we had a great trip to montana this past week. the plan was to see “nick’s montana”. we visited all but two of the cities he lived in while he served as a missionary. we met great people and saw a few touristy things. here it is day-by-day:
warning!!!! this is a very long post. read at your own risk (of boredom).
july7
doug, clayton, hunter, and i flew from long beach to salt lake, rented a suburban and drove down to sandy to pick up nick. from there we got all set to drive through wyoming and montana. nick sat shotgun as navigator and dj. (he ran the music through his ipod.) i sat behind doug, clayton behind nick, and hunter got the back seat to himself. well, he had to share with the food and blankets.
we were on our way by 11:30 am. headed north on the 15, our first turnoff was in idaho falls toward yellowstone and cody, wyoming. the boys and i fell asleep and woke up to realize doug had missed the turnoff in idaho falls and we were about an hour from dillon, mt. yikes! what do we do? nick gets out his map and suggests a gravel/dirt road from monida that will take us to our intended highway. clayton gets on his iphone and googles it. google took us around that road and avoided it at all costs. we decide to go for it. we say, “it will be an adventure. we’ll see a part of montana that we wouldn’t see otherwise.”
about 20 minutes into the ride across the dirt road we hear BAM and doug immediately pulls over. we blew out the left rear tire. now, we are seriously in the middle of nowhere, montana. no cell service, no people. doug, nick, and clayton start looking for the tools to change the tire. a truck comes by, he stops and asks if we need help. doug says no, it’s just a flat tire. (i’m thinking, YES, let him help! maybe he knows something that will get us done faster. oh well, he left.) another truck whizzes by leaving a trail of dust. thanks, dude. here are a few pictures of our unplanned stop:
the middle of nowhere, montana
putting the flat back where the spare goes. poor nick had the dirty job.
i entertained myself by taking pictures of hunter and by flagging down the 3-4 trucks that passed by so they wouldn't run over nick's legs sticking out from under the car.
about 45 minutes later we were all set to go. spare tire on, everything back in the car. only another 45 minutes to an hour on this road. oh yes, we had a quick prayer after we got the spare tire on. we were grateful to be safe and have all the necessary equipment, plus we asked to continue to be safe and have no more mishaps.
further down the road we came upon a herd of cows right in the middle of the road!
doug drove ever so slowly so as not to get stampeded by them. took about 5 good minutes to get past and feel like we could safely drive through. one cow actually climbed right through the barbed wire fence! ouch!
once on the highway, we arrived at our next destination-yellowstone. i asked the lady at the entrance if we were headed the right way to cody. she said yes and that we still had a way to go. she very kindly let us through without collecting the entrance fee (oh, wait, we promised we wouldn’t say anything. well, that’s ok. only 2-3 people read this blog, anyway!). she also told us to take the southern route so as to pass by old faithful. we did. unfortunately we would’ve had to wait another hour to see it spew, so we didn’t hang around. here are a few pictures of it anyway:
i was cold and my jacket was packed away so i grabbed my blanket and threw it around me. it's a good look, don't you think?
back in the car, we took a few pictures of the beautiful park.
yep, it was getting late. and, since the sun doesn’t go down till almost 10:00, this picture is deceiving. looks like early evening, but it wasn’t. we arrived in cody at 11pm. found our motel and passed out.
july 8
slept in a bit. doug got up early (like he always does) and took care of the tire. very nice. then after everyone was dressed, we went shopping in “downtown” cody. saw lots of fun indian and cowboy stuff. nick bought a used cowboy rope. (is there an official name for that? i dunno.) clayton got a poster of a black wolf with snow on his face. very cool.
we made plans to meet for a late lunch with a man and his son that nick taught and baptized. if you read his blog or email you’ll recall arnie and aaron flores. they received a lot of grief from their family for joining the church. but, they are still active and going strong. when we were done shopping, hunter and i went back to the motel so i could sleep and hunter could read. doug, clayton, and nick went to the buffalo bill museum to see all the guns. that was exciting for them, not so much for me. the nap was great!
lunch with arnie and aaron was great! it was so nice to meet them. everyone except hunter and me had buffalo burgers. first one for aaron and clayton. they thoroughly enjoyed them. we visited for about an hour and a half. they had a game of paintball to get to (very fun!) and we had a rodeo to attend.
we went to the famous nightly rodeo in cody. seated next to us was a group of high school students from north and south carolina. they were visiting 23 states in 23 days. wow! the name of their group was “teens westward bound”. they knew all the songs playing (um, you know, country songs) and were one of the highlights of the rodeo. as a side note: nick and clayton were watching a movie or something together on their ipod while waiting for the rodeo to begin. as this large group of students were filing in past us, one guy said in a loud voice, “you’re at the rodeo! put away your ipod!” nick and clayton didn’t even hear him. i did, but i just laughed. they really don’t understand california kids, do they?
this bull kept acting like he was about to charge but he never did.
the rodeo was fun. i don’t think i’ve ever been to one before. clayton, nick, and hunter hadn’t either. i don’t think we’ll be exceptionally eager to go back, but it was a fun thing to do in wyoming.
