Day 58 - Symphony under the Stars
Today was another awesome day in Montana. It was about 85 degrees (no humidity) and we decided we would hike Mount Helena. This will be the 3rd time for Rebecca, Caleb and Sarah, 2nd time for me and the first time for Gretchen, Joshua and Christina. There are many trails that will get a person to the top of Mount Helena and each of them have different degrees of difficulty. Of course the oldest 4 decided to take the Power Line trail which is the most difficult because it goes virtually straight up the mountain 1000 feet. Gretchen, Christina and I chose the Prospect Shaft Trail which was not supposed to be quite as difficult. However, if you have to climb 1000 feet no matter which trail it is then there is going to be some level of difficulty which we found out. After several rests we made it to the top and saw the awesome views. Gretchen swore on someone's grave she would never let me talk her into this type of hike again. After that scene on top of the mountain (just kidding no scene) we headed down the 1906 Trail which is a pretty steady decline. As some of you may know going down can be just as hard as coming up but we made it anyways. Our kids made it down about 20 minutes before us but that's ok.
After such a good hike this called for something cold to drink. Caleb must be a salesman for Costco because he always pushes for us to go there to get 59 cent drinks with free refills. Everyone else was helping him lobby so we headed to Costco. The funny thing was that as we were going in we realized how dirty and sweaty we were but decided that we weren't from here and no one really knows us so what does it matter. Don't EVER say that. As soon as we sat down with our drinks and lunch ($16 for a family of 7 which is pretty good) a guy from my work and his family sat down next to us. Oh well. Then the girls commented on how they see the same people at Costco every time they go.
In Helena there is an annual event called Symphony under the Stars held at Carroll College. It is a free event and everyone goes down the night before or early the morning of the event and puts out blankets to reserve spots on the lawn. In order to keep the Montana wind from blowing the blankets away you are to hold them down with cans of food which are later donated to the Montana Food Share. Our friend Brett graciously vounteered to do this at 6 am this morning. While we were on top of Mount Helena we could see all the blankets covering the Carroll College Lawn and it was beautiful.
We met up with Brett and his family aroung 6 pm (only after picking up a bag of kettle corn along the way). We spent the next 2.5 hours visiting and snacking on the food we had all brought. The kids went off to play frisbee and go to the instrument petting zoo (yes I did say instrument). This "petting zoo" is a tent where the symphony has musical instruments and lets people play them or try to play them. While all this was going on the crowd started piling in. We believe there were between 5-6000 people there. This event would remind you a lot of the Bellhaven singing Christmas tree without the tree. We have come to realize just how small Helena is because even though we are new here we saw several people we knew or had seen before.
This was quite the scene because it had went from near 90 degrees earlier in the day to a wonderful 75-80 degrees or maybe even less. This year's theme was western music and they had a famous violinst accompanying them. The music was wonderful and the backdrop was breathtaking. As we sat on the hill watching and listening to the symphony the sun was setting behind the mountains which was behind the symphony in the distance. As the sun went down the stars came out in full demand. it was fun to watch the kids try to count all the stars in the sky. Some of the music reminded us of musicals such as Oklahoma or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and we think they were also playing the theme to either Bonanza or Big Valley. We felt like we had been swept into one of those. As the night ended and the symphony played their finale a huge fireworks show started and ended the night with a bang.
Again we feel so blessed to have been able to be at this event and hear the talents that God has given people and see how beautiful his world is as it was set to music.
(p.s. I love reading Tony's blog posts!!!! I have just laughed my head off reading what he wrote! -Gretchen)