2nd Honeymoon

10 Year Anniversary Honeymoon 

Sunday September 3

Sterling and I spent Sunday morning with the kids and the grandparents. We helped get the kids ready for church and out the door with their grandparents. And Sterling and I hit the road in the long bed white Toyota truck.

We stopped to eat at a nice diner for a midday meal. We ordered breakfast …it was delicious. And the service was fantastic.

We had a nice drive though it was long. Close to 6 hours of driving to get to our hotel in Billings, Montana. The view on the drive was not great due to the dull smokey skies the whole way.

There are fires happening. Terrible fires that have been spreading for a while now. Over in Texas there is terrible flooding. A crisis America is dealing with and Trump working on it too. But over here there is crisis too! The fires.

The fires even hit our overall destination…Glacier National Park!

Glacier National park is beautiful. The mountain, the colors, the blue skies and cumulus clouds. We were hoping for beautiful blue skies and cumulus clouds but then…the hope disappeared.

In Billings we stayed in a beautiful hotel in a wonderful suite. We went on a walk that evening and enjoyed the time together in freedom (no children).

We went to Walmart and then had a late dinner at Café Rio. We shared a bean and pulled port burrito and salad. It was delicious.

We had a romantic night celebrating ten years of successful marriage. Ten years of learning how to keep each other truly happy. 

Monday September 4, 2017

We woke up, got dressed and went on a short walk. We then got into our swim suits and hit the hot tub for a bit. After that we had a yummy hotel breakfast in the dining room, packed up and loaded the truck and checked out.

We drove about 6 hours today to get to Glacier. Good news…the skies are clearing up!

When we arrived at our cabin near the park we found it a quaint place to stay. We rested just a bit before heading off for some outdoor adventures. First we hiked to Running Eagle Falls. It was beautiful! The trees, the water, the mountains, the falls. We climbed some rocks near the water fall and took some pictures.

Our Cabin is the white one by our truck

Sterling's portraits

Then we drove to another spot in the park the upper Two Medicine’s Lake. The sun was sneaking behind the mountain and the view was spectacular.

We went on a hike part way around the lake until we were tired and concerned it might get dark before we return from our hike.

Two Medicine's (Sterling's portraits)

Tiffany's pictures

We were happy to get back to the cabin to have dinner and watch tv together.

We ate “tv dinners” and watched part of the new movie Beauty and the Beast. I love it!

Now we are editing our photos from the day and blogging. The next 3 days will be of more hiking, adventure and lots of photos.

At home Ster’s parents took our kids to church on Sunday, relaxed at home the rest of that day. Then they went to Storybook Island park for it’s last open day of the season. They relaxed at home the rest of that day…it being Labor day and there being no school.

Athena got over being sick. She slept through the night Sunday night. Yay.

Today the boys would have been driven to school and then walked themselves home in the afternoon. And probably had a relaxing day after that.

Sterling and I are listening to the novels written for the tv show Castle. We are listening to Derek Storm’s first story. It is fun to listen to because it was written by Castle (the character in one of our favorite tv shows).

Sterling and I are having the time of our life and our children are safe at home with their grandparents.

Tuesday September 5, 2017

This morning we slept in a little bit. We started our hike around 10:30a. We hiked from about Sun Point to Virginia Falls. It took about 2 hours to get to Virginia Falls.
We saw a lot of waterfalls along the way. It was beautiful!

The hike started with an amazing mirrored lake. Reflecting the mountains with beauty. Despite the smoke in the air, dulling the mountain scene, we loved the view.

Saint Mary’s falls was beautiful. A fun place to rest and eat lunch together. There were chipmunks running around looking for lunch as well. Brave chipmunks willing to even come up to my shoe with ease.

It was hard to hike all the way to Virginia Falls. I was tired! But hikers coming down the mountain said it is the best of all the falls on the hike and worth the effort. So we did it. And it was true.

It was beautiful ! Amazing!

The adult moose

Sterling's photos

St Mary's Falls

Then we hiked on and found another set of falls.

 

Virginia Falls view from below...

We hiked a little more and reached Virginia falls

 Sterling's pictures

We were tired going back down the mountain. I had to take breaks for rest to regain energy to go on. But I consoled myself by recalling our hike up Mt Timp and down again. Atleast this wasn’t that! Count my blessings. Granted, Timp was amazing and worth it but I will never do it again!

We grilled hamburgers for dinner at our cabin. Then edited photos from the day and relaxed.

September 6

We drove into the park and left our truck near the hotel.

We hiked from there to a great view of the hotel waterfall. And continued on to try and find the Apikuni trail head. We walked through a beautiful green lane then ended up in an ugly desert stretch that wound around the horse ranch. Further still we found the trail head we had been hoping for.

