City of lilacs

I was in Helena, Montana for about five days for a family gathering, the occasion being my nephew's graduation from high school. My luggage was only in Montana for 3 days, however, because it spent the first two days in Honolulu. It seems that the airport code for Helena is HLN. For Honolulu it is HNL. Apparently baggage handlers in Richmond can't tell the difference, and they probably see more bags headed to Hawaii than to Montana. It was an annoyance, particularly because they located the bag but seemed to be unable to get it to move, but it eventually arrived.

I have bad karma for flying. The flight was late leaving Richmond because it was overweight due to extra fuel they had to take because of thunderstorms in the Detroit area. So we left late and arrived late in Detroit. I ran through the Detroit airport and made the next flight to Salt Lake because it was delayed leaving. However, by the time it arrived in Salt Lake and I made another dash to the next gate, they had closed the doors for the flight to Helena. They booked me on a flight going back to Minneapolis and then to Helena, arriving about midnight. As luck (?) would have it, the flight I was scheduled to take but missed in Salt Lake never actually left the gate at Salt Lake due to a mechanical problem and I eventually got on board the originally scheduled flight when they found a new airplane with a functioning door latch. The delays didn't affect my luggage, however. It flew directly from Richmond to Hawaii where it stayed for two days.

Too much information, I know. "Bad flight karma" pretty much says it all. Oh, and I learned that Delta is actually an acronym. It stands for "Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport."

Anyway, Helena is beautiful. Winters in Montana are long and brutal, but they have the most wonderful summers. It's still early spring there, the air is clear and cool. The town is full of lilac bushes-they are everywhere. They must be very hardy varieties and they aren't as strongly scented as those we have here in the south, but they have deep, bold, colors and are very beautiful.

My sister has two dogs, a Golden Retriver named Timber (shown here with our most recent graduate, Matt), and a Pug named Tucker.

Both are very sweet, friendly dogs.

Helena is a small town with a pedestrian mall in the old downtown sort of like Charlottesville. The downtown main street is called Last Chance Gulch, the location of a gold discovery. It's a more interesting downtown than Charlottesville's but not as busy, unfortunately. They need more restaurants, bars, and such. There is a great micro brewery, really good, fresh, unbottled, beer.
Helena sits in a valley surrounded by mountains. You are never far from the countryside and you can see the mountains all around.

I wish I had more time to spend there. Actually, I wish I lived there in the summer.