Day 7 (Aug 5) - How the west was once

Heritage Park, Calgary AB

We had a somewhat lazy morning and got to Heritage Park about 11 am. Our first stop once we got into the main part of the park was the Steam train that loops around the whole park. This gave us a chance to see where things were and got the train ride out of the way. 

waiting for the train 

Great looking train

From there we walked into town. The “Historical Village” is representative of the late 1800s – early 1900s or the early days of railroad. Streets are dirt with wooden sidewalks. Horses pull wagons up and down the streets and a few cars appear now and then. The shops are open with things from that era. We also found a early synagogue, a theater, bakery, blacksmith, soda fountain, railroad car shop and roundhouse, farm, machine shop, firehouse.....and more :) 

Heading into town

snow plow in the roundhouse

another engine

We wandered all around, but I think the high point for the kids was the classic amusement park area. With refurbished or replicas of rides. Our little lady rode the carousel 3 times with me or daddy and 4 more times on her own. Our boy really enjoyed the full size ferris wheel.

on the carousel 

 rocker style carousel 

on the big Ferris wheel with Daddy

being brave with  a new friend on the little Ferris wheel

We spent all day at the park, heading out a little bit before closing. We found “Gasoline Alley museum” on our way out. Wandering though the two floors of automobile history was pretty cool. The kids got a kick out of it as well, even through they were both too tall to play or drive through the trike track. I have to admit they have a huge collection of antique cars and they were all really nicely restored, I could have spent more time here, but we were ready to head back to our hotel and figure out dinner.

With a vote of 3 to 1 we headed back out to Spiros Pizza and Greek specialties. To be honest I was the hold out :) For some reason I was/am feeling a bit off this evening. I think its just 7 days of fun combined with different sleeping situations and lots of different food.....whine whine whine, I know ;)
I was voting for room service, so I could be super lazy, but Spiros was a pleasant surprise.

Well that we got a table was lucky. The parking lot was moderately full, but every empty table in the place had a reserved sign on it. She moved a sign and sat us anyway.... from then on the place just filled up. By the time we finished up and paid, it was hard to even find the door – so many people. Now the weather had something to do with this I think. About halfway through dinner the sky opened up – it was a serious downpour. We made a run for it to the car, and the hail had just started.

wet

its hard to see, but the sidewalk is a couple of inches below the water

hail to... also hard to see in the pictures.

So earlier in the day we were re-applying sunscreen and on the way home from dinner the streets had so much water some of the sidewalks were under water. Crazy! So we floated home ;) to the hotel and hit the pool.

Day 6 (Aug 4) - Drive to Calgary

An odd day

We woke up this morning to a little man who wasn't feeling well. So we let the kids stay in pjs until we needed to check out and hubby and I went about to pack up the caboose. Of course we saw 2 more trains during that time ;) Taking our total train sightings at the Inn to 15.

And we are off..... again. Unfortunately the first third of our drive is on windy mountain roads, which isn't the best for our little man, but he did ok. We made one gas stop before lunch and then found The Park Cafe for lunch. We had done some research before leaving home and found this place. It has a LARGE menu and seems to be a good place for pie. So this was our plan.

Well its a popular place. It might be because there isn't much else around ;)

As things turned out, the sick one and I hung out in the car, and Daddy and our little lady ate.

The little man was just not ready for a room full of people and food and I wasn't ready to deal with the consequences if we pushed him to soon.

But the weather was great and so was the people watching. Hubby ran my lunch out to me and I dined in the car, while they finished up. Add a piece of pie and we are back on the road. The Park Cafe was fine. Food was fine and it's got its own charm – but I think some of its popularity has to do with it being the best option on a long road. And as it turns out, the good folks of Montana like pie.... every place we past had signs out announcing pie... best pie, homade pie, etc and Montanans love there huckleberry – don't even think about asking for blueberry ;)

Into Canada. I have only ever gone into Canada at the Peace Arch entrance at the top of I-5 in Washington. So this quiet, no-wait border crossing was quite the treat. With 3 hours left until our hotel in Calgary we kept moving. Kids were entertained by the passing farm land and the little man was starting to perk up. We stopped in Claresholm since we were in the market for a restroom and they had a sign that said “rest area”, which turned out to be the visitors center/historical museum. The man inside was thrilled to be sharing his country with forenginers and loaded us up with information.....

booklets and brochures for every place and thing we might do while in his great country :) Once we signed the guest book (we were his first from WA) he gave us all little pins of the flag.

