Our 1st Camping Trip

A week ago today Chet and I went on our first camping trip together! And let me start off by saying it was AMAZING. We had so much fun together and can't wait to go on our next camping adventure. Here in Montana there are so many places to camp that it seems endless. We bought our first tent and some basic items needed.

We decided to have our first trip be in Glacier National Park, which was the best decision. Theres countless places to camp in Glacier but we chose Bowman Lake. It took about two hours, twenty minutes to get there, but ti was well worth the drive! There was a campground, drinking water, and porter-potty, but no showers. So we got to take our shower in the lake, which was very cold.

Once we got there we set up our tent, which was so easy to put together, unpacked everything and walked to the lake. Bowman Lake is absolutely gorgeous with a few glaciers. It was quiet, peaceful and so relaxing. It was such a gorgeous day that we inflated the kayak and took it out on the lake. The lake was glass! Everything about the place was gorgeous, and peaceful. After our kayak ride we grabbed our chairs, wine, appetizer, radio & of course bug spray and headed back down to the lake to enjoy our happy hour together. Best happy hour spot ever!!! Following happy hour we cooked delicious brawts for dinner and s'mores for dessert. The campfire was perfect and the stars were spectacular! We stayed up very late talking, eating s'mores and playing cards.

Chet and I shared a twin blow up mattress that ended up working out better than I expected. We woke up the next morning and Chet made a delicious breakfast. We used our dutch oven over the fire and cooked bacon and eggs and made egg, bacon croissant sandwiches. Yummy!!!! Then Chet and I decided to have a day adventure. So....we made lunch, packed it in our small cooler, brought the fishing poles and packed everything in our kayak and wanted to explore the lake. We kayaked, fished and then found a gorgeous remote beach to relax and have our picnic lunch. After lunch we both thought we heard a bear so we got out quickly and started kayaking again. It was the perfect day.

When we got back to our campsite we went for a short hike, took a shower in the lake, had our happy hour again overlooking the lake and then dinner, which was homemade chicken soup that I had made the day before we left. It was so good. It was another great night!!!!

Our second morning we had met a general in the military and he and his son took Chet and I on a boat ride to the opposite side of the lake. It was a cloudy day and a bit chilly. You can only go up to 10mph on Bowman Lake so ti took about 30 minutes to get to the opposite side of the lake. It was so gorgeous and even more remote on the other side. Unfortunately the wind picked up and we had a difficult time getting back. There were up to 3 feet of waves and we all got SOAKED. We were so cold, but it was still worth it. After we got back we had to pack up and head home to the bed and breakfast. Mary and Rick had taken over for us for two days and we had to return to our jobs as innkeepers. We're so blessed they did that for us, because we came back so rejuvenated.

Anyways, it was the BEST camping trip and it couldn't have been any better.

Mini-Vacation 2 Sandpoint, Idaho

Yesterday Chet and I left around 1pm and flew the mooney to Sandpoint, ID. It would have been a two hour twenty minute drive, but we decided to take the mooney and it only took us forty minutes to get there. How nice is that?

The flight was great and easy! We landed at Sandpoint airport and we were going to call a cab to take us to our hotel, but the FBO let us use the courtesy car (an expedition) while we were there. How awesome is that? I was so excited!!!! So we drove to the Inn at Sand Creek, which is in the heart of downtown Sandpoint, and let me add that downtown Sandpoint is such a cute little town. The beach was a short walking distance from our Inn and everything worked out perfectly.

Our inflatable kayak had been delivered that morning so we were able to pack it in a bag and bring it with us on our trip. So we went to the beach, inflated the kayak and decided to try it out on lake Pend O'Reille. This lake is HUGE and so gorgeous. Northern Idaho is pretty much the same as NW Montana: Beautiful lakes, evergreens everywhere, mountains and the best weather you can ask for. We had a blast on the kayak!!!! We went swimming on the beach and afterwards we grabbed our bags from the car and walked over to the Inn. The Inn at Sand Creek was the perfect place for us, because we didn't have to talk to anyone or deal with people. Our letter and key were in a mailbox and it had directions to our room. We had an adorable two room suite and the room was really nice. We then cleaned up, had our little happy in our living room and then headed out for night.

We walked down to the beach and there was a great restaurant overlooking the bay and lake. The most perfect setting. There was live music on the deck and we ended up eating dinner there and had a great time. SO relaxing and delicious food!! Following that we went to a brewery and then had ice cream. Afterwards we found this perfect little spot tucked away from people and businesses and it was overlooking the river so Chet and I hung out there for a while and enjoyed ourselves very much!

This morning we had breakfast at the same place we had dinner, and we sat over looking the lake again. Breakfast was delicious! Afterwards we headed out to the lake and took the kayak out for a couple hours. We also enjoyed the beach, swam and relaxed. For lunch we found a delicious philly cheesesteak place and it was so good. We then headed back to airport to fly home. We had a bumpy flight, but thankfully I didn't get too sick.

Overall it was the BEST mini-vacation ever! We loved every part of it, and being able to fly there made it so much easier and more fun. We were going to stay another night but decided not to. Well it's a good thing we didn't because we had guests call and reserve a room at 9pm tonight. Pheewww, good thing we are here.

Summer Months Flying By

Well summer is almost over, but it sure has been a GREAT summer. Montana is so beautiful and we have been having the best weather. Summers in Montana are perfect, minus the horrible mosquitoes. July was a very busy month for the B&B. We had so many reservations and all the people loved it. It seemed like we were having guest after guest after guest. We did have a good eight days without guests and it was perfectly timed when mom, Ron and Chris were here. They came for eight days for a vacation and we had a blast. The day they left we had guests check in, and there were guests coming for the next two weeks. We were busy!!!!

In the meantime we had other families visit us as well. So we all kept quite busy. And this past weekend was my mom’s 50^th Birthday. We did have guests coming for the weekend but when I left on Friday morning there were only four rooms booked throughout the weekend. Well, I flew to Texas and Court, Nick and Chris picked me up and we met my mom and the rest of the gang in Horseshoe Bay at lake LBJ. We had such a fun weekend together. But we ended up having more bookings that were made the day of at the B&B. Chet and his dad were running the place and I felt so bad and guilty for having left him. But it was very successful for Chet and Rick and he said it all turned out great. J I’m so unbelievable blessed and grateful for my amazing husband. He was totally fine with me leaving to spend time with my family. Thank you Chet, I love you so much.

Now Chet and I are going to take a little mini-vacation to Sandpoint Idaho for one night. We’ve been so busy with the B&B, then he had to work almost every day last week for the airplane mechanic on the runway and then had a house full of guests this past weekend. Also, Chet has his monthly guard drill this weekend. We have guests checking in Wednesday and this weekend so I wont be able to go with him, but now it’s my turn to do the B&B without him.