Great Times in Great Falls!

 Sept 9

We got packed and on the road headed toward Augusta, Montana.  Along the way in the Helena area we stopped where there was supposed to be a rest area.  It was closed but we found these dinos!

We met Hap and Jacquie in Augusta and hopped in their car for the ride to their cabin.  The cabin is great!!  Hap is very handy and has done a bunch of work on both that and their home.  And Jacquie has a great sense of style so you put the two together and you get really great space!

Sadly I neglected to get any interior pics.  We walked a short distance to the nice waterfall near their place.

Woody loved chasing sticks Hap tossed in the water.  He is such a great boy (Woody that is - but Hap is a great guy too!). We had a lovely lunch then walked a bit more amongst the cows grazing on the property.  

The view was beautiful, but very smoky.  This is the view from their porch!

We then headed to their home where they treated us like royalty.  

Sept 10

After starting our morning with great coffee, delicious home made zucchini bread and fresh fruit we headed to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  It's a wonderful center that has a wealth of information.  

We were greeted by a beautiful bison.

We watched 2 movies shown during our time there.  One was about medicines used by the Lewis and Clark group.  After the movie we discovered that the doctor in the movie was in the audience!  This was the first of several "celebrity" sightings of the day.  

We walked a bit and saw one of the shortest rivers in the country -  the Roe River.  

We took a ride to see some of the other pretty waterfalls in the Great Falls area.  

Later we went downtown to check out some music and grab some dinner.  During our time downtown we had other celebrity sightings including a guy who looked like Letterman and had been on his show, the mayor's wife, and a Victoria's Secret model!  There was also a luminary lined walk that we enjoyed.  The bags were all decorated by local kids.  

Back at the Burchard residence, we enjoyed Jacquie's culinary skills.  She had made a wonderful crustless blueberry pie with ice cream.  YUM!!

Sept 11

We enjoyed a lovely breakfast with Hap and Jacquie and then set along our way.  We had a great visit with them, doing some reconnecting and walking down memory lane.  We will miss them and Woody too!

We headed down the road and got a call from Hap.  We had left 2 bags behind!!  Fortunately nothing of importance and even more fortunately they offered to mail them to us!  Geez... 

Hap and Jacquie had told us about Sculpture in the Wild which we could easily make part of our route to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  We really enjoyed it and it was a great break spot!

It was a nice ride with winding roads, much of the time along waterways.  We enjoyed a nice dinner and will be heading to Washington tomorrow.