As I write the final entry of the Idaho/Montana chapter of our amber waves tour, I reflect on the observation I made about a week ago. I told Dana that while the ocean is dramatic and gorgeous, I actually find myself more drawn to the way lakes and rivers interact with the communities that surround them. We did a tour of towns up and down the Mississippi last spring break and fell in love with Michigan and all of its lakes when we visited there in the summer of 2015.
Throw in a couple of mountains, and I'm done for. Glacier National Park, therefore, easily became one of my favorite National Parks, as Idaho and Montana have become top contenders for favorite state. Our early morning horseback ride was beautiful, taking us through a forest before we came upon McDonald Creek. We crossed a bridge on our horses (Star for Maddie, Cooper for Dana, Dapples for Daniel, and Bandit for me) before riding alongside the other side of the creek. It was a peaceful and lovely way to end our time in the park and in Montana.
Sunrise on the way to horseback riding
Lake McDonalds in Glacier NP
We're spending our last two nights in Spokane, Washington, though we spent most of today in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. Sister cities, the two are just 30 minutes apart. We've explored the northeastern part of Washington in the past, but we were eager to see another part of the state, while deepening our Idaho exploration. This morning, we woke up when we felt like it, initially headed down to breakfast in Spokane and then decided to call an audible and head to Coeur D'Alene for the day. I jokingly called it the City of the Lake before deciding to research how the city's name truly originated. Apparently, when French fur traders arrived in the mid 1800's, they found the Native Americans there to be quite shrewd when it came to trading. They referred to them as having hearts (coeur) at sharp as an awl (alene), a tool used to sew leather. The name stuck, though residents and tourists here also freely use CDA and the 208 area code as nicknames.
If pride of state can be determined by having stickers and magnets in the shape of your state, I'm pretty sure that Montana and Idaho are going to win.
The indigenous tribes that lived on these lakes and rivers centuries ago are still here today, though, of course, they have been relegated to reservations. Still, the reservations in this part of the country are like nothing I've encountered before. They abut lakes and mountains and go on for thousands of acres. Since these people were the original and likely best stewards of the land, this has been gratifying to discover. Still, they are reservations, with all those inherent challenges. Sherman Alexie, an author I love who is Spokane, Coeur d'Alene and American, has written honestly, humorously and searingly about his childhood on a reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, which was created in 1881, when the tribe was removed from its over 3 million acres to three separate reservations, including the Flathead reservation we visited on our way from Missoula to Whitefish. I've tried to find a decent map to show where these reservations are, and how many indigenous people still live in this part of the country, but I haven't had much success. Still, here are two that give a little sense of the area. There is no doubt that spending time in the Northwest region of our country provides ample time to reflect on those who were here long before we "discovered" America. I'm hoping the recent election of the first two Native Americans to Congress is just the start of greater representation for the various tribal members in the larger American conversation.
Of course, we did more than reflect on the history and culture of the various Indian tribes who lived here. We also had brunch! :) The Garnet Cafe is a darling gem I had read about when we were heading to the area the day before. When our waitress at dinner also mentioned it, specifically the pesto breakfast spaghetti ?!, we were even more intrigued. It was even better than we anticipated. When you're sitting in a charming little restaurant cottage in CDA with signs all over pronouncing this place the winner of the best breakfast in Spokane, you know you made the right call to drive 30 minutes for a meal. We spent the rest of the day walking the downtown shopping area, the lake, and the beautiful memorial for a local police officer who was killed in the line of duty, the first (and thus far only) one ever in this city. The memorial is for him, but also for all officers killed in the line of duty, and apparently stickers with his call number - K27 - can be found all over, with people visiting CDA or knowing someone here and going back with the bumper sticker on their car. In an age where there are so many stories of police brutality, this small town story really grabbed my attention.
Sculptures pop up around the lake at the center of Coeur D'Alene
The CDA sun dial; you must add an hour during daylight saving's time. :)
The houses along the lake have a front yard, the road, and then this area directly on the lake. This house did it up.