The trailhead sign read 1 mile to Apikuni waterfalls. It was an uphill hike. It was a mountain we were hiking up and that made one mile seem doubled. It took twice as long to go one mile as well.

The hike was beautiful and green with trees along the trail and then no trees then back to trees again.  Once we got close to the top we caught a view of the deep water fall. Then the trail became a zig zag of dirt and giant rocks. Next came a sample of water fall to encourage us to climb gigantic rocks to reach the base of the falls.

It was beautiful! It was worth it. The moss of the rocks behind the water falling was vibrant green and pretty. There were butterflies flying all around the flowers and plants. The pond the falls ran into was very shallow but the water freezing cold. If it had been a hot summer day the hikers would have gladly removed shoes and socks to wade in the water. Not on this day however. The weather was nice and warm but we chose to keep our shoes on. To sit by the pond, eat lunch and enjoy the cool mist of the falls.

There was not a view of how high up we had climbed. Trees were our view. And the smoke in the air was among the trees below.

 Sterling's pictures

Once we made it down the mountain again we walked along the road for probably a mile to reach the hotel parking areas. We were tired but happy. I was missing our kids…though trying not to miss them. There is a guilt that comes in motherhood when you are not in your child’s every day life. Tiberias’ words played through my memory. Just before leaving the kids we explained to them what was going to happen and Tiberias’ response was classic “But why would you want to go on vacation without us?!”

Before going back to the cabin we were staying in we went out of our way to shop at a souvenir place in Browning. There we bought candy stones that truly look like real stones for the kids, Huckleberry syrup for Dad and Mom Roundy and a statue for me. The statue was a black bear cub and a young moose together which appealed greatly to me because we had witnessed both animals on this trip to Glacier.

We considered going canoeing this vacation but decided against it. Where we live we can rent a canoe for $26 a day and drive to a lake or pond with our children or without. I was not in the mood to go canoeing yesterday.

Instead we went to the hotel to rest then do some portraits together on the road behind our cabin lot.

After that we walked down the road to experience East Glacier Park where we had been staying. We stopped first for dinner at the WhitleStop restaurant. I ordered a BBQ pork sandwich and Ster tried their Whistle Ranch burger. We shared a basket of French fries and ended the meal with dessert. A brownie topped with pecans and a scoop of vanillas ice cream. Sterling chose the Huckleberry pie which I was able to taste.

Sterling had been sick with a cold that he caught from our lovely daughter last weekend. I didn’t catch it until yesterday. I went to sleep early because I was too sick and tired to do anything.

We got up early and packed up the truck. We hit the road about 8:30am. We were originally going to stay at the cabins one more night and hike more as well as canoe on the lake. We changed our plans to drive five and a half hours to Billings and stay at a hotel. The original plan was to drive about 8 hours on Friday and meet Kelly, Denise, Luke, Ty and Athena at a hotel Sheridan. Now we are breaking up that 8 hour drive into two days. Note, if Glacier National Park were not half evacuated we would stay longer. And if the sky was clear of smoke we would want to stay and enjoy the view longer.

We decided that we should come back again one year in the future when the flowers and plants are thriving. This trip the greens were turning yellow and brown. Someday we will witness the beauty at it’s fullest.

This wood spoon shop was started because a woman bought two spoons from the making of the movie The Flintstones  (1994). Now she has a collection of wood spoons on her ceiling plus she and her husband make and sell wooden spoons. They make unique varieties such as a clock and left handed spoons.

 

We drove to Billings on Thursday. We stayed the night at a C'mon Inn which was magical. It had beautiful rooms but also an amazing courtyard inside the hotel. Fake rocks, plants, trees, waterfall, bridge and a koi pond. With hot tubs all around it. Plus a fancy pool room with a kids pool and a hot tub.

We ate dinner at Fuddrucker's which was a short walk from the hotel. The Fuddrucker's restaurant had a patio where we ate. The patio was next to a duck pond. Naturally the ducks came to the gate and some even on the patio quacking for hand outs.

Friday we ate a nice breakfast by the koi pond in the courtyard. We spent more time in the hot tub. Then we checked out and went to the mall for a walk. We shared a chinese lunch before hitting the road.

We drove to Sheridan and checked into our hotel with two rooms. One for the grandparents and one for our family. I was so excited to be with my kids again.

About dinner time they arrived. Sterling picked up some Little Ceasar's pizzas. After dinner we went swimming.

Saturday morning Sterling took his parents to see Little Big Horn after breakfast.

I took the kids swimming again. Then we went to a playground then the dollar tree where the kids picked a toy for the drive home.
We said goodbye to the grandparents and they hit the road. We hit the road. Even though our drive was only about 3.5 hours I was tired of sitting in the car every day! It was a long drive home. But we made it home and were so glad to be there.


Storybook Island photos...while Ster and I were on vacation.