Two Top Mountain -Montana Snowmobiling Trip 2020
Day 1 Breakdown
Day 1 - Travelling
We decided that we would do a trip to Montana to go snowmobiling and do a mix of fun things from there. We booked tickets on skiplagged and got the cheapest flights we could get. This trip was going to be a combined family trip where we had 3 boys coming with us. We had 5 people on this trip and when we got on the plane since we had a larger family group we were all over the plane not sitting together. We took turns being the person who sat all by themselves. Our first stop was New York as a layover. It was my first layover in New York and you could see the Statue of Liberty from the plane. In the airport, we had a 4 hour layover, we had tried to carry all our luggage and we were eating New York pizza and found a place to lounge and charge our phones.The Trump election loss sentiment was lingering and still a hot topic in the airport and around the security. We also got mask scolding numerous times, me more then the rest of the family because I hated the darn thing and thought it was silly. We found a super cool light display that we sat under. All of the boys were tired from sitting and then sitting more. We had all worn a lot of our winter gear, because we were from Florida so our jackets and stuff was strewn everywhere. We finally got on the second plane. This time I was sitting by myself and I got to admire an interesting astronomical phenomenon, where the moon, Venus and Mars were super close together and lined up.The heavens really declare the Glory of God. The planets were beautiful the day we left, shining brightly so close together a beautiful spectacle.
We got into Montana and it was beautiful. The mountains were huge and it was an amazing display of creation. We got ourselves a rental car and then drove to Livingston where we would base our stay. On the way to Livingston we admired the scenery. All the mountains were covered in snow and we were located in a valley. Montana’s roads were pretty cool as well. They had great big highways and you could drive 80 for the speed limit, which is a lot higher than Florida. Here, even though everybody drives crazy, the highest speed limit I have seen is 70.
Something that I notice as a Floridian that traveled to someplace COLD is that people who have cold weather and are from there, is that they use way too much heat! It might be something like Floridians who use way too much AC in the summer, Montantonians use way too much heat in the winter. The hotel, the cars, the ski lodges… every place we went was super hot and dry inside and outside, it was very crisp and cold.
We rented two hotel rooms. We had our 8 year old with the 18 and 19 year olds upstairs from us. Part of the deal of the trip was they got to come along but would have to do hotel room babysitting.We left the boys and told them to go to sleep and then went and listened to the wind howling outside our room. It was hard to sleep that night, the wind howled so much and no matter how much you want to howl at the wind it just won’t stop blowing. We stayed at Fairfield Inn and Suites. We had to have multiple rooms, needed a pool and hottub, as well as a place that would help the pocket book by having breakfast. This had all these options and it was central to different ski hills, yellowstone and Boseman. Since we did this trip in the winter of 2020 we didn’t have many options for skiing and eating since a lot of places were cutting down the number of their guests to like 40% capacity. Because of this we were not able to go skiing at BigSky and instead we went to Red Mountain. Our basic itinerary for the trip was to do a day of skiing, a day of snowmobiling, a day in Yellowstone, a day exploring museums and hotsprings. After we grabbed something from fast food we told everyone to hit the hay, because our first day would be snowmobiling at Two Top Mountain in Yellowstone Park.
One side note, because of COVID the pool had to be booked and only 1 family could use it at a time. This was not that cool because one of the reasons we paid a little extra for this hotel was because of the pool and hot tub and now we found out that we couldn’t even use it at our leisure, because of the silly COVID restrictions.
Day 2
Car Breakdown/Uber -- Rentals -- Snowmobiling -- Lunch -- Snowmobiling -- Hotel -- Ted’s in Montana
We awoke first thing in the morning about 430AM and scrambled to get ready. We had to travel from Livingston to Two Top Mountain, our goal was to be in the car by 5AM. Since we were in two rooms and on different floors and we had an 8 year old upstairs it was insane but doable. We got up, went upstairs, made sure all the boys were getting ready, and went back downstairs. They were fighting over socks, the bathroom, clothes and looking for their gear. Waking them up and getting them ready wasn’t easy and in one night their room looked like a whirlwind had hit it. Mind you, we did eat in their room. We also had to make sure that we had coffee and were trying to have Mr.Coffee brew as we got ourselves ready. When we finally wrangled them all going up and down in the elevator many times and herded the boys to the cars, we were already wondering what kind of day it would be.
