Monday, July 4

Happy Fourth, everyone!

Yesterday evening Margaret turned up after a full day of wandering around the huge craft fair then attending a program followed by extended discussion with the speaker and some of the other attendees. We spent some time in the hotel's lobby WiFi area catching up on this blog, e-mail, etc. then adjourned to the Hospitality area for snacks and conversation. It may seem like we spend a lot of time sitting around talking, and we do. That's sort of the major, if not the whole, point of getting together.

This morning we took our time getting going. Margaret had picked up a brochure for the "Hop on, Hop off" bus. Upon reading it, it turns out to be run by Grey Line tours and does have an actual live guide which no one we had asked about tours had mentioned. We are also considering a tour tomorrow to Columbia River Gorge, but would have to get up and check out of the hotel extremely early.

So we did go sign up for both tours, and did the hoppy one, although we didn't hop off until the end. The weather is gorgeous here today, and hordes of people are out in the parks and at the Blues Fest along the river. The parks are also gorgeous, and there are several lovely formal gardens - Rose (shown here), Japanese, and Chinese to name a few - but we only got glimpses of them from the bus.

Margaret and I, along with Donna and Vince Bonzagni, went for a very elegant dinner at The Hearthman Hotel Restaurant across the street from the Hilton. Then packing and early to bed.

Tuesday, July 5

Up early, luggage stashed, and all checked out of the hotel. A block and a half stroll brought us to our tour bus for the day. It was a very nice day and a very nice tour. We went up the Columbia River Gorge as far as Bonneville Dam. On the way we stopped at Vista Point, Latourell Falls and Multnomah Falls (shown here). The drive itself was very scenic with several other waterfalls along the way. We even caught glimpses of Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens and the tippy top of Mt. Rainier.

Lunch back at the Hilton, and now we are hanging around the lobby until time to head for Union Station.

THE SAGA CONTINUES!!

We were supposed to board the Empire Builder and leave Portland at 4:45 p.m. So we get to Union Station around 4:00 where we learn that the Empire Builder is no longer serving Portland due to the flooding (again). Amtrak apparently knew this by June 24, but somehow never got the word to Anna or Kellie, or us.

It is now 6:44 p.m. We are on a bus just leaving Hood River, OR. The bus is full including numbers of children. We left Union Station at 4:55 and are due into Spokane (of all places) about 12:15 a.m. We are told that we will meet the Empire Builder there and get into our bedroom on the train for a few hours. (I'm not holding my breath.) They did provide us with a turkey sandwich box lunch and a small bottle of water. Luckily, we were escorted to the bus early enough in the boarding process that Margaret spotted 2 seats with plenty of knee room.

Wednesday, July 6

We did get a few hours of sleep on the train. We had breakfast delivered and ate as we went through the Marias Pass and over the Continental Divide.

Glacier Park Lodge is a totally gorgeous place. We arrived about 10:30 a.m. so our room is not ready yet. In the interim, we are ensconced in rustic wood rocking chairs on a shady balcony with cups of tea in hand and an absolutely stunning view of the snowy mountains. I do plan to add photos to this account so check back in another week or two.

After lunch, Margaret went for a walk over toward the village on the other (not necessarily the wrong) side of the tracks. She came back 3 hours later with herbs and handcrafts.

Our room is adequate but somewhat basic ... well, probably rustic is more accurate. The bathroom is probably not as old as the original building, but posh it ain't. I can testify that the newest part of the fixtures is a pre-fab shower stall that is only about one-quarter larger in area than the shower/toilet combo on the train. At least it doesn't bounce around like the train.

After a nice spell of sitting on our own balcony outside our room, we toddled off to the dining room and had steaks from grass-fed Montana cows. Yum! Early to bed again as we have another early tour tomorrow.

Thursday, July 7

Another beautiful day. We have had excellent luck with the weather so far on this trip. One tiny piece of bad luck today was that my camera's battery ran out of juice about 5 minutes before we saw the bear and her cub close by the side of the road. A "bear jam" ensued as traffic stopped to watch the pair amble along.

We were on a bright red 1937 White Touring Car that holds at least 15 or 16 people in 5 seats each with its own set of doors. Glacier originally had a fleet of 33 of them to take people around over the rough roads. Between 1999 and 2003 they were each rebuilt by Ford onto a 26 foot Class C motorhome chassis and set up to run on either gasoline or propane which is now their usual fuel.

Our tour was supposed to go all the way across the park on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. However the road is still closed for almost the middle third of its length. The area had 400 inches of snow last winter (200% of the upper normal amount) and parts of the road are still being cleared of 70 foot drifts. So we had an extensive tour of the east side of the park including up the Going-to-the-Sun Road as far as Jackson Glacier, and having lunch at Many Glaciers Lodge. Our tour guide was a fount of information about the park, its geology, its history, and the Blackfoot Nation. It was a wonderful day's tour.

Friday, July 8

As we ate dinner last night, we watched a pretty dramatic storm roll in over the mountains. Each mountain disappeared slowly into the rain. Today it is clear and sunny again but with a lot of wind.

This morning we checked out of the hotel and sat around much of the day awaiting our ride to Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish, MT. Jim, one of the Red Bus guides, drove us over, about a 2 hour trip, and gave us a running commentary about the scenery … a private tour! Margaret saw a herd of mountain goats, but I and my camera were on the other side of the van.

Grouse Mountain Lodge was opened in 1984 and is a modern architect’s take on the old park lodges. Our room is very spacious, but is just as far from the entrance as it is possible to get. Oh, well, can’t complain of a free night’s room.

This will be the past post on this trip … unless something else untoward occurs tomorrow. We are scheduled to fly out of Kalispell tomorrow afternoon at 1:25 p.m. and arrive back in Charlottesville at 10:18 p.m. It has been a most interesting trip!