He also went through all the papers with me, to show me where all the “good” coupons were. Hubby and kids looked around the museum which was actually an old train depot. This stop turned out to be much more than we had hoped for. Hubby teased me that I was going to make him stop at every visitor center we saw, since we had such a great experience stumbling into this one.

a few pictures of the landscape out our windows as we drove into Alberta

We moved on into Calgary and found our hotel. By the time we arrived the little man was asking for food, and acting more like his usual self – good signs.

We got settled into one of the many Holiday Inns in Calgary. This one is kind of odd as it looks new, but once you settle in you can tell it really isn't. The elevator being the biggest clue ;)

We ate and settled in for the night, with much to read and (surprise) train tracks visible from our window we were set.  

Day 5 (Aug 3) - Glacier National Park Circle tour (120 miles)

Getting ready for our tour

Wow, what a day!

We were ready in time for our tour on the Red Bus to start. The bus and our guide, also known as a “Jammer” picked us up at the Inn. We were the last pick up stop and the only row with 4 together was the very back row. Which worked out perfectly. The Inn was actually the first stop on the tour, so we had time to load and get comfy while the other tour goers saw the Inn.

And we were off..... the start of our 8 hour, 120 mile tour of all things Glacier.

Wait, 8 hours? With a 5 and 8 year old...... who thought this was going to be a good idea?

View forward from our seats - we spent the whole tour looking out our windows or up :)

Well, they did great.... fine might be more appropriate. But I am very proud of them. There were times they were clearly bored, but the constant change of scenery and the big bumps in the road (literally,we bounced around quite a bit) kept them entertained. Glacier is massive! And incredibly beautiful.

We are very happy we chose the tour. The kids actually said they liked it when it was all over. I think the vehicle was part of its charm, and our driver took the top off for most of the tour... so it was open air. I got my vitamin D today..... I have a sunburn to prove it ;)

Jammer Jim, our guide, is retired and comes out each summer to do this. He and his wife winter in Arizona, Texas, or Florida, and return each summer.

I took 106 pictures today, so there are too many to share them all. But the highlights include Lake McDonald, really big mountains, hubby helping Jammer Jim, etc.

Standing on the bank of Lake McDonald

Our Red Bus

Lake McDonald

Hubby helping Jammer Jim take the top down

Lake McDonald from the river... here come lots of picture from the day

picture out  the top of the red bus

a tunnel in a tunnel

mountain goats

playing in snow

We got back to the Inn just after 6pm and had dinner in the caboose. And are attempting to get to bed earlier... but so far the kids are still very active.
Oh, in case you are keeping track, we are up to 13 train spottings here at the Inn. I think a certain youngster could just sit outside and watch the trains go by all day. Maybe next time ;)

Day 4 (Aug 2) - Libby MT, so nice we saw it twice..... today.

We got to sleep in a bit today, which was loverly. The girls even longer.... the boys went and had breakfast, and brought us lazy girls back some food. Such nice boys :)

Then we packed up and moved out. With 5 plus hours to drive, we wanted to get an early start.

The kids did great on the drive. Our plan was to stop in Libby, MT for lunch, as we hoped to be there by that time of the day, and we knew they had a Subway and McDonald's if we didn't see anything else as we drove in. We also planned to fill up on gas in Libby...... you will never guess which we forgot to do ;) About 25 miles out Libby we remembered GAS! With 70 miles til the next town and 50 miles left on our tank we decided to turn around. We didn't have to go all the way into town, but we did add almost an hour to our drive time. Which is better than spontaneously camping in the middle of Montana. We trekked on and arrived at the Izaak Walton Inn just after 6.

Kids enjoying the drive?

Montana out the car window - 1 in a series

Montana out the car window - 2 in a series

Montana out the car window - 3 in a series

And our room/caboose was waiting. Yup, we are sleeping in a caboose.