We stepped outside into the pitch black of the freezing Montana morning. You realized just how cold and dark it was, no moon, and it was snowing. The car had been warming up for a few minutes and we sprinted without slipping on ice and got into the car. It was snowing lightly and snowflakes were blowing around. It was the frigid air blowing that killed your ears and we were all decked out in hats and gloves and probably more paraphernalia than we needed but as we were from Florida, you know we had long johns on under our clothes. The trip should take us about 2 hours and 10 minutes to get to Two Tops Snowmobile rentals. It ended up taking much longer.
This part I will gloss over, because it is a little embarrassing. Driving too fast on an icy road, during a snowstorm in the dark led us to go off the road and get the car stuck. Rather than wait for a tow, we called an uber and ubered to Two Tops, we had no choice since it was completely booked and we HAD to be there to get a day of snowmobiling. Otherwise there was no rescheduling. The uberbill in Montana was excruciating. All the kids and my girlfriend, at the time, now wife gave me a hard time about it and I think I have finally lived it down. We arrived later than we should have and the Uber was super expensive. But there was only one day that there was any availability for snowmobiling so we had to make it there on time. A big luxury vehicle that fit all 5 of us passengers, I sat in the back, but enjoyed some conversation learning about Montana. When we arrived at the snowmobile place the uber driver dropped everyone off with me. My wifey went to McDonalds with the driver and spent about 50 dollars on McDonald's food so that we wouldn’t be hungry. Inside the snowmobile place, we were putting on stinky helmets and we all got given a snowsuit and gear. It was complete chaos. The three boys were all getting helped in different places, we were getting helped and trying on gear and trying to stuff our faces with McDonalds breakfasts. Gear wasn’t included but it was worth it. Once we were geared up the tour guides went over the rules with us and quick instructions on how to run the snowmobiles. Also they gave us some tips on places we could go, maybe stop to swim. We were doing a self guided tour, because we wanted to be able to go at our own speed, whatever that speed would be. They told us not to drive on the main highway, but the snowmobiles were allowed on all the other roads. They also warned us to stay away from certain areas that day because of rapidly changing weather and fog.
The older boys and I got snowmobiles with the biggest engines, 900cc Ski-Doos and my wifey got a 600cc. They all had hand warmers and warming seats. The warm handlebars and seats were super nice on the derrieres and much needed as it was way too cold with the wind.
We set out in a row, me, the two boys and wifey to be, each on a snowmobile of our own and my wifey and her son on a snowmobile together. We took awhile to get to the trails. We had to maneuver around a couple of streets and then we went across a big football field sized area that was lined with trees. I was euphoric but as we were still close to the city of West Yellowstone we kept our speed to slow.
The trail system of Two Tops has a dozen different trails that are 20 to 30 miles long that stop at hot springs, the trails go beside canyons and also goes through Yellowstone as well as the tri- state area, which includes Idaho. Me and the two older boys enjoyed ripping through the back trails. We would go until a junction or we would go until we felt we needed to stop and then wait for my wife to come in tow with Lo. She was happily and very slowly trudging along with her 8yo. He was miserable. He hated being on the snowmobile. He hated the helmet which was too big for his head. He said he was cold though he was suited up to the extreme. He would let his head bobble while he rode and apart from the first few hours of the day he hated it. In retrospect younger kids sometimes have a hard time with snowmobiling. Me, John and Brett would patiently wait after we had zoomed through a trail. We started making a couple of stops, and made snow angels.
One time we got off the trail system, which I committed to memory and we went up and down a huge hill. It was fun and euphoric. Phoebe filmed us as we rode on this trail. We got back and then got into a line again and found one of the mail trails. Now we were zooming on a more crowded trail. Once or twice we had to stop to pull someone out of the ditch or dig out a snowmobile that had gone off track and was next to a tree. In most cases everyone was safe that got stuck in a ditch and we were able to pull out the snowmobiles and people that were in trouble on the trails.
