Mountain Weather

We woke up to rain on day 9 in Whitefish and stayed at the condo until Abby couldn't take it anymore and the rain turned to a drizzle. We drove up to Whitefish Mountain Resort to ride the gondola/ski lift. The weather had cleared enough that the girls opted to take the ski lift up. It was chilly and I had no desire to expose myself to whatever might be waiting at the top of the mountain and Caleb and I are not big fans of heights so the three of us took a gondola.

So far in our trip we had not experienced the crazy mountain weather that we had heard of. It was pretty nice at the bottom but by the time they got to the top the girls were shivering and thick clouds were covering the mountain. We hurried inside the lodge and watched as the skies grew darker and darker. Soon the clouds opened, the thunder started and everything was covered in hail. Being stuck up on the top of the mountain there was nothing to do but to eat. The girls had one of their favorite meals up there. Neal met the parents of a country music star who was from Hershey and playing in a musical festival in Whitefish.

Once the lightning cleared the area the gondola opened back up and we took it down to the bottom where the sun was shining like nothing had ever happened. I'm just glad we didn't experience that on our longer hikes in Glacier. We headed back to town so the girls could hit the stores that had been closed the day before.

Up the mountain we went back to the condo to finish any food we could for dinner and then to the community hot tub which was beautiful. By then we had driven up and down the mountain so many times that Neal was done. I even had him drive me just to look for wildlife (that's a Moses thing). When I very meekly suggested we go back to town for one last dish of Sweet Peaks ice cream his immediate answer was "No." Once the girls got involved with the begging he eventually gave in and the four of us headed down the mountain again. It was a fun time with the girls to recap the trip and enjoy goofy time with them.

We climbed back up the mountain one last time and packed all the Costco food to get ready to head to Washington the next day.