Just arrived in Montana for
a couple of days hiking in Glacier National Park. You guessed it … more snow. Actually, we’ll be lucky to get any hiking in
because of the snow but we’ll see what tomorrow brings. You’d think we’d be over this cold, white
stuff by now but no. Just kids, really,
as per the below example. This was on Mt
Rainier in Washington in a place called Paradise.
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| Let the game begin |
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| Going for goal |
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Eventually reduced to tennis ball size
and multiples so we had to stop
playing shortly thereafter |
We
also visited Mt St Helens although couldn’t get up to the snow line for a play
there as the roads were closed off.
Awww. We did go for a couple of
short hikes though – just so you know it isn’t all fun and games.
After
playing in the mountains we headed to Tacoma where we stayed for several nights
with an old school friend of Jean’s from Napier, Catherine. Catherine arranged for a BBQ our first night
there where we got to, meet up again for Jean and meet for the first time for
Sue, some lovely people. Jean also has
another couple of friends in Seattle that we caught up with at different times. Lovely to see and meet you both Patty &
Katie.
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| Catherine with Sophie & Molly |
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| Not forgetting wee Patches |
No
photos of anyone else as we were both too busy either talking, eating, drinking
or playing with the dogs, of which only Catherine’s 3 out of the 6 that come to
party are pictured.
Did a bit of touristing around the
Tacoma/Seattle area, visiting Deception Point with its great views over Puget
Sound, Mt Vernon where the tulips are flowering and Sequim which hosts Bandy’s
Troll Haven.
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| Puget Sound |
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| Blooming tulips |
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| The Gatekeepers Castle at Bandy's Troll Haven |
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| Comes complete with handsome chaps like this |
Left
Tacoma in the rain on our journey to Glacier National Park in Montana. Took a slight (by our standards) detour to
Leavenworth to visit a Bavarian Themed Town for our lunch stop. Yay for us, the rain stopped while we were
visiting. We were both impressed with
Leavenworth which even came with a Christmas store of the sort that Sue had seen in Heidelburg and
Rothenburg. I was half expecting
everyone to be speaking German it was so well done.
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| Front Street, Leavenworth |
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| Kris Kringl Store, Leavenworth |
Couldn’t pass up on the
opportunity to visit George, Washington either.
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| George, Washington |
Spent
a grand total of 2 hours in Idaho on the way to Montana. Felt a bit bad that we didn’t stop at all while
on the Panhandle in this new state– just whizzed straight through - but we’ll
be heading south into Idaho for a few nights after Glacier National Park.
Stopped off at Kootenai Falls which is between
Troy and Libby on the way to Columbia Falls where we are staying at a very well
set up RV Park. Not a long drop at the
Falls but impressive in the way the pushed up rock formations look like surf
rolling in at the beach. The swing
bridge was a bit of fun as well. Lots of
sway. At Columbia Falls, Sue volunteered
to stay and watch the laundry after she spotted the well-stocked
bookshelf. I’m sure clothes don’t normally
take 4 hours to dry though.
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| Looks like surf rolling in |
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| Jean below the water level |
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| Sue on the swing bridge |
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| Swing bridge at Kootenai Falls |