One memory is particularly glaring and crystal clear to me. When at the snowmobile station we were warned at the snowmobiling place to not go to the top of Two Tops Mountain, because the visibility was bad. On the trails and especially at the mountain the weather changes very fast. While we took the warning seriously, somehow we ended up there anyway by accident. The fog was thick, it felt like you were inside a cloud. It was hard to see the snowmobile in front of you. We were going pretty cautiously through this as we didn’t want to lose any family members in the fog. However, we ended up at the top with thick fog and we were snowmobiling next to a ridge cap. I stopped and warned everyone to be careful and we quickly finished the area. What a thrill to be on the snowmobile with blankets of snow on the ground, huge white pine trees on the top of Two Tops. Leading my family through the wilderness of Yellowstone. We followed some more trails in the middle of the park. The trails got close to a little town, so we decided to stop at a Mom and Pops for lunch. The town was very woods-chalet type of architecture, there were a lot of very steep roofs, log cabins and wooden houses. Antique snowshoes and ski sets decorated some of the chalets and they were quite nice. The town had many trails in it, and many snowmobilers were visible on the side of the roads. There were more people on snowmobiles than there were cars out and about.
Eating lunch was probably the most fun for Lo, who decided he would have spaghetti and meatballs. We peeled off our snow suits so they were half on and half off and decided that we would all have hot chocolates. We ordered a variety of meals, mostly burgers and fries and ate. We snowmobiled until about 4PM and we were due back at the shop. Near the end I took a turn with Logan and let my wife speed around a bit, since she was stuck going so slow all day. I had a mini race with her, but of course it was no challenge. As we were coming in the long straight runs toward home, the sky was turning pinkish with the evening coming on and the air was crisp and clean. Once in the city of West Yellowstone to return the snowmobiles the quickest way back for us to not be late was to go beside the highway for a bit. Locals yelled at us for forgetting the rule so we side streeted it back, being careful of cars that in icy condition don’t have as much control if they happen to not see you. We got the uber back and called the rental shop. Our rental had been picked up and we would get a new one tomorrow.
On the drive home we decided to stop in at Teds. He is from Montana so we thought being closer to the ranches that supplied Ted with buffalo and cow meat would mean that our meals would be more delicious. It was pretty good, some of us tried the buffalo burger. The 8 year old was quiet as a mouse and we were poking fun at him for being so tired. After that we ubered back to the hotel and dug in for the night for a new adventure in the morning.
Snowmobile - It’s Snowing
https://youtube.com/shorts/W4EhSv0k4Lo?feature=share
Snowmobiling Footage
https://youtube.com/shorts/pqncN17IVec?feature=share
3rd Day
Car Rental -- Hunting Shop -- Yellowstone -- Petrified forest -- Snacks in town -- Driving all over the show
This day we had to wake up and take care of the rental. We booked the pool for the kids and left them at the hotel as we drove back to the airport to pick up our car from the rental facility. It didn’t take us long, we were back by 8AM and still the boys had caused havoc. Logan had decided it would be hilarious to throw the lawn chairs into the pool and two of the boys had been reprimanded by the staff. We reprimanded them as well and were surprised that the older one got caught up in the younger ones antics, especially since in the morning before we left they were all complaining about each other and at each other’s throats.
Breakfast we would do at the hotel. It was provided anyway so I told everyone that they must fill themselves up because we wouldn’t be stopping at a restaurant and I wasn’t going to spoil them. Besides there is nothing wrong, with a hotel continental breakfast. We ate breakfast at the hotel for at least 3 days of the trip, both of the days that we went to Yellowstone and the intown exploration day. The breakfast spread was nice, with fruits, cereals, waffles, oatmeal, eggs and hashbrowns. Everyone ate what they wanted and I was in an oatmeal and raisin mood that week and pretty much everyday I had coffee and oatmeal for breakfast.
We piled them into the car. It was probably about 9:30 at this point and we weren’t as crazy about being up at the crack of dawn, only on the days we went skiing and snowmobiling. We got the google maps out to head to Yellowstone National Park. On the way there I decided that we would stop in and pick up some binoculars. We stopped at a local hunting shop and II picked up one nice pair and we headed out to the park. Once again everyone was nervous about my driving and I reassured everyone that I would take it easy in the park.
