The past few weeks have been a blur of sorts. I moved back to Ohio from Montana and landed a job teaching 4th grade at Village Prep, a charter school in downtown Cleveland.
Lookin' good, Cleveland
Two of my dearest friends flew out to MT to accompany me on the drive. Since they would be discovering several new states, we organized a road-trip that hit the highlights!
Whoa, that's a lot of miles!
I explained the trip as sort of a "Dessert First" sort of a trip. Montana will be the sweetest and then more like "Broccoli and peas" after the
Black Hills of South Dakota. Montana was the sweetest by far thanks to spending time with so many dear friends those last days.
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| All downhill after Wall Drug |
Jodi flew in first and we had one of those magical Missoula mornings as we hiked the "M" and grabbed breakfast at the
Catalyst. On our way to pick up Natalie in Kalispell, we swung by the
Garden of 1000 Buddhas in Arlee and met up with Lizzy and Amber.
The "M" Trail
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| Garden of 1000 Buddhas, Arlee |
With Natalie in tow, we had an awesome night on the town in Whitefish. I loved having my OH and MT friends in the same room, on the same roof, wherever. The fun continued as we met back up with the fabulous, Kate, and headed over to Babb for some 4th of July fun.
Fourth of July is the start of summer in MT and after participating in the 5th annual Duck Lake Parade, it's official that 4th of July is my new favorite holiday !
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| Manyo and Kate rescuing balloons off our float! |
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| Kickball |
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| Good Morning, Chief Mountain |
Saturday the 5th included a spectacular hike to
Many Glacier's Cracker Lake. It was a picture perfect day and Cracker was even more spectacular than I remembered. The trail was crowded and sounds of "O-H" echoed as Manyo proudly sported her
Script Ohio T-shirt and we were coincidentally hiking among fellow Buckeyes.
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| Almost there! Cracker Lake Trail, GNP |
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| Cracker Lake, GNP |
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| Natalie and Natalie, Cracker Lake Trail, GNP |
I got teary eyed on the way off the trail realizing that this was the last hike in Glacier as a resident of MT. For those of you that have ever visited Many Glacier, you know that tearing up is not totally out of the question on any given visit.
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| Jodi, Natalie, Natalie, and Kate, Cracker Lake, GNP |
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| Cracker Lake, GNP |
And yes, that is the color of the water. There are many glacier fed lakes but none quite the color of Cracker Lake.
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| Jodi, Natalie and Natalie, Cracker Lake, GNP |
Sadly, by Sunday, it was time to leave the east side. Fortunately, Going-to-the-Sun Road opened just in time for Jodi and Natalie's visit. Phew. We stopped for a quick tour of St. Mary and Virginia Falls, both very powerful due to all the snow we had this winter!
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| Jodi captured this rainbow at St. Mary Falls |
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| Virginia Falls |
We then proceeded to drive the infamous Going-to-the-Sun Road. I could not believe how much snow was at Logan Pass!!! Well, after living in East Glacier last winter…
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| Logan Pass |
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| Fun in the Snow?! |
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| Continental Divide |
Last stop in Glacier: Lake McDonald and
The Montana House for some shopping, of course!
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| Kate, Natalie, Natalie, and Jodi, Lake McDonald, GNP |
On Monday, we left Missoula and headed to
Chico Hot Springs in Pray, MT for our first night on the road. If you've never been to Chico, I highly recommend it.
Thank you for all the smiles, Missoula
We rented a rustic cabin and enjoyed a fabulous dinner in the dining room and then took advantage of the natural hot springs pools.
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| Chico's Adorable Cabins |
During our early morning soak, we struck up a conversation with an older gentleman. He was born and raised in, you guessed it, Jefferson, OH.
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| Chico is the BEST. |
On Monday, we cruised through
Yellowstone, stopping for construction, bison, and Old Faithful.
We admired Old Faithful with what seemed like a million other spectators! Love you, peak season!
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| Old Faithful, Yellowstone |
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| Old Faithful |
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| The REAL "Old Faithful" |
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| Yellowstone's Bison |
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| Purple and Gold Wildflowers, Yellowstone |
Cody, WY was the next stop and we stayed at the historic
Buffalo Bill's Irma Hotel, once the Beverly Hills Hotel of the West.
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| Yes, she is picking George Washington's nose |
I can't remember what day we found ourselves with nothing but time at
Wall Drug but I can tell you that I'm pretty sure we had the most fun in the picnic area of photo ops.
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| Giddyup! |
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| Where to? |
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| Wagons East |
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| Jodi and I enjoyed the 5 cent coffee! |
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| Pappy gave me a very optimistic fortune!!! |
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| Way easier for Manyo's dream photo... |
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| Stare down |
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| And then this happened… |
We decided it was a good time to leave Wall Drug to explore the Badlands.
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| Badlands, SD |
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| Jodi, Rich, Manyo, Badlands, SD |
For some reason we took advice from family and friends and stopped at the
Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. We were basically CORNfused and aMAIZEd the entire time at why anyone would stop here.
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| World's Only, thank goodness |
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| The whole place was under CORNstruction |
And then the CORNsensus was that the best part of the Corn Palace….you guessed it! CORN puns!!! We CORNgratulated ourselves on still managing to laugh until we cried at this bizarre tourist trap.
We really worked up an appetite after Wall Drug, Badlands AND the Corn Palace in one day so after seeing signs for
Pizza Ranch, our curiosity got the best of us and we decided to give it a shot.
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| Manyo's new favorite |
Shout-out to Pizza Ranch: It is awesome. It is a pizza buffet. If I remember correctly, Manyo did not write home about it, she called!
I'm certain that Pizza Ranch was the last of the highlights on the road. We spent all of our time in the West and had to hightail it back to Ohio.
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| Crossing the border! |
I love that we crossed the border the same day LeBron James announced HIS return to Cleveland.
Welome home!!!
On Friday, somewhere in Indiana, I got the call from Breakthrough Schools for an interview. The catch: training began on Monday. It was a bummer to cut my time in Columbus short but to make the most of it, my sister joined me in Cleveland and we crammed a bit of summer fun in by attending the White Sox vs. Indians game on Sunday.
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| Windians! |
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| Such a fun day at The Jake! |
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| Hello, Cleveland! |
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| Guardians of Traffic, Hope Memorial Bridge |
In the evening, we took advantage of Cleveland Hostel's rooftop deck.
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| Cleveland sunset |
As mentioned in the beginning of the post, I did get the job (HOORAY!!!!) and I've been spending my days exploring Cleveland's new neighborhoods, rediscovering the old, apartment hunting, and combing the shores of Lake Erie for beach glass.
Looking forward to a new address, shorter commute and meeting the 4th graders at Village Prep!
There's no place like home.
Headed up through NE Ohio sometime in August ...Definitely want to spend some time in Ashtabula ...maybe we'll catch you there .. Rich & Sue
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