i wanted to end this week with an image that’s been in my head, and on my desktop, for a few weeks now. it’s one of the beautiful outdoor tents at paws up, a beautiful wilderness resort montana that i’m hoping will be the location of our honeymoon this year, budget and weather permitting. i’m not normally a huge outdoors girl, but i think anyone who lives in a city can agree that sometimes the most relaxing vacation is the one that politely forces you to disconnect from the rest of the world, and this spot looks dreamy. i’m still looking for honeymoon recommendations over at the ms weddings blog if anyone has any suggestions, but in the meantime, i’m going to wrap up the week and keep staring at this photo, hoping to enjoy the view in person one day.
also, i wanted to make a quick note about the server change-i know a lot of you had a hard time loading the site earlier this week (i’m so sorry) because of the change but it looks like we’re mostly back on track now. if you have any remaining issues with the new server or your reading please don’t hesitate to email me. thanks so much for your patience.
i’m off to work on some fun budget-friendly content for monday so until then, have a wonderful weekend and check out the summary of this week’s highlights below- especially if you missed monday-wednesday because of server migration issues. xo, d*s.
- must read posts of the week: under $100 (travel accessories) and sarah miller’s guest blog posts (thank you, sarah!)
- weeder’s digest by sarah ryhanen: flowers in the attic
- new sneak peeks: barb blair of knack studios, darling clementine, molly of life + limb, wanwisa posner
- new diy projects: door organizer, glass jar frames
- new before & afters: lucky’s headboard, nia’s headboard bench, justin’s loft, julia’s chair, nicole’s dresser and desk (the painted wood battle continues), jeremy’s eagle rock reno
- new city guides, florida addition: miami (part 2) and palm beach/west palm beach
- misc: new wayne pate ‘earthly delights’ print, photography by she hit pause studios, caroline saul recycled plastic vessels, paperwink address stamps, alphabet brooches, minakani wallpapers, jean pelle candleholders
- paper: lizzie thomas paper cuts (must-see), hello cards from truly smitten
- videos: incredible stop motion music video, ayumi horie ceramics video
- new recipe: in the kitchen with tarlette‘s onion and bacon tartlet
35 Comments
we visited here last year with our family and it was worth every penny!!!
This looks like a dreamy vacation to me, but I’m an outdoor girl. I think you should follow this with a few days at a good hotel with room service and indoor plumbing. You know, to ease back into reality after time in the woods. Congratulations and Best Wishes.
Oh wow! You have me dreaming. I am going to start saving my pennies to go here. The luxury in a tent is so appealing to me.
Oh… I am so going there for my next adventure!
Grace, did you check out Big Sur in California?
I was researching our family vacation recently and found lots and lots of great places & B&Bs in and around Big Sur on the California coast — if you prefer some ocean. What month is your wedding? Late summer is better weather — and think how close you’ll be to very civilized San Francisco!
(But this tent set-up is very alluring, too.)
Great minds, Bonnie!
This photo has me dreaming of home. You should definitely check out Mary Jane’s Farm in Moscow, Idaho. They have outdoor tents like this on their organic farm (chickens, a cow…the whole bit). I worked at a dude ranch in Montana for a summer and it is such a joyful and relaxing place to be! I hope you find what you’re looking for and have a great honeymoon!
Grace – Our May 08 cover story was about “luxury camping”, and included The Resort at Paw’s Up—dreamy!
Check out more ideas here: http://www.sunset.com/travel/outdoor-adventure/go-into-wild-in-style-00400000011308/
Here’s the link for the Bed and Breakfast at Mary Jane’s Farm:
http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/bb/
My husband used to work here while we were in college and he’d bring me home fresh flowers everyday. :)
Ha, Paws Up, that’s funny. They tried to trademark “The Last Best Place,” thereby stealing the motto from the great State of Montana that has used it for years.
It was a big-to-do here in Montana, so much so that one of the big recent omnibus bills passed by the U.S. Congress has made it impossible to ever trademark the slogan “The Last Best Place.”
Yeah, Paws Up has a interesting relationship with the locals, but I’m glad you’re going. They are nice enough folks there, they’ve just had a little trouble fitting in.
Have fun the Blackfoot Valley area is a very special place, you should look into it while you’re there.
Cheers,
i just got off the phone with paws up and they were so, so nice. hopefully we can spend some time exploring the blackfoot valley area- i actually have family outside of missoula so it will be cool to see a part of the country i’ve never seen.
The place looks absolutely heavenly. What a thoughtful alternative to the otherwise cliche beach honeymoon.
I plan corporate meetings & incentives and over here we’ll all in love with Paws Up! I’ve known about it for some time and just waiting for the perfect partner retreat to send there or fantastic incentive program. Trust me, you’ll love it!
ahhhh – saw pictures of this place and a few others like it a while back. it looks like heaven!
We stayed in River Camp last summer for our 5th anniversary and loved it! Totally romantic. The photos don’t do it justice. Our “Camping Butler” was awesome…room service in our tent was incredible. I’m not a “camper”, so our private bathroom in the bathhouse (hot showers, etc.) was perfect for me. Montana is incredible!