After several hours in Idaho, we headed back to explore some of the historic neighborhoods in Spokane before settling in for The Lion King, a film we had hoped to be able to see together as a family, before Maddie heads back to L.A. tomorrow, and we head home to Florida. In our final hours in Spokane, we will enjoy the riverfront park and then head to the airport and back to our respective coasts.
The oldest neighborhood in Spokane
Maddie enjoying the sunshine after a couple of chilly days.
We all agree that Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen make the movie., though Donald Glover was fantastic.
Until the lakes, rivers, and mountains beckon again...
In an eventful couple of days, we kayaked/floated down the Clark Fork River in Missoula before packing up our car and heading to Whitefish. When we opted to count on better weather yesterday morning for our river expedition, we knew we would be arriving later to Whitefish. With sunset always happening after 9:00, there is more freedom to make those sorts of decisions.
Our final hours in Missoula were wonderful and relaxing. While it was cloudy, we didn't get any rain, and we had the river completely to ourselves to play music, paddle when we felt like it, and otherwise just float and enjoy our surroundings. At one point Maddie spotted what we believe was an eagle. We never got a close enough shot of it to be sure, but it certainly seemed likely.
After rafting, we had a final lunch in another local favorite with a name we couldn't pass up - The Notorious P.I.G. :) Then it was back on 93 for more of that beautiful drive we had started a few days earlier. This time we drove through the Flathead Indian Reservation, which restored a bit of the faith that had been lost the other day. About 5,000 members of the Salish and Kootenai tribes live on over 1.2 million acres, and the land is stunning, with the Flathead Lake taking up a good portion of it.
We arrived in Whitefish just in time for their weekly farmer's market. Though there was a light rain, we still walked around a bit before heading up to our beautiful lodge up at the top of Big Mountain, where we were chagrined to learn that there was no elevator and we were on the 4th floor. After shlepping up too many bags, we headed back down the stairs and the Big Mountain for a delicious dinner in Loula's Cafe, the restaurant that seems to be the spiritual if not literal inspiration for the film/musical Waitress. Four more flights of stairs later, our rquaint room provided the perfect cozy setting to finish up the season of Stranger Things.
Today was a full day. We were up and headed to Glacier National Park, which is about 45 minutes from Whitefish, by 8:30. Tomorrow, we will be in the park and horseback riding at 7:45 a.m., so I'm going to wrap up today's blog and get to sleep very soon.
While the weather did not cooperate today, the park was glorious even when overcast. Dana had read that both Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan (of America's Best Idea documentary fame) consider Glacier to be among their top five favorites. We drove back and forth twice on the famed Going-to-the Sun Road, only open during a couple of summer months, when we prematurely returned for a horseback ride that was delayed. Luckily we were able to reschedule it for tomorrow morning (thus the crazy early wake-up call) and get back to experiencing more of the park.
We took one relatively easy hike called Trail of the Cedars, where those and other trees were plentiful, along with creeks and lakes and haikus that had been placed throughout. Other than that, we mostly experienced the park from our car, stopping whenever the weather allowed and soaking it all in.
As we left the park this evening, Maddie played "On My Way," a family favorite song from the movie Brother Bear. Daniel was driving, Maddie and Dana serving as DJ's. Suddenly I noticed not a hundred yards ahead, a mother bear and her two cubs on the side of the road. Daniel slowly approached, we turned the music off, rolled down the windows and stopped for several minutes to just watch them. Since it was already after 7:00 p.m. and the busy crowds from earlier in the day had all but dispersed, we were able to experience this extraordinary moment.
We finished our night with another cozy dinner in downtown Whitefish and are now retiring for the night, Tomorrow will be a morning in Glacier, an afternoon in Coeur d'Alene in Idaho and finally our last stop for the trip in Spokane, Washington. As I complete this entry, it's already my mother's birthday in Florida, so I will close by wishing her a wonderful day.
