Vacation Part 2: Big Arm State Park, Flathead Lake

Abigail and I both worked Thursday and then we left right away for Flathead Lake, which is almost due North, between Missoula and Glacier National Park.  It took us about two hours, passing by the beautiful Mission Mountain range on the way.  We arrived at Big Arm State Park with plenty of time to take a walk around.  Big Arm is a very small park, but it boasts many lakeside campsites and yurts and also a small pier. Here is a selection of pictures from the beautiful area.

The beautiful Flathead Lake.  Flathead Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake this side of the Mississippi.  It is about 27 miles from tail to head and with a surface area just shy of 200 sq miles.  This picture was taken just a short walk from our yurt.  Notice the huge islands out there, a few of the many islands in the lake.

Playing around on the rock beach.  Love this lady!!!

Some of Abigail's lovingly placed cairns

Our yurt!! The Salish Yurt is 10ft in diameter and boasts a skylight, which keeps it very light, but didn't keep out the rain very well :( !!!  There was a little hail storm.  Funny story:  We got steaks to do on the grill and we were hungry, so we decided to race against the ominous storm clouds surging toward us.  We started the fire and waited.  We impatiently put the steaks and veggie kabobs on.  Fortunately, the steaks were done when the rain came, but we covered the rest with foil and ran inside the yurt to eat as the rain (and hail) poured.  Amazingly, our fire was still live and our remaining kabobs were done when the rain stopped!  We stoked up the fire and did up some delicious s'mores.

Dusk at the Salish Yurt

This is our neighboring yurt.

A little river creature - perhaps the spawn of the fabled Flathead monster???

It was mostly sunny with patches of clouds and only one major downpour - mostly gorgeous!!

Abigail's masterwork. The leg is for perspective

We took a little jaunt North to Kalispell on Friday afternoon.  We needed some dinner supplies and it was well worth it just for the drive (we also ended up doing some pretty awesome thrift-shopping).  At one of the thrift shops we experienced something rather odd:  We were checking out when all of a sudden we heard "TORNADO, TORNADO!!!!"  The commotion came around a store worker with developmental disabilities who was having a seizure.  Another store worker was yelling "Tornado" on his behalf.  Evidently in the seasonally mild Northwest, "tornado" is the best safe word they could come up with.  It struck us one part comical (frantic code word yelling), one part sad (seizure), and nine parts bizarre.  We also happened upon some Southern food at the Georgian-owned Southern Skillet that was surprisingly authentic and delicious (gotta love a good cornmeal-fried catfish sandwich!).  A "hidden gem" as it were.  

We stopped in Lakeside to take some pictures of the beautiful mountain range and lake.  Pictures don't really do it justice - you'll either have to take our word for it or come visit!

Our last stop on the way home was the Mennonite-owned Mission General Store.  It is basically a Peights-style bulk foods and close-outs store in the middle of nowhere just outside of St. Ignatius.  It was bizarre to see brands we had at Sharp Shopper on the shelves of a Montana store.  We stocked up on goodies such as Skippy's Super Chunky Peanut Butter (super large), coconut oil, close-out lime Pepsi, and various other snack items.  Overall we had a very enjoyable and relaxing vacation to the North.  The next time we go North will be to meet our parents in Glacier in late June!!!   We are very excited for the family time!  

Love from us to you all!!

Dietrich and Abigail