Wednesday and Thursday morning in Montana
It is Thursday morning and we just had another wonderful breakfast in White Fish at Lula’s. They specialize in pies so we now have three slices sitting on the kitchen counter to eat for either lunch or dinner. The huckleberry peach pie has my name on it.
Neal and Gabe just left to go paddle boarding. I decided to sit this one out and finish Reading Dan Brown’s Inferno. This is another book that manages to cover only 24 hours in 5 hundred pages. It may not be great literature but it is a page turner that fits well in a vacation.
This morning at 3:00 am, Gabe got the results of his school exams that allow him to move on to the next stage of his education in the field of his choice. Although he seemed to have some back up plans we could tell this was what he really wanted. We told him to wake us up when he got the results. You don’t get to share many of life’s big moments with a grandchild who lives 4,000 miles and 5 time zones away.
He seems to be a lot more relaxed today.
Yesterday’s big event was white water rafting. Although the water is getting low there were still a few good rapids and Gabe actually took a quick dip, on purpose, in that freezing water. We had a lot of fun and three hours flew by.
We spent an hour or so at the pool in the afternoon and Neal took a quick nap. This is really a lovely resort and it is nicely maintained.
We had another dinner at Truby’s but this time we ate outside. Some kind of hunting bird was putting on a show for us but it looked like he was gathering building material rather than hunting.
For lunch we took Gabe to A and W root beer for a root beer float. He was not impressed. I did not even know they still existed. This was sure a part of my childhood and I wanted him to experience it. Unfortunately, Gabe and Neal got food or at least what was supposed to pass as food. We did have a lot of laughs over the experience.
Montana is amazingly beautiful and I am so glad we are sharing the trip with Gabriel. We are really getting to know him. I am a big fan of taking a 16 year old with you when you travel. I think it has to be one 16 year old to make it work. If there are two or more they stop noticing what is around them. These kids remember everything and can find it again. They also spot signs and other landmarks much faster than us old people. If you are lucky they even laugh at your jokes.