The Scenic and the Sentimental

Almost finished

We've been home for two days, and although we've managed to rev up the washer and do mounds of laundry, Jerry and I are each busy catching up with writing down what we did on our trip to Montana.

This takes precedence over grocery shopping and watering wilting plants.  It definitely takes precedence over watching the Republican Convention.  We pass maps back and forth, exchange brochures about places we visited, and marvel that we were viewing bison on Tuesday afternoon and enduring a freeway traffic jam in Oakland on Wednesday night.

So!  The trip went very well, especially once we got into Glacier National Park on the second day of the trip.   First stop in the park: the Village Inn at Apgar, which has to be the most splendidly located motel on the planet. Located at the edge of Lake McDonald, the water just about laps at your door,  and there spectacular views at any time of day.  Here's one:





View of Lake McDonald from our unit at the Village Inn at Apgar

 

 

 

Every unit in this two-story motel has a back door to the parking lot and a front door that opens onto a long communal porch, with a pair of Adirondack chairs stationed outside each door.  The lake view is stunning day and night.  We also had a kitchenette,  which was handy for breakfast and where Jerry claimed part of the table for bug-collecting notes and vials.

 

 

 

 





 

 Later that afternoon, we met up with my friend Laurie, whom I met in college in 1968, and her husband, Joe.  They'd driven up from their home in Helena. To my amazement (not everyone drives a 16-year-old stationwagon), they arrived in a sportscar, Laurie's gift to herself on her 60th birthday.

 

Laurie and her sportscar

 

 

 

Joe during our boat ride on Lake McDonald; the  grown-up version of the barefoot surfer at UCSB.

 

 

 Both have high positions in Montana state government, real Grown-Up Jobs, and Joe's also an in-the-flesh political operative (Democratic, of course).  Their three sons are in their thirties, and they have a granddaughter, Hallie.

 

Later that afternoon, the four of us took a boat ride on Lake McDonald and then had dinner at Lake McDonald Lodge, a classic old railway-built National Park hotel, burnished and authentic and completely charming. Joe and Laurie were staying in West Glacier, just outside the park, not far away, because they didn't book soon enough to get into the Village Inn. (We booked in January for late August.) 

 

Here's a photo Jerry took of Laurie and me, 44 years after our meeting in a dorm at UC Santa Barbara.  I think we look pretty good!  It was lovely to see her and Joe again. 

 

 



The used-to-be 18 year-olds.

 

 

 

And now, back to my journal/scrapbook.  And maybe a trip to the grocery store.  More later...

 

 

Still writing and pasting up the last couple of days of the trip