We didn’t get up quite as early on Monday as we had on earlier days. We went out for breakfast at the Western Cafe on Main Street. We had one last great meal of good times with each other where Andrew was part of the group. Then we all hugged him and he drove away. It took longer for the six of us to get into two cars than for Andrew to get himself into one, but then we drove away too. We all suspected that Andrew also got where he was going that day well before we got home to Denver but that hasn’t been confirmed. The weather wasn’t as nice going home as it was for the trip up, but the sun was much less aggressive coming in the windows so we had that going for us.
We often focus on the location of a good time when almost certainly it’s the participants that make it memorable. Just to acknowledge that the place plays a role here is the physical setting and home base of our good time in Bozeman. Through the backdoor we could see a well landscaped backyard and some very welcoming common area. Our last night in Bozeman, we grilled steaks on this deck. We enjoyed the sun while they were grilling, and then we retreated inside as the temperature dropped a bit.
Entry and Exit
Entry
It sure felt good to find the place as we worked our way into Bozeman. And, to a lesser extent, it felt good to get back here every time we went away. That first time, we had to find the lockbox to get the key that would let us in. If you look sharp -and are willing to believe – you can just see it below the handrail just to the left of the first post.
Real hospitality, Serving and Protecting Bozeman’s visitors
Something that struck Steve funny every time he saw it was the Sheriff’s vehicle parked out front. It seemed to be there in the morning and stay all day and then leave sometime in the evening, just when Steve was starting to feel safe.
Common Living Areas
After coming through the door, we usually chose to walk down the hall to the living area. As you might see, neither the stairs, nor the hall were particularly good for two-way traffic, but we worked it out cooperatively without the help of the driver of that Sheriff’s vehicle. After the hall, if you weren’t Bernhard and Cheryl (who had the option of turning right into their bedroom, one turned left and had the choice heading to the living area or the kitchen, either one would give you access to the dining table, the laundry area and the back deck.
From the Hall into the Living Room
Hall and stairs from the front door
Kitchen
Laundry Area and door leading to the garage
Andrew discussing plans with Cheryl and Bernhard while Cayla looks on
Garage
Dell and Andrew enjoying a rare bit of downtime in the Living Room
Bedrooms
There were two bedrooms up and two down. One bedroom down stairs had a window that you see in the photo of the front of the house. The door is at the base of the stairs. There is a half bath about the halfway point of the hallway. The door to the other bedroom downstairs is at the living area end of the hall and it runs front to back along the length of the house and is really a suite, containing a full bath and a walk in closet (There was generous closet space in each room). Upstairs, there were two bedrooms and a full bath. Special attention needs to be focussed on the room with two single beds because there was no other room with a moose on the bed – or , for that matter, with a moose on the sheets!
Master Bedroom
Steve and Andrew’s room
Moose
Moose close up
Details
There were little details in the decorations that made the house fun. There were many depictions of Moose. Not pictured are the Moose on the outside of the front door and the Moose over the backdoor on the inside. there were depictions of other animals as well.
Jonathan took some delight in pointing out that the paintings of the deer and the bison were from behind. He would point at the deer and say, “Buck butt!” and at the bison and say, “Buffalo Butt!”. We were grateful that the bear painting was of three bear faces.
Buffalo in the Kitchen
Buck
Three Bears
Moose Refrigerator notes
Moose Light
Upper level landing
Front door from the stairs
Small Moose Statue on a Shelf Over the Front Door
All in all, our house was a very, very, very fine house.
Long before we had finalized our plans to come and see Andrew for graduation, Andrew had made it clear that he saw no value in walking across the stage and accepting a blank sheet of paper from a highly regarded academic from Montana State University. That being established, we had a wide open day and no need to spend it getting grumpy with thousands of other well wishers. Andrew offered to show us some of the things he liked about his adopted home. He warned us that it wasn’t as clear as usual due to forest fires in Alberta, Canada.
First thing, at about 9 or 9:30, he directed us to Peets Hill, which, if we got it right, is part of Burke Park. There we feted the graduate with photos in various permutations so that when he described his graduation experience to his friends and – much later – to his heirs, he could get the necessary long-suffering tolerance of his familial responsibilities out into the air. Then we climbed some of the hill and greeted people and dogs going up and down. To Bozeman’s credit, most of them, people and dogs, were pleased and greeted us back. From the place that we stopped and turned around, Andrew pointed out the Field House where, but for his thoughtfulness and concern for our well being, we could have spent hours that day.
Father with Graduate
Grandfather, Brother and Mother with Graduate
Grandfather, Brother, Sister-in-Law, Mother and Father with Graduate
Really good looking bench near the top of Peets Hill
Path on Peets Hill
Field House from Peets Hill
From Burke Park we headed up past the ‘M’ on Bridger Canyon Road and into the Bridger Mountains, with a stop at the Bridger Bowl to acknowledge the skiing possibilities back in the winter and then up over the pass. We traveled down hill to Flat Head Creek Road which remained Highway 86 and followed that to Highway 89 which took us to I-90. We went east to Big Timber. Now, nowhere did we see massive trees in Big Timber. It may have been a problem of perspective since we were in Big Sky Country. We did find the Thirsty Turtle where a good time was had by all.