We drove into Yellowstone which was 85 miles from where we were located, this was about an hour drive. The boys were on their phones or video games in the car and they had been instructed to be fully charged because once the charge wore out there was a limited number of chargers. The boys were constantly jostling one another and Logan in the middle because he was the smallest he was always pushing his legs against the other boys and complaining he had no space.
We paid at the booth to go into Yellowstone. Once into Yellowstone there was a small town we loaded up on snacks in the gift shop as we would be eating snacks for lunch that day. At the town there were all kinds of board walks around natural hot springs. We parked and walked around different springs. These were not the swimming type of springs and there were loads of signs of stories of people who walked on what looked like the ground but its actually a super thin crust and in only a minute or less you are completely boiled alive. It seemed to me that there were more stories about how many people died in each respective spring that we walked around then information about the spring itself. I am sure that is not the way it was, but when you are reading about all the people who fell in that is what you tend to remember. We spent an hour or two putzing around and looking at all the sights. Then we piled back in the car. We drove near some hot springs that people can go in beside a river and such, but unfortunately all of these were closed due to Covid lockdown, which was sad because I am sure we would have all liked to go dip or feet or go for a swim in the hot parts of the river in the middle of the winter. We had gotten a map of Yellowstone from the giftshop with interesting places on it, the types of animals you can see and the boys wanted to see the petrified trees or forest. So we drove for another hour or two on the winding and icy road. There were not many people in Yellowstone in the winter, only a few cars were on the roads once you left the little tourist trap near the entrance. Every once in a while we would see 2 or 3 cars pulled over. Whenever we saw this we got out of the vehicle to see what everyone was looking at. In this manner we were able to see bighorn sheep on the side of the road, an elk, a fox, and pronghorn deer. Buffalo were everywhere, obviously and we would stop when some were close to the road. Spotting animals from the car was also fun and the kids would put their games down and try to see the next animal. In this way we were able to spot a wolf on the side of the mountain.
We made it to the petrified trees, there was evidence boulders everywhere from a past volcanic eruption. My wife pointed out that Yellowstone is on a dormant supervolcano that could erupt at any time and destroy life as we know it on the planet. Thanks for those thoughts babe. We parked the car need the petrified point of interest and everyone got out. John and I went up ahead and the wife and the boy were lagging behind. I was in awe of the evidence of the flood with the boulders everywhere and told the boys about God’s great creation and how you could see right here in Yellowstone evidence of the flood. Steam was coming out of different parts of the snow and there was a little stream in the snow by the boardwalk. John and I were staring at the steam and the river and ice and looking at the petrified trees sign and the boardwalk waiting for the others to catch up. A group of people came down and we asked how far it was to the petrified tree. They said it was a mile hike along the trail and it wasn’t that great. So we read the sign, my wife and everyone caught up we looked at the steam and then decided than a hike was not on the agenda for the day since it was getting dark.
Buffalo
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m-_c75doQpA
https://youtube.com/shorts/KQvdWtDnuds?feature=share
Bighorn Sheep
https://youtube.com/shorts/r3ncGgtN2j0?feature=share
Fox
https://youtube.com/shorts/VYsAliz-yxk?feature=share
Elk
https://youtube.com/shorts/C6ILYdFYpgM?feature=share
4th Day
Wake Up -- Drive to Red Lodge Mountain -- Skiing & Ski School -- Lunch -- Bad Pizza -- Slept thru New Year’s Eve
The third day of the Montana trip had arrived and it was time to ski. Once again it was the hustle and bustle in the early AM, my wife was running around like a chicken with no head as the saying goes trying to get the boys up and getting Mr. Cranky Pants up and dressed.The two older boys were getting increasingly harder to get out of bed and the 8 year old when dressed was walking like a ZOMBIE from the apocalypse that you had to keep your eye on lest he walk into a wall or slip on stray ice in the parking lot. He was the type that when fully snowsuited up his arms would naturally go straight from his body. Everyone needed their warmest gear and we had to be waterproof cause if you fell down and got snow on you, you would be wet the rest of the day and therefore freezing. There was no getting snow suits from Red Lodge mountain; it was what we had brought with us.
