My first day in Big Sky Country

This trip started as a fiasco with the rental car as I was given a Nisson Pathfinder and had to trade it in for a smaller car as it was too big. I'm a little behind on my entries as I was exhausted coming into the room after long days of site seeing. The first half of the day was nerve wracking getting used to the rental car and the roads in unfamiliar territory.

The beginning of the trip started perfectly and spiritually with a trip to the mission in St Ignatius on the Flathead Indian Reservation. I was in long enough to take a quick look and soak in the murals painted by Brother Joseph Carignano with the Mission Mountains in the background. What a beautiful church to be found in the middle of  Montana. I also got to see the original houses of the missionaries that are still standing. Learned a little history on the Salish and Kootenai tribes that they educated and converted to the Catholic faith.  There was a Native American funeral going on there as I was leaving. I got more relaxed in the car and drove a little and pulled over at the point of interest, view of the mission mountains for photo ops. After that I went into the People's Center for 20-25 minutes a small museum and gift shop in a nutshell about the Kootenai and Salish tribes with artifacts and fabulous clothing with great detailed beadwork. Everything had long captions on so it was a lot of information to digest. I kept driving onto Polson.

When I arrived in Polson I quickly found the hotel that offered the ferry rides on the lake and it was 12:45 when I got there and I thought I had plenty of time for lunch, wrong. I went downstairs to the boathouse to get tickets thinking the cruise was at 1:30 but it was at one. I got my ticket ran to the car to get my camera and barely made it on the boat. It was a small group with a nice mix of families and 2 older ladies. One of the captains was from the tribe and the other was a transplant from California. I chatted with the 2 older ladies and the man from California. It was about an hour and a half boat ride and I settled for a late lunch at a mexican restaurant on the lake, it was beautiful. Then I took 35-the east side of the lake to head to Kalispell, I heard from many along the way that it was the more scenic route. The traffic was lighter and there were points in the drive where you feel like you're on the lake, it was breathtaking. I made a stop in Bigfork to look at the boutiques and art galleries. It was a sweet little town by the lake and sophisticated too with the gourmet restaurants. I walked around licking my Huckleberry Ice cream cone , it was delicious. After a nice walk in a town you can walk from one end to the other in 15 minutes I headed to Kalispell. Polson was like a boating community whereas Bigfork is more cosmopoliton. All the towns seem to have there own character. Montana should be it's own country by how big this is. I will write more for the duration of the trip now that I should go get myself some dinner, I have no idea when things close in Hamilton. I will keep you all posted!