montana--trip report

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 11:51 am

I just got back from an almost 3 week trip to Montana! I thought I'd post for the newbies that yes you will be able to travel and not always be chained to the house/bathroom. I flew out to watch my sister's dogs in Montana while she traveled to Chile to ski and Patagonia to tour. I invited 3 girl friends to come out as I thought I would be lonely for 3 weeks in Montana.

I had the girlfriends for 9 days. During the 9 days we did the following while we stayed in Whitefish Montana: fly fished, river rafted, red bus tour of Glacier National Park, hiked in Glacier National Park, went to a rodeo, hung out in local bar post rodeo for kareoke, listened to bluegrass in another local bar, drove to Libby to see Cedar Forest, Cedar Forest was closed due to fires so we hiked to a Kootenai waterfall in Libby and also hiked to suspension bridge in Libby, hiked Lions mountain twice in Whitefish, and hiked Big Mountain in Whitefish. The Big Mountain hike was an epic hike! We rode the chairlift to the top of Big Mountain which is 8000 feet and then hiked down on the Danny On trail to the bottom which was 3000 feet. We didn't see any bears but we heard them in the woods on the Danny On hike and saw bear poop! Bear poop is the size of human poop or very large dog poop but has a lot of vegetation matter in it just in case you are interested. There was a sign tacked to a tree saying "Bear in Area." We picked up our pace after that and bought bear spray for future hikes.

The first 7 days there was heavy smoke due to the wildfires everywhere but the smoke cleared after that due to some rain.

It is a long day to travel to Montana from the east coast. My sister (who travels a lot internationally) thinks it is comparable to flying to Europe. To get to Whitefish you fly into Kalispell/Glacier National Park airport. You have to fly either thru Denver or Minneapolis and change planes to get to Kalispell. Once you get to Denver or Minneapolis you still have a 3 hour flight to Kalispell.

There is a great dedicated GF bakery in Whitefish. I bought two GF pies during my 3 week stay. http://raeraesbakery.com/ Raeraes has three other GF bakery locations in Montana. Tina, the baker has Crohn's disease. She is in remission eating GF. A GF blueberry pie was $25.00 and a mixed berry was $25.00. My friends got a huckleberry wheat non GF pie from a famous bakery Loulas. http://www.whitefishrestaurant.com/ The huckleberry non GF pie from Loulas was $40.00. There is a huckleberry shortage in Montana this year to due the dry weather and dry winter and spring. It is too funny that the non GF pie cost more than the GF pie.

I loved everything about Montana! Montana reminded me of small town America in the 1960's. You still saw young kids doing outside free play and riding their bikes around. You don't see that so much on the east coast. The local ace hardware store sold everything. It had a 5' section devoted to pie baking accessories. It also sold sauerkraut crocks. They had a giant canning supply section. The local Safeway had a very small section devoted to chicken/beef/pork etc. I think most of the locals hunt for their protein.

A lot of the older homes had plum trees and apple trees planted in the yards. Having apple trees and plum trees to can in season must have been a huge deal at the turn of the century when the old homes were built.

My sister's condo was about 1 block from the rail yards. The rail yards were active 24/7. A lot of original railroad worker houses are on her street. Amtrak runs from Chicago through Whitefish and from Seattle through Whitefish and has a station in Whitefish. In case anyone is looking for vacation ideas for next year you can Amtrak from Chicago or Seattle to Whitefish and reserve a rental car for a week in Whitefish and rent a place for a week in Whitefish. Whitefish is about 25 miles from Glacier National Park.

A lot of freight goes through Whitefish via containers on trains to the west coast. My employer trucks our goods from Cleveland, where it is manufactured, to Chicago. The freight goes on a train in Chicago and is "trained" through Whitefish to Seattle at which it is unloaded at the Seattle terminal and then trucked to our Washington State customers. It was kind of interesting to see all of the freight being transported to the west. I guess a lot of Chinese imports come through the Seattle shipping port then are "trained" east to Chicago.

We ate most of our meals in but ate out for several lunches and one dinner. Generally I got a bison burger when eating out. GF buns were available at restaurants almost everywhere.

Brandy

Post by **tex** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:30 pm

Brandy,

Awesome report!

Many thanks for sharing. That was even better than going there, because I felt a lot of excitement of the experience without even having to work up a sweat, and it took a lot less than 3 weeks to read about it.

OK, so maybe I am a bit lazy — but so what? I still enjoyed it a lot.

Tex

TaiaK · Post by **TaiaK** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 4:50 pm

What a great recap Brandy-loved your post-have never been to Montana!