july 9
packed up and drove to billings, montana. first stop was the temple.
next stop: the mission home. nick never took any pictures of this place, so i was sure to get some. he visited briefly with a missionary he knew there, got the list of where the current missionaries are serving and we were off to get lunch.
had a nice lunch at red robin in billings. took a picture of the suburban we rented. the parking lot at red robin wasn’t too full so it seemed like a good place to take a picture.
after lunch we headed out to bozeman. but, we had to stop in columbia for a $5 belt buckle at a particular shop: the montana trading company outlet. well, nick didn’t know how to get there, he’d never been there, just heard other missionaries talk about it. so, again clayton gets his iphone out and googles it. google sent us here:
our destination is just on the other side of the tracks
in case you can’t tell, there are two trains passing, each going a different direction. we sat and waited about 5 minutes for the trains to pass. one passed by completely and the other came to a complete stop. so, we began to think that maybe google had led us astray. so clayton calls. we had the number for the manufacturer who is on the other side of the two trains. they gave us directions for the store which was more “in town”. so we turned around.
the horses in the picture were really funny. they stood perfectly still the whole time we were there, kind of like they dared us to pass. so naturally i had to get a picture.
we found the store and nick got his belt buckle. it wasn’t $5, but he was happy.
we traveled on to bozeman. we got to the ramada and saw that they had a waterslide at the pool. hunter was dying to swim. so the boys put on their suits and doug and i watched and took pictures. then we went to dinner.
sorry the picture is so dark. this is hunter enjoying the waterslide.
after dinner we drove around bozeman and saw where nick lived and the path he took walking into town every day. he said the place looked a lot different since it wasn’t covered in snow. (he was only here in the winter.) rained a bit but not while we were out. it was refreshing to see the rain since we haven’t had any at home for so long.
july 10
packed up again and drove on to butte. “beautiful butte”. first stop was the berkeley pit. this is an old copper mine that is filling with underground water. the water is toxic and if it reaches a certain level, they will have to evacuate the city. might happen in about 10-15 years.
after the pit, we drove through downtown butte. “butte america”. we were so surprised by what we saw. we drove past a burned out tire store:
then we noticed what was right next door:
the sign may be hard to read. it says: A&M Fire and Safety-fire extinguishers. we just laughed.
interestingly, right amidst the slums was the very nice montana tech. the humor here though is their mascot name: home of the orediggers. enough said.
after our exciting adventure through beautiful butte we went to a tiny restaurant known for it’s very original pastys. pronounced past eez. this was a place nick was really looking forward to. he even texted a former missionary friend and told him what he was eating. his friend was envious. a pasty is meat and potatoes in a pastry type shell, covered in gravy. very large and very delicious.
we saw our first meth ad in butte:
these are all over montana. they certainly make their point.
after our lovely tour of butte america, we drove on to missoula. oh, just so there’s no confusion, i took this picture in butte:
once we arrived in missoula, we checked into our nicest hotel, the courtyard marriot. then we went to downtown, walked around and shopped. nick found the record store he wanted to shop at again. yes, you read correctly “record store”. he has a growing collection of lps. he bought a turntable a couple of months ago. after carefully looking through the records, he made his selection of about 5 albums. then we did a kelly thing, we shopped at the mall. i got a couple new shirts. fun for me!
we then went back to the hotel and put our things away and walked over to dinner. the restaurant was right next door. the montana club. i had huckleberry salmon. it was delicious.
after dinner, hunter and nick played a very long game of chess. i had a nap while they were playing and woke up and they still weren’t finished! when the game finally ended, nick and doug drove over to meet with some missionaries nick wanted to visit. clayton, hunter and i went swimming at the hotel pool. it was lovely.
july 11
we checked out around 10:00. sad to leave the nice hotel, but on we go. we stopped for breakfast at ihop in missoula. then on to bigfork. we made a stop in polson because we saw a billboard sign for an outlet store called three dog down. it was a fun stop. the lady in the store was very chatty. when we pointed out a grammatical error in one of their big signs, they were very embarrassed. the lady is a junior high school teacher. 7th grade science. she said it was obvious she wasn’t an english teacher. good thing, too! the sign said “we’re are very proud…” we just thought they were exceptionally proud. we didn’t end up buying anything, but it was fun anyway.
from there we stopped for our hike. we drove to the jewel basin and took the 3 mile hike to birch lake. it was a bit tough at first with the steep incline, but the lake was so beautiful that the hike was worth it. the only way to see birch lake is to hike in. there are no roads. it was so quiet and serene. if we had remembered our bug spray, we wouldn’t have received so many bug bites. i’m still scratching a week later! hunter and i tested out the water and it was biting cold. hunter said it actually hurts to be in it. even so, it was some of the clearest lake water i have ever seen! of course i have pictures:
top sign: < birch lk tr no. 724, bottom sign: alpine tr no. 7 >
this is bear grass. it was everywhere. i thought it was amazing.
birch lake. insert your own caption here.
it just doesn’t get any better than this.
