My wife persuaded me that we should spend the Christmas holiday in Montana this year. Since most of her family lives there in the Bitterroot valley, I can understand why. We usually spend it in Seattle. The tricky part is driving the whole family and the dog over several mountain passes. The weather in Seattle was already a little dicey with the hilly side streets mainly ice. We decided to leave on the Saturday before Christmas and take 2 days to get there. My son needed to attend his Tae Kwan Do promotion test that Saturday so we wouldn’t be able to leave until that afternoon. The weather forecast was 8 inches of snow that evening. We finally left Seattle at 2:00 PM. The conditions on Snoqualmie pass were reasonable and there weren’t many trucks about. We crossed the Columbia River and it was clear sailing until we reached Spokane which had 2 ½ feet of snow the day before. We slugged through and finally found a hotel that would take a 95 pound dog in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. When we woke up the next morning it was snowing with a vengeance. The news said that Seattle had 8 inches of snow and all the Washington state passes were closed. No matter. That was behind us. All we were concerned about was 4th of July and Lookout passes. Traction tires were advised. That means we wouldn’t have to use chains. Phew!! I hate using chains. It seems that all they do is whack the fenders in our car.
We finally arrived at the in-laws on Sunday afternoon and were welcomed by my brother-in-law with a sleigh ride through the pasture. What a treat for everyone, especially our children. The sleigh was even equipped with bells. The snow continued to fall through the night and the next morning we browsed through or should I say slogged through the town of Hamilton so we could wrap up our Christmas shopping. Then we rented some cross country skis which we kept for the next 3 days. We skied all over. We went on some back country roads and also skied in the pasture behind the in-laws. We found some hills which were long enough to be great sledding hills equipped with a few jumps and groomed them with skis for some nice runs. It was nice to able to just walk out the back door, clip on the skis and away you go.
Christmas Eve dinner was at my sister-in-laws on the hill in an area called Bonanza lands. I think she may have lived on Hoss way. On the way to her house we passed a family of deer, one of which had a huge rack and we persuaded my kids that it was Prancer taking a break before his big night.
The kids were anticipating Christmas morning and were virtually impossible to get to sleep. My daughter insisted that she stayed up until 2:00 and that Santa hadn’t come yet. The stockings were empty and the cookies and milk that we left for Santa were still there. Lo and behold, after pouncing on our bed Christmas morning at 6:00 the kids found out that Santa had in fact found us even in Montana. My mother-in-law prepared a lovely dinner for a large gathering. After dinner my brother-in-laws prepared their sleighs and entertained the crowd with rides through the pasture. Their competitive instincts took over and it quickly became a race around an imaginary track that reminded me of Charleton Heston in “
Ben Hur.”
The day after Christmas we went downhill skiing at
Lost Trail Powder Mountain . A great time was had by all. Saturday we did some after Christmas shopping and went to lunch. Which brings me to the seque of how this entry is included in the Brewers Blog; Lunch was out the
Bitterroot Brewery where I enjoyed a couple of tasty pale ales.
We left Hamilton, Montana on December 28 and spent the night in Coeur d’Alene again. We figured that if they took a dog once they’ll take a dog again. Returned to Seattle on December 29 after a 7 ½ hour grueling drive from Coeur d’Alene. The weather alternated between white knuckle snowing and heavy rain on slushy roads with an abundance of trucks. This drive proved to be quite the gauntlet and not very relaxing. When I arrived home I found no snow and a huge limb in my front yard. Maybe it was all just a dream.