This is so important for new people to see-and I'm pretty new. You can travel again and life does return although not in the same form but I think better. I did an 8 day trip to NY/Toronto in August only 3 months after diagnosis - lots of planes, delays, car rides, hotels and eating out and it went so much better than I expected! Heading on another plane trip in 2 weeks and booked a trip to Hawaii next March with my family to celebrate my daughter graduating from high school next May. It can be scary but it can work.

Now I want to go to Montana.......

Taia

Deb · Post by **Deb** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 5:03 pm

Great report, Brandy. I'm so glad you're able to live a "normal" life. I'm there too and I think it is important for those who are struggling that they can get their lives back. Deb

Chemgirl · Post by **Chemgirl** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 1:00 pm

Thank you so much for this! It's so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you're first learning about this disease. We love travel and I know I thought I would never be able to handle a flight again (especially after a lovely flight from Toronto to London that I spent locked in the bathroom). Loved hearing about your wonderful trip.

We just returned from Vegas on Wednesday and that was surprisingly easy. Buffets had leg of lamb, turkey, shrimp, crab legs, and sashimi so there was actually plenty of options. I just avoided the sides. We stayed at the MGM Signature with full kitchen and had groceries delivered so it was all fairly simple.

Of the places I have traveled, I would say Iceland is the best and I have no idea why. I just don't seem to react when I'm there and that's a totally random thing. Super excited to go back over Christmas.

France has to be the worst, with a shortage of public restrooms and chefs who really don't want to modify food (and I speak fluent French so I know they understood). That one was miserable.

Hawaii was surprisingly easy Taia. Lots of steamed shrimp and plain rice available. You're going to have so much fun!

Just so encouraging that we can get our lives back. Maybe not exactly how they were before, but close enough.

jlbattin · Post by **jlbattin** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 1:15 pm

Chemgirl,

I'm just curious. What are your food sensitivities? I read where you just returned from Vegas and I'm insanely jealous as that is the one place that I miss the most not being able to travel to right now. I was interested that you found the buffets to be ok, but I wonder about the soy and dairy and egg also? Unfortunately, I have sensitivities to the major 4. Where did you order your food from?

Chemgirl · Post by **Chemgirl** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 1:34 pm

Hi Jari,

I never did Enterolab because it was a bit of a process to get the samples shipped internationally. I took the long route and did the elimination diet. I seem to have issues with beef (especially rare), eggs, gluten, and soy.

I asked about gluten in the meats and was told they were ok. I didn't put any sauce or gravy on anything. When out, I tend to only eat things with minimal ingredients. Usually that means a lot of protein and no sides unless they are plain rice or a baked potato with nothing on it. Boring, but it has worked for me. The only caveat is farm to table style restaurants. I do have a card for the chef for higher end restaurants.

The MGM Signature is wonderful because their one bedroom suites come with a full kitchen and you can request pots and pans etc. They even brought me a blender for my smoothies. The kitchen was seriously nice, much nicer than my kitchen at home!

We ordered groceries through Vons. They are pretty pricey, but convenient and the delivery window is only an hour. I'm not sure about gluten free products because I tend to avoid prepared foods (being a chemist I go a bit overboard avoiding emulsifiers and preservatives).

I hope you get well enough to travel soon!

Edited to add: To be honest I wouldn't have gone to buffets if it wasn't for the group outvoting me. It was "ok" but it is hard to only eat a small subset of food when you are literally surrounded by anything you could ever want. Cooking in the room, plus card for the chef would be the way I would go if it was completely up to me.

crervin · Post by **crervin** » Sat Sep 12, 2015 9:04 pm

Brandy, thank you I loved reading about your adventure. My husband and I have been wanting to take our 3 kids to glacier. Good to know about the GF places! This gives me peace that I know it's doable GF! He and I went to yellowstone, but have never taken the kids. Beautiful country out there, my brother lives in Logan, UT.

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 9:49 am

Hi Chemgirl,

Thanks for the info on MGM Signature. I've never been to Vegas but if I go I'll look into it. I've gotten to where I prefer traveling and staying at places with kitchens if available.

Martha,

The kids would love the Glacier area. There are a lot of accomodations with kitchen in the Whitefish/Kalispell/Columbia Falls/Hungry Horse/Big Fork and West Glacier areas. There are also a lot of camping options in the area.

Consider a day on Big Mountain with the kids. We did the alpine slide and I wanted to do the zip lines but my shoulder was messed up. http://skiwhitefish.com/zip-line-tours/# Click on the top menu bar for summer activities. Mountain biking was really popular with the boys and dads. You can rent mountain bikes or bring your own. The mountain bikes ride up to the top of the mountain on the lift then the dads and boys ride down the mountain.

Brandy

Marcia K · Post by **Marcia K** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 6:02 pm

Hi, Brandy. Your trip sounds wonderful! I want to see more of the States and I'll add Montana to the list. So glad you were able to travel and enjoy it without any issues!

Marcia