We loved coming back to Polson. This definitely feels like home now. Our site in the KOA was not as great as our first site (front line with unobstructed view of the Lake), but we were grateful to be able to find a site for a month at all in the middle of summer. We had a day to prepare for Dave & Viv’s visit, so that meant a trip to Montana Marbled Meats (or meat Disneyland as Marsha calls it). I wanted to cook up some of his favorites.
Dave’s birthday is July 3, so we wanted him to have a special time here with us. We drove to Kalispell to pick them up – very easy at such a small airport. Direct flight from Los Angeles (& San Diego), so make it’s easy to visit here (hint to all our friends). I can’t seem to get Dave interested in RVing, so they stayed at a local Red Lion hotel about 10 minutes from our campground.
Marsha and I got to do all our favorites things again to be able to show Dave & Viv around. Of course that meant our favorite places to eat too. We say that Polson is not known for it’s epicurean delights, but we do manage to eat our way through a town.
We rented a pontoon boat while they were here (first time there was enough water on the lake). You have to understand – Vivian does not get on a boat, Poor girl get seasick easily, so tends to stay away (if you have ever been seasick you understand). But I promised her if she did feel unwell, we would take her to shore immediately. AND she did awesome! I think it was the nature of a stable pontoon boat (and of course the skill of the Captain – me). We had a blast and 4 hours was the perfect time.
The first evening I made Dave some of our Mom’s stroganoff (or what we called stroganoff growing up). It was probably more like hamburger helper than stroganoff, but we loved it growing up (I heard it was still a favorite of Dave’s). It actually was pretty good, but not up to par with real stroganoff. But for his birthday dinner, we cooked up some filets, twice backed potatoes and corn of the cob. I hope he liked it.
They do quite the fireworks display here too (all to celebrate my brother’s birthday). Because it stays light out till 10 PM ish, we went out in plenty of time. However by 1020 we had only seen private displays (they sell fireworks here so many people have their own pretty awesome shows). We were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, so we headed back into our rig – closing the door just as the first fireworks went off. We were able to see most everything though our door, so we just stayed put and enjoyed the show.
One of the things we like about small towns is getting to know people. We met Mr. Wonderful at the Farmer’s Market in town. He convinced us to try his wife’s restaurant, and we liked what we found (Marsha’s favorite). They do the best scones we have ever had. As with most businesses these days, they are having trouble finding help, so they are only open Wednesday evenings, all day Friday and Saturday and Sunday 10 to 2. So we tended to go most Sundays and was able to share this with Dave and Viv.
It was great to see Dave & Viv for 8 days, but too soon it was time to take them back to the airport. We had wanted to go the Glacier National Park but without entry tickets, we would have had to go after 5 PM. We kept saying we’d do it but each afternoon decided against the drive. Cherries weren’t quite in season, so they missed that too. But it was a great week and it was awesome to see them. It’s amazing how quickly 8 days can go by. We hope they’d come up here again.