Take A Hike

The last few days, Justin has been off, so we've been able to do some fun things. On Thursday we went down the Helena, the state capitol. It's about an hour and a half from Great Falls and it's a beautiful drive down there. Well, pretty much everywhere outside a 30 mile radius of Great Falls is gorgeous. We ate lunch at a place called the Staggering Ox. They had really good sandwiches that come in interestingly shaped bread. They hollow out a tube of bread and stuff the inside full of yummy goodness.

After lunch we went to the Cathedral of Saint Helena. The church is really cool, architecturally. It's almost 100 years old. The inside of the church has stained glass windows from floor to ceiling, with the New Testament on one side and the Old Testament on the other. The style of the church made me want to go to Europe even more. We might have to plan a trip.


We also went to the Original Governor's Mansion and the state capitol building. We were wandering around the capitol and we bumped into a guided tour so we tagged along. The tour guide took us into the state Senate and House chambers. I was surprised to learn that the Montana state legislature only meets for 91 days every two years. That gives you an idea of just how unpopulated Montana is. They have had to call emergency sessions to get stuff done outside of the biannual meetings they usually hold, however. It was all very interesting to me, the political science nerd, and to Justin too. Of course, it made us realize that as soon as we're stationed somewhere in the eastern half of the United States, we must make a trip to D.C. to see real governmental buildings.

There was construction going on outside which sorta ruined my picture, but you get the general idea. The flags are flown at half mast to honor a soldier from Montana who was killed in Afghanistan last week. I'm surprised anyone even heard about it considering every single time I turned on a news channel, all that was being talked about was Michael Jackson. Anywho, after we finished wandering around here, we went to a few bookstores and walked through downtown and looked at the shops.

Overall, we really liked Helena. It has much more culture and shopping than Great Falls does. Justin's crew partner said Great Falls is a cultural void, which I am now beginning to see. Our town doesn't even have a used bookstore. Oh well, Helena is a pretty nice drive so we can just head south when we feel the need to escape the cultural black hole.

Yesterday, we got the chair we ordered for our library! It only took a week to come in which was much sooner than the store predicted. The room looks much better now that there isn't a giant void in the one corner. The chair is firm, yet comfortable, which is perfect for reading.

We also got the kitties a little pot of pet grass. Every time the cats go outside they sit and chomp on the long grass strands that line the front walkway. So we decided to get them some pet grass so maybe they won't want to go outside so much. Supposedly, it's good for them to eat grass. It helps with their digestion or something. At first they seemed confused but they caught on pretty quickly.


Today, we went hiking in the Lewis and Clark National Forest. It took a while to get there because of the gravel road we had to drive down. People were camping and fishing back in the secluded area at the base of the mountains. We ended up hiking a trail that seemed to never end. We just kept going, thinking it would turn and loop back the way we came. But it never did, so we ended up turning around. My shoulders got sunburned, but other than that, it was a great afternoon.


We hiked through forest, up mountains, through grassland covered in wildflowers. It was really, really pretty and it wasn't too hot so the hike wasn't overly difficult.

Tomorrow, Justin has a back-up alert. Basically he has to be available in case the person on alert has an emergency or gets really sick or something. We'll have to stay in town just in case he gets called in to work. After hiking today, we might have to spend the day on the couch recovering!