Glacier National Park

 I spent last week in Glacier National Park.  A few years ago I completed my quest to visit all 50 states, and my ambition has refocused to visiting some of the National Parks I missed out on when I visited their state.  This park was one I've heard about a few times, but I'm wondering why I haven't heard more after visiting it.  It has to be one of the most beautiful places on planet earth.
The park is broken into two parts in America, with a third section in Canada.  The western portion is the most visited, and it has more forest, waterfalls, and water.  The East side is more rugged with jutting peaks, visible (melting!) glaciers, and lots of wildlife.  Not knowing much, I booked a room at Many Glacier Hotel on the East Side.

 The hotel was built in the day of the railroad, and modeled after Alpine villages to pull in American travelers.  I've been to Switzerland once and the whole time, I really did feel like I was back in Switzerland.  The weather was still a little chilly.  Roads were still closed due to snow, in fact, they had an avalanche the week before, so a large portion of Going to the Sun road was closed.  I'm never going to complain about chilly nights when I know I'm heading back to a Texas summer, so each evening I sat in the lobby and enjoyed the fireplace.

 The days we were there, no wind was present, so all of the lakes (and there are tons) had mirror reflections of the trees and mountains.  Seriously, no picture can do it justice.

 I took a famous red bus tour as far the road would allow.

 The goal is to get from one side of the park to the other, and without an avalanche blocking the road, it would have worked, but what I did see was pretty stunning-no surprise.

There were tons of waterfalls with all the snow melt coming down they were at their full potential.  

 The reason why I like to risk those snowy roads in June is because it usually means that the animals are still hanging out pretty low in the valley-case in point-this bear and her cubs were hanging out in this meadow for a few hours.

 Another thing I read about the Glacier area was to try out the pies.  I grabbed pie at the Park Cafe one afternoon-it was probably the best meal I ate while in the area.  They were out of a lot of different flavors of pies by the time we arrived (huckleberry was my goal), but I don't think they make a bad pie.

 We took hikes (what Glacier is known for), boat rides out to see a few glaciers (the park is named for the fact that is was carved by glaciers, but if you want to see one of those sculptures, the goal is to visit in the next 15 years before they are projected to be totally gone). I spent a lot of time watching wildlife (you definitely want to hike with your bear spray....we saw more than a dozen animals-moose swimming, bears and their cubs, elk,deer etc).
After 5 days we headed to the Canadian side of the park, Waterton.  This time I stayed at the Prince of Wales hotels, another great railroad hotel with some really fun features, and a gorgeous view.

 I only spent about 24 hours here before I had to head home to Calgary, but I could literally not drive down a single park road without seeing a few bears.  We even had to pause while two crossed the road.

Red Rock Canyon was at the end of one road, which was such a neat site to see this red rock running through these gray mountains.

 I also accidentally came during their wildflower festival, so the wildflowers lined all the roads and were incredibly stunning.

The best meals I ate the whole week were in Canada at the hotel and the town of Waterton.  The best places to spot wildlife-the Many Glacier Area.  Both hotels were awesome.  There were tons of choices in the American side of the park, and Many Glacier was a little more isolated, and it took awhile to get from East to West, but the drive was no burden with those amazing views.  I didn't know what to expect when visiting Glacier, but....it's one of the places I'll definitely go back, and I got to relax, which is not a word I use very often when I travel.

Alaskan Cruise Post 7: Victoria, Canada

Our last stop (it's as sad to say that now as it was the day it happened) was Victoria, Canada.  It's just a few hours from Seattle, and we didn't arrive until the evening, so there was very little daylight left, and not a lot of light at that because of the rain.  It was still a precious town with gorgeous homes, bed and breakfast locations that make my heart weep a little, a gorgeous harbor, and sleepy streets on our nine o'clock double decker bus tour.  We passed mile 0 of the Canadian highway that stretches across the country.

More totem poles, they never get old. 

The harbor, which was approximately 546,789 times more beautiful than the below bridge/cloudy night/speeding double decker rained drenched window can express.  What?  You don't believe me?  OK, I'm willing to go back and try to recapture it's beauty through film.

