Bite of Bozeman

Last night was the Bite of Bozeman, and we got to share it with my mom this year! We strolled down Main Street, eating yummy delicacies including... the Turkey Leg! Turns out we're not the only ones who love the Turkey Legs, because this article was in the paper when we got up this morning:

By MIKE GERRITY Chronicle Staff Writer

Spritzing rain showers had Bite of Bozeman coordinator Will Natsues fielding calls from nervous nellies all afternoon Wednesday.

Would they have to reschedule?

“No, man. The show's gonna go on,” Natsues said. “It's Montana, man.”

And sure enough, after the sun crept back out and the air had cooled, a line of over 50 people was building outside the Best Western GranTree Inn's white tent trying to get their hands on a massive, juicy red turkey leg.

Every year, the Bite of Bozeman brings hoards of food freaks downtown to eat their way through the city's favorite local offerings, getting good and stuffed for the weekend's Sweet Pea Festival of the Arts.

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Tim Erfle took a step off to the side of the tent into the middle of the street and started gnawing down his turkey leg.

“It makes you feel like a man and you get it once a year,” he said.

Along with the famed turkey legs, Natsues said that at least 13 new booths made it to Bozeman's annual taste of the town.

Combing through the crowd Wednesday evening, he made sure to note what he saw as the best turnout yet.

“The street is packed,” Natsues said.

Sitting on the curb with a few of her friends, a few blocks down from the Baxter Hotel, Mariah Talbott said she finished the famed turkey leg already and was getting ready to score her next eats.

But the popular snack was not to be underestimated, she warned.

“I can't even eat a whole turkey leg. I have to take it home for lunch the next day,” Talbott said.

Sitting next to her, Vicki Patrack was working on a pl ate of noodles from the Taste of Asia vendor.

“I'm just trying something different this year,” Patrak said.

Caroline Casolava came up to join them, ecstatic about the deserts coming out of the Over the Tapas booth in front of the Baxter Hotel. That afternoon, the restaurant flooded the streets with bacon-wrapped dates and designer-looking cupcakes.

“They're only $1 a piece?” Casolava said, eyes beaming. “Bite of Bozeman is my favorite Bozeman holiday.”

Andy Bouwman also had a seat on the curb, recollecting himself after a barbeque sandwich from Bar 3.

“That was pretty good.”

Perhaps the only catch to surviving the Bite of Bozeman, Bouwman said, is to pace yourself.

“It's easy to fill yourself up before you see everything there.”

Bite of Bozeman

The Bite of Bozeman was Wednesday night, so we all headed downtown to feast on the glorious offerings of Bozeman's finest eateries. We shared a cheesesteak and a pork empanada. But the real reason we were there was the turkey leg. You see, this is the only time of year you can get one of these huge, glorious turkey legs. So every year we do. We stand in a big l-o-n-g line on a hot August day, and wait... and wait... and wait... until we can finally shell out $5 for a hunk of barbecued meat. Yes, it is that worth it. Last year was Ellie's first time to the bite, but this year we decided to make it a little more memorable and give her a taste of the glorious turkey leg.

At first she wasn't sure what to think. She held it for a minute (which was really more like hugging it, given the size difference between them), then took a little taste.


... and she's hooked, Ladies and Gentlemen! Look at that smile!

She gazed longingly at the turkey leg and licked her chops in anticipation.


She even spontaneously signed "more" in depseration! (I should add that this is the first time we have ever seen her sign "more" on her own.)

We finally conceded and gave her a few more bites. It is so hard to share sometimes!


Yep, give her a turkey leg and this girl is content as can be!

Bite Of Bozeman...

Ah... the Bite of Bozeman. Our annual trip downtown to fight the crowds for a tasty turkey leg. It's the only time of year you can get one, so you know we didn't miss it!!

Because Eliana has been short on naps, we figured she wouldn't last for long at the Bite. So we headed downtown a little early (before the Bite actually started) and proceeded to wander around with Ellie in the stroller. This was nice for a couple reasons... First, because we were early there weren't as many people, so maneuvering with a stroller was a little easier. Second, because we were there early, we were able to survey the different vendors and stake out our spot and...

WE GOT THE VERY FIRST TURKEY LEG OF THE YEAR!!

Oh yeah. Wanna see?

Sorry... we were too excited about eating the turkey leg to take a picture before we started digging in! But there it is, in all its devoured glory. Mmmm. One of the few things at the Bite that is worth every penny of what they charge for it.

Oddly, this year Ellie wasn't really interested in the turkey leg. It did mean more for us, but we thought for sure she'd attack it like she did last year. Not so. Instead, she spent her time sitting in the stroller drinking a frozen chocolate beverage.

Apparently, it was good to the last drop. I'm pretty sure she drank practically the whole thing by herself.

This year the Bite wasn't nearly as hot as it has been in years past, and it was enjoyable! We saw quite a few people we knew, which is always fun. We heard a little music (though not much, because we were only there for about an hour and the bands don't start playing right away) and ate some good food and headed on our way so Ellie could get to bed. All in all it was, again, a good way to start off the Sweet Pea weekend.

Bite of Bozeman

We went to the Bite tonight and it was a lot of fun. Ellie slept in the sling the whole time, even through the half dozen times we opened it up and resituated her to show her off to friends we ran into. There weren't as many people this year as we remembered from previous years, but I wasn't complaining about a smaller crowd to wade through. I was just glad we decided on the sling instead of a stroller. And I pitied the poor woman I saw trying to maneuver a double stroller with twin infants through the crowd.

