Montana!

And now for the 4 wonderful days we've spent in Montana (without much driving!)!

DAY 5
We drove from Livingston, Montana where we stayed the night up to Kalispell. It only took 5 1/2 hours - not bad for this trip! At first when David asked me if Montana was everything I hoped it would be, I replied that it kindof looked like Wyoming. But then when we drove into the Rockies and a river was "running through it," I was satisfied. We stopped off in Missoula for a bit just to check it out, and we decided it would be amazing to be professors at the University of Montana someday.

As we continued north, we drove through the Flathead Indian Reservation and along the banks of the Flathead Lake - literally the most beautiful lake I had ever seen. Seriously, if you vacation on a different lake in the summer you were misinformed about which lake is the best lake. We arrived at David's Aunt and Uncle's house at about 3:30 and were greeted by David's cousin Matt Nelson. He took us to a great place called Nickel Charlie's where I had a Cowboy Steak Wrap (Montana!). Attached was a casino - we noticed driving through the state and in Kalispell that casinos are everywhere. Our favorite casinos are the ones attached to gas stations! We also found out that marijuana was recently legalized here. In the evening we spent time with Aunt Mary, Uncle Ray, Grandpa Holland (Hap), Matt, Aunt Beth, Uncle Michael, and their sons Drayton and Sean. We commenced watching silly home movie of David and Matt when they were kids and Drayton when he was a baby. We also got to meet the wild turkeys and the mother deer and 2 fawns who live in the Nelson's yard.

DAY 6
After a long nights sleep we went to mass with Grandpa and Aunt Mary and then to Taco Bell, a Hap Holland post-mass tradition. I had been so taken with Flathead Lake that we returned that afternoon to go swimming, even though we were warned it would be miserably cold. We drove through the Flathead cherry orchards that line the lake and arrived at a beach in a state park. The water is cold, but crystal clear and perfectly still - perfect for water sports. That evening the whole family drove out to a campground beside Lake MacDonald in Glacier National Park for a cookout. A grizzly had brutally killed someone at the same campground not too long ago - awesome (note: Bears are scary. I'm scared of bears). That aside, we had a lovely evening skipping rocks in the lake, eating hot dogs and s'mores, and sitting by the fire.

DAY 7
This was our big Glacier National Park day. On the way out we went to the famous Montana Coffee Traders for coffee and huckleberry pastries. Huckleberries are like blueberries but better, and are EVERYWHERE up here, a fact I'm very happy about. So far we have had huckleberry muffins, milkshakes, fudge, preserves, and pie and we're still going. Anyway, we left the house at 7:15 where we saw a turkey and 5 deer from the driveway. We assumed this meant we'd have a good wildlife day, and we were right. Glacier is famous for the one road that runs straight across it, the Going to the Sun Road. Since it's Glacier's centennial this year, they thankfully repaved most of the road and put up small walls in most places (apparently they used to just have you drive on the cliff like it was nothing - how did Bob Tull do it in the van all those years??). It's a spectacular drive to the top as long as everyone around you in driving safely.

At the top of the mountain where the road then begins to wind down the other side, there is a park area called Logan Pass. David didn't even mention this place as a good spot for animal spotting, he just said it was worth walking through because, hey, it's a gorgeous field on the top of a mountain. Well, right away we spotted a large group of big horn sheep, a marmot (chubby ground hog looking thing), and some mountain goats (the hairy white guys). On the way back down it was determined that the big horns were 19 males, and they just kept getting closer and closer to the path while the dumb tourists leaned closer and closer to them to get pictures - the Darwin Awards, National Parks edition. Check out this video of the big horns and dumb tourists in action:

When we got down the other side, we drove around to the village of Many Glacier in the eastern part of the park. The family had been at Glacier and spotted a total of 12 bears in one stretch of road (the berries are in bloom = scary for hikers). We checked out the Many Glacier lodge which is a gorgeous hotel for the affluent who don't want to rough it, but want to do Glacier. It's on a lake and you can see what's left of Glacier's glaciers from there. On the way back we did have a very pleasant bear sighting - a momma brown black bear with 2 roly poly cubs. They were close enough that we didn't need binoculars, but far enough away that we could get out of the car and not die. On the way out we saw something huge and black in the woods and I thought it was a bear, but it turned out to be 2 cows - cows roam free on Indian Reservations (bear bait!).

We drove ALL the way back over Going to the Sun (it takes forever) and took one last hike on the Trail of the Cedars, a beautiful recently renovated trail on a board walk (it doesn't prevent bear attacks, but it sure feels better!). We didn't make it back to the house til almost 7, but all was forgiven when we came with huckleberry pie.

DAY 8

Today the Blount's returned to Virginia Beach and Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Selinde arrived from British Columbia. Uncle Jimmy is the officiant for our wedding ceremony and so we were so happy to overlap with their visit. We all went to a pizza place with Hap where there was steak on our pizza (Montana!). Then David and I drove up to Whitefish, a resort town north of Kalispell. It has ski slopes and its own lake with a very yuppy downtown shopping area. They also have a theater so David really liked it. Apparently celebrities like Julia Roberts and Keifer Sutherland have houses up there. We came back for a walk with Matt and then a wonderful steak dinner with Jimmy and Selinde where we discussed plans for the wedding.