Today was a down day but we found the coolest place along the way. The goals today were to sleep late, and eventually end the day in Billing, Montana. But first, we started another day at our beautiful little cabin

We woke up without an alarm clock, and enjoyed coffee and sweet rolls on the front porch. It was so peaceful. We loaded up the car and cooler, and grabbed our sandwiches for lunch – who knew Mom’s Restaurant catered 🤪 – and were on our way.

We started our drive, and it was beautiful- again, pictures don’t do it justice.

First stop, the capital of Montana: Helena. We didn’t have any plans to stop in Helena. Our fishing Guide, Grant, and his girlfriend just moved to Helena, so we asked him if there was anything we should see in Helena? He responded simply: Nah. So, we snapped the capital and rolled on…

Months ago when we were planning this trip, Michael saw something online about a Grizzly Bear rescue place in Montana. Turns out it is in Bozeman, Montana and was started by Casey Anderson, the host of Nat Geo Expedition Wild, one of boys’ favorite shows when they were younger.

If you don’t know the story of Brutus the Bear, you really should check out his story on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/HGcM_yLH3D4

Anyway, long story short, Casey rescued Brutus and when he got too big to live at Casey’s house, they built the Montana Grizzly Encounter.

We love love love some cheesy roadside stuff, and we love animals. Perfect stop for the Brown’s!

Inside the enclosure was Max. Max is a 2 year old grizzly found orphaned on an island in Alaska. Since his mom hadn’t taught him how to hunt and forage , he wouldn’t survive in the wild. He was taken in by the Grizzly Encounter, and he has been with them since then.

Max is about 500 lbs and they expect him to reach 1,400 when he’s full grown. But right now, Max is a complete ham! I swear he was posing for pictures 📸

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He was literally the cutest bear we’ve ever seen. We also loved that when the bears get hungry, or are ready to go inside, they go to this door and scratch.

The staff open a door to the left, and in they go. Underneath there is a larger facility for the bears. Once Max went inside, out came Bella. Bella is an 800 lb 8 year old. The staff said she acted like Max’s mom when they are together.

And then the talk from the staff started. I honestly can’t remember what this guy’s real name was but he was exactly like Dwight Shrute from The Office.

Grizzly Dwight: Some people think bells scare off grizzlies. That is false.

Grizzly Dwight: Some people think running down a hill will hep you outrun a Grizzly. That is false.

Grizzly Dwight: Some say that grizzlies can’t climb trees. That is false.

If Grizzly Dwight had started talking about beets or paper, I think the 4 of us would have lost it! 🤣🤣🤣 It was seriously the best!

We got back to car, grabbed our sandwiches and got back on the road headed toward Billings. Once we unpacked, we headed to the pool for a little energy release

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Then headed out into Billings for dinner. We decided to check out the downtown, and found a great place, Montana Brewing Co. They had the greatest ad for hiring

Again, we all had something different and everything was great. Mike even tried huckleberry beer. It was pretty good. Then we got desserts – apparently giant desserts is Montana staple! They’ve all been doing giant!

We headed back to hotel intending to swim a bit more but instead we pajama’d up and just enjoyed having absolutely no where to go until tomorrow 😉

Another day for the Memory Books ♥️

if you had told Mike and I growing up that one day we would be fly fishing down the Missouri River with our boys, we would have called you crazy. But today we did!

Woke up to the most peaceful site even if it was 6am. These big ol’ babies are Highland Cows – you know the ones in the pictures with the long hair over their eyes.

We had to be up, going, and on the road by 6:40. In typical Brown fashion, we left at 6:45 so we arrived at Cross Currents Fly Shop in Craig, Montana at 7:05… that’s 7am BST (Brown Standard Time).

We met our guides: Grant for Leo and I; and Bryce for Michael and Mike. We gave them our Montana fishing license (purchased online intermittently as we could get internet service), hopped in their trucks, and headed to the drop in site on the Missouri River.

We arrived at the drop in, and noticed that all the boats let an older couple go ahead of them in the drop in line to get their boat in first. Initially, I thought that’s nice since they’re older. Um no. Turns out, the older couple are the owners of Orvis, the company who make the fly-fishing clothing and gear. Our guides told us they were true fishermen, and were really good to the local guides so it was a sign of respect. (I kind of like knowing that the people who run a fly fishing company are still actually coming out to fish!)

