A memorable anniversary celebration......

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10:01 pm - Wednesday - August 30th - 69º F, humidity 39%, wind 4 mph out of the southwest.....I'm about 14 hours behind in writing my blog post about Tuesday....had too much fun last night.

Back in July I began planning our 46th wedding anniversary celebration for August 29th.  My initial thought was to travel down to the Yellowstone Lake Hotel for dinner, and to spend the night there before returning to the north entrance.  Unfortunately, I was to learn that I should have been trying to make a hotel reservation a year in advance as every hotel in the park except for the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, was booked for the night of August 29th.  I was able to get dinner reservations for 8 pm on that date, but the thought of having to drive 70 miles back to Gardiner, MT after 10 pm, so I began working on plan 'B'.  

Plan 'B' ended up being a spa day at Chico Hot Springs (Pray, MT), dinner in their world class dinning  room, and spending the night in their hotel.  TLE booked 1 hour massages for us at the Chico Hot Springs Spa, and I took care of the dinner and hotel reservations.

So, Tuesday was the day we headed north on US-89 for Chico Hot Springs where we had visited twice previously.  We left the Newell around 8:55 am to make the 30 minute drive to Chico and arrived there just before 9:30 am.....TLE had the first massage at 9:45 am, so she dropped me off at the hot springs to secure 5 lounge chairs for us including three of our friends who were joining us later in the morning.....

The big pool at 9 am....very uncrowded!

 

......TLE was back from her massage by 11 am just about the time our friends (Roscoe, Geni and Dodge (Kristen) began to arrive.....by this time I had been soaking in the hot pool for about 45 minutes.......

......my massage appointment was for 12:15 pm so around noon I began my walk up the hill to the spa.....Melissa was my masseuse, and for the next 60 minutes she worked her magic.....by the end I had fallen asleep.  I rejoined my friends for the afternoon alternating between the hot pool (104º F), and the cooler pool (98º F) whilst carrying on a non-stop conversation.  

Around 4 pm we convened to our room in the 'Warren Wing', which is a newer wing with California King beds.  I took a nap, and around 5:20 pm got up to take a shower, then get dressed for our 6 pm dinner reservation....we met our friend Roscoe around 5:50 pm in the lounge just outside the dinning room, and at 6 pm we were seated......

.......here we are seated at our table for the evening.....we ordered two bottles of their Steele Vineyards Pinot Noir (we eventually ordered a 3rd), and then set about ordering our entrees.......as it turned out the owner of Steele Vineyards happened to be visiting Chico Hot Springs and he stopped by our table to introduce himself after learning we had ordered 3 bottles of his Pinot Noir......how cool is that?

This picture was taken by our server using Roscoe's Nikon camera....left to right: moi, Roscoe, Geni, Dodge, and TLE

 My 'usie' taken using my Samsung Note 5 phone camera

I, as I am want to do, ordered their Gorgonzola Filet Mignon......OMG....OMG!  One of the top 5 restaurant filet mignons I have ever had the pleasure of eating......I am so glad I am a carnivore......

 This $36 filet mignon was worth its weight in gold!

  

.......we had a lovely 2.5 hour dinner filled with interesting conversation.  We talked about how one of the most memorable things about working seasonal jobs was the people we befriend along the way, and Roscoe, Geni and Dodge perfectly illustrate that point.

After dinner we retired briefly to our rooms to change back into our bathing suits, then rejoined everyone at the hot pool for about a 30 minute soak before finishing the evening playing card games, and drinking some of Roscoe's bourbon.....he is a bourbon guy.  We played, and talked until almost 11 pm (closing time).  We were in bed by 11:30 filled with good feelings about our wonderful day spent celebrating 46 years of marriage (50 years of knowing each other)!

Thanks for stopping by!

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