Crashing at Glacier

Since visiting Mom & Dad Mitchell last last June they moved in with Blair and Janae in Spokane, Washington. We decided to pay one last visit and see how they were doing before we went to Brazil. We left after church on Sunday, Aug 31st and went as far as Meridian, Idaho. On Monday we took the scenic route (back roads) through McCall, Idaho on our way to Spokane. Diane continued her Portuguese as we traveled. We decided that McCall might be a nice place to live.

Scenic river along the highway

Bear encounter in McCall

The GPS could find Spokane OK, but got lost trying to find Blair & Janae's house. The neighborhood is too new, I guess. They have a nice house with woods as part of their back yard.

Their house in Spokne

Woods in the back yard

We had a wonderful visit for a few days. They seem to be settling in OK. One afternoon we went out to some of the stores close by: Jo-Ann Fabrics (of course) and Trader Joe's. Brianne's fiancé, John, came over one evening so we had a chance to meet him and talk about his mission to Norway.

Mom & Dad in the kitchen

We took a couple of walks around the neighborhood in the mornings. They live in a new subdivision close to an older part of town with some colorful houses.

Metalwork in front of a house 

We heard of bunk beds, but bunk parking?

Watch out for those ruts in the dirt road!

We left Thursday morning to take the long way home.  We took Interstate 90 across Idaho and Montana until St. Regis where we headed toward Glacier National Park. We were just outside Hungry Horse (within about 20 miles from Glacier National Park) when we were rear-ended. A truck ahead of us suddenly stopped on the highway for a left turn onto a dirt road. The car in front of us stopped and we stopped, but the truck behind us didn't stop in time.  Luckily everyone was fine.  It took about an hour to get things taken care of with the sheriff and EMT making sure everyone was OK.

At least the trunk stayed closed

EMT checking on the truck

You can almost read the license plate number.
Are they extra bolts in our car?

We then continued on through Glacier National Park where we saw beautiful lakes, rivers, waterfalls and mountains.

Glacier National Park

Lakes

Rivers

Waterfalls

Mountains

When we were at Logan Pass we saw some mountain sheep. 

Logan Pass

Mountain sheep on top of the waterfall

As we continued on we saw a black bear (that was brown) feeding in some bushes. 

Next time a grizzly?

We then left the park and started looking for a place to stay. 

Yes, we actually saw a glacier at Glacier NP 

Say goodbye to Glacier NP

We finally got found a room in Shelby, Montana. We were able to get the trunk open to get our bags out, but we had a bit of a struggle to get it closed. We then went and sat in the hot tub to help relieve our stress. We had pudding, hot chocolate, and pretzels for dinner then hoped for a good night’s sleep.

On Friday we packed up the car and got the trunk closed. We bought some treats then headed to Great Falls. We stopped at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. It was a very nice place and very informative. 

Lewis and Clark slept here

Modern-day explorer?

Sunday best?

Let's carry the boats around these falls

We then found a Wendy’s for lunch. After lunch we drove on to Helena. There we decided to just keep on I-15. We worked on some technology whenever we had service available on the iPad. We got into Idaho Falls around 7 pm. We found a room in the Shilo Inn. We had a steak dinner in the restaurant in the hotel.

Friday night was steak BBQ night at the hotel

On Saturday we got dressed, had breakfast, packed up, checked out, took a couple of pictures of the river and the temple, then headed home. We arrived around 12:30 pm. 

The Idaho Falls temple from across the river