Oh, Those Montana Summers!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation  

A "poetic" description of our trip to Glacier National Park in Montana.

A Montana summer is like a Texas winter.

Snow at the mountain pass on Sunday

Bright sunshine, shorts and flip-flops, on Monday.

 Hidden Lake, near Logan Pass

Reffie DID NOT skinny dip.

Bighorn sheep and furry mountain goats

Bambis, Chipmunks, and Marmots

Hummingbirds and Drangonflies

Assorted wildlife amused as the Japanese toured in the little red buses.

Cute little tour buses run on propane.  

Historical reference to the original method of touring the park.

Huckleberry Pie and Rocky Mountain Trout filled my belly

While long day hikes turned our legs into jelly.

The sky amazed us with storm clouds and rainbows

Avoiding hail storms and flying cows kept us on our toes.

Double rainbow at sunset, Whitefish, MT

Jesus may be able to walk on water but I can walk thru trees.

Fit to be tied or harnessed for safety

Bet you haven't done anything like this lately.

Our guides test the ropes and call the first team to the boardwalk.

The grizzlies were out and about but not for geeky homosapiens 

They weren't even "oot" and "aboot" because they weren't Canadians.

Some folks we talked to peed their pants on their hike.

Teeth and paws close, they feared for their life.

Momma Bear decided the human porridge looked too hot

She continued on, little cubs on her heels, moving at quite a fast trot.

The glaciers are shrinking so get close to them now

After a 1200 foot climb, though, our calves were screaming YEE-OW!

 Yes, that little snowfield is what remains of Grinnell Glacier.

I hope you enjoyed my vacation.

Photo credits:  Redbus and Glacier Lodge: bruce_fulton on flickr.com, Creative Commons license (see sidebar), all others:  Reffie and Hubby

Sleepless in Seattle....

Yeah, I know that is the title of a movie but it fits my day Saturday thru Sunday morning perfectly.

That's right.  Hubby and I are back from Montana and we did not get eaten by bears or mountain lions.  We weren't even asked to play with them.  Sheesh!  Evil Twin was very disappointed.

We had a great time and I will post some photos soon but I thought I would share our sleepless story today.

Yesterday (Saturday), as we were attempting to fly from Small-Town, Montana, to Seattle, Washington to pick up our connecting flight to Texas, our plane had a mechanical problem.  The plane was a prop plane seating about 50 people. The "mechanical problem" occurred after we were all loaded and buckled, and had watched the flight attendants show us how to buckle our seat belts and how to find the lavatories.  Don't you think it's funny that they show you how to buckle your seat belt after they tell you to sit down and buckle your seat belt?    

They let us off the plane and back into the terminal while they attempted to contact a mechanic on a holiday weekend.  They were estimating about an hour delay.    Hubby and I knew better.  

About an hour later, they unloaded our bags and started re-booking passengers.  It was obvious that nearly everyone was going to miss their connecting flight in Seattle.  At least we had some sunshine and beautiful mountains to look at while we waited.

Apparently, no mechanic certified to work on our aircraft was available so they had to fly in a couple of guys from Seattle.  They were placed on a flight that was headed to Another-Small-Town, Montana but had to be diverted to Small-Town so they could work on our plane. 

Back in the terminal, several hours later, we were bored and our bellies were full from our airline-provided pizza.  Burp.

Excuse me.

We giggled as we saw a plane land and a couple of guys with plumber's crack hop off and make a beeline for our plane. We supervised them making a repair somewhere deep in the plane's belly, hoping that since they had re-loaded our bags onto the aircraft that the plane was repairable and we would soon be on our way. 

We made it to Seattle with the mechanics in tow.  Hubby and I were fortunate that there was a redeye flight to Texas.  Most of the other folks were sleepless in Seattle, having to find lodging with their hotel vouchers and continue their travel early on Sunday.  We were sleepless, too, sitting in the terminal waiting for our connecting flight listening to some jerk play videos on his laptop for over an hour.  What IS it with some people?    Evil Twin was about ready to make this guy have a "mechanical problem".

That's all for now.  I need a power nap.

Have a great holiday!