Sunday, September 4, 2016

#epicroadtrip Day 1

On August 12, 2016, Five Girls and Their Guy woke early, finished packing up the "new" van, and departed at 4:00 a.m. The destination for our first day was Glacier Falls, Montana, just on the west side of Glacier National Park. It was mostly a driving day, but it was a great day and set the tone for an amazing and truly epic road trip.

I drove first, because Ed doesn't like early morning driving, nor does he like driving through Everett and Bellevue, even when there is no traffic. I drove until North Bend where we stopped at McDonalds for a bathroom and breakfast break. Except that McDonald's was closed. A 24-hour McDonald's was closed. Everyone in the parking lot was so confused. So, we didn't waste any time, but headed to Safeway, which also works for a bathroom and breakfast break.

Back in the van, Ed was in the driver's seat and I got to have a nap. When we reached Vantage and had crossed the river in Eastern Washington, we took a pitstop at Wild Horses Monument because we had never been there! It is quite a beautiful view and 4/6 of us hiked the hill to the actual monument.





After the monument, Sarah got to drive for a while...



...and we listened to the first playlist Ed had made for the trip - a bunch of the top musical hits from the 1950's. This was a great couple of hours of laughing and telling stories that the songs reminded us of, singing "Rockin' Robin", and just generally encompassing what every mother dreams of on a family road trip, minus singing "Kumbayah." (I put that in there just for you, Tami C.) 

We had lunch in Coeur d'Alene at the park, which allowed me to soak in even more of that place and I want to go back yet again and actually spend an entire DAY there, instead of just an hour.


Up next was Montana. And more and more Montana. As Ed says, #bigsky, #bigstate. We made good time, though, and stopped at a tourist pit-stop just off of I-90 where we headed north towards Kalispell and Glacier Falls, then drove past Flathead Lake (SO pretty) and to our hotel. We arrived right before dinner time and we were surprised at the SIZE of our room. It was quite out-dated, but it was HUGE and it was clean and comfortable.


^^Yes, those are mirrors on the wall and the ceiling. Weird? Yes. But we laughed and the little girls thought it was the coolest hotel room ever.


The big girls headed out for a run, I went to the grocery store to get some things for dinner since the room also had a mini-kitchen, and the little girls played in the jacuzzi tub since the hotel did not have a pool.


Some dinner, showers, and Olympics and then we were off to bed. #epicroadtrip day 2 = GLACIER!





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