Kalispell, Montana

Most of you know that we have sold our Farm near Bainbridge Indiana and moved to Kalispell Montana.  Last April we bought a lot near Columbia Falls Montana, about 15 miles from Kalispell, but for now we are living in a townhouse talking with Builders and Banks about building a house on our lot this Summer.  We'll see how it goes.  We had worked on our Farm and re-modeled the house over the past several years and it just got to be too much work.  We just could not keep it up.  We did love the Farm and hated to leave it, but we have loved Montana since our first trip out here in 2003 and decided this is the place we want to spend our Autumn Years...........

One of our greatest enjoyments is Photography and our lot is just about 12 miles from Glacier National Park.  This Winter, if you could call it that so far, I am sure it will get colder, HOPEFULLY we will get lots of Snow in late December, January and February!  Our temperatures here are still in the mid to upper thirties with several days going into the mid forties.  That is also the forecast for the next 10 days..........

A few days ago it was warm and Sunny so I talked Debbie to leaving the un-packing until later and going to Glacier National Park.  We took some snapshots and I am adding a few.  No snow on the roads and were able to drive about 18 miles into the Park, WOW.  I know it is nothing like being here, but it will give you an idea of what it looks like...........

This is looking across McDonald Creek at McPartland Mountain.

This is looking across McDonald Lake looking at the West end of Mt. Oberlin.

Distance out here is hard to get use to.  The top of that mountain is over 14 miles from us.  Looking across McDonald Lake is 10 miles from where we are standing to the distant shoreline.

Looking at the 'backside' of Bearhat Mountain.  We call it the 'backside' because most people see Bearhat from the East side on the Hidden Lake Trail.

We also hiked up to Avalanche Gorge to take some snapshots of the these falls.  We have lots of photos of this area in the Summer, but had not been here this late in the year.  There is a lot more water coming down Avalanche Creek this Autumn than in the Summer.  This area is one of the many beautiful places in Glacier National Park.  It is easily accessible and only a short walk from the parking lot.

We have been finding some great places to eat in Kalispell and around the Flathead Valley. Norm's News and Sykes are two downtown restaurants that out super!  The food is great, and the quantities are more than we can eat.  We often have a 'to go' box that is enough for lunch the next day.  We also enjoy the Montana Club for special days, (it does not take much to make a special day for us). A few days ago, Debbie and I went up to Whitefish to a Christmas Art walk and found another great place to eat.  They served crepes.  It was interesting to watch them make them as their 'kitchen' is right in the front window!  We had some of the most delicious crepes that we had ever eaten!  Besides the food, the Art Walk was great.  Whitefish has some awesome art galleries handling nationally and internationally known artist as well as local artist that our outstanding.  Every business downtown Whitefish was open for the walk and had all kinds of deserts, hot chocolate, and coffee for everyone.  I believe one business had 27 different kinds of cookies.  NO I could not eat one of each!  Quit thinking such things!  We got there early and had dinner at the Crepe place and were able to see everything we wanted to see before the crowd got too bad, but by the time we left, it was almost wall to wall people as the downtown streets were closed to automobile traffic.

Well, enough of my ramblings...........  I am going to  get Debbie to edit this before I publish it, if she will.  I am not much of a writer, but I enjoy letting anyone that is interested know what we are doing.  We just enjoy Montana soooooo much it is hard to keep quiet about it.