One piece of china town, this area was much better than this one little neon lit restaurant displays, but it was the only semi-OK picture I could snag.

I want to live here.

Government building lite with what can only be called Christmas lights, but probably aren't, but I'm going to pretend like they are because I could really dig a town that believes Christmas is a twelve month celebration.  I personally celebrate Christmas for 13 months a year, I think it'll  catch on some day.

Cute widdle wight house and Washignton's mountains.  I spit on you Washington for being so close, you should have been at least three more weeks away because I wasn't ready to see you and your stinky little airport again.  OK....I don't spit on you, but I'm not pleased to see what can only be the end of my vacation looming in the distance.

Sea wall and sunset and a mountain range that I think I exhausted in my previous paragraph's discussion.

Statue waving goodbye...or hello...or goodbye...or hello.  It's like the glass is half empty half full half empty half full question.  Or not, I'm sure there is a very good reason for the waving statue.  I'll go back and read the plaque so I can clear this important matter up. 

If I didn't have 6 more states to see in my quest to see all 50 states.  And if my friends weren't so good at matrimony and procreating that require me to visit other locations, I'd add this Alaskan Cruise back to the top of my travel list and do it all over again....tomorrow.  P.s.  I had a good time.

Summer Road Trip 2010: Crossing Borders

Before I leave Mackinaw City-we did make a stop at some of their stores (about the same price as the island, which surprised me-in a good way). The hotels in Mackinaw City were affordable, but I guess I expected the island to be pricier. They also have a lighthouse we visited. I'll pause and say-I love taking pictures of light houses. I love windmills too. And barns. And churches. Living in what (used to be) a prairie, granted, it's suburbanized, windmills aren't completely extinct, though they may be more ornamental, but I still want to photograph each one I pass, which is difficult, because I'm usually driving. The great thing about light houses is there is usually a parking lot nearby. Mackinaw City has a light house that overlooks their scary bridge. We walked around the (closed at the hour we went, but usually open during the day) lighthouse, and stuck our feet in the water.

Let me pause again and say-I don't love bridges. I don't like being driven over them, and I would rather eat bugs than have to be the one TO drive over one. Ironically, I am perfectly FINE walking across one, it's just moving vehicles that freak me out (I also don't like ramps, but that's for another session...on a couch....at an hourly rate.) I avoid it when possible, it's not always possible. It wasn't possible the following day, which brings me to....
OH! Canada! My cousin has never exited the country, and it was time she crossed the border. We were within minutes, and though trying to explain to customs that we were going over to Canada b/c we wanted to say we 'left the country' caused us to have to go in and get our license pulled, and records run on the way there, and our car searched on the way back, it's still important. It's important to nobody but us, but that counts on my blog. Unfortunately, we just ran across to the industrial city right across the border. I don't read kilometers, so it's a good thing we didn't go further b/c the legal mess of that ticket would have been difficult for me to maneuver, despite my expertise in such matters. We went to where the locks on the Canadian side WOULD be if they were working, but they aren't. There is a little island you can walk over the locks too see,

and evidence of some pretty busy beavers around this wet land area that leads to the lakes.

I haven't given a lot of time to the 'traveling' portion of this trip, though it took up a huge amount of time...there is just so much to say, but I will say the upper peninsula is pretty in a relaxing sort of way....sort of flat, lots of fur trees, and I kinda, sorta, am in the Christmas spirit.....that can't be good....for everyone, but me. I did select the tree I want, and I thought about just leaving a little tag with my name and address so they could ship it directly to me, save time and money without the middleman I usually go through at the tree lot in early December. ;o)

We also made a(nother) very important stop before leaving Michigan for Wisconsin at Big Boy. It was our second stop at a Big Boy in three days.

We used to have this restaurant back home, and my Mom insist on me telling 'whoever' I tell this to that the reason we went is for those memories and not because she has strange culinary taste. Let me repeat-my Mom made me put that. I have differing opinions, and I'm pulling up the paperwork now to see if I can get things rolling on adoptions for a 30....almost 31 year old who feels she'd probably best be cared for in a different family environment.