Glacier National Park: Day 3

Day 3 will be a short post! While we spent our morning day-hiking, we left for our backcountry adventure right after lunch. Since our backcountry trek will be covered in another post, there's not a lot to write about day 3! We headed up to the Many Glacier area today. There are beautiful lodges, some great campgrounds, and lots to explore in this area.

Swiftcurrent Nature Trail

Swiftcurrent Lake is a beautiful sight! One of the lodges is right on the lake, and there is also a trail that goes around the edge of the lake. This is the 2.5-mile Swiftcurrent Nature Trail. It is basically flat, and it's short, but it was a beautiful walk! If you're looking for something easy to take a load off for part of a day, it's a good choice. Here are some of the sights:

There is also a picnic area just off of the Swiftcurrent Nature Trail, which is a great place to stop for lunch. This is where we stopped to eat before heading off on our amazing backcountry experience!

Happy Halloween!

While my actual Halloween will not consist of much excitement this year, I was still able to celebrate in a few different ways over the past couple of weeks!

1) The studio where I take aerial classes had a Halloween masquerade party! I got to dress up (one of my favorites) and perform (another of my favorites), as well as enjoying a great night with some wonderful people! I was a spider (which went with my performance) and my wonderful husband enjoyed wearing a mustache (a little too much). Here are couple of photos from the evening:

2) I got to have Halloween themed music classes! Part of my job is teaching early childhood music classes at daycare centers, and I love when I get to break out the Halloween songs! If you are looking for some Halloween songs for groups of any age, here are some of my favorites:

Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley
The Monster Mash – Bobby "Boris" Picket
I Put a Spell on You (Jazz Song)
Love Potion No. 9 – The Searchers
Ghostbusters Theme
Grim Grinning Ghosts – From Disney’s Haunted Mansion 
The Addam’s Family Theme
Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon
Thriller - Michael Jackson

3) Pumpkin carving!! This is definitely one of my favorite parts of Halloween! My husband and I have so much fun deciding what our pumpkin will be, and creating our masterpieces. We usually make a yummy fall meal (soup or something in the slow cooker), then roast pumpkin seeds while we're carving, too! This year, Brian created an Angry Birds pumpkin:

 And I created an aerial masterpiece:

Lastly, Brian created a fun pumpkin for our front steps:

Happy Halloween!!!

Glacier National Park: Day 2

We started day 2 much more rested than the day before, having actually slept in beds! For this day, we drove up to the East end of Going to the Sun Road and drove from there. Our adventures started with a beautiful rainbow over the mountains before we even reached Going to the Sun Road! We had another full day with lots of great stops, and plenty of photo ops! In addition to the trails listed below, we stopped at many other places along the road to take pictures and enjoy the view. From waterfalls to lookouts, and wildlife sitings, every single stop is worth it - take your time and enjoy the drive!

Hidden Lake Overlook

Our first stop of the day was the Logan Pass visitor's center. From here we hiked up to the Hidden Lake Overlook. Even in July, with the warm temperatures we were experiencing, this trail was covered in snow! I was amazed how many people were hiking it despite this fact - it was VERY busy!

This picture really doesn't capture the vast number of people who were on this trail, but it sure shows the snow!

These were some park workers who were digging out the real trail from under the snow.

Despite the snow and the people, this trail was well worth it! We saw lots of wildlife:

And not only was the view of the lake spectacular, but there were amazing views all along the way, as well.

One of the mountains we hiked around on the way there

The view from the hidden lake overlook

St. Mary Falls

This wasn't in our original plan, but we heard someone talking about it (actually, they were saying there had been bears sighted there in the morning), and we decided to give it a shot! It's an easy hike (1.6 mi round trip), and the falls are beautiful. Definitely a good trail for just about everyone!

Sunrift Gorge

This gorge is right off the road, but completely worth the stop. The photos are some of my favorite from the trip. There is a trail headed up from the gorge that is supposed to be great for wildlife and wildflowers, but it is pretty much straight up.  It is not an easy hike. We went up the first quarter to half mile and saw some great views from there, but after a full day, we weren't willing to go any farther. 

New Bases for Delicious Meals!

This month I got really gutsy and decided to try a few new bases for meals that I had read about (and maybe eaten at a restaurant), but never made. These are new to us! My other favorite bases: pasta, of course; couscous; rice; and even mashed potatoes. We love making a simple onion/pepper mix, or a meat with a thick sauce, or even just opening a can of Chunky stew, and serving it over one of these bases. The possibilities are endless - use what you have and like! The slow cooker is a great way to make your topping, too! Now, without further ado, our newest delicious bases:

Polenta: Pan Fried

Polenta is basically just cooked corn meal, but you can buy it already cooked,in a tube, like this:

I did have some trouble finding polenta in a tube, but finally found it at HyVee. I'm sure any specialty or health food store would have it. To pan fry, just slice up the polenta from the tube, coat in cooking spray (Pam), and toss on a skillet on the stove. They did take longer to brown up than I expected them to, but that was good because I knew they were really heated and cooked through. We tried both plain and flavored, and both were delicious.

Our topping for pan fried polenta:
Italian sausage (removed from the casing), onion, red pepper, garlic and tomatoes

Polenta: Creamy

So, since polenta is just cooked corn meal, the other way to make it is by cooking corn meal! I used a recipe and instructions from thekitchn.com and it was great! Super easy to follow and doesn't make you stir for 40 minutes straight. I will note that I don't think I stirred quite long enough at the beginning, because I got some of the polenta stuck to the bottom of the pan, and it was very hard to clean off. So stir a little longer than you think you need to, and if you do get it stuck to the bottom of the pan, make sure to get it in water to soak when you're done cooking! I tried the cooked polenta before adding the butter and cheese at the end, and I would say it's nothing to write home about, but with the mix-ins and the topping, it was wonderful!

Our topping for creamy polenta:

Pulled pork (we made a big batch awhile back and had some frozen, but use whatever meat you have), sweet peppers (green, red, etc), onion, garlic, and fajita seasoning (cumin, chili powder, paprika)

Risotto

Last, but certainly not least - one of my new favorite foods of all time - Risotto! Risotto is a creamy rice, and while it is a little time consuming, it was not difficult, and totally worth the time! I again used a recipe and instructions from thekitchn.com, which were wonderfully easy to follow. You do need a special kind of rice for risotto - I got Arborio. I found it in the specialty food section of my local HyVee. It wasn't on the shelf - I had to get it from the dispenser things. Also, to me, the parmesan is a must for this recipe - it's the perfect finishing touch!

Instead of a topping for our risotto, we mixed in cubed acorn squash from the farmer's market during the first step with the onions. It was perfect with the parmesan and creaminess of the rice.

Now go!! Make something new tonight!!