Frannie's eSpace

A few tips from my trip out west

Based upon my recent trip to Glacier National Park and Yellowstone with several stopping points in between, here are a few tips:

1) Sunscreen and hats! Montana truly is Big Sky country, and there isn't a lot of shade. Yellowstone is a lot more lush, but you'll probably spend a lot of time visiting the hot springs and geysers, and well, leafy trees just don't survive too abundantly amongst all that steam.
2) Cell phone coverage: don't expect your cell phone to work in either park. In fact, at Yellowstone, the tour guide said, they've cut cell phone towers by about 15 feet recently. The one place mine did work was in the Old Faithful area.
3) Food: At the very least, bring your own snacks and drinks. Consider buying a styrofoam cooler at the beginning of your trip; it will pay for itself! If you're going to Glacier National Park and arriving from Kalispell, stop by the Super One grocery store in Columbia Falls, about 4 miles from the airport and on your way to the park. Stock up! Otherwise, you can expect to pay $7.00 for a box of cereal inside the park.
4) Mornings are chilly; afternoons are scorchers! And, as mentioned earlier, it's full sun. Thankfully, though, there's no humidity.
5) The Yellow Bus tours at Yellowstone are well worth it. They basically depart from any of the five lodges. Once you know where you're staying, go ahead and reserve a spot. THe vintage busses only hold about 12 people, and they fill up fast. Here's a good url: http://www.travelyellowstone.com/summer-tours-activities-256.html. We took the Geyser tour and one of the wild life tours.
6) The Red Bus tours in Glacier are also well worth it. The tour guides are very informative... and, do you really want to drive the Going to the Sun Road yourself and miss the spectacular views?
7) If you're driving I-90 and passing through Whitehall, stop at the Two Bit Saloon, right on the corner when you hit the main drag. The bartender is the friendliest fellow. He gave us ideas on what to do and see the rest of our trip. We ended up taking the "old road" back to the interstate, which ran right past Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. We would have missed that beautiful park otherwise!
8) If you're coming into Yellowstone from the north entrance and want a picture of the Roosevelt Arch, it's better in the afternoon, based on the direction of the sun.
9) If you're driving through Reno MT (It's a little south of Flathead Lake.) and want a good place to eat, try the Reno Cafe. It's good food, run by Amish people, and there are a lot of inspirational sayings hanging on the walls.
10) If you go to Little Bighorn, take the $8.00 tour run by the local college. It gives a good intro to the battle. Then, after the tour, you can explore the parts you like on your own. And, another good feature that is free is the 45-minute talk given by the Park Rangers about every hour. They really give the battle and the events leading up to it a lot of personality.

A good souvenir idea

I'm not a big souvenir person. Traditionally, when my husband and I travel, we pick up a magnet and call it a good day!

However, on these past couple of trips that I've taken, I've discovered a perfect souvenir, both useful and kinda pretty: a shopping bag that is re-usable! You know, the kind that grocery stores are big on selling you to replace the use of their plastic bags. Well, everyone's gotten in on the act. When we went to London in May, my favorite purchase was a nice blue shopping bag from the Salisbury Cathedral gift shop. It's a pretty blue with an etching of the beautiful spire of the Salisbury Cathedral. It's now my lunch bag for work. Then, just recently, I was in Yellowstone and picked up a Yellowstone bag which is dark green with pictures of recycle symbols on it. The Yellowstone bag has the added bonus of a plastic bottom that really makes it sturdy.

Both bags cost under $2.00 too!

An AAA bonus

I have been so impressed with the AAA travel agency. They have helped me get a handle on our trip to Montana and have passed along some good deals. The literature and maps that they hand out are free, and the agency has good hours, but the best thing about them is the nice travel agents. I've been to our local agency twice in the last month: the first time Ebony helped me scope out our trip, and yesterday Mary helped with the rental car and our first few nights of hotels. Both exceeded expectations!

If you're going on a trip to a place that you don't know a lot about... you should try the AAA travel agency! Their advice alone has paid for our annual card at least a couple of times over.

A good travel tip

We are going to London in a couple of weeks and we've been reading Rick Steves' London 2009 travel guide. There are a lot of tips!

The best tip so far has been Rick's general advice: "Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something's not to your liking, change your liking."

I like that!

Westward bound

This summer, my sister and I are going out West. We are thinking of western Montana or Wyoming. Montana has Glacier National Park, which is lovely, I hear. Wyoming, of course, has Yellowstone. We'll probably spend 5-7 days.

Have you ever been to either of those states? If so, do you have any great memories? Places to stay? Things to do? Good restaurants? If so, please let me know! I'm definitely open for ideas!

Thanks!

Fun at our first minor league game

The highlight of our weekend in Chattanooga was a minor league game between the Lookouts and the Mississippi Braves. Since we've been to several Braves games, I thought I'd list the pros and cons of going to a minor league game below:

Pros of a minor league vs a major league game:
1) Tickets much cheaper!
2) Food much cheaper!
3) Between-the-Innings entertainment is much more alive: moo contest, roll-the-hamburger contest, chicken dance, frozen tee-shirt contest, tennis ball toss
4) The umpires can really hear the fan response. At our game, the fans called the umpires "Blue". We heard this a lot: "Blue, I've seen a potato with better eyes than you!" It was really funny!
5) Traffic. What traffic?

Cons:
1) Hmmm... I'm still trying to think.

My new favorite city

Chattanooga is my new favorite place to visit. The downtown rocks! We stayed at the Chattanooga Choo Choo on the south side of downtown. We ran every morning over the Walnut Street Bridge and throughout the surrounding neighborhoods. We had breakfast every morning at Panera's. (Coffee isn't as good as DD's, but what is?) During the days, we took it easy. One morning, we stopped at the Hunter Museum to see an exhibit of Grandma Moses. Of all the touristy things that we did, that was my favorite. We also heard a flute concert at Cadek Hall at UTC... yes, a flute concert of about 15 young women all playing flutes in harmony! We felt very cultured. We kept marveling throughout the 5-day visit that we could live in Chattanooga. I was dreaming up ways to make a living there! Hmm... no Dunkin Donuts in Chattanooga; maybe there's a franchise opp!