It was about a 2 hour drive to Red Lodge Mountain from Livingston and in the opposite direction of Yellowstone. We had wanted to ski Big Sky or even the mountain in Bozeman but since it was COVID 2020 the only mountain with availability was Red Lodge and we had booked it. We were calling other mountains to try and get in, but there was no luck. It was a pleasant drive on clean roads in the valleys of Montana. We were all super excited when we finally saw Red Lodge Mountain that we would start climbing up the winding roads in the car.. The good part about it being COVID was that there were little to no lines with the skiing and no crowding and that was a blessing even though we had to drive further. Since we had went into the ditch everyone in the car was still nervous and it was a thousand times annoying every time one of the kids or my wife commented on my driving.
Once up at the top of the mountain we headed to the shop, even though we had planned and bought snow jackets and gloves and everything in Florida at Marshalls and TJ Max for deals. We were still short a few supplies. My wife didn’t have a ski mask and we didn’t have gloves. The two boys both had gloves and all their gear, because they were planning on using it later on another trip to Virgina. Tickets, gloves, ski rentals and poles set us back a hefty amount but as we only do one big trip and we had all been cooped up due to COVID it was worth the splurge. We still have most of our gear except the 8 year old who will now weed a new set. We got in que to get our boots fitted and then one by one we met outside the building. Lolo (8yo nickname) was ready and so I headed out to put the kiddo in ski school while my wife patiently waited to be the last fitted for boots and skis. We stuck Lolo in ski school and I got a lowdown on how the program worked. It would take 2 hours per school. So I got him 2 ski schools and he would be in ski school until lunch. After lunch we would take him skiing with us and see how he would do.
It had been awhile since I had skied a difficult mountain like this. Mountains in the Rockies are a lot harder than the mountains out east. RedLodge Mountain is in the Beartooth Mountain range and is 9,416 feet. The base is 7,016 feet. This means that there is 2400 feet of vertical skiing, which is pretty awesome. We looked up how high parachuters jump from a plane. They go about 10-12,000 feet so the summit is really high especially for someone like me from Florida. Excitedly, me and my son John looked for my wife and my other son. We couldn’t find them so we got on the ski lift. The chairs were cold, the ski lifts were incredibly high. They were scary. I never remember ski lifts being so high. My wife later complained that she was terrified on the ski lifts and that Brett wouldn’t stop hitting her with his ski and scaring the daylights out of her. Looking down and then saying things like: If we fell we would die for sure. John and I got to the top of the lift and looked around for Phoebe and Brett. We finally found them, smiles plastered on all our faces except my wife's, who looked more like a ghost that a smiling vacationer that she was. Me and John took off down the mountain. Our ski abilities were pretty good and we stopped at the bottom of the first hill. Brett was still skiing with the V formation of his skis and was having a hard time controlling his speed. He still made it down to the bottom next. All three of us were at the bottom waiting for Phoebe to come down. We saw her lying on the mountain staring up and the clouds. Did she even know how to ski?
Yes, a few minutes later she got up, brushed off the snow and skied down the mountain like a PRO. We all congratulated her and laughed and asked her what was wrong. She said she was overcome by how huge the mountain was, how cold it was, and she wasn’t sure if she could do it. Then she just decided she would do it and got up and skied to the bottom. She told us, she would need some time to break herself into the mountain and that she would stick to green and blue runs at the most. So we all skied a few Green and Blues and boy, the green runs were very hard, the blue runs super hard. After a few times skiing with them, we decided that we would go to the top of the mountain. Why wouldn’t we, there were 6 chairlifts and it took 2 chair lifts to get to the very top. John and I got to the very top and stood amazement at the sheer height of where we were. Once at the very top it was only blacks down and one blue, it was so steep and so icy we took the blue but that felt like a black and that nearly killed us.