we were quite exhausted after our hike. we drove straight to our motel in kalispell and i showered. phew, what a relief! then we went to dinner at famous dave’s. wow! what a ton of food! clayton said that montanans sure know how to eat! after dinner we all fell asleep in no time.
july12
went to church in bigfork. this is where all the summer travelers go. the previous sunday there were 1309 people in church. this building was only meant to hold about 250 max. the people were in chairs lining the hallway and in every available room. the bigfork ward has become equipped to handle this summer crowd. they put monitors in several rooms each week so everyone can see and hear the meeting. however, this was one of the largest groups they’ve ever had. our sunday dwindled down to half. only 643 people attended. it was still an interesting sight to see.
nick spent 6 months in the bigfork/lakeside area so there were several people who remembered him. we went to the lakeside branch after sacrament meeting and he saw several more people he knew. the best part was meeting people and having them tell us how wonderful nick is and that he was a great missionary, or how much they love him, or whatever wonderful things they had to say about him. i loved it.
we were invited over to a few families’ homes and we were able to go to two of them. i really enjoyed visiting with them. it was good to hear how things are in montana on a daily basis. this is the part of montana a regular tourist doesn’t get to see. it was the best.
we also drove out going to the sun road into logan pass in glacier national park. took tons of pictures. walked up the mountain a short distance at the visitor’s area at the top. it was beautiful! here are just a few pictures:
no picture can really capture the majesty of this place. you really have to see it. hopefully this gives you an idea, if you haven’t been there.
this is at the visitor area
i waited for all the people to pass so i could take this picture. but, there was some guy in a blue shirt sitting on the steps just past these trees who was ruining my shot. so, i stepped to the left so the trees would block him out. got it! then i walked on and discovered that the guy in the blue shirt was clayton!
a very kind lady offered to take our picture. that was nice.
this was a great day! we met wonderful people and saw one of the most beautiful places in the world. i think this was my favorite day.
july 13
packed up once again and drove into bigfork to buy cherries. the flathead cherry season had just begun. we stopped at a little stand along the road. doug wanted to buy from a local farmer. well, we certainly did! we got 2 bags of fresh cherries and 4 jars of assorted jam; huckleberry, chuckleberry, cherry, and razzle dazzle. they were kind of expensive but doug was so excited. he LOVES homemade jam. he was eating the cherries before we pulled out of the lot.
within minutes of our purchase, it started pouring rain. the drops were huge! nick said “welcome to montana”. we wanted to go to bigfork and shop on their cute main street but it was just too crazy with the rain. we did, however, stop for some huckleberry fudge. clayton took these amazing pictures in the rain:
here is doug hurrying out of the fudge shop.
we decided to go ahead and drive on to breakfast since we couldn’t shop in the rain. it was disappointing, but the day turned out great anyway. we had a detour because the road was blocked going south from bigfork, (not sure why) so we turned around and took the road on the other side of the lake. after stopping at one restaurant with a power outage, we drove a bit further and found a lodge with a nice place for breakfast. it was very cozy and homey. we all loved it. we had french toast, oatmeal, biscuits and gravy, and nick’s choice: lemon ricotta pancakes. we were thrilled to find this place.
the rest of the day was spent mostly in the car. we stopped in st. regis, bought some touristy stuff, and saw a man that nick knew. he was an old guy and was very fun to talk to. he was happy to see nick and was glad we stopped by. we were disappointed that his wife was at work so we didn’t get to meet her.
then we drove through frenchtown and saw where nick lived and most of the very small town.
driving on, our next stop was hamilton. as we were coming into town and looking for the restaurant where nick had planned for us to eat, we saw the missionaries on their bikes. we stopped when nick recognized one of them. he talked with them for a few minutes and then we went to a late lunch at nap’s. they serve 1 lb burgers there. doug, nick, and clayton each got their own. hunter and i split one. it was great!
it was fun to eat at nick’s favorite places. i would sit there imagining him with a group of missionaries, eating and chatting in their white shirts and ties.
our last montana stop was dillon. we just slept there.
july 14
time to pack for home. very sad. i didn’t want our vacation to end. i loved spending so much time with all my boys. plus, i never had to cook or do dishes. we drove on to sandy, ut to drop nick off and headed to the airport. we turned in our rental car and got to our gate in time to find out our flight would be delayed half an hour. at least we hadn’t missed it!
after arriving in long beach, we drove clayton straight to his young men’s meeting, then he went on to the movie theater for the midnight showing of harry potter. his vacation ended at 3:00 am wed morning.
what a great week! here are a few more random pictures:
overlooking billings. montana's largest city
my front view while we were driving
my view to the right. clayton is reading harry potter 6 (of course)
hunter's view 90% of the time. he slept A LOT.
and, of course, the view out the back.
i got a little bored while driving. can you tell?
flathead lake
cherries!
birch lake
nick's view to the left in the car
doug drove every single one of the 2,405 miles of our trip. what a guy. he didn’t mind driving and i didn’t mind letting him!
hunter read 3 books over the week. harry potter 5, 6, and 7. i read about 3 chapters of harry potter 1 and clayton finished harry potter 6. no other books were read. it was all about harry potter.