Our Room

Its a beautifully refinished Great Northern caboose, with a kitchen and ¾ bath, a bedroom, and a cool bunk in the top part. All with great views of a fairly busy train line. Oh, and more pillows than are reasonable for a dwelling of this size, we aren't sure where to put them when its time for bed..... our bed had 8 full size pillows on it. Actually 4 standard in pillow cases, 2 queen size in cases to match the duvet and 2 more standard in shams to match the Pendelton blanket, but still EIGHT PILLOWS! Similar scenarios existed on the kids bed and the couch. I am only a little concerned they might multiply when we aren't looking.

view from bedroom towards kitchen/living area

Living/Kitchen area

Facing the other direction

Main bedroom (with alll the pillows)

Upper Bunk

Climbing up to the bunk

The Inn is full of train memorabilia, which is awesome for a certain train loving boy. They have inn rooms, cabins, 5 converted cabooses and 1 converted engine (which looks pretty cool). They have a number of trails around the area and a great bridge you can stand on that goes right over the tracks...... and we did. Its quite a feeling to stand directly over a freight train as it barrels down the tracks. WOW.

Izaak Walton Inn, view from the tracks back toward the Inn

On the bridge, right above a freight train

The Inn seems very busy, especially the restaurant and bar. But this is our first chance to cook for ourselves since we left home and it will be a while til it happens again. So we are taking advantage of it.

Having dinner in the Caboose. We can see the tracks out that window.

Tomorrow we are being super brave and taking a tour of Glacier National Park.... the brave part being, its an all day tour. They pick us up at the hotel at 10 am and bring us back at 6 pm. All day! We are hoping the kids do alright. Getting them to sleep tonight has been challenging. Apparently sleeping in a caboose is very unusual for them ;) We didn't tell them prior to arrival that the room was a caboose. They saw it right away and wanted to check it out, which worked out great... oh by the way, this is our “room” for the next two nights. But as I mentioned we are yards away from a busy rail line...... and trains don't close up at night. So hopefully the need to see every train that goes by will fade until morning. We have seen 6 trains pass since our arrival, just in case you were curious. 5 freight and the West bound Amtrak Empire Builder. I wasn't counting, but my train loving boy, informed me of this when the last freight train passed :)

Goodnight

Day 3 (Aug. 1) - Oh my aching feet, or our day at Silverwood

We woke up to the sound of Hubby's cell phone this morning. It wasn't anything major, but it did jump start our day a bit.

Breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express in Hayden is exactly what you would expect. But make the ratios of kids to adults 3 to 1, and put at least half of those people in swimwear. Kudos to the staff for keeping the buffet stocked and tidy. And everyone was nice, no food fights or even grumpy stares... so the day started off well.

We had a bit of time to kill, as the park didn't open til 11. So we went to the store and grabbed a few last things we forgot we didn't know we would need on the trip... you know?

Then headed to the Northwest's Largest Theme Park...... don't read to much into that ;)

Steam Engine ready to roll

Our first order of business was the real steam engine ride. The train was great..... the “train robbery show” wasn't a favorite for a certain train loving boy. But he muscled through and we ventured on.

View from our seats on the train.

We focused on the kids rides to start, trying to get them both in the swing of things before lunch and it worked. One kid loved the frog hopper..... pictures below. The other only loved things brother would do with her.... and it shouldn't go to high.... or move to fast, or get her too wet :)

First solo flight of the day.

Train themed kids coaster with Dad. Loves it!

Laughing so hard on the Frog Hopper.

Little one getting support from Daddy. The Frog Hopper wasn't her favorite.

We lunched at the only table service place in the park. It was cool and quiet....perfect. Lots of old style charm and a kids menu that pleased both of ours. And at the end of our meal, the steam engine went right by the window for us. Woooo Hoo!

The afternoon was full of rides for all. The Log Flume was the first.... and we all got WET! Nope, I didn't take pictures... but I should have :) And Daddy got to ride on all the big roller coasters the park has to offer. Two wooden coasters, an inverted coaster, as well as one of the those CRAZY things that takes you waaaaay up high and shoots you down – not my cup of tea, but he loved it.
The kids and I made our way though the antique cars, skee ball, and a handful of kids rides. While Dad was getting his coaster fix.

Driving the Antique Cars.

Enjoyed the view from the backseat as sister drove. 

Helicopter Ride.

We wrapped up our time at Silverwood by watching the steam engine pull away for another ride.
As our oldest would say “great steam action”.

Dinner was Garlic Jim's pizza in our room. And we did some prep for tomorrow before finally getting off the feet... ouch.

Tomorrow we head on to Montana!