A painfully slow Internet connection, a lost folder of photographs, and a couple of days of driving and meandering to and through Missoula have conspired to keep me from posting more faithfully.
Soon we'll be heading up river to inflate two kayaks and float/paddle them down the river right back to our hotel, where we've been watching all manner of fishermen, tubes and floats busy themselves these past two days.
On Sunday, we opted to take a somewhat longer drive from Bozeman to Missoula in order to drive through the Bitterroot Mountains and Valley, a route my trusty book on road trips through the U.S. had claimed was one of the more beautiful in the country. While I have little photographic evidence of its beauty, you'll have to take my word that it was quite stunning.
First up, a quick pit stop near the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. Unfortunately, an electric storm had taken out the lights within the cavern, halving the tours they offered and causing them to have a longer waiting period. Since we learned that Lewis and Clark camped in these parts without actually discovering the cavern that inexplicably carries their name, we found it appropriate to do the same. Still, it was a fascinating stop and amazing to think of the early explorers who discovered the caverns and explored them by climbing up the mountain we had driven and then lowering themselves down a 200 foot rope, which they would then have to climb back up. A photograph of four nuns in full habits left me particularly in awe, imagining these women hauling themselves up a rope deep in a dark cavern just for the sake of exploring an unknown space. Not sure if it filled me with awe or confirmed my fear that quite a few people are off their rocker. Either way, it was interesting.
However, what made the most searing impression on all of us was what we learned as we crossed over to 93. Passing through the sort of stunning rock caverns where you have seen or can imagine many Westerns filmed, we happened upon a historic marker that mentioned the Nez Perce and the Battle of Big Hole. Being on the very ground where U.S. soldiers, who were ordered to relocate the tribe to a reservation in Idaho, had murdered women and children rather than allow them to leave for Canada, where they believed they would have more freedom and autonomy, on the same day immigrant children are being detained in deplorable conditions and ICE raids were threatened across the country was all just a bit much to process. What I recall learning in school is pretty much limited to the Trail of Tears, so it has been powerfully eye-opening to be exploring so many of the areas where natives lived before they were driven from their homes, forced to sign treaties that were never honored, and relocated to reservations. Daniel, ever the expert DJ, played one song after another about social justice, causing me to first cry, and then, finally, laugh, when his playlist went from "O-o-h Child" by the Five Stairsteps to Brad Paisley's earnest but laughable "Accidental Racist."
A few hours later, with both Maddie and Daniel taking turns at the wheel and some challenging driving through mountains, we arrived in Missoula, where we have relaxed, walked through the town, enjoyed the local homemade ice cream, visited the Smokejumper visitor center and learned all about the advances they've made at their fire lab here to make fighting fires in mountain forests safer for the men and women who do this dangerous job, tried to convince Daniel to shave as he is beginning to look quite a bit like a certain beloved animated character, and watched an entertaining but relatively bad movie (Stuber) in one of the most state of the art movie theaters any of us has ever seen.
Sights from our hotel room balcony... we'll be on that river soon
Learning about the fire fighting fabrics and tools created here
Maclean wrote A River Runs through It based on his childhood in these parts.
The river at night, under a full moon
Now it's off to breakfast, the float and a drive to Whitefish, Montana. Tomorrow we spend the day in Glacier National Park, so I'm hopeful my camera will cooperate and the Internet will be working properly, so I can post some of what I imagine will be the most beautiful sites yet from our trip.
First, a very Happy Birthday to my Dad. I woke to Facebook memories of our birthday trip to Jupiter last year and am very much missing being there with him to celebrate his 76th today.
