Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A little R & R

My husband and I just returned yesterday from a week long trip to Glacier National Park in Northern Montana. We celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary on the 8th, so we used that as our "excuse" to sneak away.

It was sheer bliss! A much needed break! We were both in our element as we hiked for two and half days, logging about 25 miles in all. My husband spent most of the time behind the camera and took a ton of pictures (about 400 in all). Gotta admit, he's pretty good!

One night as I lay in the green luscious grass at our cabin, exhausted from hiking, smelling the salmon my husband was grilling for dinner, I thought to myself "Life doesn't get much better than this!" (that is, if you're going to take a trip without kids!)

This is one of the longer, more difficult and probably the most breath-taking hikes we took. Approximately 13 miles total (Highline Trail with the Glacier Overlook). It was comical to see the expressions on people's faces when they realized I was pregnant, especially when we passed them! It was almost as if they expected me to drop in a heap in the middle of the trail. They all assumed it was our first baby and we never did "fess up" to anyone how many kids we already had! As we hiked, we both agreed that this was definately not a trail to take kids on. For part of the trail, there was a sheer drop off to one side. As we got to the Glacier Overlook trail (it climbed 1000 feet over the course of .6 miles) there was loose rock covered in sand. Slightly un-nerving but well worth it!

On almost all the trails, we hiked with the mountain goats. For the most part they left us alone, except for this guy. (this encounter was down by Hidden Lake) I was in front as we came around the corner to find him walking toward us on the trail. We stepped off into the weeds a few steps to let him pass. He walked right up to where we were, stopped, looked at us and headed right for us! We scattered off to the side and he again paused by where we were standing, probably thinking "stupid tourists" and continued on his way. He was a little too close for comfort!

We also saw other animals...big horn sheep, bears, etc. It is just so amazing to be out with nature. It made me realize how insignificant humans are. Awesome!

Paybacks from the kids started as soon as we walked in the door last night. Our youngest wouldn't let me put her down all evening and is also feeling needy this morning. I'm not at all suprised, in fact, I expected it. It's one of the "side effects" of leaving them home. It's worth it though!

Now off to weed thru my 255 e-mails waiting for me! Yuck!

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