It's So Hard to Say Good-Bye

Yes, that was a Boyz II Men reference. You're welcome. Today we say goodbye to the mountains...and we've seen a lot of them this trip. These just happen to be our favorite. So today, we got up early and ventured out for a few pictures. The first one you see here--the composition is not good. I took it to prove that it was indeed 39 degrees. And it felt glorious. We are not looking forward to getting back to 100 degree heat. The rest of the pictures are a few of our favorite of the morning:

After our morning photo shoot, we headed back to the hotel, got cleaned up, and began our put-your-head-down-drive-hard-way-home. We ate at a new favorite place in Jackson, Persephone Bakery.

It was cold enough to sit by the fire! 

cappuccino 

mocha 

chocolate croissant saved for later 

pea and ricotta toast

croque madame (with tomato jam)!

We took the northern route home just to take one last pass.

One last look--see you all soon!

GTNP and Jackson

This morning, we took a slow drive through Yellowstone to find that yet another spot we enjoyed last time we were here is inaccessible. The Uncle Tom's Trail that takes you right down by the base of Yellowstone's lower falls was under construction. We were able to see the falls from Artist's viewpoint, however. We also so a small heard of elk along the way.

After Yellowstone, we cruised into one of our favorite places on earth--Grand Teton National Park and Jackson, Wyoming. In all our travel, this is a place we come back to again and again. We ate at one of our favorite places in Jackson--The Bunnery. I got the Gros Ventre--hashbrowns, green chiles, eggs over-easy, cheddar cheese, and sour cream.

Tim got the The Trapper--turkey, slaw, pepper jack cheese, and Russian dressing.

Both were tasty!

After our late lunch, we went on a moose hunt. We spied one female munching on her dinner. This brought us up to the Grand Teton viewpoint. This is were we ended the day watching the sun set behind the mountains.

Surprise!

We spent some time yesterday trying to decide on our route home. We came and saw what we wanted to see in Canada and knew we could take our sweet time getting home. Sooooo, when we left Kalispell, Montana this morning we headed south. We passed through Missoula and Butte and landed in West Yellowstone!

the Wop Chop and fries and the Wop Chop with Jo-Jos... 

...from this dive in Butte, Montana--home and resting place of Evel Knievel 

When we got to West Yellowstone, we headed on into the park to get a look at the Grand Prismatic Spring. We saw the spring in 2014, when we stayed in the Tetons. In 2014, we were able to walk a trail to the backside of the spring and climb a hill, getting this perspective:

It was an absolutely gorgeous view. They closed the trail and have made the hill we climbed off limits because it was doing damage. They were supposed to reopen the trail and add a new part up to a small landing in mid-July, which would be right about now. From the looks of the parking lot (or lack thereof) they've got a ways to go before it's finished. We could see the landing they'd built, but the trail wasn't ready. Instead, we settled for this. Not bad but not a view from above.

 Grand Prismatic Spring from the boardwalk

  Grand Prismatic Spring from the boardwalk

For dinner we ate on a bus--a stationary food bus by the name of Las Palmitas to be exact. They served up some really good Mexican.

I got Camarones a la Crema--Shrimp mixed with peppers, onions, mushrooms, and sour cream sauce.

Tim got the burrito Mexicno--flour torilla with rice, beans, and steak covered with red, green, and sour cream sauce.

They were both excellent. I would go so far as to say that the shrimp I had was as good as any Mexican I've had anywhere! I'd go back tomorrow for that dish.

Tomorrow will take us back into Yellowstone to explore just a little. We'll rest our heads in the Tetons--one of our favorite places on Earth.

Goodbye Canada!

We said our official goodbye to Canada from the Prince of Wales Hotel today. Bye!

We ate waffles at this place this morning. Liege waffles to be exact. They have a light, crispy coating of sugar on them...aaaaaand we got ours covered in Nutella and bananas. Oh so good. The flat white and mocha were good as well.

Waffleton was right next to Wieners of Waterton. I guess Wieners of Waterton is better than Wienerton...I guess. Regardless of the name, they had really, really, really good hot dogs and sausages. I forget to take a picture last night when we ate there because we woofed them down...pun intended.

Shot of the Prince of Wales Hotel from the town of Waterton 

From Waterton, we headed south to Glacier National Park in Montana. This little guy was minding his own business trying to scratch an itch.

We took a short hike to a beautiful lake in Glacier National Park. I suddenly had a brain fart about the name, and Tim is in the shower. We just made it on and off the trail as a grizzly and her cubs were spotted on the trail, They close trails in grizzly country when a mama and her cubs are on it.

From there we drove through Glacier on the Road to the Sun. The views were pretty awesome, but to tell your the truth, we got spoiled in Banff and Jasper.

We pulled in to Columbia Falls, Montana around dinner time and ate at the Backslope Brewery. The fried chicken and hoisin giner pulled pork sandwich were delicious.

Tonight we're staying in Kalispell, Montana, unsure of where we'll head tomorrow!