MT/ID/WA

We were pleasantly surprised when our flight from Indy to Minneapolis was nearly empty. We each got our own row and a whole can of soda! It is the little things. ;) We weren't so lucky on the flight from MN to Montana, but that's OK. We made it without a single delay which is pretty exciting on a summer evening.

A whole can and two bags of pretzels? Cha ching!

We were amazed when we got to the Missoula airport and were able to drive away with our rental car without having to show any identification. We arrived at our airport hotel and also weren't asked for credit cards or identification. Montana is clearly home to the most trusting people on the planet!

Ahhh....Montana!

It was super late when we landed so we had no idea what the landscape around the hotel looked like when we went to bed. We woke up to the view shown above and all was well in our little worlds.

A bronze map of the state complete with mountains!

We stayed at a hotel with a waterpark in it, but the slides didn't open until later. LAME! We did enjoy the art in the lobby, though.

The view from Mount Sentinel 

Me being me and all, we had to go to the University of Montana's campus to see what it had to offer. The campus itself was a little older and outdated than most, but the mountain behind it was awesome.

I really like the panoramic function- ha!

I cannot believe that students can go climb a mountain before class!

Information about the "M"

This mountain happens to have a large "M" on the side of it that you're able to hike up to and on. We just had to do it once we heard that.

Jackson on the "M"

Probably still lecturing about the need for guardrails on the hiking trails

You guys, this was not an easy hike. I almost died repeatedly. (Am I a bit out of shape despite exercising all of the time? Yes. I need to talk to my trainers about that!) The drop offs on the trails were something I'd never seen before and hope to never see again. Why oh why did the Lord give me a sense of adventure AND a fear of heights?!

The bottom of the "M" wasn't enough- he had to go to the top

I made it to the top of the "M" too, of course, and cursed Jackson for his larger sense of adventure. HA!

The mountain behind the house is the one we climbed

Photos don't do this beast justice

After we finished the hike and chatted with some nice folks from Wisconsin, we headed into downtown Missoula for lunch.

Adorable little sandwich shop

Adorable little sandwich eater

We sat outside and took in the sounds of Missoula while dining on delicious sandwiches and a cup of stew. Listen, no one comes to Montana and doesn't have stew. Or so we're told. It was amazing stew, though, so no complaints here.

Cheating on Handel's/ Ivanhoe's

It is no secret that we love to use TripAdvisor.com to figure out where to go in a city. The ice cream place in town, The Big Dipper, was #1 on TA for all of Missoula so we had to test it out.

Jackson got white mint oreo. I tasted it and almost puked. 

Annnnnd it did not deserve to be #1. Jackson liked his enough, but I tried it and hated it. I had a kid's chocolate cone that was pretty darned good, but not #1 status worthy. HA! Oh well, TA cannot always be right.

IDAHO!!!!!!

From there we got on the road to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. What's that, another state falling off the list? YEP! :) It was a really mountainous drive that I wasn't mentally prepared for, but I was driving so that took some of the edge off. (Poor Jackson. I know. Save your breath everyone. He knows how I feel about his lack of driving skills.)

Lake Coeur d'Alene

We nearly stayed in the hotel over Jackson's should, but when we found out Spokane, Washington was only about 30 minutes away we opted to stay there instead. More on that later.

Jackson was tired of photos and got cheeky with me.

I don't know why this was my chosen pose. Whatever.

We both kicked off our shoes and waded into the COLD water. It was a really beautiful scene. The moose sculptures are scattered all around town and tell a story for kids. We didn't see them all, but I thought it was a neat idea.

Get a little prettier, Idaho!

I never expected Idaho to be very pretty. I was wrong. (Yes, Jackson, I did just write that. No, I'm not sick.) It was a gorgeous place and I'd like to get back and see more of it at some point.

A STUFFED POTATO!!!

We wandered into a toy shop to look at a hilarious Green Bay Packers toy for our friend Derrik Heinzen (it ended up not being plane transportable- darn!) and saw this beauty. She is everything I didn't know I wanted in an Idaho souvenir.

The Davenport Tower

We spent more time walking around Coeur d'Alene and then got in the car to finish our day's trip in Spokane. We stayed at the Davenport which is an institution in Spokane. This photo doesn't do it justice, the place was awesome. It was a "5 star stay at a 3 star price" according to my travel agent Jackson. Spokane was a little smaller than we expected, but it was a nice place.

Don't catch a game here, OK? You're welcome.

We made the mistake of asking the concierge where we should go watch the NFL's kickoff game instead of just looking online. Siiiigh. She sent us to a Gonzaga University bar (OK, the University doesn't own it, but they might as well!) that was lamer than lame. We stayed for a little bit of the game and then decided to head back to the hotel. We drove through Gonzaga's campus and were underwhelmed. There's just no campus like IU's... :)

Ohhh Mom! 

I had to include the conversation I had with my Mom about the game. She's a mess and made me laugh out loud.

We made the most of staying in a fancy hotel and hit up the hot tub and pool. We had it all to ourselves (what!? no screaming kids?! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? I have no idea, but I wish I did so I could recreate it every other place that we go.) so it felt especially luxurious. It was an extremely busy day so after the hot tub we retired at about 9 p.m. Pacific time. Oops. I guess driving the Buick rental car made us think we needed to act like grandparents, too. ;)