We weren't in too big of a rush and told Mary, the hostess, that we'd be happy to have breakfast at 8 am. I learned later that my dad was anxious to get fishing, he would have left around 6:30 am, but waited around until we were all ready to leave. We followed him and my mom to Payne Lake which was only about seven minutes from where we had stayed. He got one fishing rod set up in the water and then handed it over to the girls. They thought they had bites and would reel it in, but by the time the hook reached shore, the fish had gotten away. Oh well, there was the anticipation.
We hung around for awhile as my dad got his fishing box set up. He would cast his line and then set the rod on the box and just let it fish for him. That way, he could have two rods going at once. We had to be on our way around 10:30 am before any fish were caught, but he did catch two decent-sized rainbow trout around noon. We loaded up and began our drive to the Chief Mountain, MT border crossing. Kristen shed some "sad to say goodbye" tears as we drove away.
I did not realize that Chief Mountain was actually in the United States. I looked at it out our kitchen window growing up and always thought it was in Alberta. Not so.
As we stopped at the border, rolled down the windows, and removed our sunglasses, we had two or three agents working with us. One to ask questions and the other two opened up the back of the Pilot and poked around. We were asked to surrender our apples, but the agent returned them when she realized they were from Washington. One of the agents asked about some boxes in the back and wanted to know what was in them. They were Christmas presents for the girls that my dad had made. I asked, "Could we tell you without our girls hearing?" I guess they realized we weren't trying to sneak anything by and said "no worries." And with that, we were back in the good ol' USA. Our first destination was East Glacier up Highway 49. There were times that it was just a sheer drop off from the side of the road.
We stopped for a short while at the East Glacier Lodge at Mary's recommendation and got out to stretch and explore. I remembered these cool red buses from Waterton Park. I guess they go back and forth across the border from the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park to Waterton Lakes Provincial Park.
It was lunch time so we found a quaint little place that was recommended for their food--not so much the ambiance. We could tell why as we drove up. Amy said, "I am craving a hamburger. Must be from all the cows I saw earlier." We enjoyed a nice lunch at the World Famous Whistle Stop. After lunch, we backtracked a bit to the turn off for Two Medicine to explore Glacier National Park a little. We stopped to hike/walk the Running Eagle Falls Nature Trail and ended up at, you guessed it, Running Eagle Falls. It was an amazing feature with a huge fall in front and an equally large fall behind. The sound of it was incredible.
The girls had picked up Junior Ranger workbooks and quickly began filling in the pages.
As we returned to the car, rain began to fall and continued as we drove around. Not too appealing to want to get out and hike in it. We continued on to our destination of Bozeman, MT via Browning, Choteau, and Helena. We could have stopped for dinner in Helena. We should have stopped for dinner in Helena. Instead, we drove on to this dumpy little town called Townsend and ate at the Wood Family Grill. I do NOT recommend it. The highlight was having our novice waitress spill spaghetti sauce on Kristen's jacket. Ugh. We were just happy to get out of there. I wished that we had waited longer because on arrival in Bozeman, there were plenty of dining options. Ah well. Next time.
We checked in at another Residence Inn in Bozeman. They were not so gracious as to upgrade our room. In fact they said the company never upgraded. Chris tried to argue that that wasn't true since we had just been upgraded in Billings, MT a week ago. Ah well, a studio with one King, a pullout couch, and Kristen on cushions on the floor. I rigged suitcases and a chair so that the cushions wouldn't separate in the middle of the night. Lest you think we are horrible for making her sleep on cushions, she's the first one to "call" 'em.