Seattle!

So now for Part 2 of our western vacation! After wrapping up in Montana, we boarded the Amtrak at the station in Whitefish. The train station was a bit of a step back in time with pew-style seating, old ticket window, and they even had the original floor baggage scale. We reserved a sleeper room since our train boarded around 9 PM and went through the night. As we boarded, the attendant asked "Mr. and Mrs. Millspaugh?", I guess we were the only ones boarding his car at this stop. Each sleeper car had its own attendant who tended to the guests.

Empire Builder! all the way from Chicago to Seattle.

As we got to our room on the upper level, the bunk beds were already made. Now these rooms are not very big, maybe 3.5 ft by 6.5 ft, and the beds are about 2.5 ft by 6 ft. So there was not a lot of extra room to move around. We settled in and the train left the station on time. Our first order of business after days of camping was to take a shower. There was a communal shower on the lower level that was clean and even had hot water. The shower was great and then it was off to bed.

At the station in Whitefish

Diana ready for bed on the top bunk!

We woke early since breakfast closed at 7:30, and made our way to the dining car. The food and service were great and we were able to get our first glimpse of Washington as we were going through the dry region east of the cascades. Then we went through an 8-mile tunnel - the longest tunnel on the Amtrak system - and came out on the east side of the Cascades. The difference was crazy as we entered wet, almost rain-forest like terrain. We returned to our room and the beds were converted to seats for the remainder of the trip. There were a few stops, and then we were in Seattle, which had a very impressive train station.

Our Roomette.

Relaxing as the world flies by.

Inside the station in Seattle

We arrived in Seattle around 9 AM and had all day to spend in the city until friends picked us up after their workday. So we checked our bags at the station and headed out. Our first stop was... the Klondike Gold Rush national historic site! This is probably not a key destination people think of when they visit Seattle, but they told us about it on the train and it was only a few blocks from the station. It was actually a very interesting and well put together site that outlined the historic significance that Seattle played as an outfitting destination for individuals looking to head up to Alaska in search of gold.

From there it was on to Pike's Place public market, which was quite overwhelming. It is a massive market that spans several blocks and extends several floors underground. Other than food, there was a massive amount of trinkets and random things for sale. It is a hoarder's holy grail. It is also worth the visit. This is the location of the original Starbucks that had a huge line. I get that people might want to say they went to the original, but there must have been 6 other Starbucks within half a mile... with no line. We did not wait.

Pike's Place!

 After the Market was lunch and then off to the aquarium. On the walk there we passed the "gum wall," which is of course, a wall covered with gum. I couldn't understand why there wasn't someone there selling packs of gum.

Gum Wall!

The aquarium was pretty good, lots of fish, some seals and otters, and one enormous octopus. Also worth a visit.

At the aquarium!

Some of the aquatic wildlife

After the aquarium it was a walk to the space needle. Once we got there we debated going up to the top due to the high cost. Since we walked pretty far and were on vacation we decided to go up. Overall, the view from the top was nice, but most of the time was waiting for the elevator to go up and then waiting again to come down. So we checked it off the list, but not sure it was worth the cost.

Space Needle!

Seattle skyline from the space needle

Canned picture from the space need of an ideal Seattle view. Fortunately, we did get to see Mt Rainer several times. 

From the space needle we went next door to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. I had no idea what it was, but Diana did and said it was not to be missed. We checked it out and it was quite impressive. It is a museum of blown glass in all sorts of different configurations. This is worth a visit.

After the glass museum we got some Starbucks and walked back to the train station to get our bags and get picked up. Overall, I think we did a pretty good one day blitz of the city and that was good enough for us. We were picked up and went out to our friends apartment out in Redmond, east of Seattle. 

