Sunday, August 07, 2005

I realized, with a little help from Jill, that I got so wrapped up in telling the story of the flight to Montana, I did not tell what we did there. It is a good thing I have around 75 women in my life reminding me to do things.

When we got to the airport in Montana, it was small, but nice and efficient. We got our bags in record time and went out front. The Oldest Daughter and Son-In-Law arrived to pick us up, then wisked us off to Glacier National Park.

Wow. Glacier National Park is really something. It is huge, for one thing. We drove down the park road for 2 hours and were still well inside the park. We drove up the the Continental Divide. It was actually cold, and felt really wonderful. All around us were mountain peaks, many with snow still capping them.

We saw dozens of waterfalls. The began out of sight up on the mountain and tumbled down in a fierce flow of water. It was beautiful. We saw a glacier and several famous mountains. The Oldest and the S.I.L. had learned a lot about the park and served as tour guides. It was so refreshing after flying all day to ride through the majesty and beauty of the mountains.

Then we stopped at a hiking trail and walked a mile or so downhill to a waterfall. We stood right on it and watched the clear, cold water flow over the rocks into a big pool, then make its way down a fast flowing river.

We then went down to the lake and took a boat tour for an hour or so. They pointed out lots of interesting sites. At one time there were chalet's build around the lake for rich people to stay in. I actually saw a show on tv about this once, so it was interesting to see first hand. All the houses were gone, but there was one big pile of lumber.

We kept looking for wild life, but only saw a loon on the lake. Then we drove back out to a cafe. The Little Woman, the Baby and I all fell asleep in the back of the car. But, we arrived and had a great dinner, topped off with Huckleberry pie and vanilla ice cream.

Huckleberries grow wild there and there are dishes and products everywhere. They say they cannot domesticate them (my wife says this about me also), so you get them when they are ripe. They look like blueberries, but taste like a cross between blue and blackberries.

Sadly, the S.I.L. had to go back the next day. We kept his rent car to run around in. The Little Woman made all the shops.

We say the Oldest perform in Anything Goes and Grease. She had the lead, Sandy, in Grease, and brought the house down. We were very proud. The introduced us, which was also nice.

The travails of traveling were forgotten as we enjoyed the beautiful scenary, the company of our daughter and son in law, the musicals and the good food. Yes, they had a good coffee shop there, although not a Starbucks. It was Nan's. Nan knew the Oldest by that time, so we had a nice visit. In fact, the people in town treat the actors like celebrities so it was fun. If it needed anything else, I found it in a great used book store with an eccentric owner. It took us 3 hours to get out of the store.

Too soon, the time ended and we had to return. The travel back was smoot and we arrived safely back in Cowtown.

Thanks to our great Son-In-Law for sending us on the trip and our daughter for entertaining us.

And Montana, you have a beautiful state. Fort Worth, did you know the sky is blue?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am glad that after all the trouble that you went through to get to Montana, you were able to see one of God's wonderful creations. What an awesome, creative God we call our Father.