Avalanche Lake

Saturday, July 2, 2005

We were waiting at the entrance to the restaurant when they opened at 6:30. We quickly ate and headed to the car, driving about 6 miles into the park to the Avalanche Lake trailhead. The road was very quiet, and we had the trail to ourselves. This trail wound through the woods at a fairly steady climb back into the mountains. We laughed and joked as we walked; Shannon and Chris are just about as silly as we are! It took us just under an hour to cover the 2 miles to the lake. Once we arrived, we had the whole thing to ourselves. It was really peaceful and beautiful. As we headed back down the mountain we started to see more hikers heading up, we had timed things really well!

Back at the hotel we relaxed and packed for a bit, then hopped in the car for the ride back to the airport. Along the way we stopped at The Huckleberry Patch so that Shannon and Chris could get some huckleberry jam for their parents. Huckleberries are a big thing in Montana, we had huckleberry chocolate, huckleberry pie, huckleberry martinis, huckleberry marguerites and huckleberry daiquiris while we were there. The woman in the shop was really friendly and when we told her where we were from, she told us how much she loved San Francisco. It turned out she was originally from Boston, and she wanted to know when Randy had 'lost' his accent. We had lots of fun talking with her. She wished us well and we headed for the airport.

Chris ended up having to check his backpack, since he forgot that his knife was in it (bad Chris!). Bob (the breast pump) and the milk for Julia, however, were allowed on the plane. In Seattle we said our goodbyes to Shannon and Chris, what a fun weekend! After arriving at our gate for the next flight, we found out it was delayed; we ended up having about 3 hours to kill while Alaska Airlines found us a plane...

We arrived back home around 8pm. We had a great time in Montana and want to thank Shannon and Chris for taking us hiking. Who knows where we'll all travel to next!