Great Falls, Montana

When I wandered into the kitchen this morning, Josh was up, and so was the adorable little girl, N.  N. looked at me and didn't say much as we ate yogurt with granola together, but Josh thought she would warm up, and she did.  Janine was working on her proposal for an honors program at the college, so I hung out with N.  First, I gave her a blanket that I had knit for her dolls, and she showed me all of her dolls.  Many of them were named Anna.  Janine had told me that after she met me several years ago, she started naming all of her new dolls "Anna."  Then we read a book together.  Then she took me outside and showed me her play kitchen that grandma had given her.  What an adorable little girl!

Now that everyone was up, Josh and Janine suggested that we go see the town.  We went to Giant Springs State Park.

We parked by some springs and a fish hatchery, and walked down a path by the river to the great falls.  These falls are famous because Lewis and Clark passed through this area and had to portage around the waterfalls.  There was a strange statue of Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea.

Finally, we arrived at the falls.

Janine told us all about the history of the place.  Meanwhile, a bunch of white moths started flying around us and some got into the stroller.  N. started crying because the moths were attacking her.  She was also hungry, as it was getting quite late.  So we went to eat.

We went to a place that Josh recommended called The Faster Basset.  It had crepes, among other things, so I ordered a crepe that was quite good.  N. did not like her cheese crepe and fussed.  Janine said that there were two history museums in town, and one was not very good.  She suggested that we go to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center after lunch, the better one, but said that it was not a good museum for children.  So Josh took N. to the store to buy groceries and bear spray, after talking up how much fun it would be to buy bear spray, and Janine, Geoff, and I went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. 

Our National Parks Pass once again got us in for free!  It was quite a good museum.  It followed the journey of Lewis and Clark, and had interesting and culturally appropriate information about the various native American tribes that they interacted with along the way.

Afterward, we returned to the house.  Josh and N. had indeed bought bear spray and food for the next day.  We had a cookout with hamburgers and watermelon for supper, and then it was time for N. to go to bed.

Janine had kindly offered to let me use her washing machine to do some laundry, so while Janine was putting N. to bed, Geoff, Josh, and I went down to the basement and I put in laundry while the guys looked at the game collection, which was quite extensive.  Josh owns a game that is a lot of fun called Knights of Camelot,  but we decided to wait for Janine and to play Cards Against Humanity instead until she arrived, which Geoff and I had never played.  I had heard about CAH, but did not realize it was quite so vulgar.  Eventually Janine came down, and asked what we were playing.  When we told her it was Cards Against Humanity, she said she had never played it, but Josh sometimes played it with his church friends.  We dealt her in.  After about one hand, she was like, "You play this game with your church friends?"  We did come up with some pretty funny combinations like "A tiny horse is a slippery slope to riding off into the sunset."  I think that people have dirty minds and that even without some of the vulgar cards (like two midgets shitting into a bucket) people could still make dirty combinations.  Anyway, we did have a lot of fun and laughs playing the game, but I would not buy it for myself.

Finally my laundry was finished and we went to bed.