We returned back to the very fine house and had a Ceremony of Tribute to the Graduate complete with gifts from proud family members, yet without crowds or traffic jams.
On Friday our first big thing was to see a few properties that Andrew thought might help him make money. Part of what he has been studying while he has been in college is rent – as expense – and longingly thinking of it as income. Now that he has graduated and is reasonably confident of generating an income, he is casting about for ways to do so. All that ignores the impact of six more bodies on the Realtor on a Friday morning.
It took longer than we anticipated and there are no photos because we cannot claim to have helped any decisions about new places to live. From Steve’s point of view, the properties in Belgrade did not show as well as the properties in Bozeman. But then, Steve doesn’t have a dog in this hunt.
For dinner, Andrew took us to the Chi Alpha house, which played a large role in his college years. He roomed there his Sophomore year. Once he discovered the place his Freshman year, it became his study hall, his source for social activity and his spiritual anchor; it was his home in many ways. As Andrew explained it, the house hosted dinner to celebrate its graduating members and their families. It was a shame that we met so many of his friends so quickly; it proved impossible to remember their names.
Steve went to Bozeman and that wasn’t even the best part. Steve went to Bozeman to celebrate Andrew’s graduation from Montana State (go Bobcats). He went with a lot of Andrew’s family, like Dell, Bernhard, Cheryl, Jonathan and Cayla. The weather was fantastic on the drive up. In Casper, Wyoming, we had a picnic lunch.
Unfortunately, when talking about road trips through Northern Colorado, Wyoming and Central Montana, after you’ve said I-25 and I-90, there’s not a lot to say, except maybe that you wish the speed limit could be eighty all the way. Steve rode with Jonathon and Cayla and enjoyed listening to an audio version of James Herriot‘s “All Creatures Great and Small”. The company was great. Lunch was grand. The park in Casper was a fine place to stop.
I was chosen to drive from Las Vegas to Cedar City, Utah to the last college on our West Coast Tour. After 2 nights in Las Vegas I was rested and everyone else was exhausted from trying to make sure they didn’t miss anything. It was not one of our more scenic drives.
St George, UT – getting greener
On the other hand, we made good time. And, while there weren’t oceans of water, it got greener the further we went from Las Vegas.
We arrived at Cedar City in plenty of time for our afternoon meeting at SUU and, once again guessed wrong about where to start our search for the right place. We stumbled on a student housing tour that seemed likely so we took that first. Everything seemed right next door even
SUU Field set up for Archery
though the athletic complex was three or four blocks away and the the Open Air Shakespeare theater was three or four blocks away in a different direction.
The theater was important because both our West Coast College Evaluators are ardent Shakespeare enthusiasts. Things were going extremely well until our reviewers learned that the University was ceding control of the Cedar City Shakespeare Festival to a foundation and using the space occupied by the theater for something else. They saw this as a loss of commitment to theater arts and, somewhat precipitously, scratched Southern Utah University off their lists. It is important to note that, in no way did this unfortunate interpretation negatively impact our enjoyment of the evening’s performance of Henry IV – Part 2 or The Greenshow that preceded it.
One of the challenging aspects of having Shakespeare performances outside is being at the mercy of other outside activities. The director apologized that his actors were competing with Groovefest, and we could hear an occasional bluegrassy chorus from some other venue. If our Student College Evaluator reconsiders and chooses to attend SUU, I might have to make some hard choices.
The West Coast College Tour spent two nights in Las Vegas. We bounced out of bed after the first night like silver dollars paying off from a one armed bandit!
We had a morning appointment with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
We had an afternoon appointment with the Hoover Dam.
We had stuff to do!
The strip from Tropicana Parking Garage at UNLV
Once again we had trouble finding where the prospective students were supposed meet. So, by the time we found the meeting place, we were late. I dropped off all three ladies and started looking for parking. The most desirable parking seemed to be the parking garage called Tropicana.
Now here is a rant on getting to the prospective student meeting. I’ll pick on UNLV because they are the last big campus we visited, not because they were any worse than anyone else in providing maps and directions for getting around campus . You’d think that Admissions departments would want to make Campus Tours easy. It sure sounds easy when you are looking over things trying to figure out what you need to know. Unfortunately, as a first time visitor, you don’t know enough to recognize the shorthand that anyone who has been there before just assumes. At UNLV, they have worked very hard on their campus maps and have condensed a lot of information onto them. This results in a large number of buildings all packed together with numbers apparently assigned at random. The key is ordered alphabetically by some permutation of building name. It is impossible to quickly determine where you want to go based on where you are, even though the University has these maps posted all over campus. Sure, after you’ve been there a while the maps could be a great reference, but for the person who doesn’t know quite what they are looking for, they are a false hope.
