We decided to take a road trip to visit some family members on my side and have adventures at the same time. We started our journey on Thursday the 7th, after I got off work. After dropping off Pongo with Marty's parents, our first stop was my Gramma's condo at Bear Lake. My Gramma Carol accompanied us on our journey and made an excellent tour guide along the way.
Friday morning we started our trek northward and we drove from Bear Lake, UT to Helena, MT!
We made a few stops along the way, one of our more fun stops was at Geyser Park in Soda Springs, ID. The geyser was only bubbling at the time, but the red rock against the blue sky was beautiful on it's own.
{Geyser Park}
Friday night we arrived at my Uncle Dick & Aunt Carol's home in Helena & we enjoyed a delicious dinner out on their deck and we enjoyed catching up with them.
Saturday, we hit the ground running ready to take Helena by storm. Our first venture was out to the old Mansion district in down town Helena. Because of the mining success in Helena, the city used to be home to more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the country. I fell in love with the charm and design of all the old homes. My favorite mansion of course was the one with gargoyles.. I am still obsessed with gargoyles from my study abroad in Paris. I also loved the cobble-stone style side walks and the fact that a lot of the homes still had hitching posts for horse-drawn carriages.
{Helena Mansions}
↑ Bottom left was the original governor's mansion.
Next we stopped by the farmer's market going on down-town. It was nice to wander through the different vendors and get a feel for the vibe of the city. I ended up with a pretty glass necklace and Carol bought a bag of flathead cherries to share- yum!
After the farmer's market we decided to visit the Montana Historical Society Museum & C M. Russell Gallery because A. We had time to kill before our train tour B. It was free that day C. Because it was awesome D. All of the above! We enjoyed getting lost in Montana history for a while. It was like taking a trip to the wild wild west. I also really loved the Charlie Russell Gallery, he had suck a knack for capturing things as they really were and adding in all the little details of what life was like in the west.
{Face-in-hole outside of the museum}
Our next activity was the one we had been waiting to do all day. Helena has a train trolley tour that takes you all around the town and the "engineer" provides a lot of local lore and commentary along the way.
{Last Chance Gulch Tour Train}
Top left & top right photos below are from the walking mall, the top center is the Helena Civic Center, formally known as the Algeria Shrine Temple, & bottom is the Bluestone house known as "The Castle".
{Sleeping Giant}
Peak on the left is his chest, smaller peaks in center are his mouth, nose, eyes, and forehead.
{St. Helena Cathedral}
{Helena Capitol Building}
We ended up back at the Capitol building at the end of the train tour, and we were ready to stop for lunch so they took us to a fun local sandwich shop called Staggering Ox. All of their sandwiches are shaped like little cans. This was my first tube-sandwich experience, but overall we really liked it and it was fun to try a new spin on a classic concept.
After taking a quick breather back at their house, my Uncle Dick took us over to Spring Meadow Lake to go Kayaking. It was surprisingly peaceful to paddle around after our day of touring the city. We especially liked the view of Mount Helena in the background.
{Kayaking}
{Birds on the lake}
After exploring and spending the day in Helena, we came away with a whole new appreciation for the capital of Montana.
No comments:
Post a Comment