We all woke up and were quite ready to leave that hotel! But we needed to find breakfast first. Luckily there was a breakfast place practically across the street. When we got up, it was a bit smoky from forest fires. We decided to eat outside on the porch anyways because no one was masking there, even though it was on Tribal land. The menu posted online was the whole menu. It was stuffed french toast, stuffed french toast, or french toast. We all got different flavors of french toast. Seven was excited because her french toast came with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Fortunately there were also some sides and tween was able to get a cinnamon roll, toast and scrambled eggs.
After breakfast, we headed to Glacier. As we got closer, it got smokier and smokier. Once we reached the entrance, all of the rangers were wearing masks. It was due to the smoke, not COVID. The ranger who checked our pass for Going-to-the-Sun Road said that this was the best view of the whole park…on a clear day.
Glacier was really our only detour of the entire trip – there or back. When we were planning, I convinced DH it would be worth it to take one extra day to see Glacier because we were close enough coming from Yellowstone and it was unlikely that we’d ever make it back to Glacier. When we checked for park updates, we saw that forest fires had been near the park a few weeks prior but that nothing in the park itself was closed. We didn’t think to try to figure out about smoke from those fires, which we probably should have after dealing with heavy forest fire smoke the summer before in Portland.
Boy was I wrong. There was heavy smoke all morning. Between the night before and a sugary breakfast, everyone started breaking down. DH kept rolling down the windows and flooding the car with smoke. We took out KN95 masks and cut them down for me and the kids and doubled them up with our cloth masks whenever we got out of the car to help cut down on breathing in the smoke.
DH and I got in a fight over whether more smoke would get into the car by stopping and getting out to take pictures or driving with the windows down. At one point, DH just left the car door completely open when we stopped for pictures. That caused a lot of honking but at least no one took off the door when driving past. Then a bee flew in through the open door, which completely set off the kids.
Since we had had such a lovely morning, we decided to stop at the most popular/crowded place – Logan Pass Visitor Center. We were hoping to get to see mountain goats there.
After circling the parking lot and circling the parking lot and trying to track down people who were leaving, we finally got a parking spot. Even though everyone was starting to get hungry for lunch, DH wanted to go to the overlook first. Should we take our water bottles with us? No need, said DH. After stopping at the bathrooms (which were flush toilets but there were no sinks), we headed to the trailhead for the overlook. It was 1.5 miles to the overlook and 1.5 miles back.
I should clarify. It was 1.5 miles uphill to get to the overlook. The kids were hungry and thirsty. Are we there yet? No, it should be just right up there. Nope. How much longer? It should be just right up there. Nope. How much farther? I’m dying of thirst. I can’t breathe.
Although we kept our masks on, it did start to clear up and we could go down to wearing only one mask. We also got to see a glacier, beautiful wildflowers and some small wildlife.
DH kept pushing ahead. At one point, when we were supposedly only another curve or so away from the overlook, seven completely gave up. She sat down and would not budge. DH went ahead to the overlook and I headed back down with the girls, both of whom couldn’t go any farther, even downhill. They were parched and seeing things that didn’t exist. It was also well-past lunch time. Tween got some energy to go but seven wanted to sit every two steps. Tween was not going to wait. I hiked downhill at least a mile carrying a seven year old who had gained a lot of weight over the summer. I figured DH had to catch up with us at some point and then he could go to the car with tween while I got seven off my back and we went a little slower. Eventually, when we were almost at the bottom, we spotted DH. He took tween to the car to get Gatorade and juice boxes and I went with seven to the bathrooms – because, of course, she didn’t think she could hold it any longer. When I finally got seven to walk on her own, she tripped and scraped herself. So after we got out of the bathroom, we had to send DH back to the car for the first aid kit.
We had “left overs” from the Yellowstone general store for lunch. Let’s just say that didn’t really help the mood. DH promised expensive gifts at the gift shop if they ate and they at least nibbled enough to go to the gift shop.
That was the end of the sightseeing.
We headed to Spokane for our hotel. It turned out that the hotel marked in the spreadsheet was not the hotel that we booked. We had to backtrack to our hotel, which ended up being a nice hotel. We got switched from a hotel near the riverfront with an outdoor pool to a hotel that was downtown. The kids were finally happy. It was a nice hotel! A very nice hotel! Particularly compared to the one the night before. Because we were switched, we got a parking voucher for the parking deck across the street. The “valet parking” was actually just where you unloaded and loaded your car before parking it in the parking deck. Even though it was already late, the kids suddenly had energy. They took showers and used the bath robes in the hotel. We had space. And we had a lock on the door that went to the neighboring room.
In the morning, we ordered room service, packed the car and drove back to Portland.
Home sweet home.