Yesterday we were going to stay close to home, checking out some hikes, doing laundry, enjoying our last hours in Big Sky before we head off to Missoula today. For the most part, things worked out at as we expected. The strange weather that started the day before was back, so our pre-lunch hike plans were delayed. Instead we went on what was never intended to be an extensive search for a lunch spot to let the weather clear before we hoped to do the hike our guide Bea told us about the other day. The search took us on some roads we hadn't explored before, including one called "Summit Peak," so you can imagine how gorgeous those views are. We spotted one dramatic house built up on a ledge with ceiling to floor windows facing Lone Mountain. We've determined it is Justin Timberlake's house, as he apparently has one here, proposed to and married his wife in Big Sky, and wrote a song called "Montana." We have yet to find a better contender, so we're pretty convinced it's the one.
The pic doesn't do it justice, but, trust me, it's impressive
You (and JT) can see that storm rolling in.
By the time we had gotten to the 4th restaurant that was either a members only affair (but what a view those members had!), inexplicably closed for lunch on Saturdays, or had a menu with only a handful of options, Dana declared that we could officially feel accomplished for having completed a "Jewish hike" - running all over town in the search of a good place to eat. :)
I finally remembered from my research back home that there was a place that was supposed to have great burgers and sandwiches but was only open Wednesday - Sunday. We found it, had lunch, and the first rain storm of the day passed.
Next up, the Hummocks hike. This is a relatively new trail that was installed by the Big Sky Community park, so it doesn't show up on any of the various hiking guides. Typically, unless the ascent is over 2,000 feet, these overviews classify them all as easy. Well, perhaps they're easy if you live in Montana and are fit as a fiddle, but we've found the "easy" ones to be moderate. As gorgeous as I'm sure the hikes classified "difficult" must be, I'd need to do some training before taking on one of those ascents.
and now the sky is as clear as can be...
The trail was lovely and blissfully quiet, though the combination of wild flowers very much in bloom and the rain storm having passed had quite a lot of insects buzzing about. At one point, Dana played Tom Petty's "Wildflowers," the song each of us had been singing or humming throughout the hike, and it was a poignant moment to reflect on one of our favorite artists in such beautiful surroundings. On many of these hikes, you come across a bench or picnic table that has been inscribed with a dedication to a loved one. I hope there's such an inscription to Tom Petty in a field of wildflowers somewhere.
When we arrived back home in hopes of some hot tub time, storm #2 began rolling through, and it was a doozie. Maddie had intended to join us in the hot tub, but when she took a look at the deep grey sky that was overhead and the lightning strikes that were nearing, she urged us to get out and head inside. So glad to have raised a sensible daughter.
We again watched hail, though not nearly as much of it, pelt the grass in front of our condo. When we ventured out to dinner during a break in the storm a couple of hours later, we were hopeful the skies would remain clear long enough for us to get inside. No such luck. Since it was our last night in Big Sky, I foolishly wore heels, while the rest of the family gussied up to their beautiful and handsome selves. Of course, the uncooperative weather, long walk from the parking lot, and a broken brick that led me to fall just outside of the restaurant conspired to keep me from taking any photos of our lovely selves, so you'll have to take my word for it.
Luckily the fall bruised my ego more than my body. The hostess brought me some ice, and, after I complained about the first table they tried to seat us at in some Game of Thrones looking dungeon next to a loud and large party, they relocated us to a beautiful room with huge windows where we could watch the storm end and the night sky reveal itself. With this room to ourselves, we engaged in a spirited debate about representation in Hollywood, based on Scar Jo's recent comments in an interview, the Little Mermaid casting and so on. When our waiter, who was originally from Florida, came by to check on us, he always made quick work of it. :)
We completed the night with Aunt Lydia (likely my least favorite episode of The Handmaid's Tale) and a very funny episode of Holey Moley, the show that Maddie's good friend Drew will eventually be on, though only for an episode. Still, after the hilarious commentary by Rob Riggle, I'm going to be in for all ten episodes. I suggest you check it out for a very different sort of comedy/game show.
Time to wake the children and pack up our things. A week ago, I wasn't sure if there would be enough things to keep us busy in Big Sky. Now I'm trying not to dwell on all the things we missed. This is a wonderful part of the state, rich with adventures big and small. I hope we'll be back.
