Saturday, August 24, 2019

Glacier (41) - August 13, 2019


Tuesday 

We slept in a bit this morning, had breakfast in the cabin and entered the park around 10 am.  What a difference a few hours can make.  The day before we drove straight it with no line.  Today the line was probably 100 cars long.  Our plan was to hike to Avalanche Lake (about 4.5 miles round trip) but because we got started so late there was no parking at the Avalanche Lake trailhead so we drove ¾ of a mile up the road and parked at a turnout and walked back to the trail head. So we turned this into a six mile hike. 


The hike to the lake was uphill some, initially along a creek, and it was a beautiful day.  



When we arrived at the lake, it was just breathtaking – three waterfalls, fed by a glacier (that you can’t see) that feed the crystal-clear lake. 



Ryan and Grant were skipping rocks into the lake and Ryan accidentally hit an older man in the back of the leg with a pebble and she offered him the most heartfelt apology and asked if he was okay and he was such an ass to her – he said, “Well ‘Sorry’ just isn’t enough.” And he went on and on.  I got mad and said something to him and Grant got mad at me for being "loud and embarrassing" so it all sucked for a while but we all shook it off and went about our day.

We left the park after the hike and drove through Hungry Horse, through Columbia Falls, to Whitefish, MT, a ski resort.  We had a great, late lunch at Jersey Boy’s Pizzeria then we walked around downtown, stopping in some stores and getting ice cream at Sweet Peaks, a place Nick’s co-worker had recommended to him.  The ice cream is made in town!  



After ice cream we drove to Whitefish Lake (basically in the hear of town) then we drove around and looked at homes that were for sale – Nick and I are really learning towards retiring in Montana because we LOVE it here.

From there we drove back through Columbia Falls where we stopped at an A&W fast food restaurant and got Grant a root beer float and Ryan some fries. Then it was off to Amazing Fun Center where we raced go-karts and played a round of miniature golf.  We had a wonderful, relaxing time.

We got back to the cabin around 8, dropped the kids off, and Nick and I ran to the grocery store to grab a few things.  The kids made s’mores at one of the fire pits and when Nick and I pulled back into our cabin, the two of them were swinging on the swing set together, having a peaceful time.

We watched some TV and went to bed.


P.S.  Disturbingly, we learned that a 14-year-old girl died last night on the Going-to-the-Sun Road from falling rocks that crashed into the back windshield of her family's pickup truck.  It happened at 7 pm and we were at that spot around 4 pm coming home from lunch.  It's the first death from falling rocks in 23 years.  So strange to have been on the road on the same day.

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