Saturday, November 13, 2010

Five years ago today ...


Rick and I flew into Helena, Montana to check out possible homes to buy. Helena is the capital of Montana and that was originally where we planned on relocating. We even had a bid on a home, but after an escrow on our house fell through, we lost it. It was a beautiful home. The front hallway had tiles on the floor with images of northwestern wildlife imprinted on them. We were really sad to lose it. We made two flights to Helena to look, but each time something went wrong with the sale of our house and we weren't able to purchase a home. We finally changed realtors and that helped things tremendously. However, it wasn't until September 2006 that we began looking seriously again. This time we looked further north in the Flathead Valley. That's how we settled upon our house in Bigfork.

We've only lived here 4 years, but I often wonder how our lives would be different if we had moved to Helena. One big issue was that Helena is the state capital and more job opportunities would have been available for Rick. It is also much closer to the Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks, so I'm sure we'd be spending more time at those places. However, Helena is a lot flatter and pretty windy. The weather is also milder, from what I've heard, and I like our dramatic seasons. Helena doesn't have the beautiful mountain ranges like the Flathead, such as the Mission Mountains and the Swan Range. I often forget how flat Montana is because I'm surrounded by beautiful mountains. It's another story as soon I drive somewhere and realize how much of Montana is prairie land. We're less than an hour from Glacier National Park, so we're able to experience the park at all times of the year, even in the winter when we've gone snowshoeing around Lake McDonald. To us, "a day in the park" means spending the day in a national park. This is still surreal to me, having come from California where the closest national park to us meant a 6-hour drive.

I was looking through some of the photographs we took on that trip to Helena in 2005. Some of the homes were amazing. I'm sure we would have been happy living in any of them. It just wasn't meant to be, I suppose. I also found this picture above of a painted bear. These bears were all over Helena, but I think this is the only one I got a picture of. This particular one looks like it was painted by children. I can't seem to find a link of them all, but each one was painted different. West Yellowstone, Montana had a similar thing with painted bison, but I believe they were supposed to be auctioned off. We saw some last time we were there, so maybe some were bought by local businesses. I've posted a few of those pictures before. I guess they call them buffalo now. Not sure when everyone changed back to that, but to me they'll always be bison. Cheyenne, Wyoming had giant, painted cowboy boots, though I am not sure if they're still up as well. I hope so. Anyway, it was strange to think that it was exactly 5 years ago today that we started this entire process of moving from California to Montana. It was a huge change for us -- a good change.

9 comments:

  1. You were wise to follow a different path.... sometimes it isn't what we think we would have chosen, but it seems that things actually work out for the best.

    I am happy you love your new home. Where we came from in NJ (to NH 6 years ago) we had the Painted Cow Parade. My former boss at the travel agency where I worked had purchased 6 of the painted cows for charity and they were located all over the 3 storys of his corporate offices.

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  2. I think the painted animal thing happened in a lot of cities. Lexington, KY did horses. I think Chicago did Bulls -or was it Bears? Here in Cincinnati they did pigs, since Cincy was once known as Porkopolis. The pigs are fabulous, and you can find them all over the county. Personally, I love your home -even if I've never seen it. I can't imagine that Helena would have provided the same backyard entertainment!

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  3. They had stuff like that in NY called The Cow Parade, then in Tampa, in Tampa International Airport, manatees and elephants.

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  4. Downtown Colorado Springs has lots of fun art like this...I think it gives a town spirit and am so grateful for the people who make the effort to place it...I know I'm not doing it. :)

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  5. We do still have the cowboy boots, Rena. They're really neat. It's nice that a lot of cities are doing that.

    Nancy

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  6. Wow! I didn't realize that it was so recent that you made the move from CA. I've always thought of you living where you are now, because since I've known you (as a blogger) it seems like you've been enraptured in your surroundings. Maybe there would be cool stuff somewhere else, but I've been enthralled by your posts RE: your local.

    I love where you are. I've been amazed by your pots re: your backyard encounters!

    You RaWk, girl!

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  7. It sounds like a great place to live. In Ocala Fla, they have statues of horses throughout the city. They are all painted vividly, just like your bear.

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  8. Nope, I'm a California native of 40+ years. I was born in Santa Barbara and spent most of my life in the Ojai Valley, just 15-20 minutes east of Ventura and the Pacific Ocean.

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