We took off down the Missouri River. Not really took off… we rowed into the Missouri River is probably more accurate

We were all a little nervous about fly fishing, since we’d never done it before, and it looks kind of complicated. There is definitely more to it than “regular” fishing. I always have a hard time staying focused when I try to fish unless they are really biting. Fly fishing, on the other hand, keeps your focus because you are always pulling your line, keeping the line up end (so the current takes the hook down stream, not the line), and being ready to “set” when the bobbin went down.

Everyone caught fish, (Hallelujah) and we had a lot of fish that we almost caught!

We fished until lunchtime and then pulled under a few trees for lunch.

The lunches were made by one of the guide’s wife who started a business of catering lunches for the fishing excursions. The guides text her the first of the week with their lunch orders and she meets them at the shop at 6am with their days’ lunches pre-packed and ready for the day. The lunches were delicious!

After lunch, the boys splashed around a bit.

Then we headed out for a bit more fishing. We finished “fishing” around 2:30. After the water temperature hits about 68°, rainbow trout don’t bite.

So we rowed on for a spot that the guides told the boys about at lunch…

Oh, and we can add sheep to the list of animals and we’ve seen

We headed back to the metropolis of Craig, and stopped in the fly shop for souvenirs and Gatorades. Then we headed to Cascade for dinner. Since we are in the little cabin at Lil Valley Ranch, we can eat in – thank goodness.

We headed back to the little cabin and look what we found – another plaque!

Some of us were wiped out from fishing

We got home around 4pm and enjoyed watching the cows and just relaxing. We had been texting with the cabin owners and were finally able to meet them, David and Karen Allen are from Alaska and when they moved to Montana, they built the little cabin and lived in it while they built their current house. It’s a really cool little cabin.

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I am glad they completed the indoor plumbing before we came 😀

When the Allen’s moved here from Alaska, they decided to start raising cows. They chose Highland cows because they haven’t been cross bred as much and tend to have easy healthy births… and they are just so cute!

They raise their cows like we raise pigs. Only the breeding stock get names, and they love on them just like we do. The breeding stock are here on their 80 acre farm, but they have a much larger group on their 100+ acres a few miles away. They may start sending their cows to freezer camp instead of the processor from now on 😉

We cooked a great dinner of steak, roasted corn on the cob, marinated mushrooms and sweet potatoes. Montana sweet potatoes are not sweet like ours… I think they are trying to pass off yams as sweet potatoes to folks who don’t know the difference.

After dinner, we saw the Allen’s headed down to feed the cows and decided to take them up on their invitation to join them. They gave the boys a bucket of treats each and we had a blast feeding them.

They are like really big pigs who have horns and slobber a lot

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I’m so thankful we stayed here. We exchanged numbers with the owners because they were such kindred spirits. They sent us home with pickled relish and canned beets that Karen made, and fresh beef for burgers at our next stop. It was just a great evening, made just a bit better by ice cream and chocolate syrup on the front porch watching the sun go down (finally 😉)

It just doesn’t get much better than this ♥️

There’s no way for me to describe how beautiful Glacier National Park is in words. So this post will have a whole lotta pictures 😁.

Today was a down day – i.e. nothing planned. I have learned from traveling with these boys that while I like to maximize and schedule every vacation moment (when are you going to be here again?), they do not. Over scheduling = Grumpy Brown boys… thus, The Down Day.

Today, we wanted to explore Glacier some more. You could spend days here and not see it all.

First required purchase: Bear Spray! Yep, it’s a thing. It’s like super duper pepper spray.

We were able to snag shuttle tickets, so we hopped on and rode to just “see” some of the places. We decided to do one big hike on this side of the park, and one on the other. On the Apgar side of the park, we decided to hike the Avalanche Lake Trail. The scenery is so beautiful that it looks fake.

This was listed as a 2.5 mile (one way) moderate hike. It definitely wasn’t easy with the elevation changes, but the trail was well maintained (and no trail trolls (roots) constantly trying to trip you.)

The primitive toilets were, well, smelly is the nicest word I can use but better than trying to dodge an animal while using the potty.

We hiked and snacked on a Montana favorite: Buffalo Jerky… and learned that all buffalo in the United States is really bison 😉

We hiked with only minimal grumbling… mainly, it was hangry grumbles because we were having a picnic lunch at Avalanche Lake.

We rounded the corner and suddenly the hike was totally worth it!

Of course, we had to get IN the freezing cold water

We found an empty log bench with a little shade, and had lunch from Mom’s Restaurant – who knew they had a location in Montana?!

