Wednesday, June 13
Wednesday was rainy so we headed for town. We has a fun morning at my Grandma Katy's house in Kalispell (about 30 minutes from Glacier Park). It was so fun and very special to visit her and Kya really enjoyed the morning running and playing in "Gaama KayTee's" yard.
We love Grandma Katy! We'll see her again next week in North Dakota - yay!
We had lunch with grandma at one of her favorite lunch spots, then we headed to Whitefish for some afternoon shopping and sightseeing.
My parents have a lot just outside of Whitefish so we drove by it to check on things. Other than a few new neighbors, it was rather uneventful.
We also toured by my Great Grandparent's old house in Whitefish. It is a beautiful house and I have so many fun memories here - playing in the yard and doing jigsaw puzzles with Grandma Lowitz.
In Whitefish we spent a few hours downtown and had a beer break at the Great Northern Brewing Company.
If you ever find yourself at the brewery, I highly recommend you spend some time in the loft. It's the ideal man cave, complete with shuffleboard.
A fun afternoon wouldn't be complete without ice cream. The Red Caboose frozen yogurt shop was perfect.
At dinnertime, we found ourselves on the way back to the cabin with no ideal dinner places in sight. We stopped at a souvenir shop/grill but they were done cooking for the day. The woman there suggested we eat at the Packer's Roost, just up the road. She added that the workers and customers are rough and tumble, but the food is good. En route, Kya threw a mighty tantrum. We asked her what she wanted to eat and she said "noodles." I prayed that the Packer's Roost would have noodles on the menu.
Someone was looking out for Kya that night because although noodles were nowhere on the menu, the nightly special was: SPAGHETTI!
We had a very delicious meal with lots of free entertainment: every drunkard stopped over to chat up Kya. Thankfully, the locals were on their best behavior. I'm still confused at the Montana rules for kids in a bar, but nobody seemed to mind and we got a great meal, so I'm not too worried.
. . .
Thursday, June 14
On Thursday we were ready to hit the trails again. This time we drove to the east side of the park, to Two Medicine.
The road took us right to Two Medicine Lake and to the trailheads of many hiking trails. We planned to take an easy hike to Appistoki Falls and then hike another easy path later in the day. We asked the ranger where the trailhead was located and she pointed us in a direction we were heading. Well somehow we ended up on the wrong trail but didn't realize it for quite a while.
The hike was beautiful and took us to Aster Falls.
At Aster Falls, there was a sign pointing to the overlook. We thought: hey, why not?
So we hiked and hiked and went up and up. At one point, we thought and turning around.
Beautiful scenery, but how long (and high!) is the trail to the overlook?
Finally we made it to the top. And snow! Ironically, the overlook had nothing to do with the falls. But it did produce some wonderful views.
Kya had fun getting out of the pack and playing in the snow.
I present the official Hager Family Glacier Park Hiking Team.
Huckleberry licorice with a view
The view of Rising Wolf Mountain and Two Medicine Lake
Hiking back down.
Break time at Two Medicine Lake
On our way home, we stopped at Running Eagle Falls Nature Trail.
The falls have a special story tied to a Native American woman.
The nature trail was short, level, and wide and just right for Kya's first real 'hike'
Back at the cabin, Kya and Corey cooled off with a foot dunk in McDonald Creek.
. . .
We headed into Hungry Horse for dinner with Grandma Katy at The Backroom. The Backroom is a special (and yummy) place we've gone for many years. The last time we ate at The Backroom (almost three years ago), I was pregnant with Kya and we announced to my grandma that she was going to be a Great Grandma. Sorry grandma, there were definitely no big announcements this visit.
