How & Why We Picked Montana
Often, when deciding wear to go out to dinner for a date (remember when that was something we could do?!), we would put a few restaurants in a hat and pick- let fate choose.
When selecting our children's names, we did a name bracket and would submit individual lists, ranked. We made a giant poster and had matches, via discussions and persuasive arguments, until there was one boy name winner and one girl name winner of the tournament. That would be the name choice going into the hospital.
As Josh and I talked about the possibility of a June trip we could take safely during this pandemic, we realized the decision would be difficult with a lot of factors to consider.
How would we ever narrow things down?
How would we divvy up the research?
How would we ever decide?
Well, we started by doing what any thoughtful, sane person would do- we sang the Fifty Nifty United States song!
For anyone not familiar, it's a song that names all fifty states in alphabetical order; Josh and I had both learned it in elementary school. I could lose my memory and still know that stupid song somehow, I'm sure of it.
We sang it and every time we came to a state that could be a potential travel possibility, we wrote it down. We ended up with fourteen states. We then split those states in half so we each were responsible for researching seven. Then, we got to work. We looked at weather, drive times, corona virus data, any safety regulation or closures, places to stay, things to do. Then, of course, we presented the results to each other one Saturday night because we are that hip.
At the end of all that, we were left with staying in Michigan and renting a place on a lake, going down to St. Augustine, Florida where we were comfortable and knew the surroundings, picking a small North Carolina beachtown or Smokey Mountains destination, or Montana.
I had heard from a few trusted sources over the years that Montana was absolutely amazing and I will say, as we were presenting our possibilities, Montana blew everything else out of the freaking water!
It had and currently has the lowest amount of corona virus cases out of all fifty states, the places I was showing Josh to stay in had breathtaking views and were incredibly isolated, the weather was going to be great, and there would be PLENTY for us to see and do since we had never been. The outdoors could be our playground!
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| Actual sunrise views |
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| Actual sunrise views |
As we reflected and kept thinking, however, Montana kept coming back up in conversation. We would get serious about a place in North Carolina or Michigan, and then one of us would say, "...but Montana..." Even though we had decided Montana was a no for now, you could find us both secretly googling Yellowstone National Park. Montana had already grabbed a hold of us and we hadn't even set foot inside the state.
The conversation began to move from "this is too much to do right now, right?" to "how can we make this happen?" to "what do we need to pack differently for a 24 hour car ride?" to "should we do a day trip to Bozeman?"
We pulled the trigger. We hit book on this Airbnb. It was actually happening.
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| Our Airbnb... like for real. |
We picked to stay in the very small town of Emigrant, Montana with a population of less than 300 people, which is perfectly located in Paradise Valley. We could be isolated and socially distanced from, well, everyone. It was about 30 minutes from an entrance to Yellowstone National Park with plenty to do near and far. Montana, #halfdozenhundts were coming for ya!
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| A hike up a giant hill just a few minutes from our Airbnb. Montana helped us feel like we were on top of the world! |
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