The next day our friends went to work and were nice enough to leave a car for us to use for the day. We wanted to do a hike and looked to my cousin's blog who is spending the summer living and working near Seattle. We narrowed it down to hiking in the Snoqualmie pass region and then got some recommendations from our friends. The hike we decided on was Denny Creek. It was a moderate hike that starts right off of I-90. The interstate actually crosses above the trail about half a mile into the hike high overhead in an impressive piece of construction. The trail crossed the creek a few times and passed a few nice waterfalls. At the top we crossed the ridge of the mountain and the other side was in a cloud and cool and wet. There was no view of the mountain peaks but we did have a nice view of the lake.

I-90. Civil engineering at its finest

Trying not to fall in!

Lake at the top of hike

View on the way down

Stay tuned for Part 3 as we go out to the San Juan Islands.

Western Vacation!

Well we are now back from our 11-day vacation and have painfully resumed work. We covered a lot of ground and did a lot of activities, so I will have to cover it over several posts. Our vacation started on Friday, May 29th after a half day a work when we left Milwaukee for Kalispell, Montana with a pit stop in Denver. There was some weather across the Midwest and around Denver causing the "we've began our final descent into Denver and should be landing in 30 minutes" to take over an hour after circle around. This made for a very tight transition to make our 45 minute connection. Fortunately, after some high-speed taxiing, our connecting gate being directly across from our incoming flight, and them nicely holding the flight for us, within 10 minutes we were seated again in almost identical seats on an identical plane just on the other side of the aisle, and just as uncomfortable.

Our connection to Kalispell was uneventful, and we had great views of the Swan Mountains and Flathead Lake as we flew into Glacier International Airport just after 9 PM Mountain Time. Surprising to us was how bright it stayed so late given how far north and west in the time zone we were. Well after 9 PM and the sun was still shining. We gathered our bags, met Rob who was there to pick us up, and were off on the first leg of our vacation - Montana!

Rob drove us to grab some food at a very religious oriented pizza joint. We were very hungry after not having any time between flights to eat, so we were very satisfied. We got settled in our room at the Islander and then enjoyed some drinks across the street at the Raven.

Saturday started wet and rainy so we slept in a little and then went to downtown Bigfork for a later breakfast at the Pocketstone Cafe where we ate to have energy for the day ahead. When we finished eating the weather started letting up and it was time to execute the plan for the day - Whitewater Rafting.

Rob periodically guides whitewater rafting and had a friend who was going to join us to round out the foursome. First we had to obtain a raft. To do this we went to the rafting company on the south end of Flathead Lake, borrowed a raft and some gear, and threw it on the car. We were ready to go.

Nothing odd about this...at least in Montana.

We drove out of town, down several miles of dirt road, and arrived at the put-in at the downstream side of the Kerr Dam on the Flathead River. We unloaded the raft, shuttled a car 7 miles down river to the take-out, and returned to begin rafting. After a brief safety talk from guide Rob, we were heading down river. We hit several good rapids and had very scenic floats in between sets of rapids. Diana was weary at first, but did have fun once she realized our group somewhat knew what we were doing. The last rapid of the float, Buffalo, was promised to be big and it lived up to the expectation. We hit it head on and put the raft on end vertically where it wavered between tipping over and pushing through; fortunately, we pushed through, leveled out and floated on. The trip finished up with some great bird watching: Bald eagle, owl, and a golden eagle.

The put-in on the Lower Flathead River

Family on the raft!

Rob the Guide

View from the raft after the rapids

The Kerr Dam, Flathead Lake to the north, Lower Flathead River to the south.

Looking down on the river from the Kerr Dam

Now that rafting was done, it was late afternoon and time to head back to town to change and get some food at the Brewery. But first, we had to pick up a different kind of raft for a potential float on the North Fork of the Flathead River later on our visit. Apparently Rob has connections to rafts, so after a phone call and a couple turns off the main road, we arrived at a house with a raft and trailer in the yard. So naturally, we loaded the raft on the trailer, hooked it up, and left.