We found Phoebe and Brett after skiing some of the harder things and said that Lolo would probably be done with ski school. We decided we would go take a look at how he was doing and then go for lunch at the lodge. We got to the ski school and saw Logan skiing with no poles no problem, he might have been better than his mom and Brett. We scooped him up and he was dying to try the mountain out. Ski school sticks you to the bunny hill and that is it. So everyone in tow, we went to the lodge to have lunch. We got into the wooden chalet style building and found a table. We all ripped off our gear and undid our boots and jackets relieved to get out of the steaminess. Sitting down we laughed and talked about the mountain and my wife went to get us lunch. We had chili dogs, hot chocolate and french fries. Logan was begging to get out of ski school and do the mountain, but my wife was too petrified to get him out. No, she would protest. I can’t even barely get myself on and off those crazy ski lifts. I am terrified to take him on there. So Logan to his disappointment was put back into ski school for the afternoon. We decided we would do 3 more hours after lunch since we still had to drive back. I reassured the little man that I would come and get him even though his mom was a chicken. Everyone was making fun of chicken mom, and so I told him I would get him for the last hour and ski with him. True to my word we all went back up the mountain. Brett was proud of the progress he was making, John and I were skiing blues and enjoying a lot of challenging terrain and my chicken wife was practicing her technique with Brett on the green runs. They tried a blue one near the end. When I went to get them the second time and went and scooped Logan, I once again offered my wife to take the boy on the mountain. She clutched her chest and said she couldn't cause she was scared and one of the other boys made chicken noises. So I took the little man on the lift and told him we would do a green run. Me and him got on and went to the top. He was 8 and pretty small but super excited. He was holding onto the pole so hard that when it was time to get off the lift I had to pull him. Later my wife was saying that she was very glad it was me and not her on the lift with him because they both would have fallen off. Logan was pretty good on the mountain, we did about three more runs and then it was time to go and turn in our skis and drive back home.
Heading down the mountain we saw a lot of deer in the town. The boys loved seeing the deer and kept talking about hunting and how the deer only come close to people when it isn’t hunting season. We got back to our hotel and ate the worst PIZZA in the history of PIZZA. You think when you go on vacation and when you are someplace as beautiful as Montana that the food will be good. Where we are from the food is amazing. Florida has tons of great places to eat. Really! But not Livingston, the pizza we ordered tasted like they got it out of a box from Wal-Mart and then microwaved it. Even the hungry 8 year old wouldn’t eat it. Now it’s not my recommendation to do this, but we left a terrible review (which they removed) of negative a thousand stars. We laughed and forced the bad pizza down. Then even though it was New Year’s Eve we all went to bed with no celebration because we were so tired.
5th Day
Explore Bozeman -- Museum of the Rockies-- Planetarium - Indoor hot springs -- Chinese Food -- Outdoor hot springs - Rib and Chop
On the Fourth day, after a day of skiing and a day of snowmobiling, we were going to explore Bozeman. There was a huge museum there with lots of dinosaurs and well all kids, and even adults love dinosaurs. As a strong believer and Christian I don’t believe in the timeline that they are millions of years old, but I do believe that they are a part of God’s creation and have gone extinct. I look at the world through the lens of a believer and I know that God created everything. It was an easy day in Bozeman and we took a couple of pictures outside the museum and inside but I am not even sure at this point where all those pictures went. We saw many different dinosaurs and enjoyed the museum thoroughly. It’s fun going to the museum with the kids and the wife. I am pulling her to look at things, and everyone is talking to everyone else about something neat that they saw. We were learning about how fossils were made and how much bone is left in the fossils and all the different kinds of dinosaurs that roamed Montana before the flood. We went into the gift shop and my wife bought a pair of binoculars for Lolo so that when we went back to Yellowstone there would be less fighting over the one pair that we had.
We went and watched a movie in the Planetarium that was in the Rocky Mountain Museum. It was about the sun and as usual, I came out feeling the amazing awesomeness of God’s perfect creation of the sun and the Earth. The magnetic field of our planet put there by God protecting us is perfection. We had to wear special polarized glasses and the seats tilted completely backwards so it feels as if you are looking at the sky. One of the boys dozed off during the movie and we had to wake up the slobbering turkey at the end. After the movie we were going to head to a hot spring. We found a highly recommended hot spring on the internet. This one had a gym and several different pools. We piled the boys in the rental SUV and took off to this hotspring. I really didn’t know what to expect as I had never been to a hot spring, but when in Rome you do as the Romans do. So we did our first hotspring. This one was like a pool. There was a huge warm pool, several smaller hot pools and polar pools. There was also a steam room and sauna. The steam room and the sauna were for everyone. My honey was pinching her nose in the sauna because it stank like BO. We went into the steam room and the boys went from pool to pool and were daring each other to take a polar plunge. We had all heard of the benefits of the hot springs and how people come from all over the world to go to the pools or hot springs because of the healing properties of the dissolved minerals in the water.
I myself jumped in the pools and played with the boys. I tried all the different rooms and pools and I wasn’t that impressed but I supposed it was OK. I was surprised because I thought a spring would be an outdoor pool, but this was a swimming pool that piped water in with a pump. Then they mixed it with different amount of water to get different temperature pools.We played for awhile but it was more of a sit and relax type place and me and the boys wanted to run around and let loose a little. It had a spa/gym atmosphere. So I decided it was time to go, rounded up all the boys and we headed to find some good Chinese food and eat it back at the hotel.
We found a chinese place in Livingston that was open, remember a lot of things were closed due to New Year’s Day and other things were closed due to Covid. We stopped and picked up our take out, headed back to the boys room upstairs in the hotel and ate. Once again, the food was super sub par. After eating, the boys all wanted to go explore more. So we cleaned up and got back in the SUV. They wanted to go to an outdoor hot spring. Brett was dying to go to the outdoor hot spring and had found one 30 miles away. It was a little far, but Honeybear wanted to go to, and all the boys wanted to go… So I said yes!
I am so glad we did. We were full and we had a great day. This hotspring that Brett had found was nestled in between two mountains and a river. The sun was setting and the hot spring was outdoors. There were tiki torches and big rock boulder gardens. You entered what looked like a trailer. Logan’s bathing suit had gotten left behind because it froze in the car. The only bathing suits they had were way too big. We got the smallest size and tied it, and told him not to jump to much or his drawers would fall off. It is hard to describe the ambience of this place. It was simply beautiful. We congratulated Brett on his awesome find and enjoyed the view and enjoyed the water.
We swam in the multiple pools in the starlight and torchlight. Logan insisted on splashing everyone when we wanted to rest. So we took turns entertaining him and throwing him in the water. The air was foggy when you breathed out and steam rose up from the pools. They had underwater lights that twinkled like the stars in the sky. It was a little piece of heaven on Earth and I was so glad that everyone convinced me to go when I wanted to go to bed because everyone had taken a toll on me.
Since we had terrible pizza and terrible chinese food, we were in the mood for something good. We asked a few locals where a good place to eat was, and they told us the Rib and Chop house. We called and there was no seating available so we ordered for pick up. Finally a local meal that was amazing! We enjoyed good food for a change and since the Rib and Chop was full, we ate in the dining area of the hotel. We set up the tables and put down napkins and ate a family style meal there. Then we sent the boys up to their room. Logan was terrorizing the two boys and every once in awhile they would call us and beg us to take him. We would say no, deal with the kiddo and go to sleep!
6th Day
Yellowstone -
This was our last day in Montana. We decided that we would go for a ride in the SUV and that we would go on a hunt for a Moose. Many of the roads were closed due to snow, so we couldn't drive to see the Old faithful. We drove and admired animals and searched and searched for moose. We heard that there was a moose in a certain area in the winter in the park. So we drove there. We finally found the moose. You couldn’t tell if it was male or female and it was sitting way off in the distance in snow. This was also an eventful day where we stopped in a little town, ate sandwiches, made some yellow snow, saw lots of animals, played a lot of tunes, and drove to the other side of Yellowstone.
On the flight back in the chicago airport me and the wife got a plate of garlic fried brussel sprouts slathered with parmesan cheese and then all of a sudden we had to board the plane. There was no way we could hide the smell of the delicious and super stinky dish, we felt bad because people were making faces at us. We tried to eat it quickly to get rid of the stench and at one point a lady asked to change her seat so she wasn’t sitting next to us. We were trying to be circumspect but Brett kept saying, “Why did you order something so stinky.” over and over again. Thanks Brett for calling us out, that was pretty much the last fiasco and we were on our way back home. All in all it was a great trip with the family.
Super fun trip and I would go visit again.
#borca
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| Taking a break on the groomed snowmobile trails |
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| sean,john,brett,logan |