Anyway, here’s how I would tell the family of a prospective student how to link up with the folks giving campus tours at UNLV:
The Student Services Complex (32 on those maps) is just to the east of the Thomas and Mack Center (16) which is very visible from Tropicana Boulevard. Assuming that our experience is common, the Thomas and Mack Center will not be having an event and the parking lot will be empty. Make your way to the right (east) side of the arena and take the road north of the Tropicana Parking Garage (13) and, as you are forced to curve to the left, the Student Services Complex – Building B is on your right.
If you click on the photo captioned “Student Services Complex” it will enlarge to the point that you can see “SSC B” on one of the buildings. That is UNLV speak for ‘Welcome prospective students, your tour starts here.’
You may not be able to drive any further. Although the roads are indicated on the map, there are metal gates set up to prevent traffic. The best place to park is probably the Tropicana Parking Garage, because you may be able to park below the top level and get some shade – a real plus in the summer in Las Vegas.
We also visited the Bookstore (36) and the Student Union (38). After all that, the College Tour Review Team announced that they liked the folks they talked to… but… they didn’t think they wanted to be Runnin’ Rebs – Las Vegas was too hot to keep up the pace.
Student Services Complex
UNLV Bookstore
UNLV student union
A break in the UNLV student union
On to Hoover Dam, which you really don’t have to see just because you’re in Las Vegas, but we did and we were glad. I kind of geeked out over the facts like how much concrete went into its construction and how much power is generated. It is still an awesome project. Our student tourists enjoyed walking where Percy Jackson had walked
Guest Center at Hoover Dam
We didn’t have to drive very far after Hoover Dam; we went back to Las Vegas and the Freakin’ Castle.
Oh, the irony of heading east on the West Coast College Tour. Waking up in Mammoth Lakes was fine. Heading for Las Vegas was alright. It just hurt me a little bit that the West Coast Tour was headed east. Possibly it was influenced by using an out-of-season ski town as just a place to sleep. It probably should have bothered me when we were in San Francisco, but we were still on the West Coast then. We were a little tired and didn’t do much but head for Las Vegas and the
Excalibur
Excalibur where two rooms for two nights cost the same as our accommodations in the San Francisco area.
As I overheard in the parking lot, “Oh my God! You mean we’re staying in a freakin’ castle!?”
We woke up in Fremont instead of San Francisco on this leg of the West Coast Tour. We were booked to tour the University of San Francisco – where the Jesuits have been ‘Separating Evil from Genius’ for over a hundred years. Our reviewers, who were becoming somewhat jaded in their college tours, said that they didn’t think they wanted to attend an urban campus.
So what do you do when you are in San Francisco for a very brief visit and you’ve toured the University of San Francisco and you want to make your visit even more memorable? We went to see the Golden Gate Bridge and North Beach. We left Fisherman’s Wharf for the girls to keep on their ‘To Do List’ . We ate a late lunch in North Beach at the Pier 23 Cafe and wished we’d left enough time to tour the Exploratorium.
Last Shot of Daylight on SR-108
We knew we had a long way to go before we slept and we’d stayed longer than we should have for easy driving. If only we’d known then what we know now, we might well have spent a second night in San Francisco and left fresh in the morning. We knew where our reservation was, so off we went to Mammoth Lakes. Somewhere around Pinecrest or Strawberry, not quite to Bumblebee, but well past Cold Springs, ( you’re with me, right?) we saw the last of the daylight. I knew I was going to miss it so I took a picture. Yeah, that snapshot isn’t all that special, but it’s what we had to remember the light as we pressed on over State Route 108. It wasn’t really terrible; it was dark and curvy and steep and we had to go slow and we lived. One last little complaint, where was the moon? You can see that the skies were quite clear in our’ Last Shot of Daylight’, there should have been moonlight. Sonora Pass is probably a visual banquet during the day. No one praised my driving or route selection at the end of the leg for the second day in a row.
Santa Barbara is home to Westmont College and San Francisco is home to University of San Francisco. Certainly both cities are home to other schools as well, but those are the ones on our list. The folks at Westmont sure do love the Westmont Fountain. We found that Chris and Katy enjoyed visiting this college. They’d go back if they were invited.
After leaving the college we headed for Hearst Castle en route to San Francisco. It was fascinating to hear about how the castle was built and how life was after it was built. It was at the Hearst Castle Visitors Center that I made the worst error of the trip. It looked to me as though it was much better to head north on Highway 1 than back south to where we could head east to catch 101.
Front Gate
Dining Room
Billiard Room Ceiling
Swimming Pool Windows at Hearst Castle
Swimming Pool
Animals between Guest Center and Hearst Castle
What the map didn’t say was that it would be very slow and, that through Big Sur, the road would force us to go at virtually walking speed even without traffic. It only added a couple hours to our trip. It was very pretty until the sun went down. So, once again we managed to find our way to our beds in the dark.
