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I was visiting the cemetery in Polson (long story) and saw this.

Clearly this was someone who enjoyed board games with his family!

It’s nice to be able to see Flathead Lake from our front porch. It makes it easy to tell if the water is calm, if the weather looks nice, or if storm clouds are brewing. Today we looked out and the lake looked incredibly calm and still. We slipped into our swimsuits, loaded the jet-ski trailer, and headed down to Yellow Bay.

The water was so smooth. It was like riding on glass (okay, maybe slightly wavy glass) and even at top speed there weren’t any bumps. It’s hard to tell from this photo, but I was actually moving at 40mph when I snapped this view over the bow of my jet ski:

Here the speed and the smooth water are a little more obvious as Pepper zips past me.

We cruised over to Wild Horse Island, since we haven’t been there since last year. Everything was lush and green… perfect for a short hike.

The views from the island are great. We didn’t climb to the highest point, but we got some good elevation and enjoyed the scenery.

It was another glorious day on the water.

We took an impromptu trip to Spokane with some friends this weekend. It was a blast. On the way home we stopped for a bathroom break at a gas station in St Regis. As I was waiting for the ladies to finish their business, I couldn’t help but notice the wall-sized “postcard” behind Patches the Pony. And, well…

When we first moved to Montana, we were so excited to use our new jet skis that we braved the cold. We’d don wetsuits and head out on the lake if the air temperature was anywhere above fifty (never mind the water temperature, which was also around fifty). In our first autumn, we were cruising the lake in mid-October!

Now we’re much more hesitant to put on those wetsuits. We’ve been out on the lake so often that we can afford to wait for the weather to feel more like summer. Well, that weather came today. The mercury inched past eighty, and we decided it was time to go out.

We’re looking forward to another summer on the water with our toys…

We hosted a barbeque tonight– it’s a Memorial Day tradition, after all– and just before our invited friends showed up, an uninvited one decided to stop in.

He seemed quite content to just walk around on our outdoor couches. When I finally went out to start preparing the grill, he decided he had other places to be. It’s a good thing, too, since I much prefer beef to turkey on my burgers.

We threw a party tonight. It involved Oreos. I wanted to do something a little more fancy than just put out a bag of them so everyone could grab a handful.

Inspiration struck, and the Oreos looked amazing.

Oh, and there were also Fudge Stripes.

As Megamind would say, it’s all about presentation…

During our time in Montana, the most difficult thing about our house has been the driveway. It’s steep, it has sharp curves and sudden drop-offs, and in the winter it turns to ice. Over the years we’ve shoveled it and even raked it. But once we’d paved it, I thought things would finally be easier.

Alas, today I had to sweep the driveway. Yes, all 1,800 feet of it. During the winter, our snow plow crew had done a great job keeping it clear for our cars, but during those months, a bunch of sand had been dumped on it to provide traction. As it turns out, when the snow finally melts, the sand doesn’t go anywhere. It just sits on the driveway, thick enough in some areas that the car actually spins out on it!

So we bought a 24″ wide broom, and I went to work. Here’s a close-up of my point of view as I worked my way down the asphalt.

It’s taken me two days, but I’ve finally cleared all 21,000 square feet. It looks a lot better:

As I did this, I kept telling myself “next winter, I won’t have them lay down any sand”. But when the snow and ice show up, I may change my mind…

Our “fun day at sea” yesterday wasn’t fun for 50% of us. Pepper and Alex both succumbed to motion sickness and spent the bulk of the day lying on the couch or in bed, respectively, while their stomachs complained about the waves. Kaitlyn and I were completely unaffected; most of the time I hardly even noticed the rocking and swaying.

Today we arrived in Juneau. Alex and I watched as the ship pulled into port. The view from their balcony was amazing. Even more amazing was the weather: 60 degrees with beautiful blue skies. Our friends from Juneau had warned us before we left that May weather in Alaska is unpredictable, and could be anything from 35 and raining to 70 and sunny. We were fortunate to get the latter.

After disembarking, we wandered the streets for a bit. I stopped for a photo op at the Red Dog Saloon, which was a tacky tourist shop our Juneau friends had said was a “don’t miss”.

After a bit of confusion amidst thousands of tourists who’d come off the ship, we managed to hop aboard a shuttle bus that took us up to the Mendenhall Glacier area. Our driver was Tlingit and an absolute riot as he pointed out important historic sites like the McDonald’s. We arrived at the trailhead and started up to Mendenhall Lake. It was quite crowded, mainly because it’s a relatively short hike and ends at Nugget Falls, an enormous waterfall coursing into the lake. Here’s Pepper with the falls a half-mile beyond (they were packed with people and not very photogenic up close).

Mendenhall Lake had a number of ice chunks floating on it. Pieces of the glacier!

We found a few small ice chunks right along the shoreline too.

The glacier itself was inaccessible from the trail we were on; you had to take a helicopter tour to get there. But it was very pretty in the distance, and the wonderful weather helped make it a great day.

Another incredible dinner followed, and we watched a hilarious stand-up comic for the evening entertainment. I went topside to capture the sunset as we pulled away from shore on the way to our next stop.

I know many folks who have been on cruises. Mom and Dad have made it an annual tradition, racking up some impressive stats on number of countries visited and number of international friends made. I don’t think anyone has ever told me they didn’t enjoy their cruise experience, but for one reason or another I never seemed to get around to doing it.

