Glacier National Park - Day 1

Day 1 - Sunday, July 6

Yippee!  We are going on vacation!  To Glacier National Park!!

 BooBoo is always excited to be going on another vacation!  She is getting to be quite the little world traveler.

 

After we arrived at DFW, got checked in, passed thru security, we had some time to kill before our flight so we took a little walk and went exploring.  We took the escalator up to the Sky Rail, which we have never ridden on.  Quite the view out across the tarmac from Frontier's terminal.

 

We flew to Denver on Frontier Airlines, "a whole different animal".  All their planes have a different animal picture on the plane's tail section.

And Tom, who is so much fun to travel with, always makes me smile!  We each had an aisle seat, across from each other.

We flew from Denver to Spokane, Wa. where we were invited as guests to a birthday party in the "Depot" located in right field at the Spokane Indians Ballpark.  The Indians are the farm team for the Texas Rangers!  We were to meet Tom's niece, Megan, and her husband Austen there, along with getting to have our first meeting with little Nelson, Tom's great-nephew.  What a cutie-pie!

Nelson was not too enthused with the team mascot!

Here is Austen, the most creative, talented guy!  The birthday party here is for the entrepreneurial owner of several downtown buildings of which Austen is the Maintenance Supervisor for.  The owner's wife surprised her husband with this catered birthday bash at the Depot!

The Spokane Indians went on to trounce their opponents  that day!

It was a very warm day at the ballpark so after a little while Megan decided to take Nelson home, and Tom and I were also ready to go and just chill out following our long day of flying.

Nelson (17 months old) was very happy to get home!

 

On his way home from the ballpark, Austen went and picked up this evaporative cooler that he had purchased through Craig's List.  It was in immaculate condition.  Even though they have window air condition units in their garage, they felt like this would be a better, more earth friendly way to cool their home during their dry Summer months.  When I say dry, I mean compared to us here in Texas, they live in a very dry, high desert-like climate. 

I said "Megan, stand by your new evaporative cooler so I can get a picture".  She doesn't look so sure about this, even though Austen is very excited about his recently purchased bargain. {However by the next morning their home felt extremely cool, with very little electricity use.}

Meantime, we were enjoying observing Nelson!  He is a busy and inquisitive little guy!

There is this huge cherry tree right in their front yard, loaded with delicious ripe cherries!  Before the week is out, we would consume lots of these tasty little goodies.  (You see that gray vehicle in the background?  That is a Mazda5 hatchback, our rental for the week!)

More observing of Nelson antics!

 

Megan made a delicious dinner of shredded pork tacos, which we enjoyed at their backyard picnic table.  What great hospitality Megan and Austen are showing us.  Also letting us sleep in their guest bedroom for a couple of nights before we head to Glacier National Park. 

 

Megan "Feather" is my A.T. mentor.  She hiked on the Appalachian Trail during 2005-06, completing almost all of it.  She then went on to thru-hike the PCT, which is more that 2,600 miles stretching from Mexico to Canada!  

 

Tomorrow we plan to explore the Spokane area.