Ready to raft

Raft secured, we went to the new Flathead Lake Brewing Company brewery and pub house in Bigfork for dinner and a VIP tour from Rob. He has been working with the brewery for several years getting ready for the grand opening of this new facility, which just opened in the last year. Rob is listed on the website as "operations supervisor/sustainability coordinator" which appears to mean he does everything: wastewater treatment system operator, canner, brewer's assistant, etc. The brewery is pretty impressive with a great view overlooking the north end of Flathead Lake.

Rob! and some keg-like trophy thing

Tasting some sours right out of the barrels

Barrel Aging

Lots of cans...

Pretty cool vessels

Walking me through the process

The canning machine... Rob's pride and joy...

We ended the night and went to bed so we could get up early and head north to Glacier National Park. We let Rob pick the destination and we were off to Kintla Lake. This was easier said than done. This camp site is about 2 miles south of the Canadian border and in a remote section of the park. We followed several miles of well maintained dirt road to the Polebridge Mercantile, which is a kind of last chance off the grid market. After that, it was 15 miles of single lane, poorly maintained dirt road to get to the campsite. When we arrived, we were the only ones there except for the national park camp host. It is a very serene location right on the glacial lake. Crystal clear water and extremely smooth rocks from all of the glacial energy.  

Kintla Lake from our campsite

We got settled, and decide to head off around the lake for a hike to check out more of the mountains. There was a sign at the trail head warning that the trail was closed 9 miles ahead due to grizzly bear activity. We hiked in only 4.5 miles and stopped for snacks and some wildlife viewing.

Trying to spot a Griz...

We hiked back to camp, took naps in our hammocks, cooked brats on the fire, relaxed, and went to bed. The next morning, we ate, broke down camp, and took some pictures by the lake before heading out to do some more rafting.

Lake Kiss!

A little more separation

Diana spotted this Bald Eagle as we were leaving the campsite

We drove back to the Polebridge Mercantile to try to figure out how to do our rafting. Rob wanted to do a 20 mile float down the North Fork of the Flathead River starting at Polebridge. The obvious problem is we will end up 20 miles down river without the car. Rob went into the mercantile and tried to offer some locals some cash to help shuttle... no luck. Plan B, Rob used the pay phone, yes pay phone, to call some local rafting companies to see if they would help out since they weren't really running tours for the season... no luck. Plan C, we go rafting and Rob hopefully gets a ride from someone back to the car. So plan C it was. We stocked up on some tasty treats, loaded up the raft, and set out on our float. It was a very scenic and relaxing ride. The river had a good flow but there weren't really any rapids.

It has huckleberry in it so it's good for you right?

Getting ready to float!

Rob at the controls

Huge cut bank

Enjoying the ride!

My turn at the oars

Rob 

View from the raft

With the float complete we pulled the raft to shore. Rob gathered some supplies (phone, cash, water, snacks, headlamp, coat, and Montana optimism) and set out to get the car... Diana and I had no idea how long it would take so we set up the hammocks at relaxed.

Rough work waiting for the car

Some weather started rolling in so we consolidated and set up the tarp

To our surprise, Rob was back with the car within 45 minutes. He made it less than a quarter mile down the road before someone picked him up. We loaded up and headed into the center of the park to camp. The weather really started picking up with thunder, lightning, and rain. We watched the storm for a while, at dinner, and squeezed in a campfire between rain storms.

Storm front over the lake

The rain picked up overnight, and continued throughout the next day. We packed up our wet gear and decided to leave the park and head to Whitefish where we were catching the Amtrak later that night. On the way we stopped at the Hungry Horse Dam, which is wider than the Hoover dam, but not as tall. We learned that it used the same volume of concrete to construct. It was quite impressive and there was no crowd. It's worth a stop if you are in the area.

Hungry Horse Dam

On to Whitefish, we had some great pizza, visited some breweries so Rob could do some market research, and then said our goodbyes at the Amtrak station. That is a good overview of the first leg of our trip. Stay tuned of the Amtrak ride and Seattle!