Saturday, 20 August. Lakeside & Whitefish Montanna

Yippee!  I really like it here.  We are supposed to leave here on the 25th.  Rob has to go back to work and I was going to move the RV on down to Helena, but, I am really comfortable here and there is a lot I can do on my own while Rob is gone.  Actually, he is leaving the 25th and I am going to fly to LA on the 30th to join him, as we both have dentist appointment on the 31st and then we will fly back on the 1st go September. But, I am really comfortable staying in a place I am familiar with, but not so excited about going to a new place on my own that I know nothing about.  I guess I'm a bit of a coward.
Anyway, long story short, we are now going to stay here for another week plus 1 day.  I am really happy about that.  
I can walk across the street with my board and paddle in Flathead Lake, I know the mountain bike trails are easy and can do that on my own, I know where to take Bella hiking, and......I can get a mani/pedi.  Now that is important!!
So, on with today.
We spent our usual morning with coffee and potty walks, but we sat around a little to long and did quite get organized or off in a timely manner.

We did finally load up and headed to Whitefish.  The dogs are in serious need of a long walk and romp.  So, we went up to the Beaver Lake Trailhead.  That is where Rob and I were biking a couple days ago. We parked there and then hiked up to the lollypop loop, hiked the loop and then hiked back to the truck.  All total it was 5.2 miles.

It was exactly what the dogs needed.  I continue to be super vigilant watching for bears. In fact once as we were coming around a corner i looked up to my right and my heart stopped for a moment as I thought I saw one standing there.  As it turned out it was a gal with a black bike helmet on standing there.  Phew!!!
We loaded the kids (and ourselves) back into the truck and drove another 15 min. To Beaver Lake.  Wow! It is soooo pretty and serene.
Everyone was super excited when we got there and ran down to the water's edge, until we pulled the SUP packs out and started taking them out to inflate them.  All of a sudden Bella is missing. So I went in search of her and found her sitting under the back of the truck watching us.

She's like "I know what you are doing and I want no part of it"

Each time I'd go get her she would run back up there.

We were a bit unorganized when we left this morning, so we failed to grab the basket of gear.  You know, the one that has Bella's life vest, my life vest, the board leash, the dry bag, all that sort of stuff.  Jen has her own bag for all her gear and had grabbed it.  Rob had stuck his dry bag and vest (remember it's not a big vest, it is the size of a rolled up dish towel with straps on the ends to clip it around your waist...small) in with his rolled up board. Isn't he just so smart!!

Anyway, the law is you have to have a vest at least attached to your board, you don't have to wear it.  Sooooo, we attached Leila's doggy vest to my board so it looked like I was legal.  Jen did have a surfboard leash with her which I wore just in case, and the dogs went with out vests.  We had Bella go with Rob since he was less likely to fall in than I was.

So we set out on the lake.  It was super calm and serene.  Cattails and reeds growing in the water along the edges in  many places and there was a loon calling from somewhere across the lake.  It was so amazingly awesome.

We paddled around the entire edge of the lake.  There were a few houses along it, maybe only 15 or so,  and we saw a point that would be perfect for us to clear and put our RV on and live there.  I could most definitely live on this lake.

Bella even seemed to enjoy this lake much better than the other.  She sat most of the time and seemed far more relaxed. At one point I pulled up next to him and Bella walked onto my board so Rob could go for a quick dip.  She gets upset when someone goes into the water.

We finished our paddle and pulled up onto shore where we had launched.  Unfortunately the spot was shady so we had to dry the boards with towels and the mosquitos were out.  To make matters worse, this family with about 4 kids came and absolutely had to come right where we were which upset the dogs.  Leila was barking which scared the kids and they started running away, which to one-year-old Leila was like the chase-me-chase-me game.  We all yelled at the same time, "don't run" and then Jen had to explain, she thinks you are playing.  We got through that, as we are still trying to roll up the boards and put them in the bags (not especially a simple task) when they started throwing rocks into the lake which set Bella off.  She was barking and jumping at them.  We kept calling for her to come and she would, but then she'd just run back over there as they would continue to throw rocks.  Stupid kids, and stupid parents who couldn't figure out the situation and move a little bit further down the lake.  Meanwhile, as we are continuing to deal with all of this we are getting eaten by the mosquitos.

We finally got everything all packed up and loaded up and drove into Whitefish where we found Casey's, a restaurant with indoor seating and then outdoor seating on the roof.  

They actually had tables open. It was nice.  We sat up there and could see down into the downtown area.  

We had decent food and wine and a very enjoyable evening. 

It was really interesting, suddenly I realized all the umbrellas were suspended rather than on poles.  We always have a problem with the pole when we want to put one up over our eating table at the ranch.  This is an awesome solution.

We came home and went to bed fairly early.  I think I went to bed about 9 ish. Jen is going to be on the road by 5 am, so she went to bed at a reasonable hour as well.