The food, as usual, was great. We always go for the turkey leg (a giant chunk o' greasy, salty turkey drumstick that is only available twice a year - here and at the Christmas Stroll.) and we managed to get one when the line was only about a dozen people long. We walked by later and the line was more like a dozen yards long... Lines can get hideous at these events. Anyway- so there was the turkey leg we shared, then Leif had some cajun crawdad etoufee (which I tried and found utterly repulsive) and I had a Greek gyros from a place we have recently wanted to eat at. It certainly wasn't "It's Greek to Me" (our favorite Bozeman Greek place), but it was good and something I would definitely eat again.

We saw a few people we knew, though not as many as in previous years. We ran into one of the families I taught at Petra (they go to ALL the Bozeman events and I think we've seen them at every one... I anticipate seeing them this weekend at Sweet Pea) and a number of Leif's coworkers, including Neal and Stephanie, who are also our neighbors. We planned on meeting up with them at the Bite, but didn't actually find them until we were just about ready to leave. Go figure. Anyway- it was a great evening and I'm glad we went. It's great to live in Bozeman.

Sweet Pea, continued...

We didn't take many pictures at Sweet Pea this year. I'm not entirely sure why that is. Perhaps because we saw mostly musical acts and they're not as interesting to photograph. Perhaps because the things we *really* wanted to see this year we ended up missing. Perhaps because we were too busy keeping an eye on the quick little girl who could easily get lost in a crowd if we weren't careful. Whatever the reason, we don't have many pictures from the weekend, but I suppose it's just as well...

On Sunday we arrived to the Festival in the afternoon, after church, and after Ellie had a bit of a short nap. The excitement from the previous two days' activities had worn her out and we didn't want a cranky girl on our hands, so we put her down to rest. She slept longer than we expected her to, which may have been good for her mood, but meant that we missed the two acts we really wanted to see. Bummer.

But we loaded up the stroller anyway and headed in to feast on cotton candy and kettle corn, since no one was selling pulled pork sandwiches this year! (I was seriously disappointed about the lack of pulled pork sandwiches... I look forward to them and eat one at Sweet Pea every year! Really... whose idea was it to cut them from the menu? It was a bad idea, I tell you...) Alas, though, as if by some evil twist of fate, no one was selling kettle corn this year either! Really?! How can it be???!! So I looked forward to my bag of cotton candy, my one splurge for the festival, and waited for Leif to return to me with it. But no. They were out of cotton candy. Gone. And no more to be made. Bummer.

Fortunately, the festival didn't end with a bummer as we got to rest under the trees and listen to a Zydeco band, and a pretty good one at that, I might add. The weather was nice and cool, so it made being outside nicer, and Ellie was happy to practice climbing in and out of her stroller on her own. I still haven't decided if it's a good thing or a bad thing that she can do that, but whichever it is, she is proficient at it now!

So... the moral of the story is to eat cotton candy and kettle corn at the Bite of Bozeman instead of waiting until Sweet Pea. Just get all your splurging done at once, because it might not be at Sweet Pea if you're looking forward to it!

Hmm.... What did I miss?

Well, since Eliana hasn't been napping regularly any more, I'm finding it difficult to keep the blog updated. Mostly I find it difficult to get photos uploaded to Picasaweb so I can put them on the blog. The blogging I can do from pretty much anywhere via the laptop. The pictures, however, are on Leif's computer in the office, so when I'm in there Eliana tends to come after me and play with things she shouldn't and destroy stuff. So... without the safe haven of naptime I haven't quite figured out the best way to do that! But I will try to fill you all in on the highlights of July that I missed while we had visiting family and then napless days...

On July 12, a week before Eliana's birthday, I, Elizabeth, ran my first 5K! Leif ran with me (at my speed) as my moral support. And I am happy to report that I did indeed run the whole thing, and in 31 minutes. That is now checked off my list of things to do someday, though I hope to continue running. It's pretty good exercise!

One night a few days before Eliana's birthday she stepped on a bee in the pool and got stung. It was her first bee sting, so I guess we learned that she isn't allergic. She didn't even freak out about it. She just picked her foot up and said, "Ow, ow, ow, ow" until someone came to get her. All told it went way better than I expected it would! She was such a good girl and even let us pick at her foot with tweezers to get the rest of the stinger out.

I still have to scan in the picture, but the week before her 2nd birthday Eliana drew her first recognizeable picture!! It's a face and you can actually tell that by looking at it! She loves to draw and it's not uncommon to see her with her little magnetic doodle pad singing to herself, "One ear, another ear, one eye, another eye..." as she draws. And most of the time she is very sure to draw eyebrows, too.

I'm sure there are other things I missed along the way as I wasn't getting any blogging done. There will be larger posts detailing some of the bigger things that we've done recently, such as taking Eliana on her first camping trip, going to the Bite of Bozeman (you didn't think we'd skip blogging about the turkey leg this year, did you?), and the Sweet Pea Festival, which we're in the middle of right now. So there are posts and pictures coming. It's just taking a little longer than I expected. Bear with us and we promise to do our best to keep the bloggy goodness coming.

Two Weeks Old...

She's two weeks old already. It's crazy how quickly the time has flown, but at the same time it feels so perfectly normal to have Eliana here as a part of our family. It's not like I can't remember what pre-Ellie life was like, but this life seems very good to me. Admittedly, I do miss the days of running to Costco or Walmart without lugging an awkward baby carrier. I have to plan a little better, and I think twice before going out. But she doesn't exactly keep me confined to the house, and I like that. In fact, we're planning on attending the "Bite of Bozeman" tonight. We go every year and enjoy walking down main street, waiting in long lines for yummy food. We'll probably put Eliana in her sling and spend an hour or two strolling down Main with most of the area's residents. It's supposed to be in the 70's this evening, so it should be nice weather for being out and about.