Day Two, February 11, 2012
After our long baths and some quiet reading (we are both voracious readers) the first day, we slept fitfully and we were wrenched from our sleep by the alarm. We threw on some clothes and I put on a toque to hide my morning hair before heading down to see what the free breakfast offered us. Josh thought he heard “hot breakfast” when we checked in, but it turned out my hunch was right. Bagels, a couple of cereal choices, hard-boiled eggs and muffins. I was happy as long as there would be coffee and juice, and there was. I grabbed my faves; a blueberry muffin, coffee and apple juice. We made sure to fill up our travel mugs before leaving too. The table behind us was four men in Montana for some snowmobiling and hunting. They spoke in Fahrenheit and MPH which kept reminding me that we are in the U.S of A! I tried to convert it to Celsius and Kilometers in my head, but failed. The men knew way too much about guns and trucks. I guess everyone has their thing. It was basically the one guy talking with a few “mmhmms” or “oh yahs” from the other men with him. I sat there pretty quiet with Josh, just trying to wake up and letting the caffeine soak in. I can’t tell you how much I love and rely on coffee. My one addiction.
We went up to the room and checked to see if there would be a guided tour at the Glacier National Park. There would be. It was a mild day with not much snow, so there wouldn’t be snowshoeing as planned but a guided walk would still be happening. Josh checked the clock, calculated it was a half hour drive there and so we both took our time getting ready. However, re-checking the route he found out it was closer to a 45-60 minute drive. Oops. I still wanted to try to make it. We got there just after the tour guide had left, but decided to check out a path on our own. The lady at the counter (Ranger? are they called Rangers? Or is that just on Yogi Bear??) gave us a map with a rough (!!) guide of the paths to take and told us there is not enough snow for snowshoes.
We left the building and wandered aimlessly. I can’t explain why, but I was a bit crabby. I get randomly crabby for no reason sometimes. I blame it on estrogen. Is that unfair to feminists?I slipped on the ice and did the passive aggressive thing.
Josh goes “Do you wanna go take photos of the lake?”
Me, “Fine. I can just use the zoom though”
Josh, “You’ll get better photos if we go down the hill a bit. C’mon”. (As he is walking and practically down there already; while I am fumbling to follow, unbeknownst to him).
I slipped on the ice and I’m sure it looked quite comical. My head went one way, my legs the other, my knees jerking out to the side of both, my feet peddling back and forth trying to find some footing….like a badly done prat fall. Very Buster Keaton. I managed to barely save myself and my back hurt. On a normal day I would just laugh and tell Josh he missed seeing something funny. But being the moody girl who just whined, “Waiittt. I almost fell and you didn’t even notice or help me!”
Josh, “Oh?”
Me, “Oh no, it’s okay. I’m okay though, thanks for asking. Oh don’t help me at all, I’ll just fall on my head. Thanks tho.”
I knew I was being a bitch but the words rolled out of my mouth before I could stuff them back in. Josh raised his eyebrow, then came down to help. I kissed him and apologized, saying I guess I didn’t get enough coffee that morning. He forgave me and we went walking down to the lake.
The well-earned photo that I almost broke a hip for.
The map was so general and such a rough guide that we took a few wrong turns before finding the road and deciding on a path. We finally saw some trail signs that helped us out. On a high mountain road we passed by some cross-country skiers and found that there was enough snow to use snowshoes! I cursed the lady that told us otherwise the rest of the walk and made a valuable discovery: I do NOT like hiking in the winter in soft snow that wants to eat my ankles and swallow my foot; I would much MUCH rather be snowshoeing.
Josh hiking through the snow, having much more luck than me.
Enough snow to snowshoe, those liars.
The rest of the walk was uneventful. We got back to our car, uneaten by grizzlies….
Warning about bears
And after seeing some beautiful scenery, we were hungry:
Before we walked all the way back.
We decided to go to Norm’s News for lunch. A neat old diner, with a lot of history. It’s better just to show you probably.
The mural that adorned the wall beside us.
It’s hard to focus on eating a burger with so much candy beside you.
The lady in front of Josh when he went to pay bought $200 worth of candy!
The lovely ladies behind the bar counter.
History:
The menu doubled as an informative brochure.
One last look at candy
Then we moved on to the Western wear store, which was pretty boring, and then the Antique store that is in the downstairs of the same building. It was really neat. I found out the Peter Rabbit bowl set I own is worth money, which is kind of cool. There were a ton of things down there, including toys.
Toys in the antique store included this cute guy.
Then we just shopped at Camas Creek Yarn for me but I was so overwhelmed by the beautiful choices that I balked and just got a button. Then we hit up Target.
We went to Moose’s Saloon for dinner and it was a great experience. Great casual atmosphere! The only downside is that I forgot my camera! You’ll have to follow the link to their webpage to see their photos. It’s a great place. Everyone seems to hang there, from older people to young families to 20-somethings. You find your own table, then get up and go to the bar to order beer and carry it to your table. If you’re hungry, you go to the small window in the back corner where you can look in to the pizza kitchen. You order whatever toppings you like, tell them your table number by looking on a map and they bring it to your table later. Costs must be minimal this way and I think it’s genius. There is sawdust on the floor, like a good ole fashioned saloon and at the bar you can grab shelled peanuts to eat. You discard the shells on to the floor to be swept up later. We had intended to eat and leave, but it was good to just sit, talk and people watch (or watch hockey on the tv) so we decided to stay longer. Two pitchers of beer and two pizzas (one combo pizza and one sausage, garlic and mushroom) later we were ready to walk back to the hotel.
What a wonderful day and one more to go! …..to be continued….
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