Well, we offered Kyra a “graduation gift” of a trip, and she chose Hawai’i. Naturally we had to make the same offer to Alex and Kaitlyn as they finished their time in school. They quickly decided an Alaskan cruise would be a proper celebration. After talking about it, they said it would most likely need to happen “sometime next year” (meaning 2024) because Alex was going to start a summer internship and then move on to a full-time job, and both of those things bring a lot of unknowns. They weren’t sure when they’d be able to block out a full week for a cruise. We agreed, and figured we’d take some time to plan it later this year.

Then Kaitlyn called to tell us she’d found a good deal on a cruise in three weeks and asked if we could jump on it. The timing was actually perfect: she and Alex would have graduated, but his internship wouldn’t start for another couple of weeks. We made the arrangements, and went on a hastily-planned adventure. (Which is pretty much how our Hawai’i trip went too…)

We flew to Seattle yesterday and had a grand time exploring the city and hanging out with Julian. Today it was time to get on the big boat.

And I mean big. Holy cow these cruise ships are mammoth. When we arrived at the dock, my camera couldn’t even capture the full size of the ship once we were in line. You can just see deck upon deck of staterooms.

Kaitlyn, who’s been on many cruises over the years (It’s the way her family travels), informed us that the Royal Princess is a “medium-sized ship”. It carries about 3,700 passengers and 1,300 crew. Talk about a floating city!

Once we embarked (look at me, using the cruise lingo) we dropped our stuff in our stateroom and explored. The top deck was littered with pools, hot tubs, deck chairs, tables, and of course eating spots.

After our 3,700 co-cruisers had all boarded, we slowly backed out of the port. Yes, backed out. That was interesting to see. Here we are on the top deck, with the Seattle skyline behind us:

We watched the ship navigate the inlet for a while, but the excitement wore off pretty quickly and we decided it was time to eat. If there’s one common thread in all the comments I’ve heard about cruise ships, it’s how the food is amazing. And indeed it was. We snapped a few pictures at the fancy restaurant as we tucked into our dinner.

After a leisurely meal and some more exploring, we went to hang out in their cabin. We’d bought a mini-suite for the two of them, because we knew we’d be spending time together and wanted some space. It had a king-sized bed, couch, desk, small table, full bath and shower, and a massive balcony looking fore. Super swanky.

Compare that with our interior stateroom. No windows, a queen bed with narrow walking areas on each side, and a bathroom whose shower was barely larger than me.

I’m not complaining, because all we did in our stateroom was sleep and shower. It wasn’t necessary to spend the coin on something bigger; we just hung out in their room.

So we’re off to bed and ready for a “fun day at sea” (as the cruise lines say) tomorrow…

We’re heading out on a cruise! The first stop for our Alaskan expedition is a flight to Seattle, where we’ll board the cruise ship for the week-long journey. It’s generally recommended that you arrive the day before your cruise, so flight delays don’t mean you miss the boat. So we took a direct flight (nice!) from Kalispell to Seattle, and landed just a few minutes before Alex and Kaitlyn on their flight from Salt Lake City.

Now we had a day in Seattle, without any real plans. The weather was gorgeous, and as we were riding the train out of the airport to our hotel, we were talking about things to do. I said to the group, “You know, Julian lives somewhere in Seattle… we should see if he wants to meet up for lunch or something.”

As it turns out, Julian lives a few blocks from our hotel! I called him up and (although it was a workday) he said he’d love to get together for lunch. We asked for a recommendation and he suggested a sandwich shop called Potbelly. We walked two blocks from the hotel and he was already there. Lunch was amazing… I’ve officially named Potbelly my second-favorite sandwich shop in the world.

Apparently Julian doesn’t even keep his car in the city; he just goes everywhere either on foot or on his electric skateboard. To demonstrate, he showed us how he travels around the city. He rides the skateboard in traffic along the streets. I think it has a top speed of at least 30mph, which is plenty fast to keep up with the cars. In this photo, he’s zooming through the intersection with a bus right behind him. It was really cool to watch.

Alex and I both gave the skateboard a whirl, and it was a ton of fun to ride. There’s a little handheld remote that controls the speed, including forward and reverse (for slowing down or stopping on downhills). As with any skateboard, you just tilt the deck to turn left or right. Here’s Alex cruising along, although the photo looks horribly boring:

I think if I lived downtown in a city, like Julian, I’d get one myself. As it is, a skateboard on the rural highways of Bigfork wouldn’t be that useful.

As the ladies wandered Pike Street Market (a hopelessly crowded tourist magnet), we guys walked along the shoreline.

We probably covered a few miles, and after a while we met up with the gals. We continued our walk of the downtown area, and eventually ended up at (where else?) the Space Needle. We wandered around the base, but all agreed that thirty bucks a person to ride to the top was kind of excessive. The park at the base is nice, though, and we spent some time chatting and relaxing. As the afternoon wore away, Julian decided he needed to get back to work.

It was awesome to spend a few hours with him. He zoomed off on his board while we started the trek back to the hotel. Along the way I snapped some shots of the cityscape and buildings. Here are a few of the more interesting ones:

As often happens, I said to myself “I should’ve brought my good camera!”. Instead, I just had my cell phone and had to make the most of it. The city was really cool, and it was a gorgeous day to walk along the sidewalks and take in all the hustle and bustle of Seattle.

After a delicious dinner, we retired to the hotel and made sure we had everything ready for the big cruise tomorrow…