Ooh, Grace, this is so gorgeous. It reminds me of the incredible bomas we stayed in while we were in South Africa and Botswana a few years ago. An unforgettable experience. All my best wishes to you!!
Being a local, I have to agree with previous poster. This outfit is probably heavenly to visit, but they aren’t necessarily good neighbors to folks who live here year round.
My family used to visit that ranch before it was bought up by a Las Vegas enterprise.
Hi Grace! Oh, honeymoon planning-so fun! Have you considered Deetjen’s, in Big Sure: http://www.deetjens.com/. Lots of favorable reviews on Trip Advisor, and I think I first read about it years ago in Domino.
Um, that’s Big Sur, not Big Sure, but I’m SURE you caught that….
It looks like an amazing place for a honeymoon. Very magical.
I just thought of one of my most favorite
places I’ve been to and that was Sedona Arizona.
The views were breathtaking and I found it to be a very spiritual place as well. Look up Enchantment resort.
http://www.sunset.com/travel/outdoor-adventure/go-into-wild-in-style-00400000011308/
this is a wonderful article that was in Sunset’s magazine last spring. It outlines lots of great places to go Glamping (glamorous camping!).
Good luck and congrats!
Where is this? I’m from Montana and never got to enjoy it like this! haha…we did live in a house though, so that could be part of it….seems like a romantic place, great for a honeymoon getaway! And I think you will be pleased with Montana (that’s my totally biased opinion).
In a perfect world, this is my idea of camping!
Oh that is so beautiful, I want to go there now!!!! I hope you get to have your honeymoon in somewhere as fantastic if not there.
update: we’re going to paw’s up!! we decided to wait a month for the honeymoon so we could go. montana here we come! :)
grace
According to my research, The Resort at Paws Up was one of the pioneers of Glamping — Glamorous Camping — in North America.
If you check out pawsup.com, you’ll see that you do in fact enjoy indoor plumbing as a guest of their luxury camps. Every guest gets his/her own private master bath with rain-shower shower head. Add the camping butler and 300 thread-count sheets to the equation, and you have my kind of camping.
By the look of it, I’m not surprised they call themselves the last best place. By the way, FYI, if you research this trademark issue, you will discover that Paws Up actually bought the trademark, The Last Best Place, from a California company called Monterrey Clothing Company. The state of Montana never trademarked the phrase. Paws Up actually brought the phrase back to Montana and informed the governor that they would protect it for the state. For some reason, these facts never made it into the local press.
What a perfectly dreamy location…
Though here in rural Ireland where I live, when even the summers have jacket-wearing requirements.. I tend to shiver at the idea of sleeping outdoors…
Born on an island in the hot mediterranean where I spent my first two decades, I find the alternate to ‘feeling cold’ is ‘sweltering heat and mosqquito bites’…
I bet the weather in that place is balmy and just right though :)
Oh Grace. Montana is my favorite place to visit. My husband and I did a project there one summer and lived on a working cattle ranch managing a promotion. We did hear some of that feedback from the locals- who can blame them? It’s a beautiful state- the statistics used to be one person per every seven miles….A far cry from NY, huh? This is the place where I saw for myself what the crayola sky blue crayon looks like and why they call it BIG SKY COUNTRY. The sky is so gorgeous- some days I thought I could jump up and grab it. And it was here that i said if I could spend 3 months in the middle of nowhere with my boyfriend then I could probably spend the rest of my life with him- and here we are.
It is a magical place- you will LOVE it- those pictures remind me of my 2nd favorite place- the governor’s tented camp in Kenya.
I wish you a dreamy time. xo
camping made perfect. wow, this is stunning. what a gorgeous contrast to city life. off to the site immediately!
and helen’s tartlette world below sounds divine. thanks for sharing.
Those pictures are unbelievable. It’s such an awesome thing, too, to make the decision…that’s when you can REALLY start dreaming!
My boyfriend and I decided to take a train from Portland through SF to LA on a “business” trip in late March. It rolls down the coast and through the stunning mountain ranges. When we got the Amtrak tickets in the mail, we jumped around in circles for at least 5 minutes.
Here’s to jumping around in circles over things that bring us pure joy!
Congratulations and Enjoy!!!
I went there 2 years ago and stayed in one of these tents. It was beautiful and the food was great. My favorite part of the day was 1st thing in the morning having a cup of coffee wrapped in a blanket on the little open air food pavilion they have. It overlooks this beautiful open area. You could just sit and watch deer, eagles, squirrels and other cute wildlife going about their morning routine. It was so quite and fresh and a million miles away from NYC.
I heard that Paws Up has a blog, so I searched around and found it: http://www.thelastbestblog.com
Pretty cool little tidbits about what’s going on there.
That picture reminds me of where I went on my honeymoon. We stayed at El Capitan Canyon Campground in Santa Barbara, CA. http://www.elcapitancanyon.com/
It was heavenly.
I love the photos. I went there a few years ago. It was beautiful and the food was great.
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