckleberry liqueur and local huckleberry whisky and vodka. Nan and I oohed and ahhed, although we weren’t tempted at that moment to order anything more than the iced teas we were consuming after our hike to Ousel Falls. We were too tired and thirsty for alcohol, no matter how pretty it was. Montana shops are full of everything huckleberry, and we’ve become fans. We’d already returned to the local grocery to buy more chocolate-covered huckleberry truffles. I purchased huckleberry-flavored lip gloss…
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Montana Day 6: More Yellowstone and We Shopped!
Today was an easy day–we drove back to West Yellowstone and wandered around the very, very tourist-centric town and shopped. We checked out several of the 7,896 souvenir and T-shirt and sweatshirt and Western wear stores (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but there were a LOT of stores!) West Yellowstone also has, interestingly, 40 restaurants in a town of only about 1,800 people. However, West Yellowstone gets at least 3, 375,000 visitors from all over the world every year, and I’m assuming they all want to eat. After all, we did. We had lunch at a fun 50s-style diner called Canyon Street Grill–black-and-white checkerboard floors, red vinyl booths, 50s decor,…
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Sunday Snippet: Day 5.5 Montana: Exploring Big Sky
Carol here, once again taking over Nan’s blog. We stayed local yesterday and started with Nan’s favorite vacation tradition–a shampoo and blow dry at the Hair Ninja. Leah was not only a terrific hair stylist (she calls herself a “hairapist”) but an excellent source of information about the area. Like many resort towns, Big Sky sees frequent turnover in local business staff and shortages in some critical fields, like medicine. The year-round population of 3000 quadruples in the winter months. However, housing prices are high, so skiers and snow boarders find it difficult to settle in the area for long. Some restaurant menus change year-to-year as chefs don’t return. There…
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Day 4 Montana: A Grand Day of Being Tourists
What a day! Carol and I decided to head north west to Ennis and Virginia City after our friend Jeannie had told us what a fun place it was. Lots of Western history, which fascinates both of us. We weren’t disappointed! Especially Virginia City was filled to the brim with the Old West, from a bunch of old shops and businesses set up just as they were back in the 1870s to stage coaches and hay wagons running through town. (Those were available for rides.) Every museum building had a story to tell and so many artifacts from 15o years ago. We really got the flavor of life in an…
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Day 3.5 Montana: We Were Slugs…
Nan here. Okay, maybe not entirely sluggish, but after we wandered around Big Sky for a couple of hours and had lunch at a very nice country club with a fantastic mountain view, we decided not to try to go up to Ousel Falls right then. Our plan was to take our tired, altitude-sick butts back to the condo and rest. Then change into our jeans and hiking shoes and go up to the falls. Ummmm…not so much, cuddling up in blankets and reading and honestly, napping, it was after five when we both came back to the world. A brief discussion later and we were reminded we still have…
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Day 2 In Montana: Yellowstone Adventures
As Nan is still agog over the sights we saw today at Yellowstone National Park, she asked me to blog in her place. Yesterday, when we realized how close we were to one of America’s most breathtaking natural wonders, we decided we had to visit Yellowstone. We headed south, actually crossing into Wyoming after we entered the park, which also extends into Idaho. The shear size of Yellowstone is one of its most amazing features. The friendly National Park Service employee who sold us our pass suggested that we explore the Lower Loop today. It’s a mere 96 miles and spoiler alert–we didn’t make it all the way around. If…
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Nan & Carol’s Big Adventure Montana Style
We’re here! After a combined 4 airports, we’ve arrived in Big Sky and wow! It truly is BIG here! Big mountains, big rivers, huge rocks and trees… it’s a little overwhelming but absolutely gorgeous country. I left my local airport at 8:30 a.m.; Carol left her local airport 10:15 a.m. and we met up in Denver Airport. Then we flew together to Bozeman–one of the cutest airports I’ve ever seen! There are bears and moose everywhere and some crazy huge bird hanging from the ceiling! There’s even a convenient bin to dispose of your bear spray, which made us laugh. The whole airport was mountain stone and cedar beams–really pretty…
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Author Spotlight: Debra Salonen Has Books and a Giveaway!
We have a winner! Congratulations to Glenda Martillotti! You are Deb’s giveaway winner! Deb will be in touch with you! Thanks to everyone who stopped by–we love talking to and getting to know our readers! I love turning the blog over to my favorite authors and today, it belongs to my buddy and fellow Tule author, Debra Salonen! Former award-winning newspaper journalist Debra Salonen is a nationally bestselling author with 26 published novels for Harlequin’s Superromance and American lines and one single title release for Harlequin Signature. Several of her titles were nominated for “Best Superromance,” including UNTIL HE MET RACHEL, which took home that honor in 2010. Debra was…