After lunch, we enjoyed just sitting for a while and counting waterfalls. We counted seven maybe eight if you counted one separate 🤪

Look at the difference in a similar picture from Calf Creek Falls in Utah 2 years ago… boys have grown so much!

We started our hike back which wasn’t nearly as hard since 80% of the hike was downhill or flat.

However, some of us thought it was incredibly difficult.

We hopped back on the shuttle (now realizing that once you use the shuttle pass to get inside the park, you can drive wherever you want because the parking lots were no where near as full as the Park Service led you to believe). We got our little Toyota RAV4 and off we went. First, we made our way to Apgar Village. Eddie’s Ice Cream was the biggest double scoop we’ve ever seen!

Seriously, they are almost as big as their heads!

We loved the sign at the village stor

And found the BEST shirt 🤣🤣🤣

We stopped at every plaque, overpass and turnout we saw. It took forever and it was completely worth it!

Again, the pictures are gorgeous but they just can’t do justice to Glacier!

So far, I really hadn’t seen what the big deal was about the park’s main road, Going to the Sun Road. Until we starting meandering UP the Going to the Sun Road – Holy Moly!!

Thankfully Mike was the driver because I don’t think I could have done it… bless him because the boys and I would say “oh, look at that!” And he’d say “if I do we are going to run off the road!” It was a little stressful 😬

But the views!

Finally we made it to Logan’s Pass, the visitors center at the Continental Divide. What exactly is the Continental Divide you ask? It is basically like a dividing line across the country… the rain and moisture on its west side flow to the Pacific Ocean, and on its east side, it flows to the Mississippi.

We really didn’t intend to go all the way up but, when are we going to be here again (which seems to be our mantra for this trip), and there was snow!!!

I really hope these videos load, because they are hilarious 😂

And not to be outdone, we snuck in our own selfie since we hiked it too 🥰

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Glacier National Park, like most National Parks, is known for its animal population. So far we’ve seen a big ol’ black bear crossing the River (from a very safe distance), deer (who clearly aren’t concerned with people),

goats, chipmunks and big horn sheep. The big horn sheep are the best at hiding in plain view… here’s a closeup

And here’s the view originally – Michael is the champ are spotting them from a distance in a car!

One big horn sheep in particular is my favorite. There were 5 or 6 of them munching on grass, and just as I tried to leave the trail, I stumbled. Of course, they scattered but then this guy came back… I think he wanted to check on me but boys said he came back to give a duck face 🤣 whatever potato-patato 🤷🏻‍♀️.

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We traveled on through the Park, and it was definitely different topography. You can see the remnants and regrowth from the wildfire in 2009

We left the mountains and transitioned almost immediately into flat plains

Driving along, or should I say racing along… the speed limit in some places is 80 mph! Of course, you can see for 10 miles ahead of you.

Anyway, driving along, and what do we see? A Plaque!

As we are driving along we FINALLY get a wifi signal strong enough to get my map app 🤣 to work on phone, and we reach out to our VRBO host about our arrival time for tonight. She gave us some suggestions for where to grab some dinner on the road.

I have to admit our eating schedule has been completely wonky since we got here. We either eat with the early bird specials or we are eating at saloons. Part of the problem is me trying to cram in as much as possible each day and the other part is Montana’s fault. It doesn’t even start getting dark here until 9pm so I’m still in Clark Griswold mode until then

Back to today, so we head into town but the first couple of places were closed (well, it is Monday at 9pm and several didn’t have enough staff). Finally, we saw Cafe Rio, checked the reviews and off we went. We were a little disappointed that their sign said fryer was down so no chips but then we saw the lady making handmade tortillas!

I think we each had something different and they were all delicious! Of course, the Cafe Rio staff has a special place in my heart because they commented on how polite and well-behaved my boys were ♥️. And they loved our accents 😀

We made it, finally to our little VRBO cabin at 10:15pm. It is a great little cabin – 2 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and living room.

The only hesitation we had in booking is that there was no air condition. Montana homes don’t have air conditioning. Usually they only have a couple of weeks all year that are really warm (over 80°), but not this year. The good thing is that there is almost always a nice breeze and as soon as the sun starts going down (at 9pm) it starts cooling off.

