We left Bellingham, Washington in early July and began making our way east across the country. Stopped for one very warm night in Leavenworth, Washington and then on to Glacier National Park near Columbia Falls, Montana. Neither one of us had ever been to Glacier National Park and it was absolutely gorgeous, pictures do not do it justice. After leaving Glacier, we drove across North Dakota, a state Adam never thought he would visit. Next was Chicago to visit Adam’s sister and brother-in-law. We helped them with some projects, rode our bikes and visited the neighborhood where the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright has his museum and studio. Then it was another full day drive to Adam’s parents house in Portage, Pennsylvania, about 90 minutes east of Pittsburgh. Bellingham to Portage is about 2,800 miles – and we were glad to get off the road for a bit after that.
Front street in Leavenworth, Washington on a very warm July day.Silvara Winery near Leavenworth, WA. The main reason we went here was to escape the heat – they have an indoor tasting area with good air conditioning. A view of Lake McDonald on the West Side of Glacier National Park, just a few miles past the entry point at Apgar. This is the start of the west end of the Going to the Sun (GTTS) road. Entering the Park from the west side requires a vehicle reservation between 7am and 3pm if you want to drive your own vehicle. There are shuttles that run across the park quite frequently and that do not require a reservation.It is really somewhat impossible to do justice to Glacier National Park with photos, the views are simply breathtaking. This is one of the photos taken from the “Going to the Sun (GTTS) road – looking back over the valley we just drove up. Driving / riding GTTS is the most popular activity of the Park.Although we had a vehicle reservation and entered the Park from the West side fairly early (0730), the Parking lots were full until we got almost all the way across the Park to the east side. We found parking at Going to the Sun Point on the north side of Saint Mary Lake. We figured out we could do a 2.5 mile hike from there to the very popular Saint Mary Falls. The first mile of the hike was beautiful and not a lot of people. However, once we intercepted the trail from the Saint Mary Falls Trailhead, the path got very crowded.
While hiking along the north side of Saint Mary Lake we came across Baring Falls, which does not get anywhere near as much visitation as Saint Mary Falls. You can get really close to these Falls and get plenty wet if you want.Continuing past Baring Falls, we intercepted the trail for Saint Mary Falls. This is the view of Saint Mary Falls as we approached.The very famous Saint Mary Falls. There is an option here to continue on to Virginia Falls, but since we had already hiked 2.5 miles at that point, we decided to head back. Susan really enjoyed this hike as it does not have a lot of elevation gain / loss.The natural stone colors in Glacier National Park are predominately green and red – and the resulting pepples are very pretty. Susan has Blackfeet Indian ancestry and was pleased to see the Saint Mary Lake Visitor Center, at the East side entrance to Glacier National Park, has displays about the Blackfeet connection to the Park. The Blackfeet refer to Glacier National Park as Chief Mountain.
The drive from Glacier National Park in Montana to Adam’s sister’s house in Chicago was two and a half days of smoke and road construction. This is a screen shot of the Air Quality map that we took while stopped for gas in Bismark, ND. The visibility was very limited due to the smoke and the car was coated in construction dirt – but Adam can now say he has been to North Dakota. You can’t win em all.Using umbrellas as overhead decor is surprisingly common all across the world. Sometimes they are indoors and sometimes they are outdoors. This particular ceiling is in a Thai restaurant in Hudson, WI.I am sure most of us can relate to that corner of the garage that kinda got out of control. This is the “before” picture of one corner of the garage before we did the whole garage reorganization project for Adam’s sister and brother-in-law. See the “after” picture below.The “after’ picture of the corner of the garage as part of the whole garage reorganization project for Adam’s sister and brother-in-law. This is one of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes in the Oak Park Neighborhood of Chicago of where his studio and museum are located. We rode our bicycles around this neighborhood and boy is it pretty!
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