Day 3 - Montana

Lions and Tigers and Bears -- Ohh...okay, just one bear...

Day three started out rather warm - but just in our hotel room. I woke up burning up and was fortunate enough to open our patio door while I got ready and welcomed in some mountain air. While my family woke up extra early to make a visit to the pie shop, I chose to sleep an extra half hour and just enjoy the complementary breakfast.

It was an absolute beautiful morning in Waterton National Park - even though we had some crisp temperatures, the sun was shinning brightly through the peaks, onto the lake and warming our faces. We boarded the coach and headed for the border for a day trip to Montana.

We were warned that the border crossing folks can be a bit on the tough side and to play it straight, no misbehaving. Fortunately, Stg Denis was in a peachy mood. He came down the isle collecting passports, but not saying much. We all kept quiet until he reached my Aunt Dottie, who asked him if he minded his photograph taken. He chuckled in suprise that someone wanted to take his photo and said "Well, sure!" She snapped a few and he exited the coach to scan our passports. He came back to distribute them and was again cheery. He started passing them out and said loudly from the front of the bus, "Where's Sarah Kelley?" I waved, my Aunt waved and I thought to myself, ohh no, what have I done?! He said, "Ohh in the back - you're last!" Sure enough, I was one of the last to receive my passport back and had to double check which Sarah Kelley belonged to the passport, comparing the photo to myself and my Aunt. He had some fun and we all got a good laugh. He stamped our passports and we were off back to the United States.

We stopped shortly into Montana for a photo opportunity - Mountain Chief Peak. The peak is sacred to Native Americans and is stunning in the landscape. We took some great photos and I of course managed to get mud on my shoe and spent a good bit of time trying to wipe it off. I also had a grand total of a minute of phone service and hoped I would get to use my phone in Montana, but no such luck, that was last bit of service I had the whole day.

We traveled on into Glacier National Park to jump on the Red Jammer tour buses to take the Going to the Sun Road from Saint Mary to where the road was blocked from snow at Jackson Glacier Overlook. Logan's pass isn't open yet as they are still shoveling snow (eww yuck). The Red Jammer held all fourteen of us and our tour guide, Darryl and the top canvas rolled back to reveal open air and beautiful sunshine. We stopped along the way to take in the various peaks and views along the Saint Mary Lake. I took the very front seat in the Red Bus (the Jammer is the driver since he traditionally had to jam the clutch to double shift in the previous versions of the bus) and had a tremendous view. Our guide shared with us that there are about 22 glaciers in the park and when he started working there, they had more than 30. He said scientist suspect that there will be no glaciers left by 2020. The highlight of the this journey came right at the end when we came face to face with a black bear grazing on their candy (as our guide put it) - dandillions that were growing along the road.

Right as we returned back to our coach, it began to rain, so we just made it before the weather turned. We headed over to Many Glacier for some lunch and shopping at their hotel. My Aunt Edwina and Aunt Dottie and I headed into the dinning room for lunch while everyone else hit the snack bar. We later joined them when we waited a good 20 minutes and our waiter still hadn't taken our orders. We ended up picking up some pre-packaged sandwiches from the snack bar and oddly enough mine was made with John Morrell meat! Yes, I go all the way to Montana to eat John Morrell. During lunch, mountain goats walked right up to our window and sniffed for food. They have huge amber eyes with horizontal black lines as pupils.

After lunch we did a little a shopping in the gift shop that featured a lot of nice items. I bought two wooden postcards featuring images from Glacier National Park, including a shot of St. Mary Lake and the Red Jammers. They offered the means to mail postcards, so one is currently on its way to Cincinnati ;)

We boarded the buses and headed back across the border and into Canada. The Canadian border patrolman was friendly, but not as fun as the American patrolman. A short, rainy trip and we were back in Waterton National Park and planning out trip to the shops and pick up dinner from the local pizza pub. I managed to find a nice black fleece at a very nice price in town that I couldn't pass up and then had a delicious pizza sub for dinner during our last evening at the Bayshore Inn.