Leaving Montana

We packed up and left our little cabin in the woods this morning.


I think Jackson was more sad to leave it than I was. The WIFI signal was weak and not getting to watch the Cowboys vs. Giants really didn't please me. I guess I'm just a city girl these days. ;)
We made the 2 hour drive to Missoula early this morning so that we'd have time to hike again. We went back to the "M" to see if we'd be better at it on our 2nd climb and to see how many calories we burned the first time. Originally, I didn't think I'd packed my fancy heart rate monitor watch but I found it when we unpacked. :) We took a different route this time, though.
We burned 826 calories this morning!!! There is a fork right at the beginning of the hike and one way goes up the mountain through a series of switchbacks and one is more of an outright climb. We picked the outright climb today. By "we," I mean Jackson selected the outright climb and I hated him the entire time for that selection. ;)
We made it about halfway when I had to take a breathing break. I was amazed at the view on this side of the mountain and it was a much clearer day than last time so we loved it.
You can see the campus down below with mountains in the background. I kept thinking how smart kids are to go to school in awesome locations. Then I remembered that I went to IU (Btown rocks!), Palm Beach Atlantic (West Palm Beach/Palm Beach isn't a rough place either) and then the University of Denver (home of amazing vistas, too!). I guess I did alright after all. IWU was missing some views but I made great friends so I'll let it pass. ;) I would love to go back to school somewhere awesome, but alas I think I'll stick with managing tax compliance at universities so they pay me instead of the other way around.
Jackson is lucky I think he is handsome because I was not a fan of him at this point in the "admittedly a bit rugged" trail. He kept saying, "we are almost there!" Guys, we were 'almost there' the ENTIRE climb. I'm not sure how that works.
The view of the river was pretty awesome, though.
"WE ARE ALMOST THERE, JENN, LET'S GO!!!" (I'll save your eyes from my desired response to him at the point. :))
Finally. Finally. Sitting on my butt enjoying the view and apologizing to my lungs for not giving them what they needed: oxygen.

A 71 year old woman with emphysema approached us at the top and offered to snap our photo. I don't usually allow such things (I hate handing my iPhone to a stranger), but she insisted. I'm glad she did! We don't usually get photos together when we're out on adventures so it was kind of nice to have a decent photo snapped.

Note: Jackson hates this photo of himself and that makes me sad. Also, the lady climbed the switchback side 3-4 times a week to battle her "earned with two packs a day for 30 years" emphysema. Bravo, ma'am. She said hypnosis was what eventually allowed her to kick the addiction. I asked if she thought that would work for chocolate and she seemed to think so. I'll be finding a hypnotist when we get home! She was also an IU graduate so we loved her instantly. :)
I made a bad decision and checked my work email while recovering on the top of the mountain (first world problem, I know!) and got a few messages that annoyed me. I used that frustration to power through the run down the switchback side of the mountain.
We decided that maybe I was related to my big brother, Aaron, after all because I got in a zone and just zipped down the mountain (usually the toughest part because of my bum right knee). Perhaps I should always be annoyed before working out?
We stopped in at a Cracker Barrel to eat all of the calories we just burned before heading to the airport. No really, we have a tight connection in Minneapolis and won't be around food again until late Eastern time so we wanted to have a big lunch. Mission accomplished. ;) I made Jackson pose with our sweet old person car. I kept referring to us as, "Ma and Pa P." much to Jackson's chagrin. ;)
I wanted a photo of his strange mood on the way to the airport and I nailed it. He was a silly mess. Something about hiking and then getting a burger put him on cloud 9. Whatever works. Missoula has a tiny airport so we had plenty of time to get to our gate even though we arrived only 55 minutes before our flight. That's my kind of place!
Now we're cruising at 37,000 feet and have a 3 person aisle to share between just the two of us. Cha Ching. I'm loving Delta these days!
Susie got home from Africa today and will be getting MacKenzie from Bob, Judy and Boomer's for us. We can hardly wait to see her tomorrow morning. She sent us this sweet photo of herself this morning saying that she was excited to see us, too. Boomer's family is sure good about sending photos. We appreciate that!! Here's hoping our other flight goes as planned and we get to sleep in our own bed tonight. I think that's the only thing (besides MacK) that we've missed something fierce this trip.

Addendum to our paddleboarding post: Jackson was beside himself that I didn't share this story so I will do so now. After we left the dragon boat races we paddled back to a quieter (or so we thought) cove so that I could try yoga. Now, I keep my lifejacket on the ENTIRE time that I'm on the water because I'm not an awesome swimmer. Jackson believes in himself, imagine that, so he takes his off and attaches it to his board. Well we got in the wake of a powerboat and Jackson went flying off his board. Me? I was fine just riding out the waves. Jackson made such a splash that a ranger on a jet ski came over to make sure he was OK. He was, of course. The ranger thanked him for at lest having a lifejacket available and told him that since he was over 12 he didn't have to wear it by law but maybe should. I was paddling over to debate this over 12 comment when I heard Jackson say something like, "over 12 most days. Maybe not today!" at which the (very handsome!!) ranger laughed. Since he was fine the ranger started on his way but ended up spraying Jackson with his wake. I was cracking up. Jackson yelled and the ranger was laughing at him and went on his way. That guy is my favorite ranger ever. :) There we go, babe, now we'll never forget that story. You're welcome. :)