A few snaps from the summer, including a visit to the NoDak, my grandpa’s birthday party in Sasky, and a lot of days spent on the water. I’m applying for an internship for next summer, so I’m glad I got in as much ‘home’ as possible while I had the chance.
I wrote this on the train from Whitefish, MT to Minot, ND a few weeks ago. These pictures don’t really do it justice, as I was taking them through a window on my phone, but trust me, it was absolutely breathtaking.
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I’m writing this from seat 61 of car 31005 on a train bound for North Dakota. I left at 7:30 this morning from Whitefish, MT, and the trip is supposed to take about 12 hours.
I’ve never taken this train before, I’m probably the only one in my family that hasn’t, but I did take an overnight train in Thailand from Koh Samui back to Bangkok.
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but so far, I’m in love. I have a window seat all to myself, and each seat has an outlet so I can re-charge my kindle and computer.
I had breakfast in the dining car with one of the nicest couples I’ve ever met, I thought that even before they bought me breakfast when the credit card machine wouldn’t work.
But the best part about this trip is the view. We’re going through the mountains, and the sun is shining through the trees, and it’s completely stunning and distracting. I downloaded two books and a bunch of show episodes on iTunes to watch since it’s such a long way, but so far I can’t break myself away from the window long enough to do anything but take pictures.
I saw bear grass for the first time as we wove through the mountains, which is exciting because for the last few years I’ve heard about it a lot, and had to just nod along like I knew what people were talking about, but never again.
Also, the food is actually really good, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of their entrees are vegan or vegetarian, with the option to add meat or dairy.
So basically, I’m well provisioned, completely entertained, and entirely comfortable. I’m starting to worry that 12 hours is not going to be long enough. This is kind of my ideal situation, left alone with nothing to do but read or write for hours at a time. I might just stowaway.
I’ve been hibernating a little bit these past couple of weeks, between studying for the GRE, and renovations to our new house, there never seems to be enough hours in the day.
A spontaneous trip to Montana could not have come at a better time.
We’ve been coming to Flathead Lake in Montana for almost as long as I can remember. We would load up in the motorhome when my dad got home from work, and he would drive through the night.
We would wake up in the morning in Montana, at the campgrounds in Big Arm, and we would spend two weeks boating, having campfires, swimming and feeding the geese.
About 8 years ago my parents bought a cabin in Lakeside, and we’ve been spending most of our summers and a lot of our Christmases here ever since.
In all that time, I don’t think I’ve ever spent any actual time in Glacier National Park, although I do remember driving through it, and stopping to play in the waterfalls along the Road to the Sun.
So this summer, on a day too cold to spend on the boat, my mom and I drove the hour and a half to the park to go hiking. The park is absolutely gorgeous, and there are so many hiking trails and gorgeous lakes to choose from. We ended up going up to the top, to the Logan’s Pass trail. It’s a long, winding drive to the top, but the view is spectacular.
We were dressed in light layers, and we brought our bear bell and bear repellent, just in case, although if I ever had a bear come close enough to use it I would probably just lay down and wait for it to finish me off.
We stopped at the gift shop at the top to see if they had any snacks (they had these AMAZING oatmeal chocolate chips the size of your face, and I ate it in about two bites) and then we set off. We kind of randomly picked a trail and started walking.
The beginning of the trail was a wooden boardwalk through fields of multi-coloured wildflowers, but eventually it became a dirt trail with puddles everywhere from the runoff, and it got snowier and colder as we got closer.
My feet got wet, which wasn’t a problem at first, but after we’d been outside for a few hours and it started getting windier and colder I thought it was going to be Alive all over again.
The first animal we saw was a Marmot, it looks like an enormous fluffy gopher, but it was just chilling along the side of the trail so we left it alone.
The end destination of our hike was Hidden Lake, but we didn’t really know how far it was, so we kept ambling along. We passed a few people having a snowball fight, tons of waterfalls and a few little lakes before we got to the viewpoint.
When we were almost there we ran into one of the park rangers, and he told us he had seen a grizzly bear with her cubs down by the lake.
We walked for about 10 more minutes, and then we started to see little white dots moving down the mountains across an open field. They were mountain goats, there were 4 of them, and they were coming straight towards us.
We watched them for awhile and then went to continue on, when all of a sudden one of them popped up right in front of us on the trail, about 5 feet away. I’m not sure if mountain goats are dangerous, but he did have horns, so we tried to give him some space, but it was really cool to see him up so close.
We made it to the Hidden Lake Viewpoint, the view was amazing, and we did get to see the bears, although they were so far away that it was like a brown dot with two smaller brown dots walking around by the lake, which is fine because that’s about as close as I want to be to a grizzly bear in the wild anyway.
Eventually it started getting really cold and windy, so we made the trek back down, and headed for home, or more accurately, to the Moose for pizza. It was a really fun day, but there is so much to see in the park that I’d need at least a week to do all the hikes and see all the of the beautiful views.
There are so many amazing places there, like St.Mary Lake and hundreds of hiking trails, but there’s always next summer.
A few pictures from my favourite place with my favourite people. I spent almost a month in Montana this summer boating, surfing and drinking Twisted Tea.
Summer is not even officially over (and honestly I live in Arizona, so it is ever really NOT summer?) but I already can’t wait for next year.
Just a few pics from my dreamy hibernation holiday in Montana, which included too much polar bear plunging (once) and just the right amount of Rumchata (all of the Rumchata).
I am writing this from a Starbucks because we still don’t have internet (or furniture) at our new place. Â There are two older women across from me discussing how one of their ex-husbands has shacked up with “a floozy”, and I’m sneak downloading Shameless to watch later, snuggled up on my inflatable bed.
Starting tomorrow I should be back to a semi-regular posting schedule, there are still tons of photos and adventures to share from our trip, starting back in Kuta Lombok.
This has been my view for the last 6 days. It’s been pretty much dill pickle dip, mimosas and playing in the snow since we got here.
I have been wearing stretchy pants and a t-shirt the entire time. It may not be pretty, but it is pretty wonderful.
Happiness is Christmas in Montana.
I still can’t really grasp the concept that we’re actually not going to be going home for the rest of the year, I’m sure it’ll take some time for that to sink in.
Luckily I had an amazing week in Montana with my family before we left, I couldn’t have really asked for a better send off. I’m obsessed with that place.
Our daily agenda in Montana is some variation on the following:
9am: Creep leisurely out of bed for coffee, mimosas and fruit on the deck
10:30am: Six mile run with my mom. We’ve been doing the same route for 5 years. Six miles in California would almost kill me, but here it’s no big deal. Perhaps it’s the omnipresent threat of bears.
1:00pm: Lunch, either BBQ’d burgers or scavenged leftovers
2:00pm: Twisted tea and margaritas on the dock, then out in the boat for tubing, surfing and wakeboarding.
6:30pm: Sundrunk naps
7:30pm: Wine and pre-dinner appetizers on the deck
8:30pm: Supper time, either cooking at home or in to town to a restaurant
10:00pm: Drinking games (we just got this one) or relaxing by the campfire
I love it here, I’m never leaving, you can’t make me.
Noticeably absent from the agenda? Pedicures. There is no grooming at the lake.
Writing this from the deck of my parents cabin in Montana.
My whole family is here, I’ve got a Caesar in my hand, and baked brie in the oven.
There is literally nothing else I could want at this moment.
loveliness. 