September 2015

So, we are on our driving vacation to take advantage of our Senior Park Pass and visitng Glacier and Yellowstone.
We left town Friday at 1 PM and made it to RIchland in time to have dinner with Matt at Bookwalter Winery  They do not disappoint.  I had the salmon salad which was a perfectly cooked piece of wild salmon under a mountain of arugula.  The maple roasted carrots are good too.  Their red wine blends, especially the Protagonist are very much like Craig's.
The next morning we ate breakfast at my favorite biker bar in the tri-cities, the Sage Port Inn.  Once again, I couldn't pass up the chile relleno omlette.  Then it was in the car for the 7 hour drive to Glacier.  We traveled through some pretty empty country in the Palouse in Eastern Washington a well as norther Idaho and then northwestern Montana.  We drove past Flathead Lake which is huge and a lot less wooded than I had imagined it.
Tne in to Glacier.  We stayed at the Lake McDonald Lodge, a 101 year old National Park Lodge.  The bathroom sink had no shelf to speak of, but the bathroom was so large, we could set up the ironing board to put our toilteries on. The shower was pretty small.   Can't imagine how someone like Bob Palmer could turn around in there.
The bar was nice and we watched college football and ate Montana Charcuterie with buffalo pastrami, smoked duck and elk sausage.  The bison meatloaf for dinner was tepid and the broccoli was flat out cold.  This turned out to be a serious problem with our food at the Lodge.
The next day, we drove the Going to The Sun Highway which bisects the park west to east.  It is amazing and the aspen were in high golden color.  The road is twisty with a shear drop on the south side until you get to Logan Pass, about 1/2 way.  It is on the Continental Divide.  The easern section (St Mary's) has been hit hard by forest fires this year, so the little day hikes off the road were not available.  We then drove up to Many Glaciers, took a nice walk around the lake there and saw elk, a black bear (at a distance) and a herd of goats (up close). Back to the Lodge and watched the second half of the Seahawks game.  The guy sitting next to me in the bar had lived in Sequim 6 years ago and had been the winemaker for Wente Vinyards in California.
Last night we caught the tail end of the eclipse as the moonrise was behind a huge mountain, we missed the first part.