Rest and Recovery

Early Sunday morning, in the dark, our friends Pat and Mark Mulatz picked us up to begin what has become an annual pre-christmas migration to Montana. The drive here was long (10 hours) but an easy winter drive. The highways were clear, the sun shone most of the time and the few hours through the mountains were spectacular.

I am always blown away by the transition from the prairies to the mountains. But after gawking at the amazing size of the mountains and incredible vistas I start to feel claustrophobic. To me there is nothing more liberating than to be in the middle of the prairie, horizons miles away on all sides and as much sky as a person could possibly see or want.

For the last few years we have traded our timeshare for a condo at the Meadow Lake Resorts in Columbia Falls. The resort is around a gold course and is close the skiing at Whitefish. We do neither!! This week is rest and recovery. In fact on Monday we hardly left the condo. We read and slept the whole day and evening. I only got up long enough to make chicken soup – both Pat and I are suffering from colds.

The scenery and wildlife here are spectacular. Columbia Falls is in the Flathead Valley

Tucked into the northwest corner of Montana, the Flathead Valley is the gateway to Glacier National Park, a World Heritage Site, and home to both the Big Mountain ski resort and Flathead Lake - the largest freshwater lake found west of the Mississippi. Discover picturesque towns, championship golf, museums, galleries, shopping, fine cuisine and a surprisingly mild climate for an area so far north.

The other night when we were returning to the condo we spotted a white tailed deer standing in the snow just beside the building. It watched us watching it then slowly looked around and wandered off - a typical sighting.