Our host had cracked the windows for us, so once we opened the windows all the way and got the fans running (after a little redneck repair of one of them) it was really nice… probably 68-70°. We were exhausted so we unloaded, showered, and hit the sack… it’s actually getting chilly enough in here for a blanket 😀

Tomorrow starts early with a 6am (MST) wake up for fly fishing down the Missouri River 🎣

Being in a National Park on 4th of July has always been a bucket list item for me. I’m not sure why, maybe because I think the National Park System is a really cool thing about our country. I’m so amazed that someone long ago had the forethought to preserve these amazing natural areas… and further amazed that we haven’t managed to screw this up since then 🤪

First: Happy 4th of July🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

We woke up really early to head to West Glacier for an all-day rafting trip. The first half was an easy float down Flat Rock River, and then white water rafting the second half.

We suited up and hopped on the bus headed to where we would drop into the River. The guides were so fun and made the ride pretty entertaining. They reminded me of the Turtles from Finding Nemo… “I was like Whoa, and he was like Whoa, and then it was like Whoa.” 🤣🤣🤣 Nothing seemed to get them too worried.

The views were just breathtaking

And the water was so clear and blue. It looked like something you expect to see in Hawaii. Our guide, Brennan, said it gets this blue color because it was snow on the mountain about a week ago.

Around lunchtime, we pulled onto the riverbank. I knew we had lunch included and just assumed sandwiches etc. Oh no! The guides asked us to gather sticks for cooking, and while we did, they pulled out grills and and tables! In a few minutes, they had chips, salsa and guacamole with fresh fruit ready with steaks and chicken on the grill!

As we ate, look what we saw in the tree… a Bald Eagle! Seriously, could we get any more 4th of July 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Did I mention the water temperature? It was a chilly 50-55° but guess who wanted to see just how cold that really was…

We got back in our boats and off we went to find some rapids!

It was so fun to do this together! Our synchronized paddling may need a little work but we did pretty well.

No one accidentally went in the water, although 2 crazy children did jump in when given the opportunity 🤪

They were frozen! Just look at Michael’s face 🤣🥶

We finished rafting and killed some time doing a little shopping in West Glacier Village. Due to Covid, the Park Service has a timed entry system to get into park. We never could get a pass for our car during peak hours so we piddled around until 5 (when passes are no longer required) and then took off into Glacier National Park.

I had heard about how beautiful Glacier was before coming on this trip. However, my favorite National Park has been Zion in Utah, and I didn’t think Glacier was going to compare… oh my! Was I wrong?!

We spent about 2 hours hiking around. We hiked the Trail of the Cedars – a easy planked trail that was amazing!

We decided that Trail of the Cedara looks a lot like Endor, the plant where the Ewoks lived in Star Wars… and then it was on the television when we got back to the hotel.

Then we stopped by a few overlooks and rivers. These mountains and views are breathtaking. They definitely put things into perspective. Leo said “Mom, I don’t know how people see this and then say there isn’t a God. Like something this beautiful just happened.” ♥️

We stopped by Moose’s Saloon planning to stay for dinner but they were slammed for the 4th of July so we ordered to go, and with our 60 minute wait, we headed to the grocery store to stock up on the week’s groceries. Groceries loaded, we returned to Moose’s (literally it’s a saloon)

(For full disclosure, Moose’s had great rating for pizza, but the inside was a little sketchy – you know my mama spidey sense – so pizza to go was the choice for us. Anyway, we collected our pizza and headed back to the hotel. So Moose’s may have been the sketchy but dang! They can make some pizza! It was delicious!!!

And just to wear off any remaining energy, we headed back to the pool.

Just to finish off a perfect 4th – we watched fireworks from our room 🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸 Only in America 🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸

Today was one of those days that we will talk about when we are old. It was just about perfect.

We all woke up much happier and well rested. We grabbed our free Holiday Inn Breakfast, met a nice family from Oregon who were vacationing here too, and headed back to check off the other “must do” in Coeur d’Alene – cliff jumping!

Directly beside the Coeur d’Alene Resort is Tubbs Hill. Tubbs Hill is technically a great big hill surrounded by water. It is a city park that doesn’t have playgrounds and ballfields, instead it is trails and forests and beaches.

The trails are beautiful and being right on the water, the breeze made the weather perfect a couple of miles of hiking… which we did intermittently because… did I mention the cliff jumping?

I don’t think I have ever seen a lake this blue and clear. You could see clearly underwater and the water just felt different. Obviously not salty like the ocean, but not that normal “lake water” feel. We hiked, and they jumped

Then we hiked some more and they jumped and swam

As we started heading back, I decided I was ready to jump too… so obviously I had to find the highest rock…

So scary and so awesome all at the same time!

We jumped and jumped off the cliff… and someone may have done the tushie equivalent of a back buster and now has bruises on her backside. 🤣🤣 Should make for interesting conversation when I wear a bathing suit later this trip 🤣🤣

But wait! To the boys and my absolute delight, Mike was ready to join us in the water!

Here what we learned today, in your 40’s, it’s not the jump thats hard – it’s the climbing back up the rocks that kicks your butt!

We spent close to 3 hours hiking and jumping. It was just the best day! I made several mental pictures to hold onto 📸♥️

Finally we headed back to the car to change from our swimsuits and grab a hamburger at a place we passed yesterday. Let me just say that you haven’t lived until you can check “changed clothes in a parking deck” off your bucket list – that’s a big ✔️✔️✔️✔️ for all the Brown’s 🤣

Hudson’s Hamburgers has been serving hamburgers and cheeseburgers in Coeur d’Alene since 1907.

And much like the John Belushi/SNL sketch – it is JUST hamburgers, cheeseburgers and Pepsi products.

Toppings are onions pickles and cheese. That’s it. You can add ketchup, spicy mustard (heavy horseradish) and spicy ketchup (shiracha sauce). Honestly, i thought the toppings combo was weird but HOLY COW! This may be one of best cheeseburgers I’ve eat had!

Of course we had to stop in for some ice cream, and found some interesting soda choice 🤢

We jumped in the car and headed east. Goodbye for now Idaho!

And hello Montana!

What a gorgeous drive! The landscape changes from evergreens, the mountains to a lake so blue it almost looked fake!

We arrived in Kalispell, Montana around 8pm. The plan had been to go to hotel, run to Walmart for a cooler and groceries for the week, and grab dinner. And we would have been on track except… it’s the 4th of July weekend, and there’s Covid and people are crazy. So, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, all sold completely out of coolers! (Wait what? When do you sell out of coolers 🥴) We finally found one at Lowe’s… at 9:15! So dinner ended up being Chick-fil-A

A bit of a late dinner but we are ready to celebrate July 4th at Glacier National Park tomorrow

We are back on road… clicking off 3 more states on our journey to 50…. But….Oh. My. Word. Today has been the longest day!

Our Friday started this morning at 5am to be up, out the door and on our way to the airport by 6am. We arrive at 6:30, checked our bags, had time to use our Starbucks gift card and BOOM, it’s wheels up at 7:20 EST

Leg one: Greensboro to Detroit. ✔️

Leg two: Detroit to Minneapolis ✔️

Leg three: Minneapolis to Spokane ✔️

* Side note we had 2 layovers today so we only have one 15 days from now when we are grumpy and ready to kill each other 😉

Arrived at Spokane airport – the boys got the luggage, I got the rental car and just like that, we are leaving the airport by 2pm PST (or 5 pm our time). We had heard about the heat wave out here before we arrived. Hazard signs were all along the highway as we headed out.

Clearly we have a different definition of “excessive heat” 🤣

It was warm but not the 90° and humidity that we are used to at home. Here we go – checked off a new state: Welcome to Idaho!

We headed to the first stop of our journey – Coeur d’Alene, Idaho! This town is beautiful, and situated around Lake Coeur d’Alene. We checked into our favorite, Holiday Inn Express, and let the boys get in some swimming (read wrestling) to burn off a little energy before dinner.

When we checked in they suggested with try Dockside for dinner and to be sure to get a “Gooey” for dessert. So off we went for our 4:15 pm dinner… no, we aren’t 70 years old – that’s 7:15 EST. Dockside was located inside the Coeur d’Alene Resort right on Lake Coeur d’Alene which is gorgeous!

Dinner was fantastic: Mike and Leo had Salmon Tacos, and Michael and I had Grilled Salmon Oscar. We were so full, so we decided to order one large dessert and share. Good thing we did because the large CookieMonster Gooey was HUGE!

We finished our early bird dinner and killed some time swimming in Lake Coeur d’Alene. There are park areas surrounding the lake and the Resort where people just come and hang out. And I mean all kinds of people… families, older folks, families, college students… everybody!

We had 2 things to accomplish in Coeur d’Alene: parasailing (AAA Travel Book) and cliff jumping (the Stewarts). So what can be better than sunset parasailing!

It was a little scary to be so high up (500 feet up!) but oh my goodness – the view!

We thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride as well

While we were riding Michael asked what day it was, and I told him Friday, July 2nd.

He said “no mom. We flew out here on Friday. “

I said “Yes, that was today!” 🤣

We arrived back at the dock at 8pm (11pm EST). And the Brown’s were wiped out BUT we have had an incredible 18 hours! And it’s only the first day 😁