Seconds With Steff

Well, it’s the last morning, and I don’t know if I’m sad that it’s over, happy to be going home, or just stunned that I actually did it — but those reflections will come later.

After waking at Hilary’s (she and her boys had already absconded to one of their football games), Hunter and I found ourselves up much earlier than expected. Even though I told Hilary I didn’t need brunch recommendations, I never imagined we’d be out the door so soon. So we made our way to a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast at Feed Café … although I really, really tried to convince Hunter to get huckleberry. He was having none of it.

We no sooner turned out of the restaurant than Hunter said, “There’s a hot air balloon!” I am 52 and have never seen a hot air balloon in real life, so I did what any sane person would do — I pulled into a parking lot, popped open our suitcase, grabbed the camera, and got more pictures! It was one of those unexpected little gifts that felt like the perfect punctuation mark to the end of our trip.

Then we arrived at the wonderfully amazing Museum of the Rockies!

The museum is mostly dedicated to Montana’s dinosaur history. It’s beautifully done, with a timeline that walks you through each era of dinosaurs. Montana is a hotbed for archaeological digs and even has a Dinosaur Trail with 14 locations you can follow.

I found there to be a touch of The La Brea Tar Pits as the triceratops skulls reminded me of their wolf wall. And there was also an observation laboratory where we watched a specialist assemble pieces of a 130–140 million-year-old turtle shell right before our eyes.

We were also lucky enough to catch a special exhibit featuring a replica cast of Sue. I’d actually heard of her before — she’s 90 and is the most complete T. Rex fossil ever found, with over 90% recovered. The exhibit placed you between the T. Rex and its nemesis, the triceratops, in a really cool way.

In addition to the dinosaurs, there were wonderful displays about Montana and Yellowstone National Park. It reminded me so much of the New York State Museum in Albany — if you live in or are visiting Albany, spend the day! It’s one of my fondest childhood memories, and I’ve been back twice as an adult. It’s fantastic.

On the second floor, there was a section dedicated to exploring Yellowstone for children. Not knowing what it was, we made our way up there all excited — and Hunter immediately said, “This is for little kids,” lol. I kind of wanted to walk around it anyway, so I did.

And there was information about the local geology of Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and Glacier National Parks.

Lastly, there was an outdoor living museum featuring The Tinsley House, but it didn’t open until 11:00, so we only got outdoor pitcures.

But if you know Hunter, you know the entire museum was completed in about 40 minutes. I made him wait the full hour so we could go into the gift shop, where we bought a magnet, a pen, and a sticker.

With everything wrapped up, we made our way to the Bozeman airport and returned our rental car. It’s a very small airport, so after finding our gate and rearranging the luggage one last time, we went to the one restaurant and had a very nice lunch — reasonably priced, especially when I think back to the original dumplings I bought Hunter at JFK on our way to Vegas.

Once lunch was done, we made our way back to the gate and boarded within 15 minutes. After a fairly uneventful flight, we landed — and just like that, our trip was done.

With 2,212 miles driven (longer than Route 66 itself), that’s another one in the books.

Give me a night of sleep and a few loads of laundry, and there will be thoughts, reflections, and what I learned.

Unreliable Summary – Dinos, Airport, and Home