We spent Tuesday through Sunday at the campsite at Island Park. Despite many of our relatives being busy, almost everyone showed up for at least a little while.
Sitting around the fire pit, we have (from left) Uncle Kay, Amanda (cousin), Uncle Steve, Grandma Hill, Aunt Debbie, and Mom.
Traditionally, the Hill family reunions are spent in a camping style, though this has "evolved" over the years. This year the camp had a total of 4 RVs, two of which had working toilets, one of which had AC. All had electricity. We also brought up my uncle's new projector screen and, shining on the side of one of the RVs, had movie nights and played Guitar Hero 2 after dark. Ahh, it's so refreshing getting away from the city and going back to your wilderness roots.
Just like every year, there was quite a collection of pit-bikes, motorcycles, and 4-wheelers at the camp. It was really dusty this year, but what riding I did was fun. In the middle of the week, most of the heavy riders went up to a point on the mountain where my dad had been riding the year before. They mounted a plaque with his name on it. From the pictures I saw, the scenery up there looks gorgeous. Maybe next year I'll go visit the spot.
One of the highlights of most years is floating down the river nearby. It's a great way to cool off (and a good place to wash off all the dust and dirt). I floated thrice this year, resulting in only two accidental sunburn lines on my shoulders - a vast improvement from years past. The rest of my family got toasted though. Aloe Vera became the camp's prized possession.
Ben shows his support for Doritos new cheeseburger flavored chips.
Near the end of the week we decided to drive to Montana to visit a nearby "ghost town" of Virginia City. I have to say I prefer the actually abandoned kind of ghost towns over the refurbished into a dozen overpriced stores kind of ghost towns. But both are enjoyable in their own way.
Horses!
Ouch.
Right as we were halfway through town, a lot of wind started flying around, throwing dust everywhere. Eventually it rained, which was a really nice change in weather from the previous few days of unrelenting heat. We quickly ran through the rest of the town before heading a mile and a half down the road to Nevada City, where we hit the Music Hall.
Nevada City Music Hall
The music hall in Nevada City is probably my newest favorite thing in Montana ever. It had all these huge music machines that operated on pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters. We started out listening to some of the full band machines, and then tried out some of the player pianos. Some of them were a little disappointing, because you could tell that some instrument was missing or broken. One such machine claimed to be able to play a violin/piano duet. "Heralded as the 8th Wonder of the World!" You could tell the violin was trying to do something, but all you could hear was the occasional empty piano chord. Most of the machines were impressive with size if not sound, and the whole place was a sight to behold. Inevitably, someone started putting change in all the machines at the same time. You'd be surprised how much noise some of these archaic things could make.
I got a bunch of videos of the machines playing, but my camera died before getting many good still shots. I'll have to look into video uploading to see if I can easily share any of them.
Well, that's pretty much it for the highlight photos of my trip. I had a lot of fun. There are more photos if you're interested - you can check out the full album here.
Traditionally, the Hill family reunions are spent in a camping style, though this has "evolved" over the years. This year the camp had a total of 4 RVs, two of which had working toilets, one of which had AC. All had electricity. We also brought up my uncle's new projector screen and, shining on the side of one of the RVs, had movie nights and played Guitar Hero 2 after dark. Ahh, it's so refreshing getting away from the city and going back to your wilderness roots.
Just like every year, there was quite a collection of pit-bikes, motorcycles, and 4-wheelers at the camp. It was really dusty this year, but what riding I did was fun. In the middle of the week, most of the heavy riders went up to a point on the mountain where my dad had been riding the year before. They mounted a plaque with his name on it. From the pictures I saw, the scenery up there looks gorgeous. Maybe next year I'll go visit the spot.
One of the highlights of most years is floating down the river nearby. It's a great way to cool off (and a good place to wash off all the dust and dirt). I floated thrice this year, resulting in only two accidental sunburn lines on my shoulders - a vast improvement from years past. The rest of my family got toasted though. Aloe Vera became the camp's prized possession.
Ben shows his support for Doritos new cheeseburger flavored chips.
Near the end of the week we decided to drive to Montana to visit a nearby "ghost town" of Virginia City. I have to say I prefer the actually abandoned kind of ghost towns over the refurbished into a dozen overpriced stores kind of ghost towns. But both are enjoyable in their own way.
Horses!
Trains!
There were plenty of really neat things to see, though we passed up a $12 area train tour and a $7 horse-and-buggy city tour to explore on our own.
There were plenty of really neat things to see, though we passed up a $12 area train tour and a $7 horse-and-buggy city tour to explore on our own.
Ouch.
Right as we were halfway through town, a lot of wind started flying around, throwing dust everywhere. Eventually it rained, which was a really nice change in weather from the previous few days of unrelenting heat. We quickly ran through the rest of the town before heading a mile and a half down the road to Nevada City, where we hit the Music Hall.
Nevada City Music Hall
The music hall in Nevada City is probably my newest favorite thing in Montana ever. It had all these huge music machines that operated on pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters. We started out listening to some of the full band machines, and then tried out some of the player pianos. Some of them were a little disappointing, because you could tell that some instrument was missing or broken. One such machine claimed to be able to play a violin/piano duet. "Heralded as the 8th Wonder of the World!" You could tell the violin was trying to do something, but all you could hear was the occasional empty piano chord. Most of the machines were impressive with size if not sound, and the whole place was a sight to behold. Inevitably, someone started putting change in all the machines at the same time. You'd be surprised how much noise some of these archaic things could make.
I got a bunch of videos of the machines playing, but my camera died before getting many good still shots. I'll have to look into video uploading to see if I can easily share any of them.
Well, that's pretty much it for the highlight photos of my trip. I had a lot of fun. There are more photos if you're interested - you can check out the full album here.
4 comments:
this is cool!
The blog or the photo album?
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