Friday, October 2, 2009

Day One - Traveling to Missoula


Day 1 October 1, 2009

The first day of our 30th wedding anniversary trip to Glacier started at 5:30 a.m. We ate breakfast, then Drew and Tony drove us to LAX. The drive is my normal route to work only I wasn't going to the office! I was going to somewhere far more exotic: Glacier National Park.

At the airport the line for security was so long they had to pull us out of it to make our flight. Once onboard the captain announced that they got a "status message" that had to be checked out. We returned to the gate and the mechanics came back to install some part. It was funny because I seemed to be in vacation mode and not worrying much about anything. Vivian was worried that I worried though. That's the way things go in a good marriage.

Finally, the captain announced that everything was fine and we were ready for "push back" (I love pilot jargon and use it whenever I feel confident). We flew to Denver and had plenty of time to make the connection. We gave Kevin a quick call from the airport even though we can call him from anywhere at anytime anyway (a lot of "anys"). He was in Boulder for a meeting and a lunch. It made me feel closer to him just being in "his" airport.
We took a small jet to Missoula and flew over miles of snowy mountains. It looked so remote as I caught glimpses through the clouds. At one point I thought I saw the Grand Tetons in the distance. We began to descend and started banking and flew down a long valley into Missoula. As we stepped off the jet, rays of sunlight were slanting through the clouds and it looked idyllic.

We took a cab to our hotel (we'll get the car tomorrow) and the cabbie said he was originally from Dallas but hadn't been back there since he had "so many memories I cherish" and he didn't want to disturb them.
The hotel was great but we wanted to get out and explore so we walked into the downtown area. It was cold. But the walking was invigorating. We walked across a long bridge to the U of M area (Go Grizz!) and on an impulse stepped into an Italian restaurant for dinner. Halfway through dinner the man at the next table turned to Vivian and said, "Excuse me, but are your meatballs as good as they look?" This unfortunately broke the ice and he began telling us that they, too, were celebrating their anniversary, although it was only their 4th. We had trouble returning to our private conversation and even saw them again later on the streets!
We walked back through downtown which was pretty sleepy by this time. We saw the headquarters for Sen. Max Baucus who is a big health care critic. We later found that a smoking ban in bars had just begun so some patrons were on the sidewalks puffing away (one resourceful company is planning to build "butt huts" to keep smokers from freezing). Back in the hotel, I konked out and slept for eight hours without waking up once. I guess I really needed this vacation.

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