Ski Trip to Whitefish

Last October when I ran the Pumpkin Push 5K, along with the usual freebies given out by race sponsors were some discount coupons from Amtrak. That sparked an idea for a winter trip somewhere with Camille. One of the many breaks that Seattle Public School students have during the year is a week-long Mid-Winter Break in February. I wanted this to be a break from the usual kid-on-the-couch-in-front-of-the-TV-saying-she's-bored thing and me-feeling-housebound thing. Jetting off to Hawaii or some other warm place was most appealing, but I wanted to keep this affordable and see about avoiding an airport for a change.

Finding some snow to play in or ski on, seemed like a good idea, since Hawaii wasn't going to happen. And the idea of MONTANA seemed interesting. It's a place I've not spent much time in, and with it only being an overnight ride away, it seemed like the right choice. The train leaves Seattle daily at 4:45 p.m. A final plan evolved and we rode the rails to Whitefish, Montana on a fine, sunny February afternoon with our friends Patty, Carolyn and Nina. Carolyn is one of Camille's best friends since kindergarten, Nina is her little sister and their mom Patty is a pal who I've enjoyed walks, glasses of wine and video nights with.

It was a sunny, mild day and the views at sunset as we rode north along the waterfront to Everett were fantastic! Carolyn brought her camera and was nice enough to share some of her photos with me. The train was a novelty for the girls and it allowed them plenty of freedom to roam around, leaving Patty and me free to knock off a bottle of wine and nibble on some cheese and crackers we brought. I had my Leatherman Tool with me and thank god I did, otherwise how would I have sliced our cheese??? We speculated on whether Amtrak confiscates weapons (you know, like I've had nail clippers, children's blunt scissors and my miniature Swiss Army Knife taken away at airports). But though my Leatherman Tool is sharp and potentially dangerous, I guess the chances of hi-jacking a train are pretty slim and the porters ignored me slicing my cheese. The wine was taking effect and I imitated Edward Scissorhands with my Tool, giggling and brandishing it about and setting a very bad example for the children.

I thought the big recliners on the train would provide a fairly comfortable sleep, unlike the seats on a plane. WRONG! Even though I found 2 empty seats and some extra room to squirm around in, it was still an uncomfortable night of broken sleep. Looks like someone has a sense of humor and took pictures of their sleeping traveling companions.

As the sky got light, you could see a different landscape from what we last saw when leaving Western Washington the night before. The sun was not quite up as we rode the last few miles past Whitefish Lake into town. Brr. Yes, it was a little colder there, something in the 20's before sun up. The host at our bed and breakfast, Mr. Woody, um, Mr. Cox, (well, his name is Woody Cox and the girls got to referring to him as Mr. Woody) fetched us and our gear and brought us to the Good Medicine Lodge. I was quite pleased with the place. Nothing fancy nor too basic, it had all the comforts of home and then some. For $180.00/night the 5 of us had 2 bedrooms/2 baths, a hot tub, the usual amenities like a guest computer, fireplaces, game room, a full breakfast, the moms had complimentary beer or wine in the evening and there was the never-empty jar of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Carolyn and I are certified Cookie Monsters and we both declared these the top-5 cookies ever and the top-3 best things about this trip. But that was on the first day before we both ate way too many and couldn't look at them any more.

Well, here it was 7 a.m. or so and check in time wasn't until 3. So we dumped our bags and walked to town. It was a bright, blue-sky (or Big Sky, as they say in those parts) morning with snow all around to blind us with the reflection. We browsed, had lattes and breakfast goodies and walked some more. We had all morning to kill and nothing else to do and it was gorgeous out in this small town. But the girls had started complaining. Something about wanting to play in the snow (poor kids from Seattle, they ran to the grey, cruddy roadside crap and started making snowballs). So we pushed them along. At one point Camille broke down sobbing, saying something about this being the worst day of her life (it must have been 11 a.m. by then and all she had to do was walk about 1.5 miles and skip a few piles of grey snow). Patty and I were on a recon mission to see what this town had to offer and we weren't even shopping! After locating a pool/health club/indoor water slide to return to later, we decided against doing a forced march back that could lead to more meltdowns (I mean, 1.5 miles!?!). So we waited for the free Snow Bus that makes stops all through town. It was the first of many waits for that bus, which usually didn't run on schedule or tended to make stops in mystery places. No matter. While waiting, the girls finally had some clean white snow to play in and Patty and I enjoyed feeling the sun on our faces. That afternoon we returned to the pool via Snow Bus and the girls enjoyed the water slide, I got an hour lap swim in and Patty walked (having brought a black half-slip in place of her bathing suit bottom). The girls didn't mind the walk back this time; the view of a full moon rising over the peaks in nearby Glacier National Park was pretty and we found some Mexican food and then went home for a jacuzzi and bed.

Next a.m. we picked up our rented ski gear and took the bus to Big Mountain Ski Resort, only about 8 miles up the road. I hadn't downhill skied for years and was a little nervous. Camille really had never down-hilled. Anyway, after the first couple runs of her falling, she was staying on her feet and independent by the 3rd run. By afternoon I could ditch her for awhile while I went up on top for some Big Views of Big Mountain in the Big Sky state (I'll tell you more about Big in a sec.).

Anyway, the skiing was very fun, the weather was great and the snow-encased trees were weird and cool looking ("snow goblins" I was told by the local who rode the chair with me, though maybe that's just some local joke to make us tourists look silly; like "did you see all those snow goblins up there?"). But they did remind me of snowy versions of the hoodoos and goblins of the southwest. Go ahead, do an image Google search of "hoodoos" and you'll see what I mean. See? That's some hoodoos:

I Googled "snow goblins" and got a bunch of nothing. But I digress.

That evening in the jacuzzi, we chatted with some of the other guests. There was this Big guy, with a Big voice, with a Big attitude about anything that he considers to be true. You know the type, all opinions, all talk, no listen. Oh, and he was from Big Sky (the town), no joke. That night he and the Little Woman were on their way out to dinner in these full length fur coats. The kind made from god only know how many unfortunate Little fur-bearing animals or maybe some shot, poisoned or trapped coyotes. Regional oddity, I guess; some wild west attitudes including wanting to exterminate "varmints" but then you can wear their pelts for a night out on the town.

The next day, we wouldn't leave until near 9 p.m. so had all day to dink around. Being the Good Mothers we are, we took the kids to the ice skating rink. But at least 2 out of 3 girls were complaining right away about uncomfortable skates or some damn thing, so we got our money back and started a forced march around town again. Fortunately, I had a brilliant idea to walk a few blocks over to the lake. Which was frozen over and quite the novelty for us, I mean, the kids.

We managed to pass the day... The most interesting thing we saw was a truck full of sled dogs go by, with all these yapping dogs hanging their heads out of the windows in their kennels. Carolyn snapped a quick (hence, blurry) picture of the spectacle. ARF ARF

Camille on the look-out.

After slogging around in boots the last couple days, I had blisters on day 3 so wore my running shoes for the outing. And good thing, since I got the chance to run back to town at the end of the day. Camille had left a bag of souvenirs at the coffee and gift shop we had last visited. I pounded on the windows just after closing time and got in to retrieve the treasures. And thank goodness - just look at the souvenir we would have had to leave behind!

Pretty soon it was time for the "All Aboard!" back to Seattle.