Day 4 –Mt. Helena, a Movie, and let’s get Chubby!

View from Top of Mt. Helena

Monday morning we chose to take our young cousin Peanut and our two dogs on a hike up Mt. Helena to get some exercise and a nice view of the town. It’s definitely a good trek up with a nice mixture of shade and sunshine, along with a good stopping point half way at “the cave”. The path isn’t too extensive, so it’s a trail for just about everyone, and the view at the top is completely worth it. I do suggest wearing sunscreen, and bringing a backpack with few bottles of water in it. You could even bring your lunch and have a nice picnic at the top! After our hike, we were starving, and I’ve been wanting to try Planet Gyro’s, so we stopped there for a quick bite to eat on our way back to Grandma’s house. Then, having more time to kill between lunch and dinner, MT and I settled on going to see the movie Inception at the only theatre in town. If anyone knows me well, they are very familiar with the fact that I continuously criticize two major subjects that are significant in my life, food and movies. As you can see, I have already analyzed food, so now look forward to your first movie review! Following the movie, we went back to Grandma Don’s house to meet up with one of his aunt’s, his mom and a good friend. Then we made our way to another restaurant/bar that I’ve been hearing good reviews about…..Chubby’s in Clancy, which is about 10 minutes outside of Helena, and any Helenian would say that’s far!

Cave on the hike

Walking Down Mt. Helena

Movie: Inception

Rating: Not too shabby…..but long!

Category: Action/Drama

Comments:

I thought the overall idea of prying into people’s dreams to extract secret information was really clever, and the actual Inception, which is planting an idea in someone’s head that they think is their own by intercepting their dreams was sheer genius, and I followed the movie most of the way…. up until the very end…..if you are still watching it by then because it’s long….., which is never good for MT because his ADD kicks in. Nevertheless, I was enticed because I was trying to figure out what the frick was going on. On another note, this movie is definitely worth seeing at the theatre because the graphics are incredible and the acting is quite good, but the plot was a little confusing, and man did I just want the movie to end after the second hour! I have to say that DiCaprio, who plays Cobb, is consistently placing himself in good movies and is it me or does he look better as he gets older? Maybe because he resembles more of a man than a skinny boy, like he did in Titanic. Also, I love the always gorgeous, Marion Cotillard, who plays Mal, Cobb’s deceased crazy wife, who keeps sabotaging his dreams and, therefore, missions. She definitely is superb in that role! Ellen Page, the Architect, even still impresses me with her young talent, but I didn’t like her character as the one who “understands” Cobb and steers him away from Mal’s evil tendencies to destroy operation Inception. What a joke…..she basically just enrolled in college for crying out loud. What the heck does she know about love and the inner demons that it can create?  On the contrary, I was quite amused by the Eames’ and Arthur and Saito even got a warm place in my heart in the end. Overall, I enjoyed the movie because of the brilliant story, but they dragged it on way too long!

Chubby’s

Rating: Ehhh…..Not that great

Location: 9 N Main St, Clancy, MT, 59634

Category: Bar and Grill

Pricing: Inexpensive

Comments:

MT and I have been hearing about this place from his relatives for a little while now, and we tried to go this past Christmas trip, but were shooed away when we arrived because of a work party that was reserved there for the night. We finally were able to go this time around and I was pulled in two different directions by the experience. The inside is definitely your typical bar atmosphere, so nothing to go into detail there, but the food is what we were there for. MT and I ordered the Jalapeno burger with Onion Rings and MT’s friends split the Prime Rib with French Fries. Both meals came with a salad, which wasn’t anything to brag about, some Bibb lettuce with shredded cheddar on top, and a side of dressing. The burger came out and I was so excited because it looked really appetizing with the Ciabatta bun and the massive burger patty. I cut it in half to split with MT and was sorely disappointed because no juice came spilling out and it was almost well done. There is almost nothing worse than getting a piece of meat or burger that’s overdone. I was so upset, but I still ate it because I was ravenous from our eventful day. On the other hand, the giant sized onion rings that came with it were delicious! The sweet soft onions were a nice contrast to the crispy fried bread on the outside. MT’s friends seemed to enjoy their prime rib, and by the looks of it, their meat was cooked medium rare, which is perfect for prime rib. They were generous and gave me a bite, and I was hitting myself over the fact that we ordered the burger and not the prime rib. It wasn’t the greatest, but it was better than the dry burger. Oh well….we drank our food sorrows away with some great beer and ventured outside to enjoy the cool crisp Montana air. It still ended up being a great night with good some friends!

Burger and Onion Rings

Prime Rib with Mushrooms