Oh Montana, How Do I Love Thee.....

Our family vacation this year was to the Glacier National Park area and Kalispell.  What a wonderful family adventure.  I will, however, tell you to NEVER fly United Airlines...EVER!  They changed planes for the flight and in doing so, forgot to move us over to the new flight/plane.  I'm very thankful for American Express travel. They fixed us right up.  

United Airlines Sucks!

As our flights changed, "the best made plans" went to hell rather quickly.  One stopover became two, and our flight from Denver to Kalispell was tremendously delayed due to no gate being available to pull up to  from Salt Lake.  We literally ran about 10 city blocks to get to our next gate to make it to Montana. We did and were finally able to take a breath to relax. 

After landing in Kalispell, we rented a car from Budget Car Rental.  The transition was smooth as butter.  I had previously rented from Enterprise when my mother died earlier this year while in Richmond, Virginia. What a "shit show" to say the least.  Enterprise said I had stolen the car, and continued charging me even though it had been returned the morning of our flight back to Utah. This time we were driving a 2023 white Toyota 4Runner with only 7 miles on it. Zoom zoom!  Happy to say, they got our car return RIGHT!

MacKenzie's Pizza

We stopped at MacKenzie's Pizza Restaurant  and had a wonderful meal after a long day.  We then made our way to our Airbnb on Foy Lake.  We had beautiful sunsets, a pedal boat, and tons of fun.  

Matthew and John

Me and Matthew (couldn't stop giggling)

Blue Hour, Kalispell Sunset

We also did the Route of the Hiawatha. The biking path is beautiful, but the employees are complete assholes.  Even after reporting issues to management, and to HR, no money was refunded.  We were even threatened by "Bill" (see picture) upon exiting the path.  Guess what Bill?....you messed with the wrong girl to bully.

Bill the Ass

Glacier National Park has a car-pass system now. The "Going to the Sun Road" is a rather busy route throughout the park, so as I tried relentlessly for three months to get a pass yet never could.  I therefore signed us up for the Eastern Alpine Red Bus Tour.  It was AWESOME and our tour guide Patrick did a great job making stops, taking us on short little hikes, and providing photographic opportunities abound.  We had fun as a family that day. We even ate at St. Mary's Lodge which is part of the national park system. The food was great and the staff was efficient.  

Patrick our tour guide

We also visited the Mystery Vortex House.  The hubby is a "science fiction" nerd so this was his jam.  We had fun, and I got rather nauseous on one part of the tour.  It was fun and adventurous for our family.  Matthew and I also did a horseback tour of the backside of Glacier through Swan Mountain Outfitters. Our tour guide was awesome in explaining the wildlife and how to spot various wild and plant life throughout our ride.  I have to say, my tushy hurt after two hours on the horse.

Sideways house (illusion) <barf>

Our last day there was rather low-key and we went into Whitefish to walk around. SCORE ... there was an art festival. I got to explore other photographer's work and Matthew bought a necklace that was a cross made from jade stone.  I LOVED that little town....very much the western vibe.

Montana is one beautiful state and we will DEFINITELY return. I fell in love with it as much as I had previously with Wyoming.